Kelly W.K. The History of Russia: from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Volume 2
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A.D.
1792]
CHARACTER Or POTEMKIN.
115
open
and
the other
closed,
reminded us of
the Euxine
always
open,
and
the northern
ocean,
so
long
shut
up
with
ice.
"
This
portrait
may
appear
gigantic
;
but
those who knew
Potemkin
will bear
witness to its truth.
That man had
great
defects;
bat
without
them,
perhaps,
he
would
neither
have
got
the
mastery
of his
sovereign,
nor of his
country.
He
was
made
bv
chance
precisely
such as he oimht
to
be
for
preserving
so
long
his
power
over so
extraordinary"
a
woman."
Potemkin,
says
Masson,
"
created,
destroyed,
or
confused,
yet
animated
everything.
When
absent,
lie alone was
the
subject
of conversation
;
when
present,
he
engaged
every
eye.
The
nobles,
who
detested
him,
and who
made some
figure
when he
was with
the
army,
seemed
at
his
sight
to
sink
into
nothingness,
and
to
be annihilated before
him.
He
received
the
greatest
men of the
empire
as
if
they
were foot-
men,
scarcely deigned
to
notice
the
grand-duke,
and some-
times
entered Catharine's
apartments
with
his
legs
bare,
his
hair about
his
ears,
and
in a
morning
gown.
I
leave to
travellers
the office of
describing
the
pomp
of his
entertain-
ments,
the
laborious
luxury
of
his
house,
and
the
value of
his
diamonds
;
and
to
German
scribblers
to
relate how
many
bank-notes
he had
bound
up
as books
in his
library,
and what
he
paid
for
the
cherries,
a
plate
of which he was
accustomed
to
present every
new
year's
day
to his
august sovereign
;
or
the cost of his
sturgeon soup,
which was his
favourite
dish
;
or
how
many
hundred miles he
would send a
field-officer
for
a
melon,
or
a
nosegay,
to
present
to
one of his
mistresses."*
Platof
Zubof,
the twelfth and last of
Catharine's
avowed
favourites,
succeeded
in
some
degree
to
the
position
which
Potemkin
had
held as a sort of
vice-emperor.
Zubof had
*
Potemkin
had in
his suite an
officer of
high
rank,
named
Bauer,
whom lie
sent
sometimes to
Paris
for a
dancer,
then to
Astrakhan for
a
water-melon;
now
to
Poland,
to
carry
orders
to his
tenants;
to
Petersburg,
to
carry
news to
Catharine;
or to
the
Crimea,
to
gather
grapes.
This
officer,
who
thus
spent
his life
travelling
post,
requested
an
epitaph
to lie
ready
for him in
ease he
should break
his
neck,
and
one
of his friends
gave
1dm
the
following:
Cy
git
Bauer
sous ce
rocher:
"
Here
Bauer
lies,
beneath
this
stone:
Fouette,
cochi-r!
Coachman,
drive
on!"
t
This
name led
the
courtiers to
say
that
Catharine
ended
with
Platonic love.
i2
116 HISTOKY
OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
XLVII.
superseded
Momonof,
who
soon
wearying
of
the
faded
charms
of a
mistress of
sixty,
became
enamoured
of the
young
prin-
cess
Sherbatof,
and had
the
courage
to avow
it
and
ask
per-
mission
to
marry
her. Catharine
had
pride
and
generosity
enough
to
grant
his
request
without
any
reproaches.
She
saw
him
married
at court to
the
object
of his
affection,
and
sent
him to Moscow
loaded
with
presents.
But it
was
cur-
rently reported
that Momonof
was so
imprudent
as to
mention
to his
wife some
particulars
of his interviews
with the
em-
press,
and that she
divulged
them with a
levity
which Catha-
rine could
not
forgive.
One
night,
when the husband
and
wife were
gone
to
rest,
the
master of the
police
at Moscow
entered
their chamber
;
and after
showing
them an
order
from
her
majesty,
left them
in the hands of
six
women,
and
retired
to an
adjoining
room. Then
the six
women,
or rather
the six men dressed
as
women,
seized the
babbling
lady,
and
having completely stripped
her,
flogged
her with rods in the
presence
of
Momonof,
whom
they
forced to
kneel down
during
the
ceremony.
