The monument which a wise man is ambitious to leave behind him, is not a
numerous posterity, but the lasting honours of a virtuous fame.
In learning to know yourself, you learn to know God.
Do good; and your reward shall be, if not the plaudits of men, the
approbation of God.
It is lost labour to endeavour to give understanding to him that has
none; especially, if he thinks himself more sensible than you.
Nobility does not consist in magnificence of dress or eminence of rank.
Art thou virtuous? Thou art sufficiently noble.
The life of man is a journal: good actions only should be written in it.
He who sows duplicity will reap calamity.
Whatever is not God, is nothing.
There are three things of which we cannot be certain but in three
circumstances; courage can be conspicuous only in the combat; wisdom,
when you are offended; and friendship, in adversity.
* * * * *
* * * *
Interesting History Of
_THE BARON DE LOVZINSKI._
With a relation of the most remarkable occurrences in the life
of the celebrated COUNT PULASKI, well known as the champion of
American Liberty, and who bravely fell in its defence before
Savannah, 1779.
_Interspersed with Anecdotes of the late unfortunate KING of POLAND,
so recently dethroned._
(Continued from page 142.)
Titsikan was listening to the story of our misfortunes, with which he
appeared to be deeply affected, when one of his centinels approached,
and sounded an alarm. He immediately left us in great haste, on purpose
to run to the drawbridge. We heard a great tumult, and began already to
presage some inauspicious event.
While we remained plunged in consternation,---“Lovzinski, Lodoiska,
cowardly and perfidious pair!” exclaims Dourlinski, unable to contain
his joy---“you have hoped to be able to elude my vengeance, and escape
my chastisement. Tremble! you are once more about to fall into my hands.
At the noise of my captivity and misfortunes, the neighbouring nobility
are undoubtedly assembled, and have now come to succour me.”
“---They can only revenge you, villain!” cries Boleslas, interrupting
him in the midst of his threats, and seizing, at the same time, an iron
bar, with which he prepared to knock him down; I, however, instantly
interposed and prevented him from executing this act of justice.
Titsikan returned in a few minutes: “It is only a false alarm,” said he
to us; “it is nothing more than a small detachment which I dispatched
yesterday, on purpose to scour the country---they had orders to rejoin
me here; and they have brought me some prisoners: every thing is quiet,
and the neighbourhood does not appear to be in the least commotion.”
While Titsikan yet spoke to me, a number of unfortunates, whose luckless
fate had delivered them into the hands of the enemy, were dragged before
him. We first beheld five, who, being unbound, walked by the side of
their conquerors, with a downcast and melancholy aspect. The Tartars
told us, that one of their companions had been overcome with great
difficulty, and that was the reason why he was bound hand and foot!
The sixth now appeared: “O Heavens! it is my father!” exclaims Lodoiska,
running at the same time towards him.---I, too, threw myself at the feet
of Pulaski. “Are you Pulaski?” says the Tartar chieftain, “’tis well;
the event is lucky! Believe me, my friend, it is not more than a quarter
of an hour since I first heard of you. I know however, that you are
proud and hot-headed, but no matter! I esteem you; you possess both
courage and abilities; your daughter is beautiful, and does not want for
understanding; Lovzinski is brave---braver than myself, as I have
already experienced. Attend to what I am about to say----”
Pulaski, motionless with astonishment, scarcely heard the sound of the
Tartar’s voice; and struck, at the same time, with the strange spectacle
that offered itself to his view, he began to conceive the most horrible
suspicions.
He repulsed my caresses with the most significant disgust: “Wretch!”
exclaims he at length, “you have betrayed your country, a woman who
loved you, a man who prided himself in calling you his son-in-law; it
was only wanting to fill up the measure of your crimes, that you should
league with robbers!”
“With robbers!” cries Titsikan---“with robbers indeed, if it so please
you to call us: but you yourself must acknowledge that description of
people to be good for something; for without me, perhaps, your daughter,
by to-morrow’s sun, would no longer have been a maiden! Be not alarmed,”
said he, addressing himself to me: “but I know that he is proud, and I
therefore am not angry.”
We had by this time placed Pulaski in a chair; his daughter and myself
bathed his manacles with our tears; but he still continued to frown at
and to overwhelm me with reproaches.
“What can you wish for?” cries the Tartar, once more addressing his
captive: “I tell you that Lovzinski is a brave man, whom I intend to see
married; and as for your Dourlinski, he is a rogue, whom I am about to
order to be hanged.
