ole
document. We can best realize how near the condition of the peasants lay
to Kosciuszko's heart when we reflect that it filled his parting
communication to his sister, written at the moment when, full of sorrow
and anxiety, he was going into the unknown road of exile. He left Poland
in the early days of October, having won, says Korzon, the esteem of
friend and foe alike. Before crossing the frontier into what was Polish
soil, but since Austria had taken possession of it at the first
partition was politically recognized as Poland no longer, he unbuckled
his sword and, lifting his hands to heaven, prayed that he might be
given once again to draw it in the defence of his dearly loved land.

CHAPTER V

THE EVE OF THE RISING

In Galicia, Kosciuszko was welcomed by a crowd of sympathizers. The
Czartoryskis, then residing on their Galician estates, showed him such
marked proofs of their admiration that it was even said, without
foundation, that Princess Czartoryska destined Kosciuszko for the
husband of one of the princesses. A married daughter drew his portrait,
inscribing it, after the taste of the epoch, with the words: "Tadeusz
Kosciuszko, good, valiant, but unhappy." On his feast-day, October 28th,
the ladies of the family presented him with a wreath woven of leaves
from an oak planted by the Polish hero with whose name Kosciuszko's is
often coupled: Jan Sobieski, the deliverer of Christendom. At the
banquet held on this occasion was present, not only Kosciuszko's friend,
Orlowski, like him banished and for the same reason, but a young son of
the house who had fought in the recent Russo-Polish war, Adam
Czartoryski, soon to be removed by Catherine II's orders as a hostage to
the Russian court, and who in later life was one of the principal and
noblest figures in Polish politics of the nineteenth century. We shall
see his path again touching Kosciuszko's at a critical juncture in the
history of their nation.

The bitterness of an exile's wanderings, so familiar to the generations
of Poles that followed through the unhappy years of the succeeding
century, was now to be tasted by Poland's national hero. The Austrian
Government took alarm at the evidences of popularity that were showered
upon him. The Russian Government would not have his presence near the
Polish frontiers, and the Russian sentries received orders to be on the
look-out not to permit him to enter any Polish town. Legends ran through
the ranks of