286 A JACOBITE EXILE

given by the king of England to the czar: the dams were
from the imperial stables at Vienna. So they ought to be
good.”

Charlie guessed that the team must have been a present
from the czar, and remembering what Dr. Kelly had said
of the czar’s personal communications with him, he thought
that the ruler of Russia must have a particular liking for
doctors, and that the medical profession must be a more
honoured and profitable one in Russia than elsewhere.
After driving with great rapidity for upwards of an hour
along the banks of the Neva, Charlie saw a great number
of people at work on an island in the middle of the river
some distance ahead, and soon afterwards, to his surprise,
observed a multitude on the flat, low ground ahead.

“This is what I have brought you to see,” his companion
said. “Do you know what they are doing?”

“It seems to me that they are building a fortress on that
island.”

“You are right. We have got a footing on the sea, and
we are going to keep it. While Charles of Sweden is fool-
ing away his time in Poland in order to gratify his spite
against Augustus we are strengthening ourselves here, and
never again will Sweden wrest Ingria from our hands.”

“Tt is marvellous how much has been done already,”
Charlie said as he looked at the crowd of workmen.

“Everything was prepared,” his companion said.
“While the army was invading Livonia and driving the
remnant of the Swedes into Revel, thousands of carts laden
with piles of wood, stone, and cement were moving towards
Ingria. ‘Tens of thousands of workmen and peasants were
in motion from every part of Russia towards this point, and
the day after Notteburg surrendered they began their work
here. It was the opportunity in the lifetime of a nation,
and we have seized it. ‘The engineers who had in disguise
examined it months ago had reported that the island was