ng
away if he pressed her hard. This great nobleman, who died soon after,
lodged me in a splendid room utterly devoid of furniture. This is the
Polish custom; one is supposed to bring one's furniture with one.

At Leopol I put up, at an hotel, but I soon had to move from thence to
take up my abode with the famous Kaminska, the deadly foe of Branicki,
the king, and all that party. She was very rich, but she has since been
ruined by conspiracies. She entertained me sumptuously for a week, but
the visit was agreeable to neither side, as she could only speak Polish
and German. From Leopol I proceeded to a small town, the name of which I
forget (the Polish names are very crabbed) to take an introduction from
Prince Lubomirski to Joseph Rzewuski, a little old man who wore a long
beard as a sign of mourning for the innovations that were being
introduced into his country. He was rich, learned, superstitiously
religious, and polite exceedingly. I stayed with him for three days. He
was the commander of a stronghold containing a garrison of five hundred
men.

On the first day, as I was in his room with some other officers, about
eleven o'clock in the morning, another officer came in, whispered to
Rzewuski, and then came up to me and whispered in my ear, "Venice and St.
Mark."

"St. Mark," I answered aloud, "is the patron saint and protector of
Venice," and everybody began to laugh.

It dawned upon me that "Venice and St. Mark" was the watchword, and I
began to apologize profusely, and the word was changed.

The old commander spoke to me with great politeness. He never went to
Court, but he had resolved on going to the Diet to oppose the Russian
party with all his might. The poor man, a Pole of the true old leaven,
was one of the four whom Repnin arrested and sent to Siberia.

After taking leave of this brave patriot, I went to Christianpol, where
lived the famous palatin Potocki, who had been one of the lovers of the
empress Anna Ivanovna. He had founded the town in which he lived and
called it after his own name. This nobleman, still a fine man, kept a
splendid court. He honoured Count Bruhl by keeping me at his house for a
fortnight, and sending me out every day with his doctor, the famous
Styrneus, the sworn foe of Van Swieten, a still more famous physician.
Although Styrneus was undoubtedly a learned man, I thought him somewhat
extravagant and empirical. His system was that of Asclepiades, considered
as exploded since t