"Ah, my chief!" cried he, while he clasped the veteran to his breast,
"I am indeed favored above mortals. I see thee again, on whom I
believed the gates of a ruthless prison had closed forever! I have
all that remains of my country now within my arms. Kosciusko, my
friend, my father, bless your son!"
Kosciusko did bless him, and embalmed the benediction with a shower
of tears more precious than the richest unction that ever flowed on a
royal head. They were drawn from a Christian soldier's heart--a true
patriot and a hero.
Sobieski presented his lovely wife to this illustrious friend, and
while he gratefully acknowledged the rare felicity of his ultimate
fate, he owned that the retrospection of the past calamity, like a
shade in a picture, gives to our present bliss greater force and
brightness. But that such felicity was his, he could only ascribe to
the gracious providence of God, who "trieth the spirit of man," and
can bring him to a joy on earth even like unto a resurrection from
the dead. And the conclusion is not even then; "there remaineth yet a
better life, and a better country for those who trust in the Lord of
earth and heaven!"
APPENDIX.
NOTES
CHIEFLY RELATING TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.
NOTES
The writer prefaces these notes with the following dedicatory tribute
she inscribed to the memory of this illustrious chief in a former but
subsequent edition, some years after the first publication of the
work.
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