s death. Two years later, at the Congress of Vienna, the
greater portion of Poland was given over to Russia, to be governed as a
constitutional state. Such it remained, in name at least, until the
desperate insurrection of 1831, the failure of which ended all pretence of
Polish self-government under Russian rule. To drown the grief and despair
with which that tragedy had filled his mind Mickiewicz turned back in the
next year (when he began _Pan Tadeusz_) to the scenes of his childhood, to
the days full of hope and joyful expectation that had preceded Napoleon's
attack on Russia.]

1 In the time of the Polish Commonwealth the carrying out of judicial
decrees was very difficult, in a country where the executive authorities
had almost no police at their disposal, and where powerful citizens
maintained household regiments, some of them, for example the Princes
Radziwill, even armies of several thousand. So the plaintiff who had
obtained a verdict in his favour had to apply for its execution to the
knightly order, that is to the gentry, with whom rested also the executive
power. Armed kinsmen, friends, and neighbours set out, verdict in hand, in
company with the apparitor, and gained possession, often not without
bloodshed, of the goods adjudged to the plaintiff, which the apparitor
legally made over or gave into his possession. Such an armed execution of
a verdict was called a _zajazd_ [foray]. In ancient times, while laws were
respected, even the most powerful magnates did not dare to resist judicial
decrees, armed attacks rarely took place, and violence almost never went
unpunished. Well known in history is the sad end of Prince Wasil
Sanguszko, and of Stadnicki, called the Devil.--The corruption of public
morals in the Commonwealth increased the number of forays, which
continually disturbed the peace of Lithuania. [The rendering of _zajazd_
by _foray_ is of course inexact and conventional; but the translator did
not wish to use the Polish word and could find no better English
equivalent.]

2 Every one in Poland knows of the miraculous image of Our Lady at Jasna
Gora in Czenstochowa. In Lithuania there are images of Our Lady, famed for
miracles, at the Ostra [Pointed] Gate in Wilno, the Castle in Nowogrodek,
and at Zyrowiec and Boruny.

3 [See p. 332.]

4 [Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Kosciuszko (1746-1817). This most famous Polish
patriot was a native of the same portion of Lithuania as Mickiewicz. He
early emigrated to Ameri