The subjects of the king of Sweden were still more unfortunate than that
monarch himself. The contagious distemper, which had made such havock
over Livonia, passed from thence into Sweden, where, in the city of
Stockholm, it carried off thirty thousand persons: it likewise desolated
the provinces, already thinned of their inhabitants; for during the
space of ten years successively, most of the able-bodied men had quitted
their country to follow their master, and perished in foreign climes.
Charles's ill fortune pursued him also in Pomerania: his army had
retired thither from Poland, to the number of eleven thousand; the czar,
the kings of Denmark and Prussia, the elector of Hanover, and the duke
of Holstein, joined together to render this army useless, and to compel
general Crassau, who commanded it, to submit to neutrality. The regency
of Stockholm, hearing no news of their king, and distracted by the
mortality that raged in that city, were glad to sign this neutrality,
which seemed to deliver one of its provinces at least from the horrors
of war. The emperor of Germany favoured this extraordinary convention,
by which it was stipulated, that the Swedish army then in Pomerania
should not march from thence to assist their monarch in any other part
of the world; nay, it was furthermore resolved in the German empire, to
raise an army to enforce the execution of this unparalleled convention.
The reason of this was, that the emperor of Germany, who was then at war
with France, was in hopes to engage the Swedish army to enter into his
service. This whole negotiation was carried on while Peter was subduing
Livonia, Esthonia, and Carelia.
Charles XII. who was all this time at Bender, putting every spring in
motion to engage the divan to declare war against the czar, received
this news as one of the severest blows his untoward fortune had dealt
him: he could not brook, that his senate at Stockholm should pretend to
tie up the hands of his army, and it was on this occasion that he wrote
them word, he would send one of his boots to govern them.
The Danes, in the mean time, were making preparations to invade Sweden;
so that every nation in Europe was now engaged in war, Spain, Portugal,
Italy, France, Germany, Holland, and England, were contending for the
dominions left by Charles II. of Spain; and the whole North was up in
arms against Charles XII. There wanted only a quarrel with the Ottoman
empire, for every village in Europe to be exposed to the ravages of war.
This quarrel happened soon afterwards, when Peter had attained to the
summit of his glory, and precisely for that reason.
CHAP. XX.
Campaign of Pruth.