LTVKS OP THE POLISH HEROES. 387 



subjoined account is given by a Russian officer, and eye witness of this 

 scene of heroism and butchery. 



" Enraged at the obstinate defence, thirsting for revenge, said the 

 officer, the Russian soldiers carried the church of Wola. Old men, 

 women, and children, who were intermingled with its heroic defenders, 

 fell victims to their imprudence ; the church was strewed with dead 

 bodies. Among the number was General Sowenski, an old man with 

 but one leg and of gigantic stature. He had received six bayonet 

 wounds in the breast. His eye appeared yet animated with a spirit of 

 revenge ; and his noble features, even in death, breathed the most 

 heroic courage and devotion. Our soldiers, in passing before his body, 

 gave way to that feeling of respect, which, while living, they were 

 unable to refuse him." 



Thus perished Sowenski, on the 6th of September, 1831, on the very 

 day that Warsaw was carried by assault, unwilling, perhaps, a second 

 time to witness her downfall. 



It is an extraordinary circumstance that his death had been pre- 

 dicted two years before in a most singular manner. A free-thinker on 

 most points, Sowenski had the weakness to believe in magnetism, and 

 he even intended publishing some memoirs on this subject. His belief, 

 however, in magnetic divination was not entire, for expressing his 

 doubts on this point, in a letter to one of his friends, he said that we 

 ought to credit with great reserve revelations of this nature. " As a 

 proof of it," he went on expressing himself, " only imagine a person 

 with whom I have lately had some communication, has predicted that 

 in two years Warsaw will be deluged in blood, and that I shall fall in 

 battle." The original of this letter exists at Paris. 



Whether his end were foretold or not, the death of General Sowenski, 

 was heroic ; and his name will live in the memory of mankind as one of 

 the noblest martyrs to Polish independence. 



MICHEL WOLLOWICZ AND LEON PRZECLAWSKI. 



No sooner had the news of the Polish revolution reached Lithuania, 

 than a desire to imitate this noble example manifested itself among her 

 population, but in order to give unity and force to the insurrectionary 

 moment, it was imperative to establish relations with the national 

 government just installed at Warsaw. All felt this, but few dared to 

 risk themselves in so perilous an enterprise : for communications between 

 Warsaw and Lithuania were become almost impossible ; the spies of the 

 Russian police infested the whole country, and numerous corps of the 

 enemies troops occupied all the roads. 



In spite of so many perils and obstacles, two men were found, 

 unawed by the difficulty of the enterprise, and the risk it entailed on 

 their heads. These were Michel Wollowicz and Leon Przeclawski, 

 both young, and of noble families ; the first born in the Palatinate of 

 Grodno, the second in the town of Rozanna. Both of them the objects 

 of their parents' most assiduous care, were educated at Warsaw. Prze- 

 clawski, in the School of Engineers, arid Wollowicz in that of lolibor, 

 from whence he repaired to the University of Welna. Having finished 

 their studies, they retired into the bosom of their families. Wollowicz 

 had even selected a partner for life, and his marriage was on the eve of 

 celebration, when the Polish revolution broke out. 



Such were the two young men who nobly offered to proceed to 



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