and not of yourself; but in a matter of this kind there is no
such thing as complete failure. When you have to deal with one man
you may succeed or you may fail in endeavouring to induce him to
act in a certain manner, but when you have to deal with a
considerable number of men, some will be willing to accept your
proposals, some will not, and the question of success will probably
depend upon outside influences and circumstances over which you
have no control whatever. I have no fear that it will be a failure.
If our party in Poland triumph, or if our army here advances, or if
Augustus, finding his position hopeless, leaves the country, the
good people of Warsaw will join their voices to those of the
majority. If matters go the other way, you may be sure that they
will not risk imprisonment, confiscation, and perhaps death, by
getting up a revolt on their own account. The king will be
perfectly aware of this, and will not expect impossibilities, and
there is really no occasion whatever for you to worry yourself on
that ground."

Upon calling upon Count Piper the next morning, Charlie found that,
as the colonel had told him, his mission was a general one.

"It will be your duty," the minister said, "to have interviews with
as many of the foreign traders and Jews in Warsaw as you can, only
going to those to whom you have some sort of introduction from the
persons you may first meet, or who are, as far as you can learn
from the report of others, ill disposed towards the Saxon party.
Here is a letter, stating to all whom it may concern, that you are
in the confidence of the King of Sweden, and are authorized to
represent him.

"In the first place, you can point out to those you see that,
should the present situation continue, it will bring grievous evils
upon Poland. Proclamations have already been spread broadcast over
the country, saying that the king has no quarrel with the people of
Poland, but, as their sovereign has, without the slightest
provocation, embarked on a war, he must fight against him and his
Saxon troops, until they are driven from the country. This you will
repeat, and will urge that it will be infinitely better that Poland
herself should cast out the man who has embroiled her with Sweden,
than that the country should be the scene of a long and sanguinary
struggle, in which large districts will necessarily be laid waste,
all trade be arrested, and grievous suffering inflicted upon the
people at large