636 SCENES OF THE 29TH OF NOVEMBER, 1830. 



and removed to a town, where the military police watched over 

 every step of the prisoner. Ever since the beginning of the Russian 

 dominion in Poland, the thoughts of the major were all occupied 

 with the means of liberating his country from the worst of all bon- 

 dages. This new injustice prompted only his mind to action. He 

 organized a vast and secret association, which was to recal Poland to 

 its former glory. An accident betrays his views and his actions. 

 Thousands certainly must expiate the crime. No ; he alone suffers; 

 for nothing, neither threats nor promises of liberty, can induce him 

 to betray his associates. 



In a dreary and poisonous dungeon of a fortress the patriot bore 

 the penalty of his love for liberty. The damp and heavy air of it 

 would have smothered any light but that of his spirit, which 

 shone like the lamp in a Roman grave, borrowing its life, its dura- 

 bility, from the very compression in which it lingers. Misfortune 

 and indiscretion have peopled the walls of the dungeon with his 

 friends, his associates. The barbarians loaded with irons their feet ; 

 they chained them to the wet and cold columns of the prison. You 

 would have seen, however, on the brow of every martyr the former 

 pride on the countenance, the stamp of saint-like dignity ; and 

 when, for an additional torture, they were girdled with an iron bar, 

 to which a heavy bullet was suspended their bodies bent, but their 

 souls rose yet prouder and higher towards Heaven. Brute and 

 lifeless matter is called to existence in the hands of a genius. The 

 heavy chain which loads the hand of a patriot; may prove the weapon 

 of his revenge. Thus the music of the irons, the rollings of the 

 bullets, served to the Polish martyrs as a medium of understanding ; 

 and when the hour of trial came, no one contradicted another, and 

 the ruthless investigator lost the thread of the plot. The despot 

 ought to tremble when the irons of his bondsmen begin to speak. 

 The hour will come, when this voice shall be as thunder in his ear. 

 He shall find the whole nation united and rise like a single man he 

 united them himself he linked them with a chain ! 



Success taught the leader of the prisoners to form a bolder design. 

 He thought of the liberty of his country. At an appointed day and 

 hour they were to render themselves masters of the fortress, and to 

 kindle there a focus of the national revolution. 



Again an accident frustrated this bold scheme. From this time 

 JVIajor L. disappeared from the world. 



No wonder ! many a Pole vanished in the same mysterious manner. 

 How many fathers were torn from their families, and died even with- 

 out the consolation that the world will know their secret martyrdom ! 

 How many a time a lover went out gay and joyful, for he was to 

 lead his bride to the altar, but never reached the hour of bliss which 

 appeared to him so near ! 



Seven o clock of the 29th of November has struck. 



The city of Warsaw, polluted with so many atrocities of the Rus- 

 sians, has seen their defeat has witnessed how a handful of patriots 

 drove from its precincts an army often thousand soldiers. 



The astonished enemy flocks round the skirts of the town, like the 

 vulture near a caged prey. A ring of spreading flames encircles it 



