Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/145

a monarchical constitution, established, however, upon the foundation of a rational liberty; it is the partition of our finest provinces, banishments, proscriptions, and oppression joined to insult, that have compelled the Poles to make this attempt to deliver themselves from so many evils. Not satisfied with having wrested from us three-fourths of our provinces, you have exercised over the rest of an unhappy kingdom a despotic authority. The King, though of a weak character and entirely devoted to your will, was not sheltered from insult and derision. In the elections, your troops chose deputies. When the Diet was assembled, you surrounded the House of Senators with your soldiers and cannon; your Ambassador sat at the King's side, and declared that no representative should move from his place until he signed the treaty of partition. Although the members of the Diet were of your choice, yet none of them had the impudence to speak in your favour; you therefore besieged them in their own house, refusing them all food;