ngaged his close
attention, and by the time he left France he had acquired the skill in
military engineering that saved a campaign in the New World and that
defended Warsaw in the Old.

It is said that Kosciuszko prolonged his absence abroad rather than
return to see the enslavement of his country without being able to raise
a hand in her defence. For in 1772 Russia, Austria, and Prussia signed
an agreement to partition Poland between them, which, after a desperate
resistance on the part of the Polish Diet, was carried out in 1775.
Austria secured Galicia, Prussia a part of Great Poland and, with the
exception of Thorn and Danzig, what has since been known as "Prussian"
Poland, while to Russia fell the whole of Lithuania.

All this Kosciuszko watched from afar in helpless rage and bitterness of
soul. His peace of mind was further destroyed by his increasing
financial difficulties. Little enough of his share of his father's
fortune could have remained to him, and he was in debt. The Royal
subsidy had ceased when the treasury was ruined by reason of the
partition of Poland. Moreover, Stanislas Augustus was never a sure
source on which to rely when it came to the question of keeping a
promise or paying his dues. The greater part of Kosciuszko's career is
that of a man pitted against the weight of adverse circumstance. It was
inevitable that he who threw in his lot with an unhappy country could
have no easy passage through life. In this he resembles more than one of
the national heroes of history; but unlike many another, he never
reached the desired goal. His is the tragedy of a splendid and forlorn
hope. Even apart from the story of his public service his life was
dogged by disappointment and harassing care.

Somewhere in the year 1774 he at last returned home. A youth of
twenty-eight, possessed of striking talent and freshly acquired science,
he now, with his fiery patriotism and character as resolute as ardent,
found himself in the country that he panted to serve condemned to
inaction of the most galling description. The King who had been his
patron was the tool of Catherine II and through her of Russia. Russian
soldiers and officials overran even that part of Poland which still
remained nominally independent, but of which they were virtual masters.
There was no employment open to Kosciuszko. A commission in the minute
army that survived the partition was only to be had by purchase, and he
had no money forthcoming. A