Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/162

cution of the patriots, he attached himself more and more to the patriotic party, and as soon as the revolution in 1792 broke out, he was appointed a member of the National Council. Active, laborious, and simple in his manners, though he continued his relations with the King, he was generally esteemed. When it was necessary to establish paper money in the country, a thing entirely new in Poland, and inspiring but little confidence, on account of the uncertainty and danger of our future political existence, Deboli was the first who brought fifty thousand florins in specie to exchange for notes, the value of which was very doubtful. He had the honour of possessing, in some measure, the confidence of Kosciuszko, who had more reluctance than pleasure in conferring such a favour on any one. Then the very same man who had deserved to be driven from St. Petersburg, and to be persecuted by the Russians, and who had served the common cause with all his might and fortune, took, all at once, leave of absence, at the time when the first siege of Warsaw was raised, and went