Though exiled
from his native land, where his birth gave him dominion over rich
territories, now in the hands of strangers, and a numerous happy
people, now no more, he had not yet relinquished the love of empire.
But it was not over principalities and embattled hosts that he
desired to prolong the sceptre of command. He wished to reign in the
soul. His throne was sought in the hearts of the good, the kind, the
men of honest industry, and the unfortunate, on whom prosperity had
frowned. In fact, the unhappy of every degree and nation found
consolation, refuge, and repose within the sheltering domains of
Beaufort. No eye looked wistfully on him to turn away disappointed;
his smiles cheered the disconsolate, and his protecting arms warded
off, when possible, the approach of new sorrows. "Peace was within
his walls, and plenteousness within his palaces."
And when a few eventful months of the succeeding year had
distinguished its course with the death of the imperious destroyer of
Poland, and General Kosciusko (having been set at liberty by her
generous successor, and honorably empowered to go whither he willed)
had arrived in England on his way to the United States, he sought and
found Thaddeus, his young comrade in the fields of Poland, and was
hailed with the warmest welcome by that now indeed truly "comforted"
brave and last representative of the noble race and name of the glory
of his country, the more than once Gideon-shield of Christendom--John
Sobieski.
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