Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/245

Rh and see Potocki whenever he desired. Kosciuszko asked leave to retire to America, which he granted, and promised him the means of facilitating the voyage. The Grand Duke Alexander was so affected with Kosciuszko's weak and melancholy state, that, on his leaving him, he embraced him several times with tears in his eyes.

On the following day, Marshal Potocki, being too ill to be able to go out, Kosciuszko went to see him. They agreed that it would be highly imprudent to bargain upon the conditions of our release, and that we were obliged to yield and to promise everything. During the conversation, Marshal Potocki asked him: “Is your friend Niemcewicz already free?”—“No,” replied the General,—“How can you,” replied he, “lose a moment without going to the Emperor and asking his liberation, because his enemies will take advantage of the least delay, in order to ruin him again.” Koscuiszko went accordingly, on the third day after this, to the Emperor, with a list of the Polish prisoners who were still