When
the chastisement was
over,
the
police-master
re-entered
the room
and said
:
"
This is the
way
the
empress punishes
a
first
indiscretion.
For
the
second,
people
are sent
to Siberia."
It was
in the
spring
of
1789,
when
the
empress
was at
Tzarskoeselo,
that Momonof
was married
and
dismissed.
Lieutenant
Zubof commanded
the
detachment
of
horse-guards
in
attendance,
and
being
the
only young
officer
in
sight,
he owed
his
preferment
to that fortunate
circumstance.
Nicholas
Soltikof,
to
whom he was
distantly
related,
and
who
was
at
that
time
in
high
credit,
took
pains
to
promote
his
interest,
hoping
to
find in him a
protector against
Potemkin,
whom
he
heartily
disliked.
After some secret conferences
in
presence
of
the
Mentor,*
Zubof was
approved,
and sent
for
more
ample
information
to Mdlle. Protasof
and
the em-
press's
physician.
f
The account
they gave
must
have
been
favourable,
for he was
named
aide-de-camp
to
the
empress,
received
a
present
of a hundred
thousand rubles
(10,000Z.)
to
furnish
him with
linen,
and was installed
in
the
apartment
of
the
favourites
with all
the
customary
advantages.
The
*
Soltikof
was
governor
to
the
grand-dukes,
and
minister
at
war.
f
Mdlle.
Protasof
was called
Veprouveuse,
from
her functions.
The
physician
to the
empress
was Mr.
Eogerson.
A.D.
1792]
MOMONOF
—
PLATO
ZT7BOF.
117
next
day,
this
young
man
was seen
familiarly offering
his arm
to
bis
sovereign, equipped
in his new
uniform,
with
a
large
hat
and
feather
on his
head,
attended
by
his
patron
and
the
great
men
of
tbe
empire,
who walked behind
him with their
hats
off,
though
tbe
day
before he had danced attendance
iu
their
ante-chambers.
His own were now fdled
with
aged
generals,
and
ministers of
long
service,
all
of
whom bent
the
knee before him. He
was a
genius
discerned
by
tbe
piercing
eye
of Catharine
;
the
treasures of the
empire
were lavished
on
him,
and
the
conduct
of the
empress
was sanctioned
by
the
meanness and
the
shameful assiduities of her
courtiers.*
The
new
favourite
was
not
quite
five-and-twenty
year3
old,
the
empress
was
upwards
of
sixty.
Yet
even at this
advanced
period
of
her
life
she
revived the
orgies
and
lupercalia
which
she had
formerly
celebrated
with
the
brothers
Orlof. Vale-
rian,
a
younger
brother of
Zubof,
and
Peter
Soltikof,
their
friend,
were
associated
in
office with
the favourite. With
these three
young
libertines did
the
aged
Catharine
spend
her
days,
while her armies were
slaughtering
the
Turks,
fighting
with
the
Swedes,
and
ravaging
Poland
;
while her
people
were
groaning
in wretchedness
and
famine,
and de-
voured
by
extortioners and
tyrants.
It
was at this time she formed a more
intimate
society,
composed
of
her
favourites and most
trusty
ladies
and
courtiers.
This
society
met two or three times a
week,
under the name of the
Little
Hermitage.
The
parties
were
frequently masqued,
and
the
greatest privacy
prevailed.
They
danced,
played
at
forfeits,
joked, romped,
and
en-
gaged
in
all sorts of
frolics and
gambols.
Leof
Narishkin
acted
the
same
part
there as
Roquelaure
at
the court
of
Louis XIV.
;
and
a
fool
by
title,
Matrona
Hanilofna,
se-
conded him. This was
an
old
gossip,
whose wit consisted
only
in
uttering
the most
absurd
vulgarities
;
and as she was
allowed the
common
right
of
fools,
that of
saying
anything,
she was loaded with
presents
by
the lower order of courtiers.
