made on the
Russians who had crossed the stream. As if driven by frenzy, the Poles
fell on their foes with swords and pikes. Singing the Warsaw hymn, the
officers rushed to the front. The lancers charged boldly, but their
horses sank in the marshy soil, and they fell helpless before the
Russian fire.

The day passed; night fell; the field of battle was strewn thick with
the dead and dying. Only a part of the Russian army had succeeded in
crossing. Skrzynecki held the field, but he had lost seven thousand men.
The Russians, of whom more than ten thousand had fallen, recrossed the
river during the night. But they commanded the passage of the stream,
and the Polish commander gave orders for a retreat on Warsaw, sadly
repeating, as he entered his carriage, Kosciusko's famous words, "Finis
Poloniae."

The end indeed was approaching. The resources of Poland were limited,
those of Russia were immense. New armies trebly replaced all Russian
losses. Field-Marshal Paskievitch, the new commander, at the head of new
forces, determined to cross the Vistula and assail Warsaw on the left
bank of the stream, instead of attacking its suburb of Praga and
seeking to force a passage across the river at that point, as on former
occasions.

The march of the Russians was a difficult and dangerous one. Heavy rains
had made the roads almost impassable, while streams everywhere
intersected the country. To transport a heavy park of artillery and the
immense supply and baggage train for an army of seventy thousand men,
through such a country, was an almost impossible task, particularly in
view of the fact that the cholera pursued it on its march, and the sick
and dying proved an almost fatal encumbrance.

Had it been attacked under such circumstances by the Polish army, it
might have been annihilated. But Skrzynecki remained immovable, although
his troops cried hotly for "battle! battle!" whenever he appeared. The
favorable moment was lost. The Russians crossed the Vistula on floating
bridges, and marched in compact array upon the Polish capital.

And now clamor broke out everywhere. Riots in Warsaw proclaimed the
popular discontent. A dictator was appointed, and preparations to defend
the city to the last extremity were made. But at the last moment twenty
thousand men were sent out to collect supplies for the threatened city,
leaving only thirty-five thousand for its defence. The Russians,
meanwhile, had been reinforced by thirty thousand m