CORRUPTION OF THE GRAND VIZIER. 235

all the forts and burn all the vessels that he had upon the
Black Sea • allow the King of Sweden to return by Pomerania;
and to pay the Turks and their Prince all the expenses of the
war.

The Grand Vizier found such an opposition in the Divan to
this treaty, and such boldness in the minister of the King of
Sweden, who accompanied him, in exciting against him all the
chiefs of the army, that it was within an ace of being broken;
and the Czar, with every one left to him, of being made prisoner.
The latter was in no condition to make even the least resistance.
The Grand Vizier had only to will it, in order to execute it on
the spot. In addition to the glory of leading captive to Con-
stantinople the Czar, his Court, and his troops, tliere would
have been his ransom, which must have cost not a little.
But if he had been thus stripped of his riches, they would
have been for the Sultan, and the Grand Vizier preferred
having them for himself, fie braved it then with authority
and menaces, and hastened the Czar's departure and his own.
The Swedish minister, charged with protests from the principal
Turkish chiefs, hurried to Constantinople, where the Grand
Vizier was strangled upon arriving.

The Czar never forgot this service of his wife, by whose
courage and presence of mind he had been saved. The esteem
he conceived for her, joined to his friendship, induced him to
crown her Czarina, and to consult her upon all his affairs and
all his schemes. Escaped from danger, he was a long time
without giving up Azof, or demolishing his forts on the Black
Sea. As for his vessels, he kept them nearly all, and would
not allow the King of Sweden to return into Germany, as he
had agreed, thus almost lighting up a'fresh war with the Turk.

On the 6th of November, 1711, at about eight o'clock in the
evening, the shock of an earthquake was felt at Paris and at
Versailles; but it was so slight that few people perceived it.
In several places towards Touraine and Poitou, in Saxony,
and in some of the German towns near, it was very perceptible
at the same day and hour. At this date a new tontine was
established in Paris.