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The career of the former had been a very chequered one.
He first served in the French army, whence he took his
leave in 1703 as “Capitaine.” Having returned to the
Swedish ranks as a volunteer, he was present at the siege
of Thorn, and when some time later the town of
Reusch-Lemberg was taken by storm, he with the well-known
Douglas impetuosity was one of the first to enter its
gates. In 1705 he was made Captain; 1706, Adjutant
to Field-Marshal Count Rehuskjöld. As such he was
severely wounded at the Battle of Frauenstadt. After
Poltawa his fate was that of all prisoners: he was carried
to Siberia. But he had the consolation of finding in
Wologda the daughter of a Dutch merchant, Maria
Houtmann, who took his fancy and whom he married.
After his return he advanced from Colonel to
Major-General, and died at the good old age of eighty on his
estate of Stjenarp in Östergötland.
Count Otto was one of the very few Swedish officers
of Charles XII. who after Poltawa entered the Russian
service. He was made Governor of the whole of Finland
with residence in Åbo; but he made himself disliked by
the uncompromising rigour with which he collected the
taxes, and the little sympathy he showed for Finnish
feeling. Even the tutelary saint of the Finns, St Henry,
was not safe in his grave. Douglas removed his bones
from the church of Åbo and sent them to St Petersburg.
His violent temper at last brought him into disgrace.
During a dinner given by him in 1719 to a number of
Russian officers, he had an altercation with a Russian
General; carried away by his passion, he ran his blade
through him and killed him on the spot; whereupon he
himself was sent by Prince Gallitzin as a prisoner to
St Petersburg, tried, and condemned by Czar Peter to
forced labour. Once, however, the latter saw him
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