Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/22

16 in the new-born hopes for fatherland, and, captivated by the fallacious promises of Napoleon, hurried to join the French eagles. Count Vincent Krasinski, then about twenty-four years of age, a man of great wealth and high distinction, was one of the first to greet the French Emperor on Polish ground, and afterwards accompanied him in his campaigns as adjutant.

For a time Count Krasinski resided in Paris, in which city his wife, Maria, a princess of the house of Radziwill, presented him with a son, born on the 19th of February, 1812, who received in baptism the name of Sigismund Napoleon. This boy became the "Anonymous Poet of Poland."

Bitterly deceived were the high hopes of the Poles. After the signing of the act of abdication by Napoleon, April 11, 1814, Count Vincent Krasinski, then under orders from the Czar Alexander, led the unhappy remnants of the Polish legions back from France into Poland.

His countess soon after joined him there with the little Sigismund, then about three years old. Upon the immense estates of his forefathers, under the tender care of a devoted but very sickly mother, lived for many happy years the young Sigismund, a dark-eyed boy with long, fair curls, remarkable from his earliest years for rare powers of wit and intellect, for rapid and acute answers to difficult questions, for true and chivalric feeling, for high-strung and self-sacrificing ardor. His health, however, was exceedingly delicate. When but five years of age he was presented to the Czar, an especial friend of his parents, and recited for him the lines of Voltaire, "Tu dors, Brute!" meantime fearlessly gazing with childlike confidence into the keen eyes of the autocrat. Two years later he was introduced to the Empress, whom he pleased greatly. She said laughingly to him, "I acknowledge you as my knight. Will you accept the appointment, and defend me against my enemies?" His answer was as acute as chivalric. "I cannot," he replied; "your Majesty has no need of defenders, since you have no enemies."

He had instructors of great ability, and so rapidly was