Peter the Great being well aware of the importance of the defection of the Cossacks in favour of Charles, did all he could to stop it; and having been apprised that the Swedish king had forgotten to secure the post of Starodub, which could thwart all the efforts of the Russians to master the fortress of Baturin, where large stores of ammunition and provisions were amassed for the Swedes, he detached his favourite, Menzikof, with a large body of troops, to storm it. The latter marched with great haste through difficult tracts, took the town by surprise, burned and sacked it, and after putting the inhabitants to the sword, sent thirty Prussian officers as prisoners, with their general Koenigseck, grand master of the artillery in Mazeppa's service, to the czar; who, after ordering his clergy to excommunicate Mazeppa, and to attach his likeness to the gibbet, sent them to the scaffold, where they perished by the most horrible tortures.
The taking of this fortress by Menzikof was, perhaps, the most important step towards the ultimate victory of the Russians. Peter the Great, however, having heard that Mazeppa was indefatigable in victualling the Swedish army, offered him a complete oblivion of the past should he return to him again; but the hetman, well aware of his true disposition, and indignant at the atrocities which the czar had inflicted on his partisans, refused the offer, and wisely continued to be faithful to his new friend.
Charles XII., after passing the most terrible winter of 1709 almost without shelter, advanced into the wilds of the eastern Ukraine; and after several successful skirmishes besieged the town of Pultawa, situated on the right bank of the river Worskla, whei:e Peter the Great soon arrived with 80,000 men and aouiac-rous'train of artillery. Without entering into the pJiicnlais. of; the-battle of Pultawa, it may be sufficient to tate, that it saved the Russian empire from a revolution, lowered the political importance of Sweden for centuries, and was gained over Charles XII., chiefly by a mistake of the Swedish general Kreutz, and the king''s illness. One portion of the Cossacks under Peter the Great fought with the others under Mazeppa. After the loss of that battle, Charles XII., attended by some Cossacks and the wreck of his army, retreated towards the Dnieper, constantly harassed by General Menzikof, who pressed them closely and gave no quarter to any Cossack; though several thousands of the Swedish veterans, so often victorious, whose very name struck terror in the heart of the Russians, surrendered.
Charles XII., beaten, attended by Poniatowski, Mazeppa, and some of his most faithful friends, sick, and carried on a litter, reached at last with great difficulty the Dnieper, where some boats were prepared for transporting him to the other shore, and facilitating his progress to Turkey. Scarcely had Mazeppa and the king leaped into a boat when a terrible storm arose, and the angry waves dashed with such fury from the west that the greater part of the boats were broken, the boatmen drowned, and the hetman was obliged for his own safety to throw immense treasures into the river, which proved a watery grave to all those who attempted to swim through it.
AfteralQUg, painful, and harassing journey, during.five days> with scanty provisions, without water, without shelter, without any visible track, through the romantic deserts of the mighty Ukraine, Charles XII., with his suite, and Mazeppa watching constantly the guides that they might not betray them, directing their steps by the stars, by the gusts of moaning winds, and the flocks of screaming birds, reached at last in safety the Turkish town of Otchakof, where they were most hospitably received by the Turkish pasha.
Mazeppa was attended by the remainder of those celebrated Zaporogues, under the command of Horodynski their chief, who acknowledged his superiority before the battle of Pultawa. They received some lands by order of the grand seignor near the river Kamionka, and at first were allowed to govern themselves according to their own laws, and found, in their misfortunes, benefactors in those very Turks, whose land they formerly plundered and sacked so many times in their expeditions. In consequence of the great annoyance of the Russians, the scattered remains of the Zaporogues were obliged to retreat further towards the Crimea, which they did always governed by Mazeppa, who remained by the express wish of the king of Sweden near his royal person at Bender. There the aged, vigorous, and unfortunate hetman, who had passed through so many extraordinary scenes, whose long life resembled more an Ukranian tale than reality; whose counsels, not well appreciated by the northern hero, were perhaps the principal cause of his downfall, charmed more than once the Swedish king by his flowing eloquence and brilliant conversation, always pertinent, and adapted to the meanest understanding.