peasants, maintained himself against four hostile armies, amounting together to 150,000 men.
His great power consisted in the confidence which his fellow-citizens reposed in him. The nephew of the king, once his general, served under him. Kosciusko had unlimited power in the republic, but he displayed the integrity of Washington, and the activity of Cæsar. He attended to procuring supplies, superintended the raising and payment of money, and prevented plundering and fraud, and was equally active in the council and the field. His days and nights, all his powers, were devoted to his country. He secured the administration of justice, abolished bondage, and finally restored to the nation, May 29, in the supreme national council which he established, the great power which had been delegated to him. Catharine at length decided the contest by an overwhelming superiority of numbers. Suwaroff defeated the Poles under Sierakowski at Brzec, in Volhynia, September 18th and 19th. Repnin penetrated through Lithuania, and formed a union with Suwaroff; general Fersen was to support them with 12,000 men. To prevent this, Kosciusko marched from Warsaw with 21,000 men. Poninski was to have supported him with his division; but the Russians intercepted the messenger. The united Russian armies under Fersen attacked the Poles, who were not more than one-third as strong as the Russians, October 10, at Macziewice (about 50 miles from Warsaw); they were three times repulsed, but, on the fourth attack, they broke through the Polish lines. Kosciusko fell from his horse covered with wounds, exclaiming Finis Poloniæ and was made prisoner by the enemy. In losing him, his country lost all. Suwaroff stormed Praga November 4; Warsaw capitulated on the 9th; Madalinski left Great Poland; an Austrian army appeared before Lublin. But the noble efforts of the conquered had awakened the regard of Europe towards the unhappy country, and the dearest hopes of the nation—the restoration of their monarchy, with a free constitution—found a powerful support in public opinion. Catharine caused the hero and his noble colleagues, who were prisoners of war, to be thrown into a state prison. Paul I gave them their liberty, and distinguished Kosciusko by marks of his esteem. He presented his own sword to the general, who declined it with these words—'I no longer need a sword, since I have no longer a country.' To the day of his death, he never again wore a sword. Paul then presented him with 1,500 peasants, and his friend Niemcewicz, the poet, with 1,000. When on the Russian frontier, Kosciusko declined this present by a letter. He and his friend now went by the way of France and London, where Kosciusko was treated with distinction, to America (1797).
His fortune was very small. On his return to his native country after the war of the revolution, he had received a pension from America, and he now found there such a reception as he deserved. In 1798, he went to France. His countrymen in the Italian army presented to him the sabre of John Sobieski, which had been found (1799) at Loretto. Napoleon afterwards formed the plan of restoring Poland to its place among the nations, and thus, at the same time, injuring Russia, and extending his own power over the east of Europe. But Kosciusko would take no part in this struggle, which was conducted by Dombrowski, in 1807-8, being prevented less by ill health than by having given his word to Paul I never to serve against the Russians. To Napoleon's proposals he answered, that