Such
foreign
ministers as
enjoyed
the
favour of
the
empress
*
Zubof
being
one
day hunting, stopped
with his
suite
in the
road
from
Petersburg
to
Tzarskoesclo.
The
courtiers who were
going
to
court,
the
couriers,
the
post,
all the
carriages
and all the
peasants
were
stopped:
no one
dared
pass
till
the
young
man
thought
proper
to
quit
the
road
;
and
he
stayed
in
it
more
than
an
hour
waiting
for
his
game.
118
HISTORY OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
XLVII.
were
sometimes admitted
to the Little
Hermitage. Segur,
Cobenzl,
Steding,
and
Nassau,
cliiefiy
enjoyed
this
distinc-
tion
;
but
Catharine afterwards formed another
assembly,
more
confined and
more
mysterious,
which was
called the
Little
Society.
The three favourites of whom we have
just
been
speaking,
Branicka,
Protasof,
and some confidential
women
and
valets-de-chambre,
were its
only
members. In
this
the
Cybele
of
the
north celebrated
her most
secret
mysteries.
The
particulars
of these amusements
are
not
fit
to be
repeated.
Catharine survived Potemkin but
four
years.
The
last
ten
years
of her
reign
carried
her
power,
her
glory,
and her
political
crimes to their
highest pitch.
When
the
great
Frederic,
dictator of the
kings
of
Europe,
died,
she re-
mained the
eldest of
the
crowned
heads
of the conti-
nent
;
and
if
we
except
Joseph,
all
those
heads
together
were
unequal
to her own. If Frederic was
the dictator
of these
kiugs,
Catharine became
their
tyrant.
The im-
mense
empire
which she had
subjected
to
her
sway
;
the
inexhaustible resources she derived
from a
country
and
a
people
as
yet
in a
state of
infancy
;
the extreme
luxury
of
her
court,
the barbai'ous
pomp
of her
nobility,
the wealth and
princely
grandeur
of her
favourites,
the
glorious
exploits
of
her
armies,
and the
gigantic
views
of her
ambition,
threw
Europe
into a
sort
of
fascination
;
and
those
monarchs,
who
had
been too
proud
to
pay
each
other even the
slightest
deference,
felt
no
abasement
in
making
a
lady
the arbiter of
their
interests,
the
ruling power
of
all
their
measures.
But the French
revolution,
so
unfriendly
to
sovereigns
in
general,
was
particularly
so
to Catharine. The
blaze
w
r
hich
suddenly
emerged
from the bosom
of
France
as
from
the
crater
of a
volcano,
poured
its vivid
light
upon
Russia too
;
and
injustice,
crimes,
and blood were seen where before all
was
grandeur,
glory,
and
virtue.
Catharine
trembled with
fear
and
indignation.
The
French,
those sweet
heralds of
her
fame,
those
flattering
and
brilliant
historians,
who
were one
day
to transmit to
posterity
the
wonders
of
her
reign,
were
suddenly
transformed into
so
many
inexorable
judges,
at
whose
aspect
she
shuddered.
The
phantoms
of
her
imagina-
tion were
dispelled.
That
empire
of Greece
she
was so
desirous of
reviving,
those laws she would
have
established,
A.D.
1792]
HORROR OF
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 119
that
philosophy
she intended
to
inculcate,
and
those
arts
•which she had
patronised,
became
odious
in her
sight.
As
a
crowned
philosopher,
she
valued
the sciences so far
only
as
they appeared
the instruments
for
disseminating
her
glory.
She wished to hold them
as
a dark
lantern
in
her hand
;
to
make
use of
their
light
as
should
suit
her
conveuience
;
to
see without
being
seen
;
but -when
they
dazzled her all at
once with their
bright
emanations,
she
wished to
extinguish
them.
