“You may tell, sir, your palatines and nobles this news,” added Karl curtly. “If they require peace they know the means by which they can attain it.”
He moved away in a manner which seemed to terminate the interview that had not lasted more than a few moments; but the Cardinal Primate hardly noticed the abruptness of his dismissal in his satisfaction at the news he could now carry all over Poland, with a fair certainty of dethroning Augustus.
“This priest,” remarked Karl to his brother-in-law, “will save us much trouble. The Poles will themselves cast off the Saxon.”
He looked as he spoke at one of the officers who had remained in the window-place during his interview with the Cardinal.
This was a young man of a frank and pleasing countenance and attired very richly, Stanislaus Leczinski, Palatine of Posen, and one of the first Poles to join Sweden; his behavior was stained by some ingratitude towards Augustus, to whom he owed his fortune, but whose election he had opposed on the ground that no foreigner should rule over Poland.
Karl had already shown a marked interest in this young man, who was in most things more youthful than himself though eight years his senior.
It pleased his peculiar pride to give his friendship to one who could in no wise requite it; and just because Stanislaus had little influence in Poland and could be of no assistance worth considering to Karl, that monarch favored him above the Sobieski and Sapieha whose power might have been of immense service to him; Stanislaus had held the office of treasurer under Augustus, but had little weight in politics beyond that given by eloquence and hardihood.
It was to this young noble who had so early reported himself at the camp of the victor to whom Karl now addressed himself.
“Do you not think,” he asked keenly, “that Augustus will soon be dethroned?”
“I think, sire, that he will, when he is desperate, fight,” replied Stanislaus. “When the Cardinal Primate make public your Majesty’s ultimatum, the Elector will make an effort to redeem his fortunes.”
“I hope so,” said Karl dryly; “he needs a further lesson. Is he not now at Cracovia?”
“The last advices are, sire, that he has gathered the nobility of that province about him, and awaits the arrival of the Saxon troops.”