III. CHAP. the dress worn by Gustavus the Third at the time of his assassination, and his image in wax, which this we before noticed'. Our main object, upon occasion, was to see once more the clothes worn by Charles the Twelfth at the time of his death, as connected with a few observations which we had made respecting that event, and which we shall presently state. The coat is a plain blue uniform, with large brass buttons, like that of a common soldier; the gloves are of buff leather, and reached almost up to the elbow; the right-hand glove is a good deal stained with blood, and so is a buff belt which he wore round his body. The hat seems to have been slightly grazed by the ball in that part which immediately covered his temple; but there was nothing in its appearance which could throw any light upon the nature of the wound that was inflicted; that is to say, whether it had been thus grazed by a ball entering in, or going out. The appearance of the scull, after the King's death, satisfactorily proved that the wound in the temple was made by a (1) See Vol. IX. p. 194. (2) Mr. Core, who mentions this circumstance, considers it as probable that the King, " upon receiving the shot, instantly applied his right hand to the wound in his temple, and then to his sword."-See Trav. into Sweden, p. 352. Lond. 1784. III. ball going out. Was it to be believed that a ball CHAP. from the enemies' works, at the distance the King stood, would have either taken the direction of that by which he was shot, or that it would have passed entirely through the scull on both sides? Mr. Fredenheim, Knight of the Polar Star, President of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, distinguished by his travels and historical collections, and High Steward of all the Royal Cabinets, had, at this time, the care of the matrice moulded upon the King's face soon after he was killed. Owing to his kindness, and that of Mr. Breda, to whom Gustavus the Fourth came daily to sit for his portrait, permission was obtained for us to have a Cast taken from this matrice: it is now deposited in the University Library at Cambridge. From the appearance of this Cast, all dispute must cease as to the nature of the shot which caused the King's death; which, in the account of that event published by order of the Swedish Government, was said to have been a ball from a falconet'. Voltaire, also, in his anxiety to do away the imputation. that had fallen upon his countryman, Siquier, insists upon it that the ball was too large for the (3) See Core's Travels into Sweden, p. 357. Lond. 1784.-" A ball from a falconet usually weighs one pound and one eighth, at the least." ́ Cast of the Face of Twelfth after death. III. CHAP. calibre of a pistol'; whereas it is plain that the real shot was a pistol bullet. The appearance of the wound in the temple also shews that it was inflicted by a bullet going out, and slanting upwards, having entered into the lower part of the scull behind: and that the shot was directed by a private hand from behind, and did not come from the enemies' works, is obvious from this circumstance, and from the fact of the King's having drawn his sword half out of its scabbard, in the agonies of death, to immolate his assassinR. Who can read the conversation which passed between Count Liewen, the King's Page, then upon the spot, and Mr. Wraxall, without being convinced that the King was assassinated, even if this evidence were wanted: (1) "Que l'on considéré que la balle qui frappa Charles XII. ne pouvait entrer dans un pistolet, et que Siquier n'aurait pû faire ce coup détestable qu' avec un pistolet caché sous son habit.”—Also, in giving the account of the King's death, Voltaire makes the weight of the ball equal to half-a-pound. "Une balle pesant une demi-livre l'avait atteint à la temple droit." Œuvres de Voltaire, tome VII. Histoire de Charles XII. pp. 280, 283. Génève, 1768. `(2) "I followed the Officers to the place where the King was killed, The Prince ordered the Generals and Officers who were present to place the body in a litter prepared to convey it to the head-quarters; one-andtwenty soldiers standing around with wax tapers in their hands. We observed that the King, in the agonies of death, had drawn his sword half out of the scabbard; and that the hilt was so tightly grasped by the righthand, as not to be disengaged without difficulty."-See the Account taken from the Narrative of Philgren, a Page to the Prince of Hesse, who was that day in waiting. Coxe's Trav. into Sweden, p. 354. Lond. 1784. (3) "There are now very few men alive who can speak with so much certainty as myself. I was in the camp before Frederickshall; and had the |