ndeavored to rally the yielding troops. The steed was shot under him,
and--

"Gierta gave
His own, and died the Russian slave."

Having assembled and re-formed the remnants of his broken host round
the forces which had been left for the protection of the baggage, the
fainting monarch was placed in Count Piper's carriage, and conveyed
toward the Turkish frontier. The exertions of the wounded Charles to
rally his army at Pultowa contrast singularly with the total want of
any such exertion displayed by the unwounded Napoleon at Waterloo. We
take this want of exertion for granted, because had any been
displayed, the world's echoes would have rung with praise bestowed
upon the heroic effort.

The first result of the battle of Pultowa--its ultimate results are
only now becoming apparent--was the entire destruction of the Swedish
army, the famished and exhausted remains of which were some days
afterward obliged to lay down their arms on the banks of the Dnieper,
which they had no means of crossing.

With this battle, which opens a new era in European history, the
history of Charles XII. may be said to end; for his subsequent career
was only a succession of disappointments, his poor and thinly peopled
country not affording him the means of recovery from a single
'defeat'.

On his arrival at Bender, the king learned of the death of his sister,
the Duchess of Holstein; and he who had calmly supported the loss of
his fame and his army yielded to the most impassioned burst of sorrow,
and was during four days unable to converse with his most intimate
attendants--a proof how unjust are the accusations of want of feeling
so often brought against him. His long stay in Turkey is certainly
evidence of obstinacy, or of that pride which could not brook the
thought of returning, a vanquished fugitive, to his native land, which
had done so much for him, and which his best efforts had failed to
protect from unjust violence. In Charles's high and noble countenance
it is seen at once that he was endowed with--

"The glance that took
Their thoughts from others at a single look."

He knew the worthlessness of his enemies; and it is doubly galling to
the generous and the brave when fortune, in her base fancies, obliges
them to succumb to mean and malicious adversaries. And such was the
fate of Charles. His defeat was no sooner known than Denmark, Poland,
and Saxony again flew to arms. Hanover and