Vanished into a cloud of untenable schemes, guided by Alberoni, Baron Gortz and others; wild schemes, financial, diplomatic, warlike, nothing not chimerical in them but his own unquenchable real energy;--and found his death (by assassination, as appears) in the trenches of Frederickshall, among the Norway Hills, one winter night, three years hence.

Assassination instigated by the Swedish Official Persons, it is thought.

The bullet passed through both his temples; he had clapt his hand upon the hilt of his sword, and was found leant against the parapet, in that attitude,--gone upon a long march now.

So vanished Charles Twelfth; the distressed Official Persons and Nobility exploding upon him in that rather damnable way,--anxious to slip their muzzles at any cost whatever.

A man of antique character; true as a child, simple, even bashful, and of a strength and valor rarely exampled among men.