conquerors, and despatched to
Siberia. Hidden confederations, especially among the Polish youth, were
being carried on all over Poland, preparing to rise in defence of the
national freedom. In the teeth of the Russian garrison and of Catherine
II's plenipotentiary, Igelstrom, Warsaw sent secret emissaries to the
scattered remnants of the Polish army; and in the conferences that were
held at dead of night the choice of the nation fell upon Kosciuszko as
the leader above all others who should avenge the national dishonour and
wrest back at the point of the sword the independence of Poland. In the
beginning of September 1793 two Polish delegates carried the proposal to
him where he still remained in Leipzig.

The great moment in the life of Tadeusz Kosciuszko had now arrived. His
fiery and enthusiastic soul leapt to its call; but with none of the
headlong precipitance that would have been its ruin. Kosciuszko was too
great a patriot to disdain wariness and cool calculation. He never
stirred without seeing each step clearly mapped out before him. He took
his counsels with Potocki and his other Polish intimates in Saxony; then
formulated his plan of the Rising. Each district of Poland and Lithuania
was to be under the command of some citizen who would undertake secretly
to beat up the inhabitants to arms. The people could choose their own
officers according to the general wish. Special insistence was laid on
the duties of calling the peasants to fight side by side with the
landowners. The Polish peasant had hitherto been counted incapable of
bearing arms: Kosciuszko overrode this ancient prejudice with results
that have given one of the finest pages to the history of Poland.

He then went alone with his confidant, Zajonczek, to the Polish
frontiers to collect information. He sent round messengers to the
different provinces of Poland and Lithuania carrying his letters and
full instructions, while Zajonczek, under a false name, was despatched
to Warsaw. The report the latter gave to Kosciuszko on his return was
not satisfactory.

Matters were not as yet ripe for the undertaking. Financial means in the
widespread ruin that had come upon Poland through the overrunning of her
territories by a hostile soldiery were lacking, in spite of the private
generosity of such a donor as the Warsaw banker, Kapostas. The
difficulties of getting together a fighting force when Russian soldiers,
closely supervising every movement of the Poles,