the future chief of the insurrection walked with the brother of the Czar, the first victim or prisoner of that same insurrection. So moved this stately man through the streets of Warsaw, a problem for his nation, doomed to repose in him a blind confidence, and not less so to Russia, who had not such a general to oppose him.

Affairs went on yet more rapidily, during the month of November. An imperial ukase, placed the Polish army on a war establishment, with a view, as was then surmised, and afterwards demonstrated by papers found in the Belvedere, of making it the vanguard of a possible coalition of the northern powers against France. Lubecki also received an order to hold in readiness the funds accumulated by his ruinous measures. Thus the Poles were menaced with infamy, should they take part in a liberticidal war, and merited ruin, should they allow their resources to be applied in its support. It was wiser, therefore, to employ both their arms and treasure against a foe already weakened by the late campaign, at a moment also when no hostile intervention was to be apprehended from Austria, and when an effectual check on Prussia, if not other positive aid, might be expected from the France of July. But, although these considerations might hasten, they certainly did not cause this last effort of the Poles; who must have utterly sunk as a nation had they, with resistance still in their power, continued to compromise and submit.

With regard to Wysocki, as a military man, he foresaw the perdition of Poland in the first victory won by the Polish troops in conjunction with those of Russia, which would cement their fraternity by the powerful prestige of common danger and glory; the insurrection therefore, was unalterably fixed for the 29th of November. Let the tyranny of their oppressors justify the insurgents with those who think they require justification; Poles admit of no such need, and assign no other reason than their irrevocable determination to be free.

On the 27th, all being prepared for the following Monday, some of the young conspirators went to a ball to amuse themselves, as they believed, for the last time. Thus eleven years of conspiracy closed with dancing. The following Sunday the same youths went to church and confessed themselves, and thus confirmed the words of the poet :

"Between the acting of a dreadful thing,
"And the first motion, all the interim is
"Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
"The genius, and the mortal instruments
"Are then in council; and the state of man,
"Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
"The nature of an insurrection."

CHAPTER III.

Insurrection at Warsaw.

THE conspirators had formed their plan with a view of disarming, or, in case of resistance, of disabling the Russian garrison at Warsaw, which at that time consisted of five regiments; two infantry, and one cuirassiers, one hussars, and one lancers; in all, about 8,000 men, with six pieces of artillery. The Polish force consisted of three regiments; the grenadier life guards, the horse chasseurs life guards, and the fourth of the line, with a battalion of sappers, sixteen companies drawn from various other regiments, and twelve pieces of artillery. Total, about 9,000. Thus the Poles had the superiority, both as to numbers and effectiveness, as the Russian cavalry could not possibly act with advantage in the streets. The Grand Duke Constantine was to be taken, alive or dead. The signal for the attack, which was to commence at six o'clock in the evening simultaneously at all points, was the setting fire to an old brewery in Solec, at the southern extremity of Warsaw, and near the Belvedere. Between the palace and the barracks, where the Russian cavalry were quartered, lies the park of Lazienki.

On the 29th of November, eighteen civilians, mostly young students of the university, who had been admitted into the conspiracy, assembled at the appointed hour in the park, by the bridge of Sobieski. Owing to some unaccountable accident the fire was kindled at half-past five instead of six, and had already died away, and this mistake nearly caused the failure of the plot. The Russian cavalry as well as the police had taken alarm; numerous sentinels with lights traversed the park in every direction, and the student conspirators owed their safety solely to the extreme darkness of the night. Tranquillity was soon restored; but the eighteen adventurers had still to wait a full hour, long as a century, for a new signal of attack. The delay was owing to the non-appearance of Wysocki, who, contrary to his usual punctuality, had remained thus long in the city. At seven o'clock he arrived, and immediately hastened to the ensigns' barracks, whilst Louis Nabielak, a civilian of great courage, divided the eighteen young men into two bands, of nine persons each. At the head of one of these, composed of the strongest men amongst them, for in moral courage all were equal, he marched to the Belvedere by the principal gate, whilst the other watched the palace from the rear. Rushing into the court-yard, he vociferated" Death to the tyrant!" and the cry, accompanied by the report of firing in the adjacent barracks,alike terrified the household and animated the invaders. They pursued their way, breaking through doors, without encountering any opposition. A deep

silence reigned in the palace; at length they perceived a man lying down behind the door. It was the Vice President of Municipality Lubovidzki, who had brought the information that a revolution was on the eve of breaking out. Several strokes left him senseless on the floor, but not dead, owing to the inexpertness of the young men in the trade of arms. The bird, so they called Constantine, was however flown. He had been dragged out of bed by his servants on the first alarm, and carried to the princess Lowicka's pavilion. She instantly summoned her ladies in waiting, and placing Constantine in the midst she knelt with them in prayer, persuaded that the defence offered by religion, and by sex, would disarm all Polish revenge. These first avengers of their nation, having spread alarm through the palace which had for fifteen years served as a bastille to their countrymen, were retreating, when they accidentally met the Russian General Gendre, "the basest of the "base," as Constantine used to call him. "Je suis "Général du jour," he exclaimed; but with them it was the day of long protracted vengeance, and he fell dead beneath their weapons. Having rejoined his other band, Nabielak hastened back to the bridge of Sobieski, where he found the ensigns at a propitious moment, a part of the Russian cavalry driven from their barracks having galloped to the Belvedere.

When Wysocki presented himself to the ensigns, who were at that moment listening to a lecture on tactics, he drew his sword, loudly exclaiming, " Poles!