The Washington herald., 1915-10-03

over Europe the remaining 35 years
of her checkered life.
| The cousin to whom the weariec
| Queen resigned her throne was sue
| ceeded by a 4-year-old son. who in
turn was succeeded by a l5-year-C ID
son. Charles II. The coronation OF this
care-free youth was seized upon by
YDenrnark. Russia and Poland as an
| opportune time TO recover the conquest:
| which Sweden had made at their eN-
perse.
But that league against him aroused
| Charles from his youthful pastimes
! Drawing his sword a the head of his
army, he waded 20 his neck through
| the waters that separated him from
| the Danish shore. and at IS he was
victorious over Denmark. Fastening
to the opposite end of the Baltic. the
Young cOnqueror overwhelmed Peter
the Great at Narva. Although he was
| outnumbered in that battle more than
prisoners that he could not feed them
and cutting off their Oriental skirts
! he sent them back bare legged to the
Car
81 once the victor of Narva turned
I and put to rout another army of Poles
and Saxons. At u he was the con-
Gueror of Poland. with her crown at
| his disposal, and the simple blue coat
of the invincible warrior of the north
was almost as celebrated as the gray
coat of his Corsican successor on
| those war-trodden fields just 100 years
afterward.
! Like Napoleon. too. Charles was
| iured to his fate by the unconquer-
al BILE wilds of Russia. which tempted
him on into their limitless spaces
| While laundering about on the long
| road TO Moscow he lost his army at
| Puitava, in 1903. and saved himself
only by fleeing to Turkey.
| For five years he was first the
guest and then the prisoner of the
| Sultan. when at last he escaped he
| found four nations. Russia. Denmark.
! SaNony and Prussia. banded togetn.-
! in overwhelming strength and deter
mined to dismember his kingdom. To
distract, or divide them. he invaded
Norway, which then belonged to Den
| mark. and there bullet put 4 perioa
TO his strange career. at the age of 36.
Whether the fatal ball Was fred by
! Danish foe or Swedish traitor long
remained an open dispute, in the
course of which the Kings body was
| twice taken from the tomb for sur
gicai examination. The second eX-
humation took place as recently a.
1859, almost $50 years after his death.
Then at last it was definitely deter
mined that he was not shot from be-
hind. and thus the Swedish character
was cleared of the charge of assas-
sination.
The bachelor King was succeeded by
his sister, Clrica, but she shrank from
the ordeal of reaping the whirlwind
that her brother and his predecessors
had sown. and she passed the crown
to her German husband. Revengeful
neighbors pressed against the frontier.
clamorous for an accounting with
their longtime conqueror. and to ap-
pease them Sweden had to disgorge
nearly all the spoils gathered in 100
years of conflict In the end she did
well to escape the fate of partitioned
Poland. which Frederick the Great
would have n,eted out to her.
In the Last Great wnr.
Sweden's crowded hour of glorious
life" was closed and her people gladly
turned to "the inglorious arts Of
peace" But as she fell forever from
the heights of a great power abroa q.
she gained prosperity and liberty at
home Nevertheless. the memories or
her martial days urged her into los
ing strife with Russia. into the Seven
Years War. into the wars against the
French Revolution and finally into the
struggle with Napoleon, when she lost
Finland. the last Of her outlying ter
ritory.
The Scandinavian States today are
profiting by the lesson they learned
in that great conflict 100 years ago.