She,
who had been the friend
and
disciple
of
the
French
speculative
writers,*
now
wished to be
re-enveloped
in
the
ages
of
barbarism
;
but
her
wishes were
vain
;
the
light
was
not to be resisted
;
if she
composed
herself to
sleep
on
laurels,
she
awoke on the carcases
of
the
dead;
glory,
which
in illusion she
embraced,
was
changed
in
her arms
into
one
of
the furies
;
and the
legislatrix
of the
north,
for-
getting
her
own maxims
and
philosophy,
was
no
longer any-
thing
more than
an
old
sybil.
Her
dastardly
favourites,
everywhere pointing
out
to
her
in
this
event
Brutuses,
Jacobins,
and
incendiaries,
succeeded
in
filling
up
the
mea-
sure of her
suspicious
and
terrors.
Her delirium
was
even
carried so
far,
that on a
king,
who extended
his
prerogatives,
and
a
nobility
that
amended its
government,
she bestowed
the
appellations
of rebels and
traitors:
the Poles were
treated as
Jacobins,
because
they
had not
the
misfortune to
be
Russians.
f
Had
Catharine been
asked,
when her
mind was
calm,
if
she
bad
not
herself
considerably
advanced
and
helped
to
strengthen
this
revolution,
what would
she have
answered?
Yet
such
is
the fact
:
since,
if she had not been
so
eager
to
Upon
the
breaking
out of the
revolution,
Catharine ordered the
bust of
Voltaire
to
be taken
from
the
gallery,
and thrown
among
the
lumber.
She
had
requested
a bust of
Fox
at the
period
when,
at the
bead
of
the British
opposition,
he
prevented
by
his
exertions the
government
of his
country
from
declaring
war
against
Russia. When
1 1 1
i
<
same Fox.
however,
opposed
with
equal
strenu msness a war with
France,
his
brut
also, which
a
year
before she
had so
highly
honoured,
was
served in the same
manner
as
Voltaire's.
j
The Americans
even,
at
this
epoch,
became
hateful to
Catharine.
She
condemned
a
revolution
which she
had
formerly
pretended
to
admire,
called
Washington
a
rebel,
and said
publicly,
that a
man oi
honour
could
not wear
the order
of
Cincinnatus.
Accordingly
Lan-
geron;
and
seme
other
emigrants,
who had
been
invested
with
this
order,
immediately
renounced
it,
and
were seen
in it
no
longer.
120 HISTORY
OF
RUSSIA.
[CH.
XLVII.
seize
upon
the unfortunate
country
of
the
Poles,
and
after-
wards to
raise dissensions in
Prussia
and
Sweden,
she
would
not have
disgusted,
as
she
did,
all
Europe
and
the combina-
tion
of
princes
;
the
king
of
Prussia
would not have
been
in-
duced so
speedily
to
make
peace
with
republican
France,
that he
might
be
at
leisure to watch
her
proceedings
;
nor
would she
have
excited
the
indignation
of
Spain by employ-
ing against
a Catholic
king
and
a Catholic
nobility
the same
arms
and
the same insults as were
employed against
the
French. In
this view
Prance
may
erect a statue
to her
memory
;
for she made the
system
of
the enemies of
that
country
odious and absurd
;
and rendered the
republic
the
same service as
demagogues
by
their
enormities,
and minis-
ters
by
their
intrigues.
"When the
news of the
death of Louis XVI. reached Ca-
tharine,
she
forthwith
ordered all the French
in
Pussia to
take the oath of
allegiance
to Louis XVII. and
to their
holy
religion,
and swear hatred and detestation to
the
principles
professed
in
France.
From
the lists
printed
by
order of
government,
it
appeared
that
there were seven
or
eight
hun-
dred Frenchmen
in
Petersburg,
and
more
in Moscow
;
all of
whom found
themselves
compelled
to
comply
with this in-
junction.
A few
only,
who had
been
for some
time
preparing
to
return to
France,
where their
property
was,
chose rather
to
depart
within
the
space
of
a
week,
as the ukase
enjoined
in case of refusal.* But
notwithstanding
the intense
abhor-
rence
which Catharine
professed
for
revolutionary
France,
she took no direct
part
in
the
first
coalition which was formed
against
it. She had another
object
in
view,
of more
press-
ing
interest to
her than
the
vindication
of
the cause
of
her
order.
