Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/147

Rh and to recover, if possible, our provinces. All the rest would have been freely discussed, when Poland was emancipated from foreign sway. Marshal Potocki, General Kosciuszko, and all right-minded Poles would, very likely, have offered the crown to the Grand-Duke Constantine, on condition that he would accept the constitution of the 3d May, and that the Russians would solemnly promise never again to interfere in the affairs of Poland.

“I have already said that, surrounded as we were with the armies of the three allied powers, it was impossible for us to have any communication with foreign countries. The Committee of Public Safety sent us no assistance; as to the other powers, which of them would have dared to declare itself, and embrace openly the cause of a nation on the eve of being crushed by the immensely superior forces united against it?

“I am not aware that there were any Poles in the provinces lately united to Russia, who thought of rising or favouring our