And he had let her go, because he had shrunk from bringing her to Russia, among such company as the Czar kept.
But was she any happier now, in flight before the conqueror, and in what way, save for outward grossness, was Katherina worse than Aurora von Königsmarck, who pandered to a worse man, and exacted a higher price than did this peasant. While he was asking himself, with some bitterness, these questions, Peter, hitherto absorbed in his food, suddenly spoke:
“I shall keep you here, Patkul, Saxony is not worth your pains.”
The General flushed and started, the words came so pat on his reflections.
“Why?” asked Peter, with a certain annoyance, but Katherina good-humoredly interfered.
“You are safer in Russia,” he said. “Never trust a weakling,” he added shrewdly.
“Sire,” replied the Livonian, “as your envoy I am safe anywhere.”
“Never trust a weakling,” repeated the Czar.
But Patkul was resolute to return to Saxony.
Augustus, with more energy than might have been expected from his easy nature, set himself to redeem the disaster of Klissow.
Having taken advantage of the accident of Karl to spread the news of his death, he summoned a convocation of the Polish nobles, and in the reaction occasioned by the belief in the death of the terrible captain, Augustus, by promises, smiles, and largesses, gained the support of many of the Palatinates, who were only hesitating as to which was the winning side.
The Cardinal Primate himself, who had been so eager to point out to the Diet the necessity of dethroning Augustus to placate Karl, came to Lublin and took, with the other magnates, the oath of allegiance to the Elector.
A fresh army of 50,000 was raised before it became known that Karl was alive, and even in the face of this news it was voted that six weeks be given to the Swedes in which to declare their terms for peace or war, and the same time to the rebel Sapieha of Lithuania, in which to lay down their arms.
Meanwhile Peter showed signs of coming to his ally’s assistance when Augustus had despaired of help from that quarter; moved by the energy and eloquence of Patkul, the Czar sent that General to put some spirit into the wandering Muscovite troops in Lithuania and Ingria, and these, reduced to some order and discipline by the efforts of the gallant Livonian, began to make vigorous attacks on the garrisons the King of Sweden had left behind in the conquered Provinces; and even Karl’s veteran troops admitted that the Muscovites were not so entirely to be despised as they had been led to believe by Narva.