Heg.1125. As Stanislaus was drawing towards Bender, L.C. 1713. the bashaw, who had returned thither, after having accompanied Charles for fome miles, fent the king of Poland an Arabian horse, with magnificent trappings. He was received at Bender amidst a discharge of the artillery; and, excepting his confinement, from which he was not as yet delivered, he had no great caufe to complain of his treatment.* Meanwhile Charles was on his way to Adrianople. Nothing was talked of in that town but his late battle. The Turks at once condemned and admired him; but the divan was so provoked, that they threatened to confine him in one of the ifles of the Archipelago. Stanislaus, king of Poland, from whom I had the honor to receive the greatest part of these particulars, affured me likewise, that a proposal was made in the divan for confining him in one of the islands of Greece; but the grand feignior's anger being affuaged, a few months after allowed him to depart. 'Count Defalleurs, who could have taken his part, and might have prevented the Turks from offering fuch an affront to all Chriftian kings, at Conftantinople, as was likewife count Poniatowski. Most of the Swedes at Adrianople were in prison, and the fultan's throne seemed to be * The good chaplain Norberg alleges, that we are here guilty of a manifest contradiction, in fuppofing that king Stanislaus was at once detained a prisoner, and treated as a king, at Bender. What! had not the poor man difcernment enough to perceive, that it is very poffible for a perfon, at one and the fame time, to be loaded with honors and deprived of his liberty. VOLTAIRE. Heg.1125. A French presents a petition to the fultan of the king J.C. 1713. be inacceffible to any complaints of the king of Sweden. The marquis of Fierville, who had refided with Charles at Bender as a private agent of France, was then at Adrianople. He undertook to do that prince a piece of service at a time when he was abandoned or oppreffed by all the world befides. In this defign he was happily affifted by a French gentleman, of an ancient family gentleman in Champaign, called Villelongue, a man of great courage, but who, not having a fortune equal to in behalf his fpirit, and moreover charmed with the fame of Sweden. of the king of Sweden, had repaired to Turkey with a view of entering into the fervice of that prince. With the affiftance of this young man, the marquis wrote a memorial in the king of Sweden's name, in which he made his majesty demand fatisfaction of the fultan for the infult which, in his perfon, had been offered to all crowned heads, and for the treachery, real or fuppofed, of the khan and the bafhaw of Bender. In this memorial he accused the vizier and other ministers of having received bribes from the Ruffians, impofed upon the grand feignior, intercepted the king's letters to his highness, and of having, by their artifices, extorted from the fultan an order fo contrary to the hofpitality of Muffulmen, by which, in direct violation of the laws of nations, and in a manner fo unworthy of a great emperor, they had attacked, with twenty thousand men, a king who had none but his fer vants vants to defend him, and who relied upon the J.C. 1713. facred word of the fultan. • When the memorial was drawn up, it was to be tranflated into Turkish, and written in a particular hand, and upon a certain kind of paper, which is always used in addreffes to the fultan. For this purpose they applied to feveral French interpreters in the town; but the affairs of the king of Sweden were in fuch a defperate fituation, and the vizier was fo much his declared enemy, that not a single interpreter would undertake the tafk. At length they found a stranger, whofe hand was not known at the Porte, who, having received a handfome gratuity, and being fully affured of the most profound fecrecy, tranflated the memorial into Turkish, and wrote it upon the proper fort of paper. Baron Arvidfon, a Swedish officer, counterfeited the king's fubfcription. Fierville, who had the royal fignet, appended it to the writing, and the whole was fealed up with the arms of Sweden. Villelongue undertook to deliver it into the hands of the grand feignior, as he went to the mofque, according to his ufual custom. The like methods had been frequently employed for presenting memorials to the fultan against his minifters; but that very circumftance rendered the fuccefs of this enterprife the more precarious, and the danger of the attempt the more imminent. The vizier, who plainly forefaw that the Swedes would demand juftice of the fultan, and who, Heg.1125. Heg.1125. J.C. 1713. who, from the unhappy fate of his predeceffors, had but too many warnings to provide for his own fafety, had given peremptory orders to allow no one to approach the grand feignior's perfon, but to feize all fuch as fhould be about the mofque with petitions in their hands. • Villelongue was well apprized of this order, and at the fame time knew, that, by breaking it, he should run the risk of lofing his head. He therefore laid aside his Frank's drefs, and put on a Grecian habit; and, concealing the letter in his bofom, repaired betime to the neighbourhood of the mosque to which the grand feignior reforted. He counterfeited the madman; and, dancing between two files of janiffaries, through which the fultan was to pafs, he purposely let fome pieces of money drop from his pockets, as if by chance, in order to amufe the guards. <When the fultan was drawing near, the guards. endeavoured to remove Villelongue out of the way; but he fell on his knees, and struggled with the janiffaries. At laft his cap fell off, and he was discovered, by his long hair, to be a Frank. He received feveral blows, and was very roughly handled. The grand feignior, who was at no great distance, heard the fcuffle, and asked the caufe of it. Villelongue cried out with all his might, Amman! Amman! Mercy! pulling the letter out of his bofom. The fultan ordered the guards to let him approach. Villelongue inftantly ran up to him, embraced his stirrup, and presented Heg.1125. presented the memorial, faying, Sued crall dan, J.C. 1713. The king of Sweden gives it thee. The fultan put the letter in his bosom, and proceeded to the mofque. Meanwhile Villelongue was fecured, and imprisoned in one of the exterior apartments of the feraglio. convería the fultan. however ftrange, is true. The fultan, having read the letter upon his He has a leaving the mosque, resolved to examine the pri- tion with foner himself. This perhaps will appear fome- This, what incredible: nothing however is here advanced, but what is vouched by the letters of Mr. Villelongue; and furely, when fo brave an officer affirms any thing upon his honor, he merits, at leaft, fome credit. He affured me, then, that the fultan laid afide his imperial garb and turban, and disguised himself like an officer of the janiffaries, a thing which he frequently does. He brought along with him an old man, of the isle of Malta, as an interpreter. By favor of this disguise, Villelongue enjoyed an honor which no Christian ambaffador ever obtained. He had a private conference with the Turkish emperor for a quarter of an hour. He did not fail to represent the wrongs which the king of Sweden had fuffered, to accuse the minifters, and to demand fatisfaction; and all this with fo much the more freedom, as, in talking to the fultan, he was only supposed to be talking to his equal. He could cafily discover, notwithstanding the darkness of the prifon, that it was no other than the grand feignior himself; but this difcovery only made VOL. IV. Dd him |