rent both to his private and national conscience. So
deeply did he take to heart this outbreak of popular fury that one of
his Lithuanian commanders, Prince Michal Oginski, who visited him at
that time, heard him declare that he would have preferred the loss of
two battles as being less prejudicial to the Polish cause. As the head
of the national government, he at once addressed the following letter to
the city of Warsaw:--

"While all my labours and efforts are strained to the expulsion of the
enemy, the news has reached me that an enemy more terrible than a
foreign army is threatening us and tearing our vitals asunder. What
happened in Warsaw yesterday has filled my heart with bitterness and
sadness. The wish to punish delinquents was well, but why were they
punished without the sentence of a tribunal? Why have you outraged the
authority and sanctity of the laws? Is that the act of a people which
has raised its sword and conquered foreign invaders in order to restore
a well-ordered liberty and the rule of law, and the tranquil happiness
that flow therefrom?"

Warning them in impassioned accents that such conduct was the surest
means of playing into the hands of the enemy whose desire was to promote
public confusion and thus impede the national work:

"As soon as the turn of war permits me to absent myself for a moment
from the duties entrusted to me, I shall be among you. Perhaps the sight
of a soldier who daily risks his life for you will be agreeable to you;
but I would that no sadness imprinted on my countenance shall mar that
moment. I would that our joy shall then be full, both yours and mine. I
would that the sight of me shall remind you that the defence of freedom
and of our country should only knit and unite us together, that only in
unity can we be strong, that by justice, not by violence, shall we be
safe at home and respected in the world. Citizens! I conjure you for the
sake of the nation and of yourselves wipe out a moment of madness by
unison, by courage against the common enemies and by a henceforth
constant respect of the laws and of those who are appointed in the name
of the law. Know this, that he who refuses to be submissive to the law
is not worthy of freedom."

He blames the Council of State for not having brought the prisoners to
trial before, and bids this be done immediately.

"And thus fulfilling what public justice exacts, I from henceforth most
severely forbid the people, for their welf