The state council took no pains to hide the truth from the king, rather using strong colors in their descriptions of the critical condition in order to obtain the much-sought-for and needed peace, or at least the gratification of seeing the armies of the country used exclusively for the defence of its own possessions. King Charles considered the members of the state council as a body of weaklings, cowards and fools, who painted the devil on the wall because they lacked the courage and endurance to await the final and infallible triumph of his royal arms in a righteous cause. The climax was reached after the arrival of Charles at Bender. The state council commenced to negotiate for peace on its own responsibility. It also convoked a committee of the Estates of the Riksdag to a meeting for deliberations on measures which would better the hopeless conditions of the state and people. King Charles learned of it and sent from Bender a remarkable order, in which he absolutely forbade such meetings, “especially because the last convention of the Estates,” he wrote, “had no other consequence than to let them still plainer discover their impoverished condition.”
King Charles lingered in Bender, fascinated by the plans made by several Turkish princes of an armed support against his enemies, or at least an escort of troops for his return through Poland. The king succeeded in his efforts to force the sultan of Turkey to an attack on Russia. The Turks, 200,000 strong, made an invasion, according to plans drawn up by Charles, and were successful in completely surrounding a Russian army, commanded by Czar Peter in person, at the shores of the river Pruth. The czar saved himself by a supreme effort, sacrificing all his gold and the jewels of the czarina as bribes to the grand vizier, who commanded the Turkish army. This dignitary let the Russians escape, thus spoiling the plans of the whole campaign. To Charles it was a great disappointment. His hope to see the Russian giant crushed, and the defeat at Pultowa avenged, was gone forever. His plan of reaching Poland with Turkish troops to join Stenbock and a Swedish army was shaken with the loss of confidence in his barbarous allies. The perfidious grand vizier was punished, but the agreement of peace which he had made with the czar was sanctioned by the sultan, in 1711.