"
Thaddeus pressed his hand in silence to his lips.
"Believe me, my dear count," continued Stanislaus, "my soul bleeds at
this parting. I know the treasure which your family has always been
to this nation; I know your own individual merit. I know the wealth
which you have sacrificed for me and my subjects, and I am powerless
to express my gratitude."
"Had I done more than my duty in that," replied Thaddeus, "such words
from your majesty would have been a reward adequate to any privation;
but, alas! no. I have perhaps performed less than my duty; the blood
of Sobieski ought not to have been spared one drop when the liberties
of his country perished!" Thaddeus blushed while he spoke, and almost
repented the too ready zeal of his friends in having saved him from
the general destruction at Villanow.
The voice of the venerable Stanislaus became fainter as he resumed--
"Perhaps had a Sobieski reigned at this time, these horrors might not
have been accomplished. That resistless power which has overwhelmed
my people, I cannot forget is the same that put the sceptre into my
hand. But Catherine misunderstood my principles, when assisting in my
election to the throne; she thought she was planting merely her own
viceroy there. But I could not obliterate from my heart that my
ancestors, like your own, were hereditary sovereigns of Poland, nor
cease to feel the stamp the King of kings had graven upon that heart--
to uphold the just laws of my fathers! and, to the utmost, I have
struggled to fulfil my trust.
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