t
is asserted that he had exacted from his followers an oath, not to
suffer him to fall alive into the hands of the Russians, and that in
consequence the Polish cavalry, being unable to carry him off,
inflicted some severe sabre wounds on him and left him for dead on
the field; a savage fidelity, which we half admire even in
condemning it. Be this as it may, he was recognized and delivered
from the plunderers by some Cossack chiefs; and thus was saved from
death to meet a scarcely less harsh fate--imprisonment in a Russian
dungeon.

Thomas Wawrzecki became the successor of Kosciusko in the command of
the army; but with the loss of their heroic leader all hope had
deserted the breasts of the Poles. They still, however, fought with
all the obstinacy of despair, and defended the suburb of Warsaw,
called Praga, with great gallantry. At length this post was wrested
from them. Warsaw itself capitulated on November 9, 1794; and this
calamity was followed by the entire dissolution of the Polish army
on the 18th of the same month.

During this time, Kosciusko remained in prison at St. Petersburg;
but, at the end of two years, the death of his persecutress, the
Empress Catharine, released him. One of the first acts of the
Emperor Paul was to restore him to liberty, and to load him with
various marks of his favor. Among other gifts of the autocrat was a
pension, by which, however, the high-spirited patriot would never
consent to profit. No sooner was he beyond the reach of Russian
influence than he returned to the donor the instrument by which this
humiliating favor was conferred. From this period the life of
Kosciusko was passed in retirement. He went first to England, and
then to the United States of America. He returned to the Old World
in 1798, and took up his abode in France, where he divided his time
between Paris and a country-house he had bought near Fontainebleau.
While here he received the appropriate present of the sword of John
Sobieski, which was sent to him by some of his countrymen serving in
the French armies in Italy, who had found it in the shrine at
Loretto.

Napoleon, when about to invade Poland in 1807, wished to use the
name of Kosciusko in order to rally the people of the country round
his standard. The patriot, aware that no real freedom was to be
hoped for under such auspices, at once refused to lend himself to
his wishes. Upon this the emperor forged Kosciusko's signature to an
address to the Poles,