896 B E N Y O 
enemy-. Apraxin, the Ruffian general, being informed 
ot the fuccefsful manoeuvre of the count, was impreffied 
with a very high opinion of him, and propofed to him to 
enter into the Ruffian fervice; but, rejecting the overtures 
with difdain, he was only faved from being fent to Kiovia 
with the other prifoners by the inferpoiition of his friends, 
who paid 962I. ftetling for hisranfom. Thus fet at liber¬ 
ty, he conlidered himfelf as releafed from the parole which 
he had given to the Ruffians; and, again entering the town 
ot Cracow, he was received with the rnoft perfect fatisfac- 
tion by the whole confederacy. The town being no lon¬ 
ger tenable, it became an object of the utinoft confequence 
to fecure another place of retreat ; and the count, upon 
his own propofal and requeft, was appointed to feize the 
cattle of Lublau, (ituated on the frontier of Hungary : but 
after vifitfng the commanding officer of the cattle, who 
was not apprehenfive of the leaft danger, and engaging 
more than one half of the garrifon by oath in the interelts 
of the confederation^ an inferior officer, who was dif- 
patched to aflift him, indifcreetly divulged the defign ; 
and the count was feized and carried into the fortrefs of 
Georgenbtirgh, and fent from thence to general Apraxin. 
On his way to that general, he was refcued by a party of 
confederates, and returned to Lublin, a town where the 
reft of the confederation of Cracow had appointed to meet, 
in order to join thofe of Bar, from which time he per¬ 
formed a variety of gallant adtions, and underwent great 
viciftitudes of fortune. On the 19th of May, the Ruffian 
colonel, judging that the count was marching towards Stry 
to join the Confederate parties at Sauok, likewife haftened 
his march, and arrived thither half a day before the count, 
whole forces were weakened by fatigue and hunger. In 
this ftate he was attacked about noon by colonel Brincken, 
at the head of four thoufand men. The count was at firft 
compelled to give way ; but, on the arrival of his cannon, 
he, in his turn, forced the colonel to retire, who at laft 
quitted the field and retreated towards Stry. The advan¬ 
tage of die victory ferved only to augment the mifery of 
the count, who in this (ingle adtion had three hundred 
wounded and two hundred and fixty-eight (lain, and who 
had no other profpedt before him than either to periffi by 
hunger with his troops in the foreft, or to expofe himfelf 
to be cut to pieces by the enemy. On the morning of the 
20th, the count, by the advice of his officers and troops, 
refumed his march, and arrived about ten o’clock at the 
village of Szuka, where, being obliged to halt for refrefh- 
ment, he was furprifed by a party of coffiac-ks, and had 
only time to quit the village and form his troops irvorder 
ot battle on the plain, before he was attacked by the ene¬ 
my’s cavalry, and foon after bv their infantry. In the heat 
of the combat, the count, having received two wounds 
wit!) a fabre, was'wounded in the body by the ftiot of a 
cannon loaded with old iron and other deftructive rubbifh. 
