But they had not
departed from the newly-established American State without
demonstrations of its warm gratitude; and Koscuisko, in particular,
with his not less popular compatriot and friend, Niemcivitz, the
soldier and the poet, bore away with them the pure esteem of the
brave population, the sighs of private friendship, and the tears of
an abiding regret from many fair eyes.
To recapitulate the memorable events of the threatened royal freedom
of Poland, by the three formidable foreign powers confederated for
its annihilation, and in repelling which General Kosciusko took so
gallant a lead, is not here necessary to connect our memoranda
concerning his unreceding struggles to maintain her political
existence. They have already been sketched in the preceding little
record of the actual scenes in which he and his equally devoted
compeers held their indomitable resistance till the fatal issue.
"Sarmatia lay in blood!" and the portion of that once great bulwark
of civilized Europe was adjudged by the paricidal victors to
themselves: a sentence like unto that passed on the worst of
criminals was thus denounced against Christendom's often best
benefactor, while the rest of Europe stood silently by, paralyzed or
appalled, during the immediate execution of the noble victim.
But though dismembered and thrown out from the "map of nations" by
the combination of usurping ambition and broken faith, and no longer
to be regarded as one in its "proud cordon," Poland retained within
herself (as has been well observed by a contemporary writer) "a mode
of existence unknown till then in the history of the world--a
domestic national vitality.
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