Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/79

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ITINERARY OF THE PRISONERS.
51

ished my pains. This was not the only service which this excellent man rendered me, my friend Mostowski commissioned him to give me some lint, black taffeta for carrying my arm in a sling, and some books, the latter being Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men, and a Horace. Mons. Megnau was not allowed to remain with us, and was obliged to set out for Warsaw the following morning.

At some distance from Wlodawa, upon the Bug, we halted a day to rest. Knowing that my sister, Madame Dunin, lived a few miles from this place, I asked Chruszczew to send a Cossack, requesting her to come and see me. As he had been in garrison in my province, was well acquainted with my relations, and had received from them many civilities, he had no objection. My sister arrived towards the evening, accompanied by her husband and two children. Having devoted all my time to public affairs, I had not yet seen her since her marriage. Thus her emotion, and the affecting scene occasioned by our interview may be easily imagined.