Note 469 — CANTO THE EIGHTH.

["When Charles XII. reached Bender, August 1, 1709, he refused, in the first instance, to cross the river Dniester, and on yielding to the representations of the Turks, he declined to enter the town, but decided on remaining encamped on an island, in spite of the assurances of the inhabitants that it was occasionally flooded." But, perhaps, Byron had in mind Voltaire's remarks on Charles's Opiniâtreté. (See Histoire de Charles XII., 1772, p. 377. See, too, Charles XII., by Oscar Browning, 1899, pp. 231-234.)]