He spread terror through all Upper Poland, Silesia, and Saxony. King
Augustus's whole family, his mother, his wife, his son, and the
principal nobility of the country, were retired into the heart of the
empire. Augustus now sued for peace, choosing rather to trust himself to
the mercy of his conqueror, than in the arms of his protector. He
entered into a treaty which deprived him of the crown of Poland, and
covered him at the same time with ignominy. This was a private treaty,
and was to be concealed from the czar's generals, with whom he had taken
refuge in Poland, while Charles XII. was giving laws in Leipsic, and
acting as absolute master throughout his electorate.
His plenipotentiaries had already signed the fatal treaty (Sept. 14.),
by which he not only divested himself of the crown of Poland, but
promised never more to assume the title of king; at the same time he
recognized Stanislaus, renounced his alliance with the czar his
benefactor; and, to complete his humiliation, engaged to deliver up to
Charles XII. John Reinold Patkul, the czar's ambassador and general in
the Russian service, who was then actually fighting in his cause. He had
some time before ordered Patkul to be arrested upon false suspicions,
contrary to the law of nations; and now, in direct violation of these
laws, he delivered him up to the enemy. It had been better for him to
have died sword-in-hand, than to have concluded such a treaty; a treaty,
which not only robbed him of his crown, and of his reputation, but
likewise endangered his liberty, because he was at that time in the
power of prince Menzikoff in Posnania, and the few Saxons that he had
with him, were paid by the Russians.
Prince Menzikoff was opposed in that district by a Swedish army,
reinforced with a strong party of Poles, in the interest of the new king
Stanislaus, under the command of general Meyerfeld; and not knowing that
Augustus had engaged in a treaty with the enemies of Russia, had
proposed to attack them, and Augustus did not dare to refuse. The battle
was fought near Calish (Oct. 19.), in the palatinate belonging to
Stanislaus; this was the first pitched battle the Russians had gained
against the Swedes. Prince Menzikoff had all the glory of the action,
four thousand of the enemy were left dead on the field, and two thousand
five hundred and ninety-eight were made prisoners.