ish the celebration to take place? My occupations will not permit
me the pleasure of being with you. I venture to trust that the God who
has delivered the capital will deliver our country likewise. Then, as a
citizen, not as a bearer of office, will I offer my thanks to God and
share with every one the universal joy."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Op. cit_.]

He stayed in his camp and, in order to avoid an ovation, did not enter
Warsaw. No public triumph was celebrated, but Masses of thanksgiving
were sung in every church of the city.

Although he was the ruler of the state, Kosciuszko lived in the utmost
simplicity. He had refused the palace that was offered to him, and took
up his quarters in a tent. When receiving guests his modest meal was
spread under a tree. Asked by Oginski why he drank no Burgundy, his
reply was that Oginski, being a great magnate, might permit himself such
luxuries, "but not the commander who is now living at the expense of an
oppressed commonwealth." When taken unawares by a royal chamberlain he
was discovered blowing up his own fire, preparing some frugal dish.

In the first flush of joy at the liberation of Warsaw, he wrote to
Mokronowski:

"Warsaw is delivered. There are no longer either Muscovites or Prussians
here: we will go and seek them out. Go, my friend, and seek them out,
and deliver Lithuania from the invaders."[1]

But Kosciuszko's steadiness of outlook was not for an instant relaxed by
the signal success he had won. Untiring vigilance and redoubled activity
were his order of the day, both for himself and his fellow-Poles. The
short breathing-space that followed the retirement of the enemy was
devoted by him to the pressing internal concerns of the nation, taxation
and so forth. He was determined on perfect freedom for all classes and
all religions in Poland. He ordered the erection of new Orthodox places
of worship for the members of the Eastern Church. He enrolled a Jewish
legion to fight in Poland's army, and commanded that this regiment
should be equipped and treated on equal terms with the Polish soldiers
of the Republic. In a transport of gratitude the Jewish leaders called
upon their fellow-believers to rise for Poland in confidence of victory
under "our protector, Tadeusz Kosciuszko," who "is without doubt the
emissary of the eternal and Most High God."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Letters of Kosciuszko_.]

[Footnote 2: K. Falkenstein, _Tadeusz Kosciuszko_. Wroclaw, 1831
(Polish).]

K