Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/63

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BATTLE OF MACIEIOWICE.
35

They placed General Kosciuszko with a surgeon in a small carriage, and we four were put with Major Titow into a larger one, detachments of horse before and behind, escorting us. We saw, with great pain, in the court of the building a great number of our prisoners, and were much grieved to hear their grumblings. “Where are those lands you promised us?” said they, “is it to Siberia that we are going to seek them?”[1] After many delays, we started at last. What a long file of carriages! Nothing could be more like the army of Darius. I may say without exaggeration, that the luggage of the officers of the general-staff, the number of waggons carrying the large booty from the palaces and seats of the nobility, which they plundered from top to bottom, besides the horses taken from the country, occupied nearly as much space as the army. All general-officers, brigadiers, and

  1. General Kosciuszko, in his proclamation to the army, had promised to every soldier a house and a certain number of acres of land.—Note of the Author.