szko's, but: "I will
do as thou desirest, and will behave most politely, and if he says
anything against my opinions I will gnaw out my tongue, but will answer
nothing back."[4]

[Footnote 1: _Letters of Kosciuszko_.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_.]

The ill-founded rumour that in Kosciuszko's youth he had intended to run
off with Ludwika Sosnowska had got to the ears of Tekla's father.
Certain enemies of Kosciuszko's did their best to slander him yet
further. The result was a scene of the sort more familiar a hundred and
odd years ago than now: a girl throwing herself weeping at the feet of
an enraged parent, the wrath of the father dissolving into tears, but
his determination remaining implacable. The history of it was duly
handed on to the absent Kosciuszko, whose comment was as follows:

"I return thee, but bathed with tears, thy goodnight." He charges Tekla
not to let her mother, who regarded Kosciuszko with sincere affection,
fret herself sick over what had happened. "Embrace her as fondly as she
loves thee. ... Amuse and distract her so that her thoughts may incline
her to sleep." He complains that Tekla does not tell him how she herself
has weathered the storm: that he knows nothing of what is happening in
her home. "I should be glad to be even in thy heart and enfold thee all
within my heart. Each moment makes me uneasy for thee. ... As for me ...
all my mind is confused. There is bitterness in my heart, and I feel
fever tearing my inmost being. Go to bed, and sleep with pleasant
thoughts, seeing thy mother better. ... I commend thee to that
Providence who is beneficent to us all. Once more I embrace thee. I am
going away, but in thought I am always present by thy side."[1]

To Tekla's mother he wrote:

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_.]

"I cannot, God knows, I cannot keep silence or

send letters, for what I have heard and read has struck me like a
thunderbolt. You do not bid me write again, my little mother"--here he
uses one of the caressing untranslatable Polish diminutives. "I see that
you have been prevailed upon by his [her husband's] persuasions. I see
that I shall be parted from her for ever. ... I will always act
according to the bidding of the mother who is mine and the mother of her
who will always be in my heart. I will write no more and will not visit
at her house, that the sight of her shall not be as poison to me. ...
However, may the all High Providence ble