'Bread, bread,
bread.' ... I cannot support my troops in this country, where there is
no one besides nobles and miserable peasants. Where are your great
families? They are all sold to Russia. It is Czartoryski who wrote to
Kosciusko not to come back to Poland." And when a Galician deputy
asked him of the fate of his province, he turned on him: "Do you think
that I will draw on myself new foes for one province." Nevertheless,
the enthusiasm of the Poles was not wholly chilled. Their contingents
did good service for him. Somewhat later, female devotion brought a
beautiful young Polish lady to act as his mistress, primarily with the
hope of helping on the liberation of her land, and then as a willing
captive to the charm which he exerted on all who approached him. Their
son was Count Walewska]

[Footnote 123: Marbot, ch. xxviii.]

[Footnote 124: Lettow-Vorbeck estimates the French loss at more than
24,000; that of the Russians as still heavier, but largely owing to
the bad commissariat and wholesale straggling. On this see Sir R.
Wilson's "Campaign in Poland," ch. i.]

[Footnote 125: Napoleon on February 13th charged Bertrand to offer
_verbally, but not in writing_, to the King of Prussia a separate
peace, without respect to the Czar. Frederick William was to be
restored to his States east of the Elbe. He rejected the offer, which
would have broken his engagements to the Czar. Napoleon repeated the
offer on February 20th, which shows that, at this crisis, he did wish
for peace with Prussia. See "Nap. Corresp.," No. 11810; and Hausser,
vol. iii., p. 74.]

[Footnote 126: "I have been repeatedly pressed by the Prussian and
Russian Governments," wrote Lord Hutchinson, our envoy at Memel, March
9th, 1807, "on the subject of a diversion to be made by British troops
against Mortier.... Stettin is a large place with a small garrison and
in a bad state of defence" ("F.O.," Prussia, No. 74). in 1805 Pitt
promised to send a British force to Stralsund (see p. 17).]

[Footnote 127: Lord Cathcart's secret report to the War Office, dated
April 22nd, 1807, dealt with the appeal made by Lord Hutchinson, and
with a _Projet_ of Dumouriez, both of whom strongly urged the
expedition to Stralsund. On May 30th Castlereagh received a report
from a Hanoverian officer, Kuckuck, stating that Hanover and Hesse
were ripe for revolt, and that Hameln might easily be seized if the
North Germans were encouraged by an English force ("Castlereagh
Let