ings, has been plying night and day his diplomatic
bellows upon every live-coal ("I who myself kindled this Turk-War!"
brags he afterwards);--not till next year (1770) did Choiseul send
his Dumouriez to the Bilitz neighborhoods; not till next again, when
Choiseul was himself out, [Thrown out "2d December, 1770,"--by Louis's
NEW Pompadour.] did his Viomenil come: [Hermann, v. 469-471; in RULHIERE
(iv. 241-289) account of Dumouries and his fencings and spyings, still
more of Viomenil, who had "French Volunteers," and did some bits of real
fighting on the small scale.] neither of whom, by their own head alone,
without funds, without troops, could do other than with fine effort make
bad worse.

It is needless continuing such a subject. Here is one glimpse two years
later, and it shall be our last: "NEAR LUBLIN, 25th SEPTEMBER, 1770. It
is frightful, all this that is passing in these parts,--about the Town
of Labun, for example. The dead bodies remain without burial; they are
devoured by the dogs and the pigs. ... Everywhere reigns Pestilence; nor
do we fear contagion so much as famine. Offer 100 ducats for a fowl
or for a bit of bread, I swear you won't get it. General von Essen
[Russian, we will hope] has had to escape from Laticzew, then from" some
other place, "Pestilence chasing him everywhere."

To apply to the Turks,--afflicted Polish Patriots prostrating themselves
with the hope of despair, "Save us, your sublime Clemency; throw a ray
of pity on us, Brother of the Sun and Moon: oh, chastise our
diabolic oppressors!"--this was one of the first resources of the Bar
Confederates. The Turks did give ear; not inattentive, though pretending
to be rather deaf. M. de Vergennes,--of whose "diplomatic bellows" we
just heard (in fact, for diligence in this Turk element, in this young
time, the like of him was seldom seen; we knew him long afterwards as
a diligent old gentleman, in French-Revolution days),--M. de Vergennes
zealously supports; zealous to let loose the Turk upon Anti-French
parties. The Turks seem to wag their heads, for some time; and their
responses are ambiguous. For some time, not for long. Here, fast enough,
comes, in disguised shape, the Catastrophe itself, ye poor plaintive
Poles!

JULY-OCTOBER, 1768. Those Zaporavian and other Cossacks, with 20,000
peasants plundering about on both sides of the Dniester, had set fire to
the little Town of Balta, which is on the south side, and belongs to
the Turks: a ve