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impossibility. ”1 The conspiracy in which several Swedish
officers were implicated, is known as the Anjala Conspiracy.
A Scottish name also occurs among the conspirators, that
of Robert Montgomery. He had formerly served with
distinction in the French army. On the first of August,
1788, he and two other officers were charged with the
crime of treason; but he escaped the fate of Captain
Hästeske, the chief culprit, who was hanged, though his
own punishment was severe enough: he was cashiered,
deprived of his decorations, and sent as a captive to
St Barthélemy, whence he was released only in 1793.
The war ended, as one might have predicted, disastrously
for Sweden. Curiously enough, another Montgomery,
David Robert, saved the life of Gustavus III., King of
Sweden, in this Finnish campaign, when the latter, during
an inspection of guards, was murderously attacked by three
runaway Cossacks (1st June 1789). As a reward for
this piece of bravery he was made a Knight of the Order
of the Sword. In later years he fought in Pomerania,
and was made a prisoner of war in 1806 by the French at
Liibeck.
The war which led to the final loss of Finland was the
war of 1808-9 against Russia. It was a war of defence,
and was caused by Napoleon’s hostility to the King of
Sweden, who adhered to his friendly policy towards
England. Here also the inability of the leaders rendered
the martial spirit of the troops ineffective. Old General
af Klercker,2 a man of seventy-three, endowed with the
1 See Inre Orsaker till Förlusten af Finland (Interior Causes of the
Loss of Finland) (1902), p. 27. This is a reprint from the History of
ihe IVar of 1808-9, by the Historical Committee of the Staff. Part III.
2 For the third time Swedish poetry sang of Scottish names.
Runeberg (1804-1877) published his most famous collection of poems,
called Fanrik Stahls sägner (The Tales of Ensign Stahl), in i860.
One of the poems in it is the above-named “ Främlingens syn.” The
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