HORiE POLONIC^. 185 



the insurgents by the Russians, and to support the cause of their party 

 in Lithuania, had marched their forces with the intention of forwarding 

 a detachment to Wilna, in which object they partly succeeded, after an 

 obstinate conflict, with such heavy loss on both sides, that whilst Skrynecki 

 retreated unmolested upon Warsaw, the forces of General Diebitsch were 

 too crippled to resume the offensive during the remainder of that General's 

 life. His death has been attributed to cholera morbus, and that it then 

 prevailed in both armies to a fearful extent cannot be denied ; but a 

 blacker tale was currently believed in the Russian army, and I was 

 informed by one of his officers (with whom I became acquainted after 

 the capture of Warsaw) that the once enterprising conqueror of the 

 Balkan, but more lately the drunken, sluggish, defeated Diebitsch, fell 

 by his own hand. He was seen standing at the door of his head-quarters 

 about mid-day soon after the affray at Ostralenka ; my informant saw 

 him receive, from the hands of an Envoy, despatches from St. Peters- 

 burgh (as afterwards appeared), and amongst the contents was an order 

 for his recal from Poland, and an announcement of the departure of 

 Prince Paskiewitch to supersede him ; that unable to bear the disgrace, 

 he took poison, and was announced defunct at two o'clock the same day. 

 Though I cannot vouch for the veracity of the statement, my bump 

 of gullibility not being larger during the officer's recital than usual, yet 

 I fully ascertained from the evidence of other Russians, that the above 

 was generally credited. 



Next morning our enthusiastic desire had so little subsided that we 

 presented ourselves at the bureau of the Minister at War, and offered to 

 join the army as private volunteers, since we saw no chance of receiving 

 our long promised transfer from the hospital to the regimental staff. 

 The officials in the Minister's office, upon hearing our offer, looked first 

 at us, and then at each other, and I very much suspect thought us a brace 

 of precious fools. Their guess was probably near the truth. Calmly 

 considering the conduct of myself and friends, I can arrive at no other 

 conclusion than that the events we witnessed had produced in all of us, 

 more or less, excitement of the brain, as, notwithstanding ouri solated 

 situation (and in case of emergency the foreign surgeons having no resource 

 but in themselves), nothing was in vogue but hostile messages and duels, 

 a la Polonais. A similar excitement pervaded all classes of this brave and 

 devoted nation, for at the very period I am now alluding to, noblemen 

 (noble indeed) had converted their palaces in Warsaw into military 

 hospitals, and were actually fighting in the ranks. Nor did the flame of 

 patriotism spare even the gentler sex, the angels of life, as Montgomery 

 emphatically calls them, in whose delicate frame weakness is interesting 

 and timidity a charm, were known to have headed cavalry regiments in 

 the field of battle during their struggle for freedom. A member of the 

 family of Lubienski, with whom I had a short acquaintance, one of the 

 bravest and most skilful of Buonaparte's officers, and who being pro- 

 scribed by the Russians, had been living for some years in the Prussian 

 Grand Duchy of Posen, at the commencement of the Polish revolution 

 had contrived to elude the prohibition and vigilance of the Prussian 

 police (for they had set a guard about him, and forbad any of their 

 subjects, under pain of treason, to take part with their brethren in arms), 

 and by means of false whiskers and a peasant's dress, had found his way 

 to Warsaw in time to take part in the battle fought on the outskirts of 

 Praga, where, perceiving a body of raw recruits hesitate to advance to 

 the charge, in consequence of thinking their scythes insufficient, he 

 threw himself from his horse, seized a scythe from a soldier, and led the 

 regiment into action, and, thus encouraged by his example, did con- 



