a different key.

[Footnote 1: T. Korzon, _Kosciuszko_.]

[Footnote 2: K. Bartoszewicz, _History of Kosciuszko's Insurrection_.]

"The last moment of Poland, her supreme cause, salvation or eternal ruin
and shame, personal freedom and national independence, or a terrible
slavery and the groaning of millions of men ... the destruction of the
Polish name, or her glorious place in the ranks of nations: these are
the considerations that must take hold of the Polish nation, of you,
citizens of Lithuania. ... Poles, now is the moment for the amendment of
eternal errors. Now is the time to be worthy of your ancestors, to
forget yourselves in order to save the country, to stifle in yourselves
the base voice of personal interest in order to serve the public. Now
must you draw forth your last strength, your last means, to give freedom
to your land. ... Let us know how to die! And what is earthly life? A
transitory and passing shadow, subject to a thousand accidents. What
Pole can live, if he must live in the state in which till now, with his
compatriots, he has been compelled to live? ... Oh, fellow-countrymen!
If you spare your lives, it is that you should be wretched slaves; if
you spare your possessions, it is that they should be the spoils of the
invaders. Who can be so deprived of reason or so fearful, as to doubt
that we shall surely conquer, if we all manfully desire to conquer?

"Lithuania! My fellow-countrymen and compatriots! I was born on your
soil, and in the midst of righteous zeal for my country more especial
affection is called forth in me for those among whom I began life. ...
Look at the rest of the nation of which you are a part. Look at those
volunteers, already assembling in each province of all the Crown,
seeking out the enemy, leaving homes and families for a beloved country,
inflamed with the watchword of those fighting for the nation: Death or
Victory! Once again, I say, we shall conquer! Earlier or later the
powerful God humbles the pride of the invaders, and aids persecuted
nations, faithful to Him and faithful to the virtue of patriotism."[1]

[Footnote 1: K. Bartoszewicz, _Op. cit. Kosciuszko_. Periodical
Publication.]

The moment had now arrived--in the May of 1794--to regularize the Rising
and to establish the temporary government on a stable and more
conventional basis. Kosciuszko explained himself fully in his
proclamation of May 21st to the "citizens of Poland and Lithuania":

"It has pleas