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of confequence it continued vacant for fix months. J.C. 1714. Heg.1126. At last the favorite, Ali Coumourgi, affumed the title of grand vizier. This measure gave a fatal blow to all the hopes of the king of Sweden, who knew very well what he had to expect from Coumourgi, as he had never received any friendly office from him, unless his intereft and that of his majesty happened to coincide.

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Charles had now been eleven months at Demotica, buried in floth and oblivion. This ex- He at treme indolence, fucceeding fo fuddenly to the folves to most violent exercises, had at last given him the disease which he had formerly feigned. All Europe believed him dead; the council of regency, which he had established at Stockholm when he left his capital, no longer received any dispatches from him. The fenate came in a body to the princess Ulrica Eleanor, the king's fifter, and entreated her to take the regency into her own hands, during her brother's absence. She accepted the propofal; but finding that the fenate wanted to force her to make a peace with the czar and the king of Denmark, who attacked Sweden on all fides; this princefs, well knowing that her brother would never approve of such a measure, refigned the regency, and wrote a full and circumftantial account of the whole matter to the king in Turkey.

The king received his fifter's packet at Demotica. The arbitrary principles which he had fucked in with his mother's milk, made him for

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J.C. 1714. get
Heg.1126.

that Sweden had formerly been a free ftate, and that, in ancient times, the management of public affairs was conducted by the king and fenate in conjunction. He confidered this body as no better than a parcel of menial fervants, who wanted to ufurp the command of the house in their mafter's abfence. He wrote to them, that if they pretended to affume the reins of government, he would fend them one of his boots, from which he would oblige them to receive their orders.

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To prevent therefore thefe attempts, as he More def- thought them, upon his authority in Sweden, and

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ever, tho' to defend at length his country, deprived of all hopes of affistance from the Ottoman Porte, and relying upon himself alone, he fignified to the grand vizier his defire of departing, and returning by the way of Germany.

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Count Defalleurs, the French ambaffador, who was charged with the affairs of Sweden, made the propofal. "Well," replies the vizier to the count," did not I fay that, in less than a

year, the king of Sweden would beg it as a "favor to be allowed to depart? Tell him, that " he may either go or stay as he pleases; but let "him come to a fixed refolution, and appoint "the day of his departure, that he may not "again bring us into fuch another scrape as that "of Bender."

The French ambaffador foftened the harshnefs of this anfwer, when he reported it to the king. The day was accordingly fixed. But be

fore

Heg.1126.

fore he would quit Turkey, Charles refolved to J.C. 1714. display the pomp of a great king, though in- n volved in all the difficulties of a fugitive prince. He gave Grothufen the title of his ambaffador extraordinary, and fent him, with a retinue of eighty perfons, all richly dreffed, to take his leave in form at the Porte.

The fplendor of this embaffy was only exceeded by the meannefs of the fhifts which the king was obliged to employ, in order to collect a fum of money fufficient to defray the expence of it. Count Defalleurs lent him five thousand pounds fterling. Grothufen had agents at Conftantinople, who borrowed in his name, at the rate of fifty per cent. intereft, a hundred and twentyfive pounds of a jew, two hundred and fifty of an English merchant, and forty guineas of a Turk. By these means they procured wherewithal to enable them to act the fplendid farce of the Swedish embaffy before the divan. Grothufen received at Conftantinople all the honors that the Porte ufually pays to ambaffadors extraordinary on the day of their audience. The defign of all this parade was only to obtain money from the grand vizier; but that minifter was inexorable.

• Grothufen made a propofal for borrowing forty thousand pounds fterling from the Porte. The vizier answered coldly, that his mafter knew how to give, when he thought proper; but that it was beneath his dignity to lend; that the king fhould be fupplied with plenty of every thing for Ee

VOL. IV.

his

Heg.1126.

J.C. 1714 his journey, in a manner worthy of the perfon that fent him back; and that the Porte perhaps might even make him a prefent in gold bullion, though he would not have him depend upon it for certain.

At laft, on the 1st of October, 1714, the king of Sweden fet out on his journey from Turkey. A capiggi pachi, with fix chiaus, came to attend him from the castle of Demirtafh, where he had refided for fome days before. He presented Charles, in the name of the grand feignior, with a large tent of scarlet embroidered with gold, a fword the handle of which was fet with jewels, and eight beautiful Arabian horses, with fine faddles, and stirrups of maffy filver. It is not beneath the dignity of history to observe, that the Arabian groom, who took care of the horses, gave the king an account of their genealogy; a custom which has long prevailed among these people, who seem to be more attentive to the nobility of horses than of men; which, after all perhaps, is fo unreasonable, as these animals, if the breed is kept free from intermixture, are never known to degenerate.

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The efcort confifted of fixty waggons loaded with all forts of provifions, and three hundred horfe. The capiggi pachi being informed that feveral Turks had lent money to the king of Sweden's attendants at an immoderate interest, told his majesty that ufury was forbidden by the Mahometan law: he therefore entreated him to liquidate

liquidate all these debts, and to order his refident J.C.1714. Heg.1126. at Conftantinople to pay no more than the principal. "No," fays the king, "if any of my "fervants have given you bills for a hundred. "crowns, I will pay them, though they should "" not even have received ten.”

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In order to fhew the greater deference to their royal gueft, the Turks made him travel by very fhort stages; but this flow and respectful motion was ill fuited to the impatient spirit of the king. During the journey, he got up at three in the morning, according to his ufual cuftom. foon as he was dreffed, he went himself and awoke the capiggi and chiaus, and began to march in the dark. This new manner of travelling difconcerted the Turkish gravity; but Charles took pleasure at their uneafinefs, and faid, that he should at least be a little revenged on them for their behaviour to him at Bender.

About the time that Charles reached the frontiers of Turkey, Stanislaus was leaving them, though by a different road, and going into Germany, with a view of retiring into the dutchy of Deux-Ponts, a province bordering on the palatinate of Alface and the Rhine, and which has belonged to the kings of Sweden ever fince Charles X. the fucceffor of Chriftina, united it to his crown.'*

From the retreat of the king of Sweden into Turkey, to the war with the republic of Venice,

VOL. IV.

Ee2

which

* Here ends the extract from the hiftory of Charles XII. by Mr. Voltaire.

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