Page 84 - A Jacobite Exile

as he had hoped, the place was in a position to offer a stout resistance.
However, he attacked the fort of Cobrun, on the opposite side of the river,

and carried it by assault.

"The news was brought to young Charles the Twelfth when he was out
hunting, a sport of which he is passionately fond. By all accounts, he is an
extraordinary young fellow. He is not content with hunting bears and

shooting them, but he and his followers engage them armed only with
forked sticks. With these they attack the bears, pushing and hustling the

great creatures, with the forks of their sticks, until they are completely
exhausted, when they are bound and sent away. In this hunt Charles took
fourteen alive, one of which nearly killed him before it was captured. He

did not break up the hunting party, but continued his sport to the end,
sending off, however, orders for the concentration of all the troops, in

Livonia and Finland, to act against the Saxons.

"As soon as the King of Denmark heard of the siege of Riga, he ordered the

Duke of Wurtemberg-Neustadt, his commander-in-chief, to enter Holstein
with his army, sixteen thousand strong. All of that country was at once

overrun, the ducal domains seized, and great contributions exacted from
Schleswig and Holstein. Fleming and the Saxons, after one severe repulse,
forced the garrison of the fort of Dunamund, commanding the mouth of the

Duna, to surrender. Tonningen is the only fortress that now holds out in
Holstein. So you see, lads, there is every chance of there being brisk

fighting, and I warrant the young King of Sweden will not be backward in
the fray. A man who is fond of engaging with bears, armed with nothing
but a forked stick, is not likely to hang back in the day of battle.

"But, at present, we will say no more on the matter. Now that we have got

beyond the shelter of the island, the waves are getting up, and the vessel is
beginning to toss and roll. I see that Sir Marmaduke has retired to his cabin.
I mean to remain here as long as I can, and I should advise you both to do

the same. I have always heard that it is better to fight with this sickness of
the sea, as long as possible, and that it is easier to do so in fresh air than in a

close cabin."