“I repeat to you once more, that you alone are more _hot-headed_ than us
three put together. But hear me, and let us finish this business, for it
is necessary that I should depart. You belong to me by the most
incontestible right, that of the sword. But if you promise me, upon your
honour, that you will be sincerely reconciled to Lovzinski, and give
your daughter to him for a wife, I will restore you to your liberty.”
“He who can brave death,” replies the haughty Pulaski, “can support
slavery. My daughter shall never be the wife of a traitor.”
“Do you love better that she should be a Tartar’s mistress?---If you do
not promise to give her, within the space of eight days, to this brave
man, I myself shall espouse her this very night! When I am weary of you
and of her, I will sell you to the Turks. Your daughter is handsome
enough to find admittance into the _haram_ of a bashaw: and you yourself
may perhaps superintend the kitchen of some janissary.”
“My life is in your hands; do with it whatsoever you please. If Pulaski
falls beneath the sword of a Tartar, he will be lamented, and even his
enemies will agree that he merits a more glorious destiny: but if he
were to consent: No! no! I rather choose---I prefer death!”
“I do not desire your death! I wish only that Lovzinski should espouse
Lodoiska. What!---Shall my prisoner give the law to me? By my
sabre!---this dog of a Christian---but I am in the wrong---he is
furious, and is assuredly deprived of his reason.”
I now beheld the Tartar’s eyes sparkle with fury, and therefore recalled
to his memory the promise he had made me, that he would not give way to
his passion.
“Undoubtedly! but this man wearies out the patience of a favourite of
our prophet! I am but a robber!---Yet Pulaski, I repeat it to you again,
that it is my command that Lovzinski espouse your daughter. By my sabre,
he has fairly gained her; but for him she had been burnt last night.”
“But for him!”
“Yes! Behold those ruins; there stood a tower in that place; it was on
fire, and no person dared to ascend it: he, however, mounted the
stair-case, attended by Boleslas---and they saved your daughter!”
“Was my daughter in that tower?”
“Yes! that hoary villain had confined her there; that hoary villain, who
attempted to violate her!---Some of you must relate the whole to him;
but make haste, as it is necessary that he should decide instantly;
I have business elsewhere, for I do not intend that your militia* shall
surprise me here: it is otherwise in the plains; there I should laugh at
them.”
[* The troops stationed on purpose to watch over the safety of the
frontiers of Podolia and Volhnia, and preserve them from the
incursions of the Tartars, are called Quartuaires.]
While Titsikan ordered the rich booty which he had taken, to be stowed
in little covered waggons, Lodoiska informed her father of the crimes of
Dourlinski, and mingled the recital of our affection so artfully with
the history of her misfortunes, that nature and gratitude at one and the
same time began to besiege the heart of Pulaski.
Affected in the most lively manner with the misfortunes of his daughter,
and sensible of the important services which I had rendered her, he
embraces Lodoiska, and at length beholding me without resentment, he
seemed to wait impatiently for an opportunity to be reconciled to me.
“O Pulaski!” I exclaim, “you whom Heaven hath left me, on purpose to
console me for the loss of the best of fathers; you for whom I have an
equal friendship and veneration; why hast thou condemned thy children
unheard? Why hast thou supposed a man who adores thy daughter, guilty of
the most horrible treason?
“When my vows were offered up in favour of that prince who now fills the
throne, I swear to you, Pulaski, by her whom I love so tenderly, that I
looked upon his elevation to be an event highly auspicious to the
happiness, the safety, and the prosperity of my country.
“The misfortunes which my youth did not foresee, thy experience had
anticipated: but because I have been wanting in prudence, ought you to
accuse me of perfidy? Ought you to have reproached me for loving my
friend? Can you now look upon it as a crime, that I still give him my
esteem? For the three last months, I have beheld the misfortunes of my
country in the same point of view as yourself: like you, I have mourned
over them; but I am sure that the king is still ignorant of their
extent, and I shall go to Warsaw on purpose to inform him of all that I
have seen.”
Pulaski here interrupts me:---“It is not there that you ought to repair:
you tell me that M. de P*** is not informed of the wrongs done to his
native country, and I believe you: but whether he is acquainted with, or
whether he is entirely ignorant of them, is now but of little
consequence. Insolent foreigners, cantoned throughout our provinces,
strive to maintain themselves in the republic, even against the king,
whom they have caused to be elected. It is no longer in the power of an
impotent or a mal-content king, to chase the Russians from my country!
“Let us trust only to ourselves, Lovzinski; and let us either avenge our
country, or die in her defence. I have assembled 4000 noble Poles in the
palatinate of Lublin, who wait but for the return of their general, to
march against the Russians: follow me to my camp----on this condition I
am your friend, and my daughter shall be your wife!”
(_To be continued._)
* * * * *