The action of Augustus was exactly that predicted by Stanislaus Leczinski.
When the Cardinal Primate informed the Diet that it was necessary to bow to the will of the conqueror and dethrone the Elector of Saxony, that Prince resolved on a desperate battle for his kingdom, and advanced to meet Karl who was marching from Varsovia, the new capital, to Cracovia, the ancient capital which had been chosen as the Saxon headquarters.
Karl had 12,000 men, picked Swedish troops; Augustus, his own soldiers having arrived, had 30,000, of whom 20,000 were those that had lately arrived from his own electorate, and the rest the Poles who had remained faithful to him during his reverses.
In numbers he was therefore greatly superior to the King of Sweden, and the Saxons were as well equipped, armed, and trained as the Swedes, but such was the respect inspired by the invincible Karl that Augustus went to meet his fate with a heavy heart.
“Why does the Czar do nothing?” asked Aurora passionately, when her lover took leave of her.
“What of his hordes of Muscovites?” she added.
Augustus smiled sadly.
“Those troops he has sent I should be better without,” he replied. “Peter trains his men—I know not when he will be ready. Think not of aid from him, dear heart.”
The proud-hearted woman clasped her fair arms round his bravery of satin and steel, and raised her sad countenance to the kind handsome face that looked at her so tenderly.
But no words of love or softness left her beautiful lips.