To no purpose.
Louis, gallant old Bankrupt, tried hard to take Charles's part with effect.

But he had, himself, no money now; could only try finessing by ambassadors, try a little menacing by them; neither of which profited.
Friedrich Wilhelm, wanting only peace on his borders, after fifteen years of extraneous uproar there, has paid 60,000 pounds in hard cash to have it: repay him that sum, with promise of peace on his borders, he will then quit Stettin; till then not.

Big words from a French Ambassador in big wig, will not suffice: "Bullying goes for nothing (_Bange machen gilt nicht_),"-- the thing covenanted for will need to be done! Poor Louis the Great, whom we now call "BANKRUPT-Great," died while these affairs were pending; while Charles, his ally, was arguing and battling against all the world, with only a grandiloquent Ambassador to help him from Louis.

_"J'ai trop aime la guerre,"_ said Louis at his death, addressing a new small Louis (five years old), his great-grandson and successor: "I have been too fond of war; do not imitate me in that, _ne m'imitez pas en cela."_ [1st September, 1715.] Which counsel also, as we shall see, was considerably lost in air.
Friedrich Wilhelm had a true personal regard for Charles XII., a man made in many respects after his own heart; and would fain have persuaded him into softer behavior.

But it was to no purpose.