Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/34

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BATTLE OF MACIEIOWICE.

time, under the seal of secrecy, that at the dawn of the following day, we should go, on horseback, to join these troops. We spent the evening in Warsaw, at President Zakrzewski's house. Marshal Potocki, Mostowski, Kochanowski, and many of my other best friends were there, none of whom knew anything of our plan for the following day, except the Vice-Chancellor Kollontay, who was entrusted with the secret. The party was gay and animated. I was sitting at Marshal Potocki's[1] side. I had, on my finger, a most

  1. Ignatius Potocki, Court-Marshal, afterwards Grand-Marshal of Lithuania, was one of the principal authors of the Constitution of the 3d May, 1791, which had for its object the political regeneration of Poland. Ignatius Potocki, a patriot as distinguished by the refinement of his mind as by the integrity of his character, commanded uniformly the respect of every one, even that of his enemies. He died in 1809, when he was on the point of going to plead the cause of his country before Napoleon at Schoenbrunn, at the time when the armies of the Duchy of Warsaw were gaining brilliant victories over the Austrians. His epitaph, written by