Note 133 — No. 67. [Steele.

Philotas, son of Parmenion, was one of the generals of Alexander the Great. He was arrested for treason, made a confession under torture, and was stoned before the troops. Jean Reinhold de Patkul (1660-1707), a Livonian nobleman in disgrace at the Swedish Court, found his way to King Augustus, in Poland, and was charged with having instigated that monarch to attack Livonia. When a treaty of peace was drawn up, Charles XII. made the surrender of Patkul one of the conditions; and after much delay he was handed over to General Meyerfeldt, and broken upon the wheel in October 1707. In the Review for August 20, 1709, Defoe criticised the conduct of Charles XII. in this matter, and said that since his barbarous action he had had no success. He paid dear for the blood of Patkul.