188 HOR/E POLONIGjE. 



as a matter of duty, came to inquire the cause. I felt anxious to accom- 

 plish my intention of securing my patient before attending to the 

 sentinel's knocking; he, however, kept repeating his demands for 

 admission, accompanied with growling imprecations, and so much 

 impatience, that without further delay, I descended and opened the door. 

 I had not sufficient knowledge of the Polish language to understand the 

 purport of his address, which he delivered in a menacing manner; hut 

 taking him by the arm, I made hira understand that I wished him to 

 ascend to the chamber in which the offending light had attracted his 

 attention. This, however, with a ferocious look, he declined doing. But 

 no sooner had I announced myself in the Polish tongue as an English 

 surgeon, than his countenance and manner underwent a sudden change, 

 and with a pleasant and friendly air, beckoned me to follow him. We 

 soon found the officer in charge of the watch, whom I addressed in 

 French, and who, upon hearing my tale, immediately accompanied me 

 back to the apartment of my sick friend. During my unfortunate 

 absence, he had prepared a scene to meet our horror-stricken eyes, the 

 recollection of which to this day causes a shudder. With one of the 

 amputation knives, he had inflicted upon himself a severe wound in the 

 throat, which had divided some of the minor blood-vessels, and laid 

 open about one-half of the windpipe, through which (as he lay weltering 

 in his gore') the air and blood came hissing forth at every respiration. 

 By the assistance of the officer, I succeeded in applying the requisite 

 dressings, and arresting the violent loss of blood. 



But why delay the truth ? He died. 



The Polish army remained about a month in the environs of Praga 

 and Warsaw, during which time the town was one continued scene of 

 gaiety and pleasure. The theatres were crowded night after night, and 

 during the day the suburbs resounded with notes of military music. In 

 the mean time the Russians, under their new commander, Paskiewitsch, 

 having received reinforcements, began to act on the offensive, and their 

 skirmishes approached within a few miles of Praga ; but finding that 

 position too strong to be taken by assault, whilst they made a feint of 

 forming a blockade, their main body crossed the Vistula about fifty miles 

 lower down, and marched into a country without forage or the means of 

 maintaining so large a body of troops for even a single day. And now 

 the cloven-hoofed hypocrisy of Prussia developed itself ; for upon the 

 Autocrat's army approaching the frontiers of that power, Paskiewitsch 

 was most abundantly supplied with provisions, and a materiel for carrying 

 on the war with vigour. Without a confident assurance of such a 

 supply, he never could have dared to transfer his army into a country 

 already stripped (by the politic orders of the Polish commander) of its 

 inhabitants, and converted into a uniform waste, possessing all of deso- 

 lation 



" Save its peace.'* 



He had no provisions to carry across the Vistula with him, for his army 

 had been upon extremely short allowance for some time before he left 

 Ostralenka; and by this movement he abandoned his communication 

 with the magazines stationed on the road to Petersburgh through 

 Lithuania, at the same time allowing the Poles an opportunity of out- 

 flanking his army (as they had before outflanked Diebitsch), and over- 

 powering his depots on the road to Wilna. Had Prussia maintained her 

 promised neutrality, famine must have compelled him to lay down his 

 arms at discretion, before he could make preparations for attacking the 

 Poles in their formidable line of entrenchments round Warsaw. The 



