Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/146

118 you caused those to be arrested in their places who raised their voice against such acts of violence, and your Ambassador, being tired himself, took the silence, distress and grief of the assembly for consent. Now, what was your conduct within the country? Your troops, not satisfied with being fed and lodged free of expense, were guilty of odious excesses. The inhabitants were shamefully treated; their wives and daughters violated; their flocks killed; and their corn-fields burnt before the harvest. These are the acts of the Russian Ministers and Generals, acts contrary, doubtless, to the feelings of the Empress and the orders she had given them,—that drove the nation to insurrection. It is your Ambassadors and Generals then, and not we, who were the authors of the revolution.

"You ask me what object the insurgents had in view, and what they would have done if the revolution had proved successful? The object of the revolution was to free Poland from all the calamities which beset her, to compel the troops to leave the country,