th their
fascines, broke down the defences, and pouring into the intrenched camp
carried destruction into the ranks of the Poles. In vain the defenders
did their utmost to resist the torrent. The wooden houses of Praga
speedily took fire, and amid the shouts of the victors and the cries of
the inhabitants the Polish battalions were borne backward to the edge of
the Vistula. The multitude of fugitives speedily broke down the bridges;
and the citizens of Warsaw beheld with unavailing anguish their
defenders on the other side perishing in the flames, or by the sword of
the conquerors. Ten thousand soldiers fell on the spot, nine thousand
were made prisoners, and above twelve thousand citizens, of every age
and sex, were put to the sword--a dreadful instance of carnage which has
left a lasting stain on the name of Suvaroff and which Russia expiated
in the conflagration of Moscow. The tragedy was at an end. Warsaw
capitulated two days afterward; the detached parties of the patriots
melted away, and Poland was no more. On November 6th Suvaroff made his
triumphant entry into the blood-stained capital. King Stanislaus was
sent into Russia, where he ended his days in captivity, and the final
partition of the monarchy was effected.

FOOTNOTES:

[45] Thaddeus Kosciuszko was born in 1755, of a poor but noble family,
and received the first elements of his education in the corps of cadets
at Warsaw. There he was early distinguished by his diligence, ability,
and progress in mathematical science, insomuch that he was selected as
one of the four students annually chosen at that institution to travel
at the expense of the State. He went abroad, accordingly, and spent
several years in France, chiefly engaged in military studies; from
whence he returned in 1778, with ideas of freedom and independence
unhappily far in advance of his country at that period. As war did not
seem likely at that period in the north of Europe, he set sail for
America, then beginning the War of Independence, and was employed by
Washington as his adjutant, and distinguished himself greatly in that
contest beside Lafayette, Lameth, Dumas, and so many of the other ardent
and enthusiastic spirits from the Old World. He returned to Europe on
the termination of the war, decorated with the order of Cincinnatus, and
lived in retirement till 1789, when, as King Stanislaus was adopting
some steps with a view to the assertion of national independence, he was
appointed maj