Numb. 39.
[169]
EUROPE look’d without any concern upon the prodigious Conquests of the K. of Sweden; believing the Dane ought to be Chastis’d for so basely Invading the Dominions of a Prince, with whom he was in a strict League; without any Provocation, and without so much as a Declaration; and while that Prince was engag’d in a Bloody War, remote from his own Dominions.
But under all these Provocations, the King of Sweden used so much Moderation in his Victory, that he contented himself with forcing his Enemy to a Disadvantageous Peace, by which the Swede obtained great part of Schonen, a share in the Toll of the Sound, and a great many considerable Concessions.
But as Princes are not always capable of bounding their Ambition, and the Dangers of excess in Prosperity are very great, the King of Sweden pretending next Year, that the King of Denmark was Arming against him, but really vex’d at Heart, that he had let his Enemy slip out of his Hands, when he might have made an Entire Conquest of his Dominions; breaks the Peace, puts to sea with a great Fleet, Lands an Army in Seeland, and sits down again under the Walls of Copenhagen.
The Gallant Defence the King of Denmark made, how he would not quit the City, as his Councellors advis’d him, but resolv’d to be shut up with his Citizens; how he pitch’d his Royal Tent upon one of the Bastions of the City, and nearest to the Danger; that, as he said, he might call to his Soldiers, Come to the breach, and not bid them Go. How he Challeng’d the King of Sweden to fight him, hand to hand, for the Crown of Denmark, who told him for Answer, That Kings do not use to fight, but in good Company. These things I may hint for the Readers Diversion, and to Invite them to read the Histories of Those Times; but I omit Writing them at large, as Foreign to the present purpose. Continue reading Tuesday, July 18. 1704.