*
This
ukase
was
as
absurdly composed
as it was
inconsistently
executed. Not
only
the French
were
obliged
to take the
oath,
but
almost all
foreigners
who
spoke
French,
or who had their
passports
written
in
that
language;
so that
Brabanters,
Piedmontese,
Milanese,
and natives
of
Liege,
were
obliged
to do
homage
to
the
king
of
France.
It
seemed
as if the Kussian
police
had
foreseen
the
grand
reunion
that
was
soon to take
place,
and
wished to
sanction
it beforehand.
Some
natives of the thirteen
cantons,
Montbelliard,
Neufchatel,
and
Wirtem-
berg,
found themselves under
the
same
compulsion.
The
grand-duke
Paul exacted
the oath from all
foreigners
in
his suite
indiscriminately;
and several
officiously anticipated
his wishes and
commands.
A.D.
1793]
FINAL PARTITION OF POLAND.
121
The
annihilation
of
Poland,
long
meditated,
was
now re-
solved
on.
The
empress
could
never
forgive
that
nation
either
for the act
of
the diet
in
1788,
which
abrogated
the
constitution
dictated
by
violence
in
1775,
or
the alliance
of
Prussia
accepted
in
contempt
of her
own,
or,
above
all,
the
constitution
decreed
at
"Warsaw
on the
3rd
of
May,
1791.
Big
with these
ideas of
revenge,
she
gave
orders
to
Bulgakof,
her minister at
Warsaw,
to declare
war
against
Poland.
The
diet
being
assembled,
received
this declaration
with a
majestic
calmness,
which
was
rapidly
succeeded
by
the
gene-
rous enthusiasm
of a nation roused to self-defence.
The
king
himself
pretended
to share the
feelings
that
ani-
mated his
people
;
and
the Poles had
the weakness
to believe
that,
having
abandoned
his
former
servility
to
Russia,
and
his
customary
indolence,
he was
becoming
the
defender
of
their freedom.
An
army
was collected in
haste,
and
the com-
mand of it
given
to the
king's nephew, Joseph
Poniatowski,
an
inexperienced young
man,
all whose
efforts were
ob-
structed or misdirected
by
his traitorous
uncle.
The Poles could have
opposed
the
designs
of Catharine
with an
army
of
50,000
men : but
they
never
yet
could
be
brought
to unite
their forces
;
and their different
corps
were
soon after
pressed
between an
army
of
80,000
Russians,
who
fell
back from Bessarabia
upon
the
territory
which
extends
along
the
Bog,
another
of
10,000
collected
in the
environs
of
Kief,
and a third of
30,000,
which had
penetrated
into
Lithuania.
"We shall not here
attempt
to
draw the
picture
of
the
various
battles
that
drenched the
plains
of
Poland
with
blood,
and
which,
notwithstanding
some
advantages
obtained
by
the
Poles,
consumed
the
greater
part
of their
troops.
It
was then
that the
illustrious
Kosciusko,
who as
yet
was
nothing
more than
one of the lieutenants
of
young
Joseph
Poniatowski,
displayed
qualities
that
justly
obtained him
the
confidence of
the
nation,
the
hatred
of the
Russians,
and
the
esteem of
Europe.
During
all this
time,
Catharine,
not
trusting
alone
to
the
power
of
her own
arms,
had
been
negotiating
with
unre-
mitted
assiduity.
She
proposed
the
definitive
partition
of
Poland to
Prederic
William,
who
was
undoubtedly
no
less
desirous
of
it than
herself. She
secretly
won
over
to
her
122
HISTORY
OF RUSSIA.
[CH.
XLVII.
views
the
two
brothers
Kassakoffsky,
the
hetman
Branicki,
Rejevusky,
and
particularly
Felix
Potocki,*
who,
while
flat-
tering
himself
perhaps
with
the
hopes
of
mounting
the
throne
of
Poland,
became
only
the
slave of
Russia. She
even
in-
sisted
that
Stanislaus
Augustus
should make a
public
decla-
ration
that it
was
necessary
to
yield
to
the
superiority
of
the
Russian
arms. He
submitted' to this
indignity
;
but
was
not
on
that
account
treated
by
the
empress
with
greater
indulgence.
