es, until the storms of the long northern winter
separated the combatants. The state of exasperation was now such that
the most revolting cruelties were perpetrated on both sides.

The campaign of 1706 opened most disastrously to Russia. In four
successive pitched battles the forces of the tzar had been defeated.
Augustus was humbled to the dust, and was compelled to write a letter
to Stanislaus congratulating him upon his accession to the throne. He
also ignominiously consented to deliver up the unfortunate Livonian
noble, Patgul, whose only crime was his love for the rights and
privileges of his country. Charles XII. caused this unhappy noble to
be broken upon the wheel, thus inflicting a stain upon his own
character which can never be effaced. The haughty Swedish monarch
seemed now to be sovereign over all of northern Europe excepting
Russia. Augustus, driven from the throne of Poland, was permitted to
hold the electorate of Saxony only in consequence of his abject
submission to Charles XII. Stanislaus, the new Polish sovereign, was
merely a vassal of Sweden. And even the Emperor Joseph of Germany paid
implicit obedience to the will of a monarch who had such terrible
armies at his command.

Under these circumstances some of the powers endeavored to secure
peace between Sweden and Russia. The French envoy at the court of
Sweden introduced the subject. Charles XII. proudly replied, "I shall
treat with the tzar in the city of Moscow."

Peter, being informed of this boast and threat, remarked, "My brother
Charles wants to act the part of Alexander, but he shall not find in
me a Darius."

Charles XII., from his triumphant invasion of Saxony, marched with an
army of forty-five thousand men through Poland, which was utterly
desolated by war, and crossing the frontiers of Russia, directed his
march to Moscow. Driving all opposition before him, he arrived upon
the banks of the Dnieper, and without much difficulty effected the
passage of the stream. Peter himself, with Menzikoff, now hastened to
the theater of conflict, and summoned his mightiest energies to repel
the foe. Battle after battle ensued with varying results. But the
situation of the Swedish conqueror was fast growing desperate. He was
far from home. His regiments were daily diminishing beneath the
terrible storms of war, while recruits were pouring in, from all
directions, to swell the ranks of the tzar. It was the month of
December. The villages had been all