Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/37

Rh and took part during the Consulate in the battles on the Danube and in Italy. But neither the treaty of peace at Luneville in 1801 nor that of Campo Formio in 1797, contained any article in which the name of Poland was mentioned.

Nevertheless the Poles, deceived by lying promises, hoped at every new campaign that by alliance with the French troops they should succeed in restoring Poland. The celebrated song which the soldiers of the legion had composed far from their native land, "The Dombrowski March"—"It is not yet all over with Poland, not so long as we live"—contains this thought.

But after the peace of Luneville, Bonaparte, who aspired to imperial dignity, merely wished to keep the Poles as a bodyguard for himself, and when General Kniaziewicz answered him by demanding his dismissal, he determined to get rid of them. They were first sent to Italy, and there it was announced to them that they were to go to St. Domingo to put down an insurrection of negroes who were fighting for freedom. Their protests availed nothing. Threatened on all sides with artillery, they were embarked at Genoa and Leghorn, and in the unhealthy climate and in the terrible war nearly all perished.

And yet the Polish legions again fought by the side of the French at Jena. At the peace of Tilsit Russia was treated leniently, while out of what was then Prussian Poland the little Grand-Duchy of Warsaw was created. But this was enough to arouse anew the confidence of the Poles and win their whole trust. When preparations were made for the campaign against Russia, it was in vain that Kosciusko resisted Napoleon's hypocritical advances and flatteries, and demanded positive and publicly given promises. When Fouché was unable to induce Poland's dictator to give his name by threats, they imitated his signature, and by a shameless forgery issued a proclamation signed by Kosciusko to the Polish people, which earnestly entreated the Poles to unite their forces with those of the French. It might have been supposed that they were cured of the worship of Napoleon. But in spite of everything which had