292 SPECIMENS OF PUBLIC VIRTUE. 



Korsak, then his friend and his companion, approaches the door, and 

 addresses thus the people from behind the iron bars of the Russian 

 bayonets : 



" You all, who are here present, hear me ! I protest, before God, 

 before all earthly powers, in the face of the whole world, against this 

 violence, without example, which is now committed against a free 

 nation. I protest against a diet surrounded by foreign arms. I pro- 

 test against the arbitrary breaking up of the sitting. I do it, because 

 we were not assembled to form a confederation, but a free diet ; be- 

 cause Poninski's self-election is unlawful. I declare, that neither I, 

 nor my colleagues, will leave this house, were we even to be starved 

 to death. We shall die, but our conscience will be free of crimes 

 towards God and our country. Citizens! do not then quit this 

 sanctuary, and, although surrounded by foreign satellites, be wit- 

 nesses that there are yet Poles who will neither submit to threats, 

 nor yield to danger !" 



Ten o'clock has struck on the tower of the castle, and still the 

 heroic nuncios were at their posts. Soon after it, they received a 

 message from the Russian ambassador, who requested them to wait 

 upon him. Reyten was inexorable ; he would not move from the 

 hall, and scarcely gave his assent to the temporary absence of his 

 companions. 



They went to the ambassador's hotel. There, they were at first 

 flattered, overwhelmed with promises, entreated ; and when all these 

 means failed, they were threatened and upbraided. But, to all effu- 

 sions of the Russian's wrath, they calmly answered : ' ' Those, who 

 would sacrifice their lives despise alike gifts and persecution !" 



The ambassador then threatened them with the confiscation of their 

 estates. " Why threaten so loudly ?" exclaimed Korsak, " you need 

 not so many words to tell me that you will strip me of my property. 

 The greatest part of it is already invaded by your soldiery. I give 

 it up to you from this moment, with all I may possess in chattels, 

 money, and plate. I would join to it the sacrifice of my life, if but 

 I was sure that my country will remain free and independent !" Then 

 he sat down, wrote an exact account of his goods, assets, and chattels, 

 and, placing it in the ambassador's hands, he added, " I have only 

 that to sacrifice to the rapacity of my country's foes. I know that 

 they can likewise take my life ; but I do not know any despot on 

 the whole earth sufficiently rich to corrupt, or powerful enough to 

 intimidate me." 



As that interview led to no consequence, and widened yet more 

 the breach which separated the opposite parties, the nuncios returned 

 to the royal castle. They found the doors of the hall closed, and 

 passed the night without. 



Within ! within ! was the lonely, solitary, but unworn, unshaken 

 Reyton. As the ghastly hours of darkness passed away, the recol- 

 lection of the past crowded upon his suffering mind. His imagina- 

 tion filled up the vacant seats with the illustrious and free republicans 

 ofgone-by ages. And there he stood alone before them, blushing 

 for their degenerated race, no ray of hope in the dreary futurity but 

 his own determination and his glorious death. A faint dawn breaks 



