1831.] the Russian Army in Poland. 291 



extenral indications of genius which we generally look for in great men. 

 Diebitch appeared to be in his fifty-second year — of a short, thick-set 

 figure — about five feet eight inches in heiglit — with a rubicondity of 

 complexion, which, to his more glorious title of Sabalskansky, had pro- 

 cured him, from the wags of the army, the less honourable one of the 

 " punch-bowl." The hour of dinner was so near, that I had scarcely 

 time to reach my hotel to make the necessary changes which the occasion 

 required. 



On regaining the marshal's residence, I found my friend expatiating 

 on the gaieties of Paris to a young cossack officer, from the wilds of 

 Caucasus ; dinner was almost immediately announced. Exclusive of the 

 marshal's staff, about twenty officers, all of superior grade, sat down ; 

 the arrangements of the table were remarkably plain — the dishes were 

 handed round in the French style, and a bottle of wine was placed to 

 each person — champagne was handed round with the dessert. I was par- 

 ticularly struck with the absence of that easy flow of conversation, free- 

 dom of opinion, and, above all, that gentlemanly feeling of equality, so 

 marked a feature of an English mess-table — there was no desultory con- 

 versation across the table. The marshal was listened to with marked 

 attention. He questioned me, particularly, as to the composition and 

 character of the South American troops, with whom he had heard that I 

 had served, and remarked, that the habits of the Guachos of the Pampas 

 resembled, in a remarkable degree, the wandering tribes of the Ukraine. 

 The approaching military operations were never once discussed. There 

 was, however, a ghie, which all appeared to feel, and, I believe, no one 

 felt sorry when the marshal rose from his chair, bowed to the company, 

 and retired to his apartment — this was the signal for a general break up. 

 I proposed, to my friend, to adjourn to my hotel to finish the evening, to 

 which he assented. — " Well, what think you of Sabalkansky ?" said he, 

 pledging me in a bumper of claret. — '' Externally, nature has absolutely 

 done nothing for him," was my reply. — " There you are most egregi- 

 ously mistaken ; she has, on the contrary, done every thing for him ; for 

 it was his short, ungraceful figure which was the stepping-stone to his 

 fortune." — " I have heard," I rejoined, " the anecdote to which you 

 allude, but, like all such stories, deemed it the offi^pring of a malicious _/«/- 

 d'esprit." — " There again," said the count, " you are mistaken, the anec- 

 dote is correct a la Icttre, for you must know that it was a maternal uncle 

 of mine, who, for his gigantic stature, was selected, by the Emperor 

 Paul, to take the guard which it was little Sabalkansky's turn to mount, 

 on the occasion of the King of Prussia's visit." — " But what think you of 

 the Polish war ?" said I, becoming, in my turn, the interlocutor. — 

 " Think," he rejoined, with animation, " that it will be a mere hurrah 

 and a horrid butchery, which humanity shudders at contemplating even 

 in perspective — the Poles will fight like devils, bvit they will be crushed, 

 and bloody indeed will be their day of retribution." — " If the Poles," I 

 answered, " do but prove true to themselves, hopeless as I confess their 

 cause appears, success may crown their efforts — the game of war has 

 many vicissitudes, and accident often mars the most masterly combina- 

 tions." — " Delrombcz vous, mon cherf — Can Polish patriotism burn with a 

 brighter flame than when it was extinguished by the hand of Suwaroff.^ 

 Believe nic, there exists not the shadow of a chance for Poland ; a 



2 D 2 . 



