ngdom. Aware of the necessity of
striking a blow before the enemy's forces were united, Kosciuszko
advanced with twelve thousand men to attack the Russian General,
Denisoff; but, upon approaching his corps, he discovered that it had
united to the army commanded by the King in person. Unable to face such
superior forces, he immediately retired, but was attacked next morning
at daybreak near Sekoczyre by the allies, and after a gallant resistance
his army was routed, and Cracow fell into the hands of the conquerors.
This check was the more severely felt, as about the same time General
Zayonscheck was defeated at Chelne and obliged to recross the Vistula,
leaving the whole country on the right bank of that river in the hands
of the Russians.

These disasters produced a great impression at Warsaw; the people as
usual ascribed them to treachery, and insisted that the leaders should
be brought to punishment; and although the chiefs escaped, several
persons in an inferior situation were arrested and thrown into prison.
Apprehensive of some subterfuge if the accused were regularly brought to
trial, the burghers assembled in tumultuous bodies, forced the prisons,
erected scaffolds in the streets, and after the manner of the assassins
of September 2d, put above twelve persons to death with their own hands.
These excesses affected with the most profound grief the pure heart of
Kosciuszko; he flew to the capital, restored order, and delivered over
to punishment the leaders of the revolt. But the resources of the
country were evidently unequal to the struggle; the paper money, which
had been issued in their extremity, was at a frightful discount; and the
sacrifices required of the nation were, on that account, the more
severely felt, so that hardly a hope of ultimate success remained.

The combined Russian and Prussian armies, about thirty-five thousand
strong, now advanced against the capital, where Kosciuszko occupied an
intrenched camp with twenty-five thousand men. During the whole of July
and August the besiegers were engaged in fruitless attempts to drive the
Poles into the city; and at length a great convoy, with artillery and
stores for a regular siege, which was ascending the Vistula, having been
captured by a gentleman named Minewsky at the head of a body of
peasants, the King of Prussia raised the siege, leaving a portion of his
sick and stores in the hands of the patriots. After this success the
insurrection spread imme