His fate decided that of his party; and the Ruffians'had 
at laft the fatisfaC.tion of feeing him their prifoner. The 
count was fent to the commander in chief of the Ruffian 
armies, then encamped at Tam pool, a man equally cruel 
and bale, who, contrary to every fentiment of humanity, 
infulting, the misfortunes of his prifoner, not only forbade 
the furgeons to drefs his wounds, but, after reducing him 
to bread and water, loaded him with chains, and in that 
ftate trunfported him to Kiow. On his arrival at Polene, 
his negle£ied wounds had fo far endangered his life, that 
his conductor was induced to apply to colonel S.irkovv, the 
eommanding'officer at that place, and he was fent to the 
hofpital, where he was cured of hiswvounds by a- French 
lurgeon of the name of Blanchard, and afterwards lodged in 
the town, with an advance'of fifty roubles for his fubfift- 
ence. Upon the arrival, however, of brigadier Banna, 
.who relieved cblonel Sirkow in his command, and who 
had a ftrong prejudice againft the count, he was again 
loaded with chains, and condufted to the dungeon with 
the reft of the prifoners, to whom this inhuman tyrant al¬ 
lowed no other fubfiftence than bread and water. Upon 
his entrance he recognized feveral officers and foldiers who 
W S K Y„ 
had ferved under him ; and their demonftration of efteem 
and friendftiip was the only confolation he received in this 
diftreffied fttuation. Twenty-two days were thus confumed 
in a fubterraneous prifon, together with eighty of his 
companions, without light, and even without air, except 
what was admitted through an aperture which communi¬ 
cated with the calements. Thefe unhappy wretches were 
not permitted to go out even on their natural occafions, 
which produced fuch an infefiion, that thirty-five of them 
died in eighteen or twenty days ; and fuch was the inhu¬ 
manity of the commander, that he futfered the dead to 
remain and putrefy among the living. On the i&th of 
July the prifon was opened, and one hundred and forty- 
eight priloners, who had furvived out of feven hundred 
and eighty-two, were driven, under every fpecies of cru¬ 
elty that can.be well imagined, from Polene to Kiow, where 
the ftrength of the count’s conftitution, which had hitherto 
enabled him to refill fuch an accumulation of hardlhips 
and fatigue, at length gave way, and he was attacked with 
a malignant fever, which produced a delirium. The go¬ 
vernor, count Voicikow, being informed of his quality, 
ordered that he fhould be feparately lodged in a houfe, 
and that two roubles a day ftiould be paid him for fubfift¬ 
ence. This treatment, by enabling the count to procure 
proper diet, foon put him in a fair way of recovery ; but 
at this crilis an order arrived from Peterlburgh to fend all 
the prifoners to Cazan. The count, from the fatigues of 
the journey, experienced a relapfe, and the officer was 
obliged to leave him at Nizym, a town dependant on the 
government of Kiow. At this place, Mr. Lewner, a 
German merchant, interefted himfelf in favour of the 
count, procured him comfortable accommodations, fuper- 
intended the reftoration of his health, and on his depar¬ 
ture made him a prefent of two hundred roubles, which 
he placed for fafety in the hands of the officer until his 
arrival at Cazan, but who had afterwards the effrontery 
to deny that he had ever received the money ; and carried 
his malice fo far, that he accufed the count of attempting 
to raife a revolt among the prifoners, and cabled him to 
be loaded with chains, and committed to the prifon of 
Cazan, from which he was not delivered but at the pref- 
fing inftances of marffial Czarnefky Potockzy and the 
young Palanzky. On his deliverance from prifon, he was 
lodged at the houfe of a goldfmith, of the name of Ven- 
difchow, a native of Sweden ; and, being invited to dine 
with a man of quality in the place, he was folicited, and 
confented, to join in a confederacy againft the government. 
But on the 6th of November 1769, on a quarrel happen¬ 
ing between two Ruffian lords, one of them informed the 
governor that the prifoners, in concert with the Tartars, 
meditated a defign againft his perfon and the garrifon. 
This apoftate lord accufed the count, in order to fave his 
friends and countrymen ; and on the 7th, at eleven at 
night, the count, not fufpebting any fuch event, heard a 
knocking at the door. He came down, entirely undreffed, 
with a candle in his hand, to enquire the caufe; and, up¬ 
on opening his door, was furprifed to fee an officer with 
twenty foldiers, who demanded if the prifoner was at 
home. On his replying in the affirmative, the officer 
fnatched the candle out of his hand, and, ordering his 
men to follow him, went haftily up to the count’s apart¬ 
ment. The count immediately took advantage of his mif- 
take, quitted his houfe ; and, after appriling fome of the 
confederates that their plot was difeovered, he made his 
efcape, and arrived at Peterfburgh on the 19th of No¬ 
vember, where he engaged with a Dutch captain to take 
him to Holland. The captain, however, inftead of tak¬ 
ing him on-board purfuant to his promife, appointed him 
to meet on the bridge over the Neva at midnight, and 
there betrayed him to twenty Ruffian foldiers collected 
for the purpofe, who feized him, knocked him down, 
and carried him to count Cfecferin, lieutenant-general of 
the police. He was now conveyed to the fort of St. Pe¬ 
ter and St. Paul, confined in a fubterraneous dungeon, 
and after three days faft was prefented with a morfel of 
3 . bread 
