that
it carried eight thousand cannon. The debarkation in Pomerania received
little opposition from the Imperial troops, and the King of Sweden had a
strong party among the German people. His successor was the leader of a
very extraordinary expedition, which is resembled by only one other
example mentioned in history: I refer to the march of Charles X. of
Sweden across the Belt upon the ice, with a view of moving from Sleswick
upon Copenhagen by way of the island of Funen,(1658.) He had twenty-five
thousand men, of whom nine thousand were cavalry, and artillery in
proportion. This undertaking was so much the more rash because the ice
was unsafe, several pieces of artillery and even the king's own carriage
having broken through and been lost.

After seventy-five years of peace, the war between Venice and the Turks
recommenced in 1645. The latter transported an army of fifty-five
thousand men, in three hundred and fifty vessels, to Candia, and gained
possession of the important post of Canea before the republic thought of
sending succor. Although the people of Venice began to lose the spirit
which made her great, she still numbered among her citizens some noble
souls: Morosini, Grimani, and Mocenigo struggled several years against
the Turks, who derived great advantages from their numerical superiority
and the possession of Canea. The Venetian fleet had, nevertheless,
gained a marked ascendency under the orders of Grimani, when a third of
it was destroyed by a frightful tempest, in which the admiral himself
perished.

In 1648, the siege of Candia began. Jussuf attacked the city furiously
at the head of thirty thousand men: after being repulsed in two
assaults, he was encouraged to attempt a third by a large breach being
made. The Turks entered the place: Mocenigo rushed to meet them,
expecting to die in their midst. A brilliant victory was the reward of
his heroic conduct: the enemy were repulsed and the ditches filled with
their dead bodies.

Venice might have driven off the Turks by sending twenty thousand men to
Candia; but Europe rendered her but feeble support, and she had already
called into active service all the men fit for war she could produce.

The siege, resumed some time after, lasted longer than that of Troy, and
each campaign was marked by fresh attempts on the part of the Turks to
carry succor to their army and by naval victories gained by the
Venetians. The latter people had kept up with the advance o