ficulties the Swedes had to encounter, in consequence
of bad roads and want of provisions, are almost incredible. The
soldiers were forced to contend, not only against the enemy, but
against the localities also; roads for the advance of the army had to
be opened through forests and morasses before the least progress could
be made; and it often happened that a league a day was the greatest
extent of march gained after immense toil. But nothing checked the
ardor of these gallant soldiers. The Russians attempted to defend the
passage of rivers and swamps that impeded the march of the foe. Their
efforts were vain; no superiority of numbers, no strength of position,
could arrest the indomitable valor of Charles and his troops. And the
actions performed during this march would be deemed absolutely
fabulous, were they not recorded on authority which cannot be doubted.

During the severe winter of 1709, the army suffered dreadfully from
want and cold. When, early in spring, the thaw set in, the whole of
those flat countries were overflowed, and long marches had to be made
through complete inundations, by which quantities of stores were lost,
and the powder greatly damaged. It was, as we now find, in consequence
of the losses thus sustained that Charles accepted Mazeppa's proposal
of marching into the Ukraine. Finding his army too much weakened to
penetrate further into Russia, and not wishing to fall back upon
Livonia, which he thought would look like a retreat and encourage his
enemies, he determined to march to the south, and there await the
supplies and reinforcements which his generals were to bring up.

The loss of the convoy which General Lewenhaupt was conducting to the
army rendered further delay necessary, and obliged the king to
undertake the siege of Pultowa, in order to gain a firm footing in the
country, and to secure the supplies which the place contained. The
Swedish battering-train was weak, the powder not only bad from having
been frequently injured by the wet and dried again, but very scarce
besides. Still, courage and energy were making progress, when, June
27th, on his very birthday, Charles, in repulsing a sally, was struck
by a musket-ball that entered his left foot, above the root of the
toes, and went out at the heel. The king continued in the field for an
hour afterward, giving his orders as usual; but when he retired to his
quarters, the leg was so much swelled that the boot had to be cut off,
and the