and Kaluszyn, and subjected him to a loss of nearly 10,000 soldiers, 60 officers including two generals, 26 field pieces, 1,500 horses, and a great quantity of arms and munitions of war.

All the plans, which Diebitsch had formed for the campaign, were utterly defeated by the brilliant victory of the Poles over the corps of Geissmar and Rosen. Instead of crossing the Vistula as he contemplated, and transferring the seat of war from the right to the left bank of the river, he was compelled to strengthen himself in position at Kock, and to take measures to preserve the remains of his advanced guard from absolute destruction. In addition to losing the services of the Imperial Guard, which remained near Ostrolenka, he found it necessary to send another division under General Kreutz to support General Witt against Dwernicki in the Palatinate of Lublin. Thus after this brave general, with his handful of troops, originally 3,000 in number, had cut up the corps of Wurtemberg, the Russians thought it necessary to oppose him with a force of not less than 20,000 men under Kreutz and Witt. He continued to gain the most brilliant advantages over them, making the fortress of Zamosc his point d'appui, and occasionally advancing as far as Lublin and Wlodawa, where he received daily accessions of volunteers from the Russo-Polish provinces of Volhynia and Podolia.

It was at this crisis that the cause of the Poles gained strength from the breaking out of insurrection in Lithuania, one of the Russian spoils of ancient Poland. The Lithuanians, while they suffered under the tyranny of their Russian masters, had never lost their attachment to the Polish name; and at the very commencement of the Revolution, they were anxious to make a movement in concert with their brethren in Warsaw,

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but were discouraged by the Dictator Chlopicki, for the reasons heretofore explained. They continued to bear the object in view; and at length their rising was forced on by the following circumstances. Many of the Lithuanian patriots were assembled in the church of Osmiