ted to intend joining Friedrich Wilhelm in his
Pommern Expedition; and of the latter there did, under a so-called
Field-Marshal von Wackerbarth, of high plumes and titles, some four
thousand--of whom only Colonel von Seckendorf, commanding one of the
horse-regiments, is remarkable to us--come and serve. The rest, and all
the Russians, he was as well pleased to have at a distance. Some sixteen
thousand Danes joined him, too, with the King of Denmark at their head;
very furious, all, against the Swedish-iron Hero; but they were remarked
to do almost no real service, except at sea a little against the Swedish
ships. George I. also had a fleet in the Baltic; but only "to protect
English commerce." On the whole, the Siege of Stralsund, to which
the Campaign pretty soon reduced itself, was done mainly by Friedrich
Wilhelm. He stayed two months in Stettin, getting all his preliminaries
completed; his good Queen, Wife "Feekin," was with him for some time, I
know not whether now or afterwards. In the end of June, he issued from
Stettin; took the interjacent outpost places; and then opened ground
before Stralsund, where, in a few days more, the Danes joined him. It
was now the middle of July: a combined Army of well-nigh forty thousand
against Charles; who, to man his works, musters about the fourth part
of that number. [Pauli, viii. 85-101; Buchholz, i. 31-39; Forster, ii.
34-39; Stenzel, iii. 272-218.]

Stralsund, with its outer lines and inner, with its marshes, ditches,
ramparts and abundant cannon to them, and leaning, one side of it,
on the deep sea, which Swedish ships command as yet, is very strong.
Wallenstein, we know, once tried it with furious assault, with
bombardment, sap and storm; swore he would have it, "though it hung by a
chain from Heaven;" but could not get it, after all his volcanic raging;
and was driven away, partly by the Swedes and armed Townsfolk, chiefly
by the marsh-fevers and continuous rains. Stralsund has been taken,
since that, by Prussian sieging; as old men, from the Great Elector's
time, still remember. [l0th-15th October, 1678 (Pauli, v. 203, 205).]
To Louis Fourteenth's menacing Ambassador, Friedrich Wilhelm seems
to intimate that indeed big bullying words will not take it, but that
Prussian guns and men, on a just ground, still may.

The details of this Siege of Stralsund are all on record, and had once
a certain fame in the world; but, except as a distant echo, must not
concern us here. It