to America, by Sweden and England. Rogerson,
whose strong esteem he had gained, wrote to his friend, the Russian
ambassador in London, begging him for the sake of their friendship to do
all that he could for Kosciuszko, and entering into minute
recommendations to ensure the latter's well-being in England. Kosciuszko
had aroused a like admiration in the imperial family. At the farewell
audience in the Winter Palace he was received with a pomp detestable to
his every instinct, and carried in Catherine's wheel chair into the
Tsar's private room. The Tsar loaded him with gifts, including a
carriage especially adapted to the recumbent position in which he was
forced to travel. The Tsaritsa chose to give him a costly turning-lathe
and a set of cameos, while he offered her a snuff-box of his own making,
which she held in her hand during her coronation, showing it with pride
to Rogerson as a gift which, said she, "puts me in mind of a highly
instructive moral."[1] These presents from the Russian court were
intensely galling to Kosciuszko's feelings. He refused as many as he
could. The rest that he accepted under compulsion he got rid of as soon
as possible. His return present to the Tsaritsa was an act of courtesy,
characteristic of Kosciuszko's chivalry to women; but he received with a
marked coldness the advances of the Tsar, showered upon him in the
moment's caprice, as was the manner of Paul I.[2] On the 19th of
December, 1796, he turned his back upon Russia for ever and, accompanied
by Niemcewicz, departed for Sweden.

[Footnote 1: T. Korzon, _Kosciuszko_.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_.]

CHAPTER IX

EXILE

The great and romantic chapter of Kosciuszko's history is now closed.
Twenty more years of life remained to him. Those years were passed in
exile. He never again saw his country.

The third partition of Poland was carried out by Russia, Austria, and
Prussia in 1795, while the man who had offered his life and liberty to
avert it lay in a Russian prison. Not even the span of Poland's soil
which Kosciuszko and his soldiers had watered with their blood was left
to her. To that extinction of an independent state, lying between Russia
and the Central Powers, barring the progress of Prussia to the Baltic
and the East, the most far-seeing politicians ascribe the world-war that
has been so recently devastating the world.

It was therefore in bitter grief of heart that Kosciuszko set out for
Sweden. Besides Niemcewicz