As They Were In This Discourse, Colonel Poniatosky Came In, And Hearing
They Were Speaking Of Patkul, - I Have Just
Now, said he, received a
letter from one of my friends in Saxony concerning that general, which
deeply affects me,
Not for his own, but for the sake of a lady, to whom,
after a long series of disappointments, he was just going to be married,
when Augustus, against the law of nations, made him a prisoner. I will
relate the whole adventure to you, continued he; on which the others
assuring him they should think themselves obliged to him, he went on.
When he first entered into the service of Augustus, he became
passionately in love with madam d' Ensilden, a young lady, whose beauty,
birth, and fortune rendered her worthy the affections of a man of more
honour than he had testified in his public capacity: her friends at
least thought so; and chancellor Flemming making his addresses to her at
the same time, had the advantage in every thing but in her heart: there
Patkul triumphed in spight of all objections: and tho' king Augustus
vouchsafed himself to sollicite in behalf of his favourite, her
constancy remained unshaken as a rock; which so incensed a monarch
haughty and imperious in his nature, before humbled by our glorious
Charles, that he made use of his authority, and forbid her to think of
marrying any other: to which she resolutely answered, that she knew no
right princes had to interfere with the marriages of private persons;
but since his majesty commanded it, she would endeavour to obey and live
single. This not satisfying the king, he hated Patkul from that moment;
and the rivals soon after meeting in madam d' Ensilden's apartment, some
hot words arose between them, which being by Flemming reported to his
master, he sent, in the moment of his passion, to require Patkul to
resign his office of general: he did so, but with a murmur that was far
from abating the royal resentments; and he had then ordered him into
confinement, but that private intelligence being given him, he made his
escape before the officers, commissioned for that purpose, reached his
house. He then went to the czar, who knowing him an experienced general,
of which at that time he stood greatly in need, gladly received him; and
it was there he first merited the hate of all good men, by countenancing
and abetting those ambitious projects his new master was then forming
against the king of Sweden: but see the fate of treason, he persuaded
him to enter into an alliance with, Poland and Saxony against Sweden,
which laid the foundation of this unjust war, and for which Augustus has
so dearly paid; and being sent Ambassador, in order to negotiate these
affairs, again renewed those of his love. Augustus, now obliged to the
czar for the preservation of his dominions, durst not openly espouse
chancellor Flemming, but no sooner heard that the marriage was near
being compleated, than he ventured every thing to prevent it; and, under
a pretence of his own forging, confined Patkul in the castle of
Konisting, where he lay a considerable time; the czar being too much
taken up with combating the fortune of our victorious king, to examine
into this affair, and besides, unwilling to break with Augustus, as
things then stood. Madam d' Ensilden did all this time whatever could be
expected from a sincere affection, in order to procure his enlargement;
but the interest of her friends, at least of those who would be employed
in this intercession, were infinitely too weak to oppose that of
Flemming and the king's own inclination, so that he remained a prisoner,
without being permitted either to write to madam d' Ensilden or see her,
till the time of his being delivered into our hands. But on hearing he
was so, my friend informs me her great spirit, which till now had made
her support her misfortune without discovering to the world any part of
the agonies she sustained, in an instant quite forsook her: she
abandoned herself to despair and grief, equally exclaiming against the
Czar, Augustus, and Charles XII; has ever since shut herself up in her
apartment, which she has caused to be hung with black, the windows
closed, and no light but what a small lamp affords, and only adds more
horror to the melancholy scene: she weeps incessantly, and, as she
expects her lover will obtain no mercy, declares, she only waits till
she hears the sentence of his fate is given, to dye, if possible, at the
same moment of his execution.
I must confess, continued Poniatosky, the history of this lady's
sufferings touch me very much; and tho' I think her lover well worthy of
the death he will undoubtedly receive, could wish some unexpected chance
might once more set him free, and in a condition to recompence so tender
a passion, which Augustus has now no longer any power to oppose.
Horatio had a heart too tender, and too sensible of the woes of love,
not to be greatly affected with this passage; and as they all were
young, and probably had each of them a lady to whom their affections
were given, could not help sympathizing in the misfortunes of two
persons who seemed to have fallen into them merely by the sincere
attachment they had for each other.
CHAP. XVIII.
King Stanislaus quits Alranstadt to appease the troubles in Poland:
Charles XII. gives laws to the empire: a courier arrives from Paris:
Horatio receives letters which give him great surprize.
Augustus being able to obtain no better conditions from the king of
Sweden, than leave to return to his almost ruined electorate, took leave
of his conqueror with an almost broken heart. - Intelligence soon after
arriving that Poland was half demolished by the violence of different
factions, who, in the absence of both their kings, contended with equal
fury for the sovereign power, Stanislaus took an affectionate farewell
of his dear friend and patron, and went to appease the troubles of that
kingdom, and make himself peaceably acknowledged for what he was, their
lawful king, not only by election, but by the gift of the conqueror,
Charles XII.
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