wn on the Polish
throne--takes quite another complexion: it was a policy not of
overvaulting ambition, but of prudential self-defence.

First, however, Charles cleared Livonia of the invader (July 1701),
subsequently occupying the duchy of Courland and converting it into a
Swedish governor-generalship. In January 1702 Charles established
himself at Bielowice in Lithuania, and, after issuing a proclamation
declaring that "the elector of Saxony" had forfeited the Polish crown,
set out for Warsaw, which he reached on the 14th of May. The
cardinal-primate was then sent for and commanded to summon a diet, for
the purpose of deposing Augustus. A fortnight later Charles quitted
Warsaw, to seek the elector; on the 2nd of July routed the combined
Poles and Saxons at Klissow; and three weeks later, captured the
fortress of Cracow by an act of almost fabulous audacity. Thus, within
four months of the opening of the campaign, the Polish capital and the
coronation city were both in the possession of the Swedes. After
Klissow, Augustus made every effort to put an end to the war, but
Charles would not even consider his offers. By this time, too, he had
conceived a passion for the perils and adventures of warfare. His
character was hardening, and he deliberately adopted the most barbarous
expedients for converting the Augustan Poles to his views. Such commands
as "ravage, singe, and burn all about, and reduce the whole district to
a wilderness!" "sweat contributions well out of them!" "rather let the
innocent suffer than the guilty escape!" became painfully frequent in
the mouth of the young commander, not yet 21, who was far from being
naturally cruel.

The campaign of 1703 was remarkable for Charles's victory at Pultusk
(April 21) and the long siege of Thorn, which occupied him eight months
but cost him only 50 men. On the 2nd of July 1704, with the assistance
of a bribing fund, Charles's ambassador at Warsaw, Count Arvid Bernard
Horn, succeeded in forcing through the election of Charles's candidate
to the Polish throne, Stanislaus Leszczynski, who could not be crowned
however till the 24th of September 1705, by which time the Saxons had
again been defeated at Punitz. From the autumn of 1705 to the spring of
1706, Charles was occupied in pursuing the Russian auxiliary army under
Ogilvie through the forests of Lithuania. On the 5th of August, he
recrossed the Vistula and established himself in Saxony, where his
presence in the heart