lds and the hills Kosciuszko became not only an adored
chief, but an equally beloved brother in arms.

On the day following the advent of the peasants, on the 4th of April,
was fought the famous battle of Raclawice.

Kosciuszko was no invincible hero of legend. His military talent was
undoubted, but not superlative and not infallible; yet Raclawice was the
triumph of a great idea, the victory, under the strength of the ideal,
of a few against many. It lives as one of those moments in a nation's
history that will only die with the nation that inspired it. The
peasants turned the tide of the hotly fought battle. "Peasants, take
those cannon for me. God and our country!" was Kosciuszko's cry of
thunder. Urging each other on by the homely names they were wont to call
across their native fields, the peasants swept like a hurricane upon the
Russian battery, carrying all before them with their deadly scythes,
while Kosciuszko rode headlong at their side. They captured eleven
cannon, and cut the Russian ranks to pieces. Even in our own days the
plough has turned up the bones of those who fell in the fight, and
graves yet mark the battle lines. In the camp that night Kosciuszko,
with bared head, thanked the army in the name of Poland for its valour,
ending his address with the cry, "Vivat the nation! Vivat Liberty!"
taken up by the soldiers with the acclamation. "Vivat Kosciuszko!"
Kosciuszko then publicly conferred upon the peasant Bartos, who had been
the first to reach the Russian battery--he perished at
Szczekociny--promotion and nobility with the name of Glowacki. Before
all the army he flung off his uniform and donned, as a sign of honour to
his peasant soldiers, their dress, the _sukman_, which he henceforth
always wore--the long loose coat held with a broad girdle and reaching
below the knee.

"The sacred watchword of nation and of freedom," wrote Kosciuszko in his
report of the battle to the Polish nation, "moved the soul and valour of
the soldier fighting for the fate of his country and for her freedom."
He commends the heroism of the young volunteers in their baptism of
fire. He singles out his generals, Madalinski and Zajonczek, for praise.
Characteristically he breathes no hint of his own achievements.

"Nation!" he concludes. "Feel at last thy strength; put it wholly forth.
Set thy will on being free and independent. By unity and courage thou
shalt reach this honoured end. Prepare thy soul for victories and
def