nd
provided a fleet of two hundred transports to convey them to the scene
of action. The preparations were made with great dispatch, and the
fleet sailed for Riga.

The news, too, of this war occasioned great dissatisfaction among the
governments of western Europe. The government of Holland was
particularly displeased, on account of the interference and
interruption which the war would occasion to all their commerce in the
Baltic. They immediately determined to remonstrate with the Czar
against the course which he was pursuing, and they induced King
William, of England, to join them in the remonstrance. They also, at
the same time, sent a messenger to the King of Poland, urging him by
all means to suspend his threatened attack on Riga until some measures
could be taken for accommodating the quarrel. Riga was a very
important commercial port, and there were a great many wealthy Dutch
merchants there, whose interests the Dutch government were very anxious
to protect.

The King of Sweden arrived at Riga with his fleet at just about the
same time that the remonstrance of the Dutch government reached the
King of Poland, who was advancing to attack it. Augustus, for that was
the name of the King of Poland, finding that now, since so great a
force had arrived to succor and strengthen the place, there was no hope
for success in any of his operations against it, concluded to make a
virtue of necessity, and so he drew off his army, and sent word to the
Dutch government that he did so in compliance with their wishes.

The King of Sweden had, of course, nothing now to do but to advance
from Riga to Narva and attack the army of the Czar.

This army was not, however, commanded by the Czar in person. In
accordance with what seems to have been his favorite plan in all his
great undertakings, he did not act directly himself as the head of the
expedition, but, putting forward another man, an experienced and
skillful general, as responsible commander, he himself took a
subordinate position as lieutenant. Indeed, he took a pride in
entering the army at one of the very lowest grades, and so advancing,
by a regular series of promotions, through all the ranks of the
service. The person whom the Czar had made commander-in-chief at the
siege of Narva was a German officer. His name was General Croy.

General Croy had been many weeks before Narva at the time when the King
of Sweden arrived at Riga, but he had made little progress