atedly; fell out of one faint into another; but such was
his rage, he always recovered himself, and got on horseback again."
[Buchholz, i. 36.] Poor Charles: a bit of right royal Swedish-German
stuff, after his kind; and tragically ill bested now at last! This is
his exit he is now making,--still in a consistent manner. It is fifteen
years now since he waded ashore at Copenhagen, and first heard the
bullets whistle round him. Since which time, what a course has he run;
crashing athwart all manner of ranked armies, diplomatic combinations,
right onward, like a cannon-ball; tearing off many solemn wigs in those
Northern parts, and scattering them upon the winds,--even as he did
his own full-bottom wig, impatiently, on that first day at Copenhagen,
tiding it unfurthersome for actual business in battle. [Kohler,
_Munzbelustigungen,_ xiv. 213.]

In about a month hence, the last important hornwork is forced; Charles,
himself seen fiercely fighting on the place, is swept back from his
last hornwork; and the general storm, now altogether irresistible,
is evidently at hand. On entreaty from his followers, entreaty often
renewed, with tears even (it is said) and on bended knees, Charles at
last consents to go. He left no orders for surrender; would not name
the word; "left only ambiguous vague orders." But on the 19th December,
1715, he does actually depart; gets on board a little boat, towards
a Swedish frigate, which is lying above a mile out; the whole road to
which, between Rugen and the mainland, is now solid ice, and has to
be cut as he proceeds. This slow operation, which lasted all day, was
visible, and its meaning well known, in the besiegers' lines. The King
of Denmark saw it; and brought a battery to bear upon it; his thought
had always been, that Charles should be captured or killed in Stralsund,
and not allowed to get away. Friedrich Wilhelm was of quite another
mind, and had even used secret influences to that effect; eager that
Charles should escape. It is said, he remonstrated very passionately
with the Danish King and this battery of his; nay, some add, since
remonstrances did not avail, and the battery still threatened to fire,
Friedrich Wilhelm drew up a Prussian regiment or two at the muzzles of
it, and said, You shall shoot us first, then. [Buchholz, p. 138.] Which
is a pleasant myth at least; and symbolical of what the reality was.

Charles reached his frigate about nightfall, but made little way from
the p