s, Saxons, and Danes
were now acting in concert against the Swedes in Pomerania. A Swedish
victory over the Danes and Gadebesck and the burning of Altona were of
no real avail. The victorious general not long after was forced to
surrender with his whole army. Stettin capitulated on condition of being
transferred to Prussia. Stralsund was being besieged by Russians and
Saxons; Hanover was in possession of Bremen and Verden; and Peter was
conquering Finland, when, at last, Charles suddenly reappeared at
Stralsund, in November 1715. But the brilliant naval operation by which
Peter captured the Isle of Aland had already secured Finland.

During the last three years a new figure had risen to prominence, the
ingenious, ambitious and intriguing Baron Gortz, who was now to become
the chief minister and guide of the Swedes. Under his influence,
Charles's hostility was now turned in other directions than against
Russia, and Peter was favourably inclined towards the opening of a new
chapter in his relations with Sweden, since he had made himself master
of Ingria, Finland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Carelia. The practical
suspension of hostilities enabled Peter to start on a second European
tour, while Charles, driven at last from Weimar and Stralsund--all that
was left him south of the Baltic--was planning the invasion of Norway.

During this tour the Tsar passed three months in Holland, his old school
in the art of naval construction; and while he was there intrigues were
on foot which threatened to revolutionise Europe. Gortz had conceived
the design of allying Russia and Sweden, restoring Stanislaus in Poland,
recovering Bremen and Verden from Hanover, and finally of rejecting the
Hanoverian Elector from his newly acquired sovereignty in Great Britain
by restoring the Stuarts. Spain, now controlled by Alberoni, was to be
the third power concerned in effecting this _bouleversement_, which
involved the overthrow of the regency of Orleans in France.

The discovery of this plot, through the interception of some letters
from Gortz, led to the arrest of Gortz in Holland, and of the Swedish
ambassador, Gyllemborg, in London. Peter declined to commit himself. His
reception when he went to Paris was eminently flattering; but an attempt
to utilise it for a reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches was a
complete failure. The Gortz plot had entirely collapsed before Peter
returned to Russia.

_V.--Peter the Great_

Peter had been marri