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Show Failures Who Came Bck By Albert Payton Terhun " J CHARLES XII ef Sweden: The Failure Whs Twice "Cams Back.- Ab awkward, uncouth fellow, stupid of faca and boorish of manner, became kins of Sweden In 1T under the tltla . of Charles XII. 7 Thoaa wera etirrmg time In north- " ern Europe. A few year earlier King 1 Gualavua Adolphua. 'the Lion of the . North." had lifted Sweden to world greatness. And patriotic Sweden looked -to Charlea to do much for hia country. The new king disappointed these ; hopes. Ha hated politics. He ahunned all bualneaa of etate that ha cou!-i res- . slbly avoid. He atole away from council coun-cil mrrlinm In order to go hunting, f In fact, hunting and athletic Boor's -wera the only things he cared for. ne dreased like a tramp, alept on the hard around, and lived chiefly on coarse bread and water. 1 Krom the Tery atart he acored a ludl- " croua failure aa a kin. And he blaated - , the high expectations of hla people. , I Foreign enemlea openly declared ifies. kins waa an imbecile. And they de-elded de-elded thl waa an Ideal moment to loot and deatroy Sweden, Tea. Charlea Xn waa a failure. Hla best friends could not deny that. 41, Russia, Poland and Denmark - against Sweden. With a fool on the Sweden throne, conquest aeemed eaay. Then, all at once. In face of thla na- tlonal peril. Charlea awoke. He put -away forever hla beloved stag; hunting; and took to the wilder sport of hunt-in hunt-in a- men. At the head of a tiny army he drove an invading force of Danes out of 8we- -den. With only J0.0O0 men he at- -tacked a Ruaalan army of tO.OOO at -Narva. After leas than fifteen rain- " titea of headlong fighting ha had not":.., only defeated the Ruaalana. but had - , killed or captured almost their whole . army. Next be thrashed a Raxon army -. sent against htm, and finished the- war by beating Poland to Its knees ' g All ths world stared In amaae at the unbelievable tactics of ths failure who had ao dramatically "come back. -By 1701 Charles had dictated his own peace terms to the trembling triple al- a llanoe that had aet out to destroy him. a Then he proceeded to score his second sec-ond and greater failure. Not content with what he had dona he kept on fighting. His first more waa a campaign to crush the mighty ' empire of Russia. With only 17,000 men he Invaded Ruaaian territory and marched agalnat Moscow. It waa a disastrous move. One mis- 4 hap followed another. In the decisive battle of the campaign Charlea waa wounded. Hla troops, thinking him dead, retreated before a far mightier Russian force. Beaten and with only the merest . - remnant of hla army, Charlea sought refuge in Turkey. The Turks, Incited by Russia, sought to capture him. With too followers be took refuge la a housed $ add defended It against several Turk -lab regtmenta until the roof waa burned A over bla head. Then he tried to flghev- his way through ths enemy, but waa wounded and captured. , Thla eeeoBd failure waa far mora die- 4 " aatroua than had been the first. For t Charlea waa alone and a prisoner tn a far land at the mercy of the merciless. His army waa gone. His freedom wss gone. Danish and Ruaalan boats were I ' aeemed totally hopeless. Tet ha escaped from prison, fled in disguise to Sweden and again took m up the relna of government. The al-Ilea al-Ilea outnumbered and defeated him In ; a pitched battle In December, 171s. His power apparently waa gone. - Instead of yielding, he formed a new plan of conquest e plan that might well have led him to world empire. He formed an alliance with Russia, to conquer con-quer Norway, then to descend upon Great Britain and thence turn hla at- tentlon to continental Europe. Charles drove his enemies out , of Sweden, Invsded Norway and began to conquer tt. The failure bad once more .1 oomo back. At the flood tide of hia avoceee In thla new venture and while be waa besieging be-sieging Frederlkshall his akuil sua crushed by a cannon ahot. This wss 4 on November 10. 171S. By the wsy. there has always been a rumor unverified yet pererttent that Charlea was not a man at aJL but s ajvomaa. " tftSKaM. tr u e riaaswat 0.1 |