me back
to Poland and was soon among the foremost reformers,--a man in (p. 192)
whom the patriotic Poles justly trusted. But traitors were found to
accept Russian bribes, and for the second time Poland was despoiled.
Russia annexed the eastern provinces with 3,000,000 inhabitants, and
Prussia took Dantzig and Thorn. Austria was told that she might take
from the French Republic as much as she wished,--or could.

Manfully and indefatigably did Kosciusko labor to stem the tide of his
country's ruin. His patriotism aroused even that of the poor,
down-trodden serfs, who had no interests to defend, yet stood by him
in battle when the nobles on horseback fled, and wrenched a victory
out of defeat. Well might Kosciusko thereafter dress in the garb of a
peasant; a gentleman's dress was a badge of dishonor.

It was in 1794, that this battle took place and gave the signal, too,
for an effort to restore Poland. But Austria, Prussia, and Russia
combined, and Poland was lost. Heroic children were made to pay for
the sins of their fathers. Poland expired in 1795. Prussia took
Eastern Poland, including Warsaw; Austria annexed Cracow, Sandomir,
Lublin, and Selm, and Russia took what remained. The patriots
dispersed; most of them took service with the French, hoping for an
opportunity to revive their country.

Catherine took especial pains to prevent the ideas, which alone made
the French revolution possible, from entering into Russia. There was
no occasion for this prudence. The great majority of the Russian
people did not know of any world beyond Russia; most of them knew (p. 193)
nothing beyond the narrow horizon of their own village, and could
neither read nor write. The harrowing tales brought by the fugitive
French nobles did not tend toward inspiring the Russian aristocracy
with sympathy for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

Satisfied that Russia was beyond the sphere of what she regarded as
pernicious doctrines, Catherine determined to make the greatest
possible profit out of the disturbed condition of Europe. She never
ceased to incite Prussia and Austria against the French Republic, but
carefully refrained from spending a dollar or risking a man. She
pleaded first her war with Turkey, and afterwards the Polish
insurrection. She said to Osterman, one of her ministers: "Am I wrong?
For reasons that I cannot give to the Courts of Berlin and Vienna, I
wish to involve them in these affairs, so that I may have my hands
fr