LIVES OF THE POLISH HEROES. 3Q1 



them by a court-martial, which sentenced them to confinement in the 

 prison of Tilsit, where he was treated with the utmost rigour. More 

 than once they offered him his liberty, on condition of giving his word 

 of honour that he would not again bear arms against the Russians, but 

 on his repeatedly and indignantly rejecting the offer, he was conducted 

 to the fortress of Pilau, and thrown among the common malefactors. 

 After the capture of Warsaw he was set at liberty ; but General Sthilp- 

 nagel refused him the consolation of going to embrace his aged father, a 

 refugee like himself, in Prussia, and a victim, at the age of sixty, to 

 the cause of freedom and public virtue. 



At last, after great fatigues and numerous vexations, Wollowicz 

 arrived in France. He was joined there by his father, and by his 

 friend and companion in arms, Przeclawski, who also, after having 

 made several fruitless attempts to escape, had been set at liberty at the 

 same time, and had selected France as the land of his exile. 



JULIAN SIERAWSKI. 



Julian Sierawski was born at Cracow, in the year 1777* and educated 

 in the university of that city. 



When the Polish revolution of 1794 broke out, Sierawski, impatient 

 to serve his country, under the illustrious Kosciuszko, offered himself as 

 a volunteer, although bearing the rank of officer in the army, from a 

 degree he had taken at the university. He was immediately appointed 

 a subaltern officer of engineers, and received orders to proceed to 

 Warsaw, to assist in the fortification of that city. Sierawski greatly 

 distinguished himself in the course of this heroic struggle, particularly 

 at Wyszograd, where, at the head of a considerable detachment of light 

 infantry, he maintained a guerilla warfare against the numerous cavalry 

 of Cyeyanow. 



When, at last, the day of disaster arrived, when Kosciuszko, over- 

 come, had uttered the cry of despair, " Finis Polonise" Sierawski was 

 made prisoner at Grodno, by a horde of Cossacks. The Russian General 

 Cyeyanow in vain offered the young officer promotion in the Russian 

 service; Sierawski declared, like Kosciuszko, that he would prefer 

 banishment to Siberia to offers that would dishonour him. The Russian 

 was struck with his noble pride, and restored him to liberty, after treat- 

 ing him with marked respect. 



All hopes for Poland appeared now at an end, and yet a handful of 

 brave men still resolved on another effort. The wrecks of the Polish 

 army were re-organizing in Wallachia, where they had been received 

 with every mark of sincere and generous hospitality. Sierawski joined 

 them. Sent by the general to make a reconnoisance on the banks of 

 the Dneister, at the head of three hundred and sixty horsemen, he 

 traversed the river " a la nage," and routed and put to flight a squadron 

 of Russian cuirassiers. But the last hope of Polish independence soon 

 vanished, and what remained of the gallant Poles were dispersed by 

 the superior forces of the enemy. 



Sierawski took refuge in the dominions of the Grand Signior. At 

 Constantinople, having learnt from the French ambassador that some 

 Polish legions were forming in Italy, he immediately took his passage 

 for that country, in a Ragusan ship. Captured on his passage, by two 

 Algerine frigates, and conducted to Tunis, he owed his liberty to the 

 generous intervention of the French consul. At last, having escaped 



