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Nuremberg does not look modern because its streets are clean and there are no beggars, nor does the ancient seat of the Teutonic Knights at Marienburg look like a hotel because its lofty corridors and graceful halls, with their cross vaults springing from central columns, are carefully swept and free from dust.
The Czech would not give him any wine; and they rode along silently, until the stranger began to ask: "Where are you going?" "Far. At first to Sieradz. Are you going with us?" "I must. I will sleep in the stable, and perhaps to-morrow this pious knight will give me a present of a horse; then I will go further." "Where are you from?" "From under Prussian lords, not far from Marienburg."
He is saved by a woman, and a great woman, even Catherine his wife, who originally was a poor peasant girl in Livonia, and who after various adventures became the wife of a young Swedish officer killed at the battle of Marienburg, and then the mistress of Prince Mentchikof, and then of Peter himself, who at length married her, "an incident," says Voltaire, "which fortune and merit never before produced in the annals of the world," She suggested negotiation, when Peter was in the very jaws of destruction, and which nobody had thought of.
Munro's regiment had taken no part in the storming of Marienburg, but was formed up on the north side of the river in readiness to advance should the first attack be repelled, and many were wounded by the shot of the enemy while thus inactive. Malcolm while binding up the arm of his sergeant who stood next to him felt a sharp pain shoot through his leg, and at once fell to the ground.
Then we find her acting as maid-servant to the Lutheran pastor of Marienburg, scrubbing his floors, nursing his children, and waiting on his resident pupils, in the midst of all the perils of warfare.
In Marienburg, he knew, however, a few honest and upright knights who often complained of the corruption of the brothers, of their lasciviousness and lack of discipline; de Fourcy felt that they were right, but being himself dissolute and lacking in discipline, he did not criticise them for those faults, especially because all knights of the Order redeemed them with bravery.
By the second treaty of Paris, which was definitively concluded on the 20th of November, 1815, France was merely compelled to give up the fortresses of Philippeville, Marienburg, Sarlouis, and Landau, to demolish Huningen, and to allow eighteen other fortresses on the German frontier to be occupied by the allies until the new government had taken firm footing in France.
Such was the humble origin of the woman who was to become the wife of Peter the Great, and afterwards Catharine I., Empress of Russia. In 1702 Catharine, then seventeen years of age, married a Swedish dragoon, one of the garrison of Marienburg. Her married life was a short one, her husband being obliged to leave her in two days to join his regiment. She never saw him again.
This generous and statesmanlike judgment, consorting with that of the Czar, prevailed over the German policy of partition; and it was finally arranged by the Treaty of Paris of November 20th, 1815, that France should surrender only the frontier strips around Marienburg, Saarbrücken, Landau, and Chambéry, also paying war indemnities and restoring to their lawful owners all the works of art of which Napoleon had rifled the chief cities of the continent.
Peter takes Lake Lagoda and the Neva. Foundation of St. Petersburg. Conquest of Livonia. Marienburg Taken by Storm. The Empress Catharine. Extraordinary Efforts in Building St. Petersburg. Threat of Charles XII. Deposition of Augustus. Enthronement of Stanislaus. Battle of Pultowa. Flight of Charles XII. to Turkey. Increased Renown of Russia. Disastrous Conflict with the Turks. Marriage of Alexis.
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