But he had not as yet had the time which was necessary to
instruct his barbarous soldiers. You gave him that time, and he made so
good a use of it that you found at Pultowa the Muscovites become a
different nation. If you had followed the blow you gave them at Narva,
and marched directly to Moscow, you might have destroyed their Hercules
in his cradle. But you suffered him to grow till his strength was
mature, and then acted as if he had been still in his childhood.

_Charles_.--I must confess you excelled me in conduct, in policy, and in
true magnanimity. But my liberality was not inferior to yours; and
neither you nor any mortal ever surpassed me in the enthusiasm of
courage. I was also free from those vices which sullied your character.
I never was drunk; I killed no friend in the riot of a feast; I fired no
palace at the instigation of a harlot.

_Alexander_.--It may perhaps be admitted, as some excuse for my
drunkenness, that the Persians esteemed it an excellence in their kings
to be able to drink a great quantity of wine, and the Macedonians were
far from thinking it a dishonour. But you were as frantic and as cruel
when sober as I was when drunk. You were sober when you resolved to
continue in Turkey against the will of your host, the Grand Signor. You
were sober when you commanded the unfortunate Patkull, whose only crime
was his having maintained the liberties of his country, and who bore the
sacred character of an ambassador, to be broken alive on the wheel,
against the laws of nations, and those of humanity, more inviolable still
to a generous mind. You were likewise sober when you wrote to the Senate
of Sweden, who, upon a report of your death, endeavoured to take some
care of your kingdom, that you would send them one of your boots, and
from that they should receive their orders if they pretended to meddle in
government--an insult much worse than any the Macedonians complained of
from me when I was most heated with wine and with adulation. As for my
chastity, it was not so perfect as yours, though on some occasions I
obtained great praise for my continence; but, perhaps, if you had been
not quite so insensible to the charms of the fair sex, it would have
mitigated and softened the fierceness, the pride, and the obstinacy of
your nature.

_Charles_.--It would have softened me into a woman, or, what I think
still more contemptible, the slave of a woman. But you seem to insinuate
that you never w