While the Polish king and the Senate of Poland were debating on the course of action, the patience of foreign powers was running out. Eventually, one of the most prominent opponents of agreeing to the foreign demands, bishop Adam Stanisław Krasiński, was abducted by Cossacks and transported to Warsaw, where the foreign ambassadors demanded that the King and the Senate call in the Sejm (the entire Polish parliament) to ratify the partition. In another sign of their influence, the next meeting of the Senate saw the senators from the annexed territories denied participation (those denied participation included the bishop of Inflanty, the voivode of Ruthenia and the voivode of Witebsk). When no help was forthcoming and the armies of the combined nations occupied Warsaw to compel by force of arms the calling of the assembly, no alternative was available save passive submission to their will. Warsaw was de facto a garrison of the foreign powers, with their forces commanded by the Austrian (or Russian, sources vary) general Abram Romanius (Abraham). On 19 April the Senate agreed to call for the Sejm to convene.
