Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 6.djvu/28

218 WORKMEN AND HEROES bound himself in 1 792 to sanction the Diet of Grodno, which restored the an- cient constitution, with all its vices and all its abuses. In the meanwhile Fred- erick William, King of Prussia, who had so mainly contributed to excite the Poles to their enterprises, basely deserted them, and refused to give them any assistance. On the contrary, he stood aloof from the contest, waiting for that share of the spoil which the haughty empress of the north might think proper to allot to him, as a reward of his non-interference. But though thus betrayed on all sides, the Poles were not disposed to submit without a struggle. They flew to arms, and found in the nephew of their king the Prince Joseph Poniatowski, a general worthy to conduct so glorious a cause. Under his command Kosciusko first became known in European warfare. He distinguished himself in the battle of Zielenec, and still more in that of Dubi- enska, which took place on June 18, 1792. Upon this latter occasion he de- fended for six hours, with only 4,000 men, against 15,000 Russians, a post which had been slightly fortified in twenty-four hours, and at last retired with incon- siderable loss. But the contest was too unequal to last ; the patriots were overwhelmed by enemies from without, and betrayed by traitors within, at the head of whom was their own sovereign. The Russians took possession of the country, and pro- ceeded to appropriate those portions of Lithuania and Volhynia which suited their convenience ; while Prussia, the friendly Prussia, invaded another part of the kingdom. Under these circumstances the most distinguished officers in the Polish army retired from the service, and of this number was Kosciusko. Miserable at the fate of his unhappy country, and at the same time an object of suspicion to the ruling powers, he left his native land and retired to Leipsic, where he received intelligence of the honor which had been- conferred upon him by the Legislative Assembly of France, who had invested him with the quality of a French citizen. But his fellow-countrymen were still anxious to make another struggle for in- dependence, and they unanimously selected Kosciusko as their chief and general- issimo. He obeyed the call, and found the patriots eager to combat under his orders. Even the noble Joseph Poniatowski, who had previously commanded in chief, returned from France, whither he had retired, and received from the hands of Kosciusko the charge of a portion of his army. The patriots had risen in the north of Poland, to which part Kosciusko first directed his steps. Anxious to begin his campaign with an action of vigor, he marched rapidly toward Cracow, which town he entered triumphantly on March 24, 1794. He forthwith published a manifesto against the Russians; and then, at the head of only 5,000 men, he marched to meet their army. He encountered, on April 4th, 10,000 Russians at a place called Wraclawic, and entirely defeated them after a combat of four hours. He returned in triumph to Cracow, and shortly afterward marched along the left bank of the Vistula to Polaniec, where he established his head-quarters. Meanwhile the inhabitants of Warsaw, animated by the recital of the heroic