Prussia joined the unworthy
league against the fallen monarch, who had been so dreaded, and was
therefore so much hated; for Charles had injured no one--he was the
aggrieved from first to last. His return to Sweden, the defence of
Stralsund, the invasion of Norway, call for no particular attention.
He was killed at the siege of Frederickshall, in Norway, on November
30, 1718, under circumstances that long gave currency to the belief
that he had been assassinated. Schott and Bardili positively assert
the fact; but we are on this point disposed to agree with Voltaire,
who, to save the honor of his countrymen, as positively denies it.
After evening service, the king went out as usual to visit the
trenches. He was attended by two French engineers, Megret and Siquier.
A heavy fire was kept up by the enemy. Near the head of the _boyau_,
or zigzag, he kneeled down, and, leaning against the parapet, looked
toward the fortress. As he remained motionless for a long time, some
one approached and found him perfectly dead, a ball having entered his
right temple and passed through his head. Even in death the gallant
hand had grasped the hilt of his sword; and this probably gave rise to
the belief in the murder, which was afterward confirmed by Siquier's
own confession. But this confession was only made while the pretended
criminal labored under an attack of brain fever, and was retracted as
soon as he recovered.

Thus fell, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, one of the most
extraordinary men that ever acted a part on the great stage of the
world. Endowed by nature with a noble person, "a frame of adamant, a
soul of fire," with high intellectual powers, dauntless bravery,
kingly sentiments of honor, and a lofty scorn of all that was mean
and little, he became, from the very splendor of these gifts, perhaps
one of the most unhappy men of his time. Less highly gifted, he would
have been less hated and less envied; of humbler spirit, he would have
been more pliant, and might possibly have been more successful.

JOHN, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH

By L. DRAKE

(1650-1722)

[Illustration: A standing man behind a sitting woman. [TN]]

About noon, on June 24, 1650, John Churchill, afterward Duke of
Marlborough, was born at Ashe, in Devonshire. His school-days were
soon over; for his father, Sir Winston Churchill, having established
himself at court soon after the restoration of Charles the Second, was
anxious to introduce his childr