[Footnote: The Potocki family
at that time had still large possessions in the Crimean country of
the Cossacks; for it had formerly belonged to the crown of Poland.
And hence a kind of kindred memory lingered amongst the people: not
disaffecting them from their new masters but allowing a natural
respect for the descendants of the old.]
"I understood, from the few Poles who remained in the citadel, that
the good Stanislaus was to be sent on the same dismal errand of
captivity, to Grodno, the next day. They also told me that Poland
being no more, you had torn yourself from its bleeding remains,
rather than behold the triumphant entry of its conqueror. This
insulting pageant was performed on the 9th of November last. On the
8th, I believe you left Warsaw for England."
"Yes," replied the count, who had listened with a breaking heart to
this distressing narrative; "and doubtless I saved myself much
misery."
"You did. One of the magistrates described to me the whole scene, at
which I would not have been present for the world's empire! He told
me that when the morning arrived in which General Suwarrow, attended
by the confederated envoys, was to make his public _entr?e_, not
a citizen could be seen that was not compelled to appear. A dead
silence reigned in the streets; the doors and windows of every house
remained so closed that a stranger might have supposed it to be a
general mourning; and it was the bitterest sight which could have
fallen upon our souls! At this moment, when Warsaw, I may say, lay
dying at the feet of her conqueror, the foreign troops marched into
the city, the only spectators of their own horrible tragedy.
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