Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/273

Rh the first opportunity, I impatiently awaited the day appointed for our departure. My word was given to Kosciuszko, and I could not recall it, my business and farewell letters were written, every moment which I passed in that horrible capital was filled with anxieties and alarms, which the temper of the new monarch was of such a nature as fully to justify. This prince, if we may once more use a trivial comparison, drove the carriage of the state like a young and foolish coachman, sometimes he proceeded along a straight and smooth road, sometimes he turned from it, right or left; and, as if he wished to try his strength and skill, he struck against all the stones, went by hops, skips and jumps, caught mile-stones, and made the frightened passengers tremble in their seats. His edicts and regulations were stamped, at the same time, with the greatest wisdom and the greatest folly; the dismissal of a perverse minister, the abolition of an odious court of justice, or the introduction of a new shape of hats and waist