- Or if they yet would be so good, how
shall I acquaint them with my wretched fate!
- Nay, were there even a
possibility of that, what would the compassion of the whole world avail,
since a slave to those, who, contrary to the law of nations, and even
common humanity, refuse, on any terms, to release the wretches fallen
into their savage power!
In this manner did he bewail himself night and day, and indeed had but
too just reasons for doing so: - he had heard that the last time the czar
had been at Petersburg, he had sent all the prisoners he had then taken
to Siberia, and other province of the greater Tartary, where they were
compelled, without any distinction, to do the work of horses rather than
men, and doubted not but at his next return all those now in his power
would meet the same fate, tho' the generous king of Sweden had sent back
the Muscovites he had taken, by 1500 and 2000 at a time. - This, however,
may be said in favour of the czar, that by the many attempts he made to
civilize his barbarous subjects, it must be supposed he would have been
glad to have imitated this generosity, had it been confident with his
safety; but the case had this difference, Charles XII. feared not the
number of the Muscovites, but the czar feared the courage of the Swedes.
What also increased the affliction of these gentlemen, was, that being
debarred from all intelligence, they could hear nothing of their king,
whom each of them loved with a kind of filial affection and
duty.
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