XXVI. 1831. Skrzynecki had not twenty-five thousand to oppose, the CHAP. Polish government ordered the pospolite ruzsenie, or levéeen-masse; and the whole inhabitants worked night and day with incredible diligence at the fortifications. An energetic proclamation was published by the Government, which began with these words: "In the name of God ; in the name of the liberty of the nation, now placed between life and death; in the name of its kings and heroes, who have combated in former days for its religion and independence; in the name of justice and of the deliverance of Europe, we call on all classes to come forward to defend their country." All nobly met the appeal. The nobles and senators who were absent all flocked to Warsaw to share the danger, and, if necessary, die on their curule chairs; the most energetic measures which the public defence required were adopted by the Government; and the interest excited in the adjoining states was so warm that no less than two-and-twenty counties Rom. Solt. in Hungary presented petitions to the Emperor of Ann. Hist. Austria, praying him to intervene by force of arms for 504. the support of Poland.1 1 ii. 200, 202; xiv. 503, 84. crosses the Paskiewitch broke up from Pultusk on the 4th July, directing his steps, not to Warsaw, but to Plock on the Paskiewitch Lowes. He made a circuit round Modlin, where Skrzy- Vistula. necki had established himself with twenty-one thousand July 19. men, which, with the garrison of that fortress, brought his forces up to thirty thousand combatants. The Polish troops, however, were much depressed by their numerous defeats, and far from exhibiting the spirit or discipline they had shown at Grochow and Dembe. The general, in consequence, did not venture to measure himself in the open field with an enemy more than double his strength, led by a consummate leader. He remained, wisely, under the cannon of Modlin; and meanwhile the Russian general advanced by Plock to Osick on the Vistula, where the materials of three bridges had been prepared by the Prussian government. The bridges were quickly thrown. CHAP. across, and the army passed over. XXVI. 1831. The Polish army upon this quitted Modlin and marched rapidly to Warsaw, while Paskiewitch drew the corps of Rudiger from 1 Rom. Solt. Volhynia, which crossed the Vistula above Warsaw, and Ann. Hist. advanced down the left bank, in order to enter into comxiv. 504, munication with the main army, and join in the assault of the capital.1 ii. 291, 306; 505. 85. Fall of Skrzynecki, who is succeed binski. Aug. 18. The approach of these vast armies, numbering between them seventy thousand combatants, to whom the Poles could not at the utmost oppose more than thirty thousand, excited the utmost sensation at Warsaw, and roused to ed by Dem- the very highest degree both the patriotic spirit and the savage passions of the people. Several councils were appointed by the Government to inquire into the conduct of the military operations, and the causes of the disasters which had recently been experienced. At length a commission was issued with full powers, extending even to his dismissal; and Skrzynecki, finding the current in the capital too strong to be resisted, resigned the command, and was succeeded by Dembinski, who had the courage, in circumstances evidently desperate, to undertake a command for which the crown of martyrdom could be the only recompense. Krukowieckski was soon after appointed President of the Council of Government. Skrzynecki bore his fall with the equanimity which is the characteristic of a noble mind, protesting his readiness still to serve his country, were it only in the capacity of a private soldier. On the day following his dismissal, there was a review held of the whole troops around Warsaw, at which, to indicate the purity of his feelings, the displaced general rode beside his successor. At the sight of their beloved chief, abandoned and in misfortune, the troops could not contain their feelings. Tears were seen running down 2 Rom. Solt, many cheeks which would never have been shed for any ii. 337, 342; sufferings of their own ;2 but they were turned into cheers of enthusiasm when Skrzynecki conjured them to exhibit the same submission to their new general which they had Aug. 19. Ann. Hist. xiv. 505. done to him, and Dembinski promised to follow in his CHAP. footsteps. XXVI. 1831. 