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124 with glory. Ah! he would have saved the state had he persisted in this noble determination. But, as soon as the war broke out, danger appeared, and Russian armies gained ground, Stanislaus-Augustus postponed from day to day his departure for the army, avoiding his ministers, retiring into his seraglio, and yielding entirely to the tears and importunities of his sisters and mistresses. From this ignoble retreat emanated the order for suspending hostilities, and, finally, his accession to the confederation of Targowica. From being a King, he became again a protégé, if not a slave; he lost all his authority, and three-fourths of his dominions.

At this time I was obliged, with several of my countrymen, to seek refuge in foreign countries. It is said that Stanislaus-Augustus experienced sometimes all the shame, remorse, and anguish of a guilty conscience, and that he consoled himself in sending to all the European newspaper editors his justification, written with his own hand, in which he threw the blame on the great difficulties