Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/31

Rh walls of the capital. The King of Prussia marched towards the provinces where the insurrection had just broken out, and the Russians went along the bank of the Vistula, thus procuring us a delay not less desirable than necessary, of which we did not fail to take advantage, by detaching, immediately, from five to six thousand men, under General Dombrowski, in order to make a diversion in Royal Prussia, a province wrested from Poland at the time of her first partition.

This little corps, thanks to the valour of its soldiers, and the enthusiasm and abilities of its general, beat the enemy wherever they met, defeated the Prussian troops under the command of Sekuli, and took by assault the town of Bromberg.

Whilst these successes were spreading most enthusiastic joy in the camp and town, General Kosciuszko, during the night of the 4th of October, received an express from General Poninski, bearing the melancholy intelligence that General Fersen, at the head of the Russian troops which retreated from