ABSTRACT

The negotiations, which commenced in Lublin on 12 June, opened in a poisonous atmosphere. The Lithuanians were very slow to arrive: it took almost two months for Pociej and the Lithuanian army, estimated at 5,000 men to reach the Polish border, where the Polish confederates assailed him with complaints about his tardiness. Pressure from Dolgoruki, who defended Sieniawski, compelled the Polish confederates to issue a declaration that they would not try the hetman and the talks continued, but the heated debates over the armistice, the evacuation of fortresses occupied by the Saxons and impositions, laid upon the royal ekonomie in Lithuania, demonstrated how far apart the parties were. The nature of confederations, in which middling nobility played the leading role, is clearly noticeable in the composition of delegates to the negotiations. After Sieniawski's arrest, Pociej had formally asked Gorokhov for protection.