They added that they had the Russian and Polish ambassadors in their power, and that their lives should answer for the least affront offered to the King of Sweden. In a word, they complained bitterly of the outrageous suspicions which the King was harbouring about people who had received and treated him so well. And though oaths are often the language of treachery, M. Fabricius allowed himself to be persuaded by these barbarians. He thought he saw that air of truth in their protests which falsehood imitates but lamely; he knew that there was a secret correspondence between the Tartar Kan and Augustus, but he remained convinced that the object of this negotiation was only to force Charles to retire from the territories of the Sultan. But whether Fabricius was mistaken or not he assured them that he would represent to the King the unreasonableness of his jealousies. “But do you intend to force him to go?” he added. “Yes,” answered the Pasha, “such are our master’s orders.” Then he desired them to consider again whether that order was to spill the blood of a crowned head. “Yes,” answered the Kan with warmth, “if that head disobeys the Sultan in his own dominions.” In the meantime everything was ready for the assault, and Charles’s death seemed inevitable; but as the Sultan’s command was not positively to kill him in case of resistance, the Pasha prevailed on the Kan to send a messenger that moment to Adrianople, to receive his Highness’s final orders. Mr. Jeffreys and M. Fabricius, having got this respite, hurried to acquaint the King with it. They hastened like bearers of good news, and were received very coldly; he called them forward, meddling mediators, and still insisted that the Sultan’s order and the Mufti’s festa were forged, because they had sent for fresh orders to the Porte. The English minister withdrew, resolving to trouble himself no further with the affairs of so obstinate a prince. M. Fabricius, a favourite of the King, and more accustomed to his whims than the English minister, stayed with him, to exhort him not to risk so valuable a life on so futile an occasion. The only reply the King made was to show him his fortifications and to beg him to mediate so far as to obtain provisions for him. Leave was easily obtained from the Turks to let provisions pass into the King’s camp till the couriers should return from Adrianople. The Kan himself had forbidden the Tartars to make any attempt on the Swedes till a new order came; so that Charles went out of his camp sometimes with forty horse, and rode through the midst of the Tartar troops, who respectfully left him a free passage; he even marched right up to their lines, and they did not resist, but opened to him.