admiration: but the French being a people in whom
the love of glory is the predominant passion, were more than any other
nation charmed with the greatness of that prince's soul.

What indeed has any hero of antiquity to boast of in competition with
this northern monarch, who conquered and gave away kingdoms for the
benefit of others, disdaining to receive any other reward for all his
vast fatigues, than the pleasure of giving a people that person whom he
judged most worthy to reign over them!

The baron, who had attended the Count de Guiscard when he was
residentiary ambassador from his most christian majesty at the Swedish
court, had an opportunity of seeing more of this monarch than any other
that Horatio was acquainted with; he therefore, on his requesting it,
informed him how, at the age of eighteen, he threw off all magnificence,
forsook the pomp and delicacies of a court he had been bred in, and
undertook, and compleated the delivery of his brother-in-law, the duke
of Holstein, from the cruel incursions of the Danes, who had well nigh
either taken or ravaged the greatest part of his territories. He also
set forth, in its proper colours, the base part which Peter Alexowitz,
czar of Muscovy, and Augustus, king of Poland, acted against a prince
who was then employing his arms in the cause of justice; the latter of
these bringing a powerful army to take from him one part of his
dominions; and the former, at the head of an 100,000 men, were
plundering the other: but when he concluded his little narrative, by
reciting how this young conqueror, with a handful of brave Swedes,
animated by the example of their king, put entirely to route all that
opposed him, Horatio felt his soul glow with an ardour superior even to
that of love: he longed to behold a prince who seemed to have all the
virtues comprized in him, and whose very thoughts, as well as actions,
might be looked upon as super-natural.

He is, however, greatly to be pitied, said the baron de la Valiere, that
the wars he is engaged in, and which, in all probability will be of long
continuance, hinders him from the possession of the most amiable
princess in the world, and I dare answer, at least if I may credit those
about her, she wishes he were of a less martial disposition.

He will be the more worthy of her, cried Horatio interrupting him, and
the immortal fame of his actions be a sufficient attonement for all the
years of expectation that may be its purchase.