86. in Warsaw. Aug. 15 and 16. History may well take a pride in recording this moving scene, in which noble parts were played by great Massacres actors on the tragic theatre of the world; but it would be well for the annals of Poland if the narrative of the change of government at Warsaw could stop there. Unfortunately, a very different scene was exhibited by the mobs in the capital. Excited by the approach of the Russians and the declamations in the clubs, as the Jacobins of Paris had been by the advance of the Duke of Brunswick in 1792, they broke out into similar excesses. The massacre in the prisons of Warsaw on the 15th and 16th of August 1831, is a fit companion to that in the prison of Paris on the 2d and 3d September 1792. A furious mob, excited by the declamations of the violent orators in the clubs, and exclaiming "Treason! treason!" collected in the streets; and the whole armed force having been sent into the intrenched camp, the Government had no means either of subduing it or defending themselves. They first invaded the palace, where they overturned the Government, and then proceeding to the state prisons, they broke in and murdered all the state prisoners, including Jankowski and Bukowski, who had been tried to please the clubs, for their want of success in Volhynia, but acquitted. Forty-seven persons, including several Russian prisoners, and several unconnected with politics, and confined for debt, fell victims to the fury of the populace on this calamitous occasion. Next day the Government, utterly powerless either to avert calamity or punish crime, gave in their resignation. They were succeeded by a new set of rulers, composed 1 Ann. Hist. of the most violent of the clubs, at the head of which xiv. 506; was Krukowieckski, whose talents were considerable, and ii. 340, 344. energy of character well known.1 But the hour was now approaching, and Warsaw, to avert it, stood in need of very different defenders Rom. Solt. 1831. 87. Prepara tions and forces on both sides Aug. 18. CHAP. from the assassins of disarmed captives in the prisons. XXVI. Aware that it could not much longer be averted, both parties made the most vigorous efforts to collect all their forces for the decision of the final struggle. The Polish army, in the first instance, had taken post on the Bzura, for the final considerably in advance of the capital, and some struggles struggle.. had taken place there; but Dembinski, not feeling himself in sufficient strength to maintain his ground so far from his intrenchments, fell back to the intrenched camp, upon which the inhabitants of the capital had long been labouring; and Skrzynecki again gave a noble proof of his disinterested patriotism, by taking the command which was offered him of one of the columns. On the 18th August the whole Polish army was collected at Warsaw, and, considering the losses it had undergone, it presented an astonishing force. It consisted of 57,500 men in the intrenched camp at Warsaw, with 136 guns harnessed, besides 20,000 more with 10 guns in garrison at Modlin and Zamosc, or in partisan corps still at large in the country on the right bank of the Vistula. Paskiewitch's forces were considerably longer of being concentrated, from the more extended circumference from which they were to be drawn. By the end of August, however, they 1 Rom. Solt. had all come up, and amounted to 89,000 men, including Ann. Hist. Rudiger's corps, which had arrived, and 12,000 in observation before Praga, and they had no less than 386 pieces of cannon.1 ii. 388, 393; xiv. 506, 507. 88. Ramorino and Golo win. Paskiewitch gave the Government of Warsaw till the Victory of 5th September to surrender at discretion, insisting on this over Rosen as the only admissible terms. The Polish government in this crisis, instead of despairing, had the courage to send 20,400 men under Ramorino to the right bank of the Vistula, into the palatinate of Podlachia; while Lubienski, with 2800 horse, was despatched into that of Plock, to threaten the Russian communications. The remainder of the Polish forces, consisting of 34,000 more, guarded the intrenched camp at Warsaw, with 216 pieces of cannon. The in CHAP. trenchments consisted of two lines, the first of which was 1 1831. Rom. Solt. ii. 396, 402; Ann. Hist. xiv. 506, Warsaw. The assault of the intrenched camp commenced on the 89. 6th September at daybreak, and continued the whole day Assault of with the utmost fury on both sides. It was hard to say Sept. 6. whether the attack or defence was conducted with the greater vigour or determination. The ancient and inextinguishable animosity of the Muscovites and Poles burned with the greatest intensity in both armies, blended with the sublime feelings of freedom and independence on the one side, and the indignation at supposed treachery on the other. The Russians, who were 70,000 strong, with 388 guns, made their chief attack on the village of Wola in the first line, which was garrisoned only by three battalions and ten guns, and in the end brought up no less than 100 pieces of cannon to concentrate their fire upon it. So vigorous was the cannonade that the village, with the redoubts constructed around it, were carried at ten o'clock, and the Russians immediately occupied it in strength, and armed it with several additional batteries. of their own, of heavier calibre than any the Poles could oppose to it. Malachowski, who commanded the Polish troops, made several desperate attempts to regain this important point, but all in vain. Wola was occupied by |