Here, for the first time, he endured all the torturing
varieties of despair.
The once fertile fields were burnt to stubble; the cottages were yet
smoking from the ravages of the fire; and in place of smiling eyes
and thankful lips coming to meet him, he beheld the dead bodies of
his peasants stretched on the high roads, mangled, bleeding, and
stripped of that decent covering which humanity would not deny to the
vilest criminal.
Thaddeus could bear the sight no longer, but, setting spurs to his
horse, fled from the contemplation of scenes which harrowed up his
soul.
At nightfall, the army halted under the walls of Villanow. The count
looked towards the windows of the palace, and by a light shining
through the half-drawn curtains, distinguished his mother's room. He
then turned his eye on that sweep of building which contained the
palatine's apartments; but not one solitary lamp illumined its gloom:
the moon alone glimmered on the battlements, silvering the painted
glass of the study window, where, with that beloved parent, he had so
lately gazed upon the stars, and anticipated with the most sanguine
hopes the result of the campaign which had now terminated so
disastrously for his unhappy country.
But these thoughts, with his grief and his forebodings, were buried
in the depths of his determined heart. Addressing General Wawrzecki,
he bade him welcome to Villanow, requesting at the same time that his
men might be directed to rest till morning, and that he and the
officers would take their refreshment within the palace.
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