after an obstinate
engagement, succeeded in routing it with great slaughter. This action,
inconsiderable in itself, had important consequences; the Polish
peasants exchanged their scythes for the arms found on the field of
battle, and the insurrection, encouraged by this first gleam of success,
soon communicated itself to the adjoining provinces. In vain Stanislaus
disavowed the acts of his subjects; the flame of independence spread
with the rapidity of lightning, and soon all the freemen in Poland were
in arms. Warsaw was the first great point where the flame broke out. The
intelligence of the success at Raslowice was received there on April
12th and occasioned the most violent agitation. For some days afterward
it was evident that an explosion was at hand; and at length, at daybreak
on the morning of the 17th, the brigade of Polish guards, under the
direction of their officers, attacked the governor's house and the
arsenal, and was speedily joined by the populace. The Russian and
Prussian troops in the neighborhood of the capital were about seven
thousand men; and after a prolonged and obstinate contest in the streets
for thirty-six hours, they were driven across the Vistula with the loss
of above three thousand men in killed and prisoners, and the flag of
independence was hoisted on the towers of Warsaw.

One of the most embarrassing circumstances in the situation of the
Russians was the presence of above sixteen thousand Poles in their
ranks, who were known to sympathize strongly with these heroic efforts
of their fellow-citizens. Orders were immediately despatched to Suvaroff
to assemble a corps and disarm the Polish troops scattered in Podolia
before they could unite in any common measures for their defence. By the
energy and activity of this great commander, the Poles were disarmed
brigade after brigade, and above twelve thousand men reduced to a state
of inaction without much difficulty--a most important operation, not
only by destroying the nucleus of a powerful army, but by stifling the
commencement of the insurrection in Volhynia and Podolia. How different
might have been the fate of Poland and Europe had they been enabled to
join the ranks of their countrymen!

Kosciuszko and his countrymen did everything that courage or energy
could suggest to put on foot a formidable force to resist their
adversaries; a provisional government was established and in a short
time a force of forty thousand men was raised. Bu