"
Charlie gave a sketch of his adventures.
"So you fought at the Dwina, too? You have had luck in going
through three battles without a wound."
When Charlie stated that he had gone to Warsaw on a private
mission, whose nature was immaterial to the story, the doctor broke
in:
"You need not tell me what it was, it was of course something to do
with Augustus. The way Charles is hunting down that unfortunate
king is shocking, it is downright malignity. Why, he has wasted
fifteen months over it already, and it has cost him Ingria. He
could have made any terms with Poland he liked, after his victory
on the Dwina, and would then have been free to use all his forces
against us. As it is, he has wasted two summers, and is likely to
waste another, and that not for any material advantage, but simply
to gratify his hatred against Augustus; and he has left us to take
Ingria almost without a blow, and to gain what Russia has wanted
for the last hundred years, a foothold on the Baltic. He may be a
great general, but he is no politician. No real statesman would
throw away solid advantages in order to gratify personal pique."
"He considers Augustus the author of this league against him,"
Charlie said. "He and the czar had no grounds at all of quarrel
against him.
Pages:
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378