The king of Poland, their elector, immediately protested against the abdication that had been extorted from him, and being now reconciled to the czar (Aug. 3.), he left no stone unturned to reascend the Polish throne. Sweden, overwhelmed with consternation, thought her king for a long time dead, and in this uncertainty the senate knew not what to resolve.
Peter in the mean time determined to make the best use of his victory, and therefore dispatched marshal Sheremeto with an army into Livonia, on the frontiers of which province that general had so often distinguished himself. Prince Menzikoff was sent in haste with a numerous body of cavalry to second the few troops left in Poland, to encourage the nobles who were in the interest of Augustus to drive out his competitor, who was now considered in no better light than a rebel, and to disperse a body of Swedes and troops that were still left in that kingdom under the command of general Crassau.
The czar soon after sets out in person, marches through the province of Kiow, and the palatinates of Chelm and Upper Volhinia, and at length arrives at Lublin, where he concerts measures with the general of Lithuania. He then reviews the crown troops, who all take the oath of allegiance to king Augustus, from thence he proceeds to Warsaw, and at Thera enjoyed the most glorious of all triumphs (Sept. 18.), that of receiving the thanks of a king, whom he had reinstated in his dominions. There it was that he concluded a treaty against Sweden, with the kings of Denmark, Poland, and Prussia (Oct. 7.): in which he was resolved to recover from Charles all the conquests of Gustavus Adolphus. Peter revived the ancient pretensions of the czars to Livonia, Ingria, Carelia, and part of Finland; Denmark laid claim to Scania, and the king of Prussia to Pomerania.
Thus had Charles XII. by his unsuccessful valour, shook the noble edifice that had been erected by the prosperous bravery of his ancestor Gustavus Adolphus. The Polish nobility came in on all sides to renew their oaths to their king, or to ask pardon for having deserted him; and almost the whole kingdom acknowledged Peter for its protector.
To the victorious arms of the czar, to these new treaties, and to this sudden revolution, Stanislaus had nothing to oppose but a voluntary resignation: he published a writing called Universale, in which he declares himself ready to resign the crown, if the republic required it.