Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/73

Rh As we advanced, the booty increased; towns, villages, and particularly the country seats of the nobility, everything was laid waste, plundered, and destroyed. Pulawy, one of the most beautiful country seats belonging to Prince Czartoryski, was the most abused. The château was fitted up with as much taste as magnificence. A splendid hall with gilded wainscoting, and bronzes, mirrors, china, valuable furniture, ceiling painted by Boucher, the apartments of the princess equally rich and elegant, a well selected library, everything was pillaged; and what they could not carry away they did not fail to break in a thousand pieces. A person of the name of Bibikof, who united with the Russian barbarity the impertinence of a Parisian barber, was the Achilles of this fine expedition.

Chruszczew's detachment being exclusively appointed for our escort, passed through a peaceful country, already pillaged, where there was not a single Polish soldier; yet he raised contributions, plundering and extorting everything. He managed this in the