The King and Mazeppa, companions in flight, together entered the Sultan's dominions as fugitives, and of the army before which a short time ago Europe had trembled--there was left not one battalion.
The Baltic was passing into new hands.

"The window" opening upon the West was to become a door, and the key of the door was to be kept upon the side toward Russia! Sweden, which under Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XI., and Charles XII.

had played such a glorious part, was never to do it again; and the place she had left vacant was to be filled by a new and greater Power.

Russia had dispelled the awakened dream of a great Scandinavian Empire and--so long excluded and humiliated--was going to make a triumphal entry into the family of European nations.
The Tsar, with his innovations and reforms, was vindicated.

For breadth of design and statesmanship there was not one sovereign in the coalition who could compare with this man who, Bishop Burnet thought, was better fitted for a mechanic than a Prince--and "incapable of a great enterprise." Of Charles XII.