Page:Undivine Comedy - Zygmunt Krasiński, tr. Martha Walker Cook.djvu/29

 Rh for some time in Nice. The frightful occurrences of which Galicia was the theatre, in 1846, affected him most painfully. When referring to an opinion regarding these circumstances expressed by him at a much earlier date, he passionately exclaimed: "Ah! why was I not a false prophet?" and almost cursed the exactness of his prophetic vision. These startling events gave rise to a discussion with the fiery poet, Julius Slowacki. This discussion awakened intense interest, and will ever remain a most valuable exposition of the political opinions of the times; it also placed in the strongest light the antagonistic genius of the two poets.

Toward the end of the year 1847, and about a year after the birth of his second son, Sigismund returned to Rome, and was consequently an eye-witness of the political scenes occurring during 1848 in the capital of the world. His religious feelings were always deep, and it was most natural that during his sojourn in Rome, a man of his character and antecedents should become through conviction an ardent champion of the Catholic Church. In June, 1848, he returned to Heidelberg, whence he paid a short visit to France, then convulsed by revolution. After a trial of sea-bathing, he remained some time in Baden, where, in spite of severe physical suffering, he labored upon the first and third divisions of "The Undivine Comedy," of which, as already stated, he had finished the second part in Vienna. It was his custom while thus occupied to have his wife seated at the piano, that he might hear her play the melodies he loved. When Baden was also drawn into the whirlpool of the revolution, he went to Berne, in which place he was utterly prostrated by sickness. When just beginning to recover, he received a command from the Government to return immediately home. He obeyed the summons, and suffered the necessary results. He spent that winter in Warsaw, but in consequence of the disastrous effects of the rigor of the climate upon his delicate organization, he was threatened with total loss of eyesight. With great difficulty he obtained from Russia permission again to leave Poland. He tried sea-bathing at Triport, which, instead of mitigating, greatly increased his maladies. He was allowed to select