FORTIa’s TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.

4 97

We aYe refolute: their determination was made a long time before, and in their corref-pondence with the enemy, afterwards proved, they bad pledged themielves to perfift.—That being the cafe , Gentlemen , as an officer at the head of his regiment is bound to obey asmuch as the meaneji foldier in the ranks ; and as all difobedience in face of the enemy by mili-tary law is punifhable with death, the law ffiall take effect; we would then have decimatedthe guilty, given up to immediate execution thofe upon whom the lot had fallen, andimprifoned the remainder in the neareft citadel; afterwards we would have filled upthe vacant appointments, and have given the word to march, with firm affurance thatnone would have ventured to hefitate. Without being a King, a general ought to haveafted thus, and we could cite thofe who would not have adted otherwife. This conducton the part of the King.would have been fo much more fecure in that the foldiers, al-though feduced in meafure by their officers, would have Tided with the King immediatelyhe addreffed them. It is not of them that His Majefty complained on this mournfuloccafion; on the contrary, often has he repeated before us, that once entreated withthe King at their head, the Swedifh troops would brave even hell itfelf.

To other embarraffments to which His Majefty was fubject, is to be fuperadded theimpofiibility of his addrefling the Finnifh foldiers, except by an interpreter ; the Finnifhlanguage having no analogy with the Swedifh. We had an anecdote from His Majefty,which for its Angularity deferves to be repeated. Being defirous of addrefling I'omefoldiers who were murmuring, he made ufe of an officer whom he met on the fpotfor an interpreter. This officer delivered the fpeech of His Majefty to the foldiers, andthe anfwer of the latter to the King, quite different to what was expreffed by either.The Prince was not till fome time after made acquainted with this piece of roguery,as impudent as novel. He had liberality enough not to feek to know who this officerwas.

The King in defpair returned to Stockholm , where fhortly after a party was formedagainft him. The projedl: of it was no lefs than to reduce him to the ftate he was in onafeending the throne, and if poffible, even lower. The chiefs of the party fpoke openlyof their intention, and nothing but the affembly of the diet was waited for to confoli-date this new fcheme. Guftavus, in the moft terrible pofttion imaginable, hefitatedwhether or no he fhould affemble the States : fortunately he determined for the negative,•fwayed, as it is faid, by the advice of two foreign minifters ; had he convoked them atthat inftant he would have been ruined. To thefe multiplied embarraffments fucceededa fudden irruption into his dominions. The Prince of Heffe, at the head of twelvethoufand Danes, landed in the neighbourhood of Gottenburg. Guftavus was at thetime in the mountains of Dalecarlia : fetting off with only a Angle fervant unknown toany one, he harangued from the fame ftone, on which on a Amilar occaAon GuftavusVafa had flood, the defendants of thofe who had affifted him to expel the tyrant Chrif-tiern. Guftavus III. whofc eloquence was uniformly perfuaflve, engaged a number ofthefe mountaineers to fet off for Stockholm . (In one village, where the men were em-ployed at their labour, the King addreffed their wives, who pledged themfelves for theirhufoands.) They arrived at their place of rendezvous, and under the command of-Baron Armfeldt, cloathed and dreffed in their country garb, with the blue ribbon con-fpicuous over his Dalecarlian drefs, took a pofition at Drottningholm , whence they hadan eye on all that paffed in the capital. The King here for the firft time heard of the"invafion of the Danes: he immediately fet off, and arrived at Gottenburg at an inftantwhen fought for all over the kingdom, at an inftant when this city, incapable of defence,Was about to furrender to the Prince of Heffe. The prefence, the language of theKing gave courage to all. No longer was heard any notion to furrender; the Danifh

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