Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/21



following imperfect sketch of the "Anonymous Poet" is the only account we have been able to find of him in European literature. It is translated chiefly from "Unsere Zeit Jahrbuch zum Conversations Lexikon. No. 55. 1862. L. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig."

So chants the fact that as yet no details of the life of the great Pole can appear, because they might compromise friends once very dear to him, living within reach of the vengeful arm of Russia. He renounced all fame while living, ever publishing anonymously, and the manifold experiences of his internal life, with his numerous historical and political letters, must slumber in the shroud of silence, until Polish patriotism is no longer crime, and confiscation and exile cease to be the doom of all connected with those daring enough to defend their native land.

The reader may, however, round this skeleton biography into flesh, by clothing its bones from the veined tissues he will not fail to find in the nervous pages of Julian Klaczko.

When Napoleon entered Poland, in 1806, the leader of the Polish Legions, General Dombrowski, summoned the fiery patriot, Wybicki, to unite himself with armed hand to the conqueror of nations; and as Napoleon spoke freely of the reconstitution of the country, such summons fell not upon unheeding ears in Poland. Many patriots of high distinction offered up property and life 15