dst of a tempest before the town of
Tousha. Neither calling nor firing brought any one to the gates. The
king at last dismounted and sought for an entrance, while the prince
held the horses in the pelting rain. An entrance having at last been
discovered, they took possession of a hut in which was a fire. The
king threw himself, booted and spurred, on a bundle of straw, and fell
fast asleep. The prince, less hardy, took off his boots, filled them
with straw, and placed them by the fire. While sleeping, the flame
caught and consumed the valuable gambodoes. The prince was next day
obliged to get a pair of peasant's boots, in which he rode about for
eight days; a proof that the princely wardrobe was but slenderly
furnished.

And yet the camp was not without its gayeties either; for while the
head-quarters were wintering at Rawitcz, the town became the scene of
great festivities; balls and parties succeeding each other as rapidly
as battles had done before. Charles was usually present, was always
very polite, but made only a short stay, and retired as soon as he
could.

[Illustration: Charles XII. and an unwilling recruit.]

During the stay of the army in this place, a fire broke out and
consumed several houses. The king flew to aid in extinguishing the
flames. He ascended to the top of a house that was already on fire,
and continued working till the building was sinking under him. He
escaped with difficulty, was thrown down by one of the beams, and for
a moment believed to be dead. "It was discovered two years afterward,"
says Bardili, "that the place was set on fire by an incendiary bribed
by Augustus II. to slay the king of Sweden in the confusion;" and a
man actually came forward and denounced himself as the intended
assassin, declaring that some unknown power had prevented him from
stabbing the king when he got near his person. Charles said the man
was mad, and sent him about his business. Napoleon would have sent him
before a military commission and had him shot, as he caused the
student at Schoenbrunn to be shot.

We regret that we cannot give a sufficient account of the Duke of
Marlborough's visit to Charles's head-quarters at Altranstadt; for
what Voltaire says on the subject is but an idle fable. That the
English general should easily have penetrated the views of the Swedish
conqueror, which the latter took no pains to conceal, is sufficiently
probable; but that the conversation between two such men should hav