Page 279 - A Jacobite Exile

"This is what I have brought you to see," his companion said. "Do you
know what they are doing?"

"It seems to me that they are building a fortress on that island."

"You are right. We have got a footing on the sea, and we are going to keep
it. While Charles of Sweden is fooling away his time in Poland, in order to

gratify his spite against Augustus, we are strengthening ourselves here, and
never again will Sweden wrest Ingria from our hands."

"It is marvellous how much has been done already," Charlie said, as he
looked at the crowd of workmen.

"Everything was prepared," his companion said. "While the army was

invading Livonia, and driving the remnant of the Swedes into Revel,
thousands of carts laden with piles of wood, stone, and cement were
moving towards Ingria. Tens of thousands of workmen and peasants were

in motion from every part of Russia towards this point, and, the day after
Notteburg surrendered, they began their work here. It was the opportunity

in the lifetime of a nation, and we have seized it. The engineers who had, in
disguise, examined it months ago, had reported that the island was covered
at high tides, and was unfit to bear the foundations of even the slightest

buildings. Piles are being driven in, as close as they will stand, over every
foot of ground in it. Over this a coating of concrete many feet thick will be

laid, and on this the fortress, which is to be the centre and heart of Russia,
will rise. In the fort will stand a pile, which will be the tomb of the future
czars of Russia, and there in front of us, where you see fifty thousand

peasants at work, shall be the future capital of the empire."

"But it is a swamp," Charlie said in astonishment, alike at the vastness of
the scheme, and the energy with which it was being prosecuted.

"Nature has made it a swamp," his companion said calmly, "but man is
stronger than nature. The river will be embanked, the morass drained, and

piles driven everywhere, as has been done in the island, and the capital will
rise here. The fort has already been named the Fortress of Saint Peter and