election. This led the emperor to issue a
counter-memorial inveighing against the intermeddling of France.

In the midst of these turmoils the congress of Polish nobles met to
choose their king. It was immediately apparent that there was a very
powerful party organized in favor of Stanislaus. The emperor was for
marching directly into the kingdom with an army which he had already
assembled in Silesia for this purpose, and with the bayonet make up for
any deficiency which his party might want in votes. Though Prussia
demurred, he put his troops in motion, and the imperial and Russian
ambassadors at Warsaw informed the marshal of the diet that Catharine,
who was now Empress of Russia, and Charles, had decided to exclude
Stanislaus from Poland by force.

These threats produced their natural effect upon the bold warrior barons
of Poland. Exasperated rather than intimidated, they assembled, many
thousands in number, on the great plain of Wola, but a few miles from
Warsaw, and with great unanimity chose Stanislaus their king. This was
the 12th of September, 1733. Stanislaus, anticipating the result, had
left France in disguise, accompanied by a single attendant, to undertake
the bold enterprise of traversing the heart of Germany, eluding all the
vigilance of the emperor, and of entering Poland notwithstanding all the
efforts of Austria, Russia and Prussia to keep him away. It was a very
hazardous adventure, for his arrest would have proved his ruin. Though
he encountered innumerable dangers, with marvelous sagacity and heroism
he succeeded, and reached Warsaw on the 9th of September, just three
days before the election. In regal splendor he rode, as soon as informed
of his election, to the tented field where the nobles were convened. He
was received with the clashing of weapons, the explosions of artillery,
and the acclamations of thousands.

But the Poles were not sufficiently enlightened fully to comprehend the
virtue and the sacredness of the ballot-box. The Russian army was now
hastening to the gates of Warsaw. The small minority of Polish nobles
opposed to the election of Stanislaus seceded from the diet, mounted
their horses, crossed the Vistula, and joined the invading array to make
war upon the sovereign whom the majority had chosen. The retribution for
such folly and wickedness has come. There is no longer any Poland. They
who despise the authority of the ballot-box inevitably usher in the
bayonets of despotism. Un