occupied the country
and the Polish divisions had been purposely drafted to great distances
from each other by the Empress, were almost insuperable. The peasant
rising upon which Kosciuszko had built his best hopes was unprepared.
But two elements remained that should, as pointed out by Zajonczek,
consolidate and ensure a great national Rising: universal detestation of
the Russian and limitless confidence in the chosen national leader.
Kosciuszko deemed it advisable to wait. "It is impossible," he said
after receiving Zajonczek's report, "to build on such frail foundations;
for it would be a sad thing to begin lightly and without consideration,
only to fall." He himself, recognizable as he was through all Poland,
was too well known to act as a secret propagandist in his own country;
so in order to throw dust in the eyes of Russia and Prussia he retired
to Italy for some months. In Florence he found Niemcewicz. Niemcewicz
tells how one night as he sat reading by his lamp the door burst open,
the Polish greeting, "Praised be Jesus Christ," rang on the exile's ear,
and a former colleague of the poet's hurried in with the simple words:
"I have come for Kosciuszko."[1] But the last act was played out in
Dresden, that for long after Kosciuszko's day remained a stronghold of
Polish emigration. While Kosciuszko was taking final deliberation there
with Kollontaj and Ignacy Potocki, two Poles came straight from Poland,
and on their knees besought Kosciuszko to give the word. The moment was
now or never. Placards were being fastened mysteriously on the walls of
Warsaw, calling to the Poles to rise. Patriotic writings were scattered
broadcast, patriotic articles printed, in spite of the rigorous Russian
censorship, in the Polish papers. Plays were acted in the theatre whose
double meaning, uncomprehended by the Russians who sat in crowds in the
audience, were fiery appeals to Polish patriotism. The streets of
Warsaw, all Poland and Lithuania, were seething with agitation and
secret hope. The suspicions of Igelstrom were aroused. He resolved to
take over the arsenal in Warsaw and to disarm and demobilize the Polish
army. In this dilemma Kosciuszko was compelled to throw his all on one
card or to fail. He therefore decided on the war; and in March 1794 he
re-entered Poland as the champion of her freedom.

[Footnote 1: J. Niemcewicz, _Recollections of My Times_, Paris, 1848
(Polish).]

CHAPTER VI

THE RISING OF KOSCIUSZKO