In
1793
the
confederation
of the
partisans
of Russia
as-
sembled
at
Grodno,
where the
Russian
general
proudly
seated
himself
under
the
canopy
of
the
throne
he
was about
to
overturn.
The
Russian minister
Sievers,
at
the
same
time,
published
a
manifesto
(April
9th),
in
which
he
declared
that
his
sovereign
would
incorporate
with her
domains all
the
territory
of
Poland
which her
arms had
conquered.
The
king
of
Prussia,
in
concert with
Catharine,
had
already
marched an
army
into
Poland.
The
Russians,
dispersed
about the
provinces
of that
king-
dom,
committed
depredations
and
ravages
of which
history
furnishes
but
few
examples.
"Warsaw became
likewise
the
theatre
of
their
excesses. The
Russian
general
Igelstrom,
who
governed
that
city,
connived at the
disorders
of
his
soldiers,
and
made
the wretched
inhabitants feel
the
whole
weight
of his
arrogance
and
barbarity.
The
defenders of
Poland
had been
obliged
to
disperse.
f
Their
property
was
confiscated
;
their
families
reduced to
servitude.
Goaded
by
so
many
calamities,
they
once
more
took the
resolution
to
free their
country
from
the
oppression
of the
Russians.
Some of
them
assembled,
and
sent
an
invitation
to
Kosciusko
to
come
and
put
himself
at their
head.
That
general
had
retired
to
Leipsic,
with
Hugh
Kolonty,
Zajonchek,
and
Ignatius
Potocki,
a
man of
great knowledge
and
sagacity,
a
sincere friend
to
his
country,
and
in
all
respects
the
opposite
to his
cousin
Pelix.
These four Poles
joined
eagerly
iu
the
resolution
adopted
by
their
honest
countrymen
:
but
they
were
sensible
that,
in
order
to
suc-
*
He
put
himself at
the
head of
the
confederation of
Targovicka
in
favour
of the Russians.
f
Some
of
them were even
arrested;
and
Bonneau,
the
French
secre-
tary
of
legation,
was
carried off
to
Siberia.
A.D.
1791]
FINAL PAETITION OF POLAND.
123
ceed,
they
must
begin by giving
liberty
to tbe
peasants,
who
till
tben
had
been treated
in Poland
like beasts
of burden.
Kosciusko and
Zajonchek repaired,
with all
expedition,
to
the frontiers of Poland.
The latter
proceeded
to
Warsaw,
where
he had
conferences
with the chiefs
of the
conspirators.
A
banker,
named
Kapustas,
a bold and
artful
man,
made
himself
responsible
for the inhabitants
of the
capital.
He
saw likewise several
officers,
who declared
their detestation
of the Russian
yoke.
All,
in
short,
was
ripe
for
an
insurrec-
tion,
when the Russian
commanders,
to
whom
Kosciusko's
presence
on
the
frontiers
had
given
umbrage,
forced
him
to
postpone
it
for
a time.
To
throw
the Russians
off
their
guard,
Kosciusko
went into
Italy,
and
Zajonchek
to
Dresden,
whither
Ignatius
Potocki
and
Kolonty
had
retired,
but all
at
once
Zajonchek
appeared
again
at
Warsaw.
The
king
himself
impeached
him
to the Russian
general
Igelstrom,
who
had a conference with
him,
and ordered
him to
quit
the
Polish
territory.
No
alternative now
remained
for
him but
to
proceed
immediately
to
action,
or to
abandon
the enter-
prise
altogether.
Zajonchek
resolved
on the
former.
In
1791
Kosciusko
was recalled from
Italy,
and arrived at
Cracow,
where the
Poles received him as
their deliverer.
In
spite
of
the
orders of
the
Russians,
colonel
Madalinsky
per-
tinaciously
refused to
disband his
regiment.
Some other
officers had
joined
him.
Kosciusko
was
proclaimed
general
of this little
army,
amounting
to
3000 foot
and
1200 horse
;
and
the act
of
insurrection was
almost
immediately
published
on
the 24th
of March.
Three hundred
peasants,
armed with
se\
ilu.'s,
ranged
themselves
under
the standard
of
Kosciusko.
Thai
general
soon found himself faced
by
7000
Russians,
who
were
put
to
flight
after a
vigorous
resistance.
On
hearing
at
Warsaw
of the
success
of
Kosciusko,
the
Russian
general Egelstrom
caused all
those
to be arrested
whom
he
suspected
to
have
any
concern
in the
insurrection;
but
these measures
served
only
the
more to
irritate the con-
spirators.
The
insurrection
broke out on the
18th of
April.
Two
thousand
Russians
were
put
to the
sword.
Their
general,
being
besieged
in
his
house,
requested permission
to
capitulate
;
and
profiting
by
the
delay
that was
granted
him,
he
escaped
to
the
Prussian
camp,
which
lav
at
a
little dis-
tance from
Warsaw.
Yilna,
the
capital
oi"
Lithuania,
fol-
124
H1ST0KT
OF RUSSIA.
[cil.
XLVII.
lowed
the
example
of
Warsaw
:
but
the
triumph
of
the insur-
gents
was there
less
terrible.
Colonel
Yazinsky,
who was
at their
head,
conducted
himself
with so
much
skill,
that
he
took
all the
Eussians
prisoners,
without
shedding
a
drop
of
blood.
The
inhabitants
of
the
cantons
of
Chelm
and of
Lublin
declared
themselves
also
in a state
of
insurrection,
and
were imitated
by
three
Polish
regiments
who were
em-
ployed
in the
service
of
the
Russians.
Some of
the
principal
partisans
of
Eussia,
the
hetman
Kassakoffsky,
the
bishop
his
brother,
Zabiello,
Ozarofsky,
and
Ankvitch,
were
sentenced
to be
hanged,
the first
at
Vilna,
and the
others
at
"Warsaw.
Kosciusko
exerted
himself
to
the utmost
to
augment
his
army.
He
got
recruits
among
the
peasants
;
and to
inspire
them
with more
emulation,
he wore
their
dress,
ate with
them,
and
distributed
encouragements
among
them
;
but
those^
men
too
long degraded
in Poland
were
not
yet deserving
of
the
liberty
that
was offered
them.
They
distrusted
the in-
tentions
of
the
nobles, who,
on
their
side,
for
the most
part
lamented
the
loss of
their
absurd
prerogatives.
Stanislaus
Augustus
and
his
partisans
augmented
still
further
the ill-
will
of
the
nobles,
by representing
to
them
the
intentions of
Kosciusko
as
disastrous
to their
order,
and
by
caballing
con-
tinually
in favour
of
Eussia.
In
the mean
time,
the
empress,
not satisfied
with
augment-
ing
the number
of
her
troops
in
Poland,
had
sent
her best
generals
thither.
After several
battles,
in
one
of
which
Prederic
"William,
who had advanced
to
support
the
Eussians,
fought
at
the head
of
his
troops
against
Kosciusko,
who
was
striving
to
prevent
the
junction
of
the Eussian
generals,
Suvarof
and
Persen,
the
Polish
commander
was
attacked
by
the
latter
at Macziewice
on
the
4th of
October.
His
talents,
his
valour,
and
his
desperation,
were unable
to
prevent
the
Poles
from
yielding
to numbers.
Almost the
whole
of
his
army
were
cut
to
pieces
or
obliged
to
lay
down
their
arms.
He
himself,
covered
with
wounds,
was taken
prisoner,
ejacu-
lating,
Finis
Polonies I
All
who
were
able
to
escape
from the
conquerorswent
and
shut
themselves
up
in
Praga,
the eastern
suburb
of
"Warsaw,
where
26,000
Poles and
104
heavy
cannon
and
mortars
de-
fended
the
bridges
over
the Vistula
and
the
approach
to
the
ca-