der the protection of this army the minority
held another diet at Kamien (on the 5th of October), a village just
outside the suburbs of Warsaw, and chose as the sovereign of Poland
Augustus, son of the deceased king. The minority, aided by the Russian
and imperial armies, were too strong for the majority. They took
possession of Warsaw, and crowned their candidate king, with the title
of Augustus III. Stanislaus, pressed by an overpowering force, retreated
to Dantzic, at the mouth of the Vistula, about two hundred miles from
Warsaw. Here he was surrounded by the Russian troops and held in close
siege, while Augustus III. took possession of Poland. France could do
nothing. A weary march of more than a thousand miles separated Paris
from Warsaw, and the French troops would be compelled to fight their way
through the very heart of the German empire, and at the end of the
journey to meet the united armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Poland
under her king, now in possession of all the fortresses.

Though Louis XV. could make no effectual resistance, it was not in human
nature but that he should seek revenge. When shepherds quarrel, they
kill each other's flocks. When kings quarrel, they kill the poor
peasants in each other's territories, and burn their homes. France
succeeded in enlisting in her behalf Spain and Sardinia. Austria and
Russia were upon the other side. Prussia, jealous of the emperor's
greatness, declined any active participation. Most of the other powers
of Europe also remained neutral. France had now no hope of placing
Stanislaus upon the throne; she only sought revenge, determined to
humble the house of Austria. The mercenary King of Sardinia, Charles
Emanuel, was willing to serve the one who would pay the most. He first
offered himself to the emperor, but upon terms too exorbitant to be
accepted. France and Spain immediately offered him terms even more
advantageous than those he had demanded of the emperor. The contract was
settled, and the Sardinian army marched into the allied camp.

The King of Sardinia, who was as ready to employ guile as force in
warfare, so thoroughly deceived the emperor as to lead him to believe
that he had accepted the emperor's terms, and that Sardinia was to be
allied with Austria, even when the whole contract was settled with
France and Spain, and the plan of the campaign was matured. So utterly
was the emperor deluded by a fraud so contemptible, in the view of every
honora