BOOK “ ferent. I do not belie-vethe prince ofHe.ife was concerned, or privy to it
VII< “ in any degree , but the belief that he was put to death by a private hand was,
“ general in the army at that time
The next evidence is captain Carliberg, who aflifted in
conveying the body from the t r e n c h e s th is officer died at
Gotheborg about a month, before I arrived at that town ;
and in repeated converfations with feveral Engliih merchants,
from whom I recei ved the anecdote, confta.ntly afierted
that the wound was given by a muiket qr piftol.
In anfwer to thefe affertions, may it not be afked, whether
count Liewen and captain Carlibergh had any opportunity
, o f examining the wound with that attention neceflary to
form a decilive opinion ? and i f they did, whether the fize
o f gun-ihot wounds does not exceedingly vary according to
the velocity of the ball, and the place which it ftrikeS ?
But ihould we even allow, that the piece from which the
king received his death was not larger than a muiket, the
next circumftanceforinquiry is, whether a mulket-ihot could
have reached him from the ramparts of Fredericklhall, or
from any of the adjoining batteries ? That this is probable
will appear from confulting the plan of Fredericklhall in
Motraye, who had viiited the place; for the parapet on which
the king was leaning is only 180 yards from the ramparts,
and about 800 from the battery, from which he conjectures
that he was killed. As a random muiket-bullet will often
take effeCt at 800, or even 1000 yards, the king might have
been ftruck in this manner, and i t i l l more probably by fmall
or • grape-ihot difcharged from a cannon.
Many perfons have been fufpeCted o f being concerned in
the fuppofed affaffination: Siquierprincipally,becaufe he was
* W ra x a ll’ s T o u r , p. 14 1 .
near Charles at the time o f his death, covered the body from CHAP-
infpeCtion, immediately carried the news to the prince of f - . ’ J
Heffe, and, by haftening to Stockholm, fecured the crown to
the princefs Ulrica Eleonora. His conduCt in thefe inftances,
however, affords no poiitive evidence either againft himfelf
or Frederick; for both would have aCted in the fame manner
from common policy, whether the SWediih monarch was,
killed by accident, or by their treachery. Unfortunately,
however, Siquier himfelf, in 1722, being at Stockholm, in a
delirium, occalioned by a fever, opened the window of his
apartment, and exclaimed, that he had murdered Charles X II.;
but no one gave any credit to the confeffion o f a perfon
Who waS then in a ftate o f infanity.
Sufpicions. fell upon Maigret the engineer, merely becaufe
he was prefent in the trenches; and alfo upon General Renf-
hold, who is faid to have employed the murderer : but this
report had no foundation, and feems to have chiefly arifen
from his activity in fupporting the party o f the fenate for
limiting the fovereign authority, and in placing Ulrica Eleonora
upon the throne.
It is evident from a paffage in Bruce’s Memoirs * that a
belief o f the king’s affaffination was generally received.
“ As I was dining,” he fays, “ at an ordinary one day, with feveral of my
“ acquaintance, there happened to be at the table a Swediill colonel, and a
“ lieutenant-colonel, who was born dumb, but, notwithftanding that misfor-
“ ®*,‘ had been a great favourite with the late king of Sweden. While we
“ were at dinner, the governor’s aid-d’e-cimppame in, and, addreffing him
“ fell to the Swediih colonel, ordered him, in the ’emperor's name, to leave
“ Riga immediately, otherwife he would be proceeded againft as a traitor,.
“ The Swede immediately getting up from the table, quitted the room pale
‘ and trembling. On our enquiring into the reafon of this fudden order to
“ the colonel, we were informed that he was fufpe&ed of having ihot the- late