the most eminent men
of letters in Russia, and continued his own literary work by publishing
his sonnets, beyond comparison the finest ever written in Polish, and a
romantic poem, _Konrad Wallenrod_, based on the stubborn resistance of the
Lithuanian folk in the fourteenth century to their German foes, the
Knights of the Cross, and showing in its style marked Byronic influence.
The poem unfortunately admitted, or rather invited, an application to the
resistance of the Poles to the Russians; Mickiewicz, fearing with reason
the anger of the Russian authorities, succeeded in obtaining, just in time
to save himself from serious consequences, a passport permitting him to
leave the country.

Arriving in Germany in 1829, Mickiewicz travelled through Switzerland to
Italy. His residence in Rome, with its sacred associations, and the
meeting with new friends of a deeply religious temperament, brought about
within him a new birth of Catholic faith that strongly affected bis later
writings, notably _Pan Tadeusz._ In Rome also he became intimate with the
family of the rich Count Ankwicz, for whose daughter Eva he conceived an
affection that is reflected in the passion of Jacek Soplica for the
Pantler's only child. On the outbreak of the insurrection in Warsaw, at
the end of the year 1830, the poet meditated returning home to join the
national forces; but he delayed his departure, and never came nearer the
scene of action than Posen and its vicinity. The grief and discouragement
caused by the failure of the insurrection, instead of crippling
Mickiewicz's powers, seemed to spur him on to new activity. During 1833 he
wrote a continuation of _The Forefathers_, in an entirely different tone
from that of his youthful poem of ten years before. The action is based on
the persecution by the Russian authorities of the Polish students in
Wilno; the lovelorn Gustaw of the earlier poem is transformed into the
patriotic martyr Konrad. In this same year he settled in Paris, along with
many other Polish exiles or "emigrants," who were made homeless by the
downfall of the national cause, and who, if the truth be said, were split
up into bitterly hostile factions. Mickiewicz was now beginning to assume
the role of prophet and seer. For the reproof and instruction of his
fellow-countrymen he composed his _Books of the Polish Nation and of the
Polish Pilgrimage,_ a mystical work, written in biblical prose, and
intended to bring comfort and harmony to th