tion of May 3, 1791.
This measure, which was drawn up in secret and rushed through the Diet at
a time when most of its probable opponents were absent, transformed Poland
from an aristocratic republic into a constitutional hereditary monarchy,
abolished the _liberum veto_, and secured religious toleration. Amid great
enthusiasm the King took the oath to the new order of government (p. 324).

In the next year, however, a group of upholders of the old anarchic state
of affairs, one of whose leaders was Ksawery Branicki (p. 200), formed
with the support of Russia a confederacy which was proclaimed at Targowica
(pp. 274, 324), a small town in the Ukraine, and the object of which was
the undoing of the work of the Four Years' Diet. The Russian armies
entered the country and overcame the resistance of the Polish troops, two
of the foremost leaders of which were Prince Joseph Poniatowski, the
nephew of the King, and Kosciuszko. Then followed the second partition of
Poland (1793), by which the territory of the Commonwealth was reduced to
about one third of its original dimensions. In the next year occurred a
popular revolt, of which Kosciuszko assumed the leadership, and which,
despite a brilliant victory at Raclawice (p. 252), near Cracow, and some
other successes, was soon quelled by the allied powers, Russia, Prussia,
and Austria. In a battle at Maciejowice (p. 252) Kosciuszko was defeated,
and, severely wounded, was himself taken prisoner by the Russians. The
final episode of the war was the fall of Warsaw. Suvorov, the Russian
commander, captured by storm Praga, a suburb of the city, and gave over
its inhabitants to massacre (pp. 3, 324). In the following year, 1795, the
remnant of the Polish kingdom was divided among the three allies.

Even now not all the Poles despaired of their country's fate. The idea
arose of transferring to France the headquarters of Polish interests and
of forming bodies of Polish troops that should fight for France against
the common enemies of France and Poland and thereby prepare themselves for
service in the restoration of Poland. The leader of this movement, and the
most noted general of the new _Polish Legions_, was Jan Henryk Dombrowski,
who had won fame in the war of 1794. The Legions' first field of activity
was in northern Italy, where they supported the struggle of Lombardy for
independence. Here arose (1797) the famous Song of the Legions, "Poland
has not yet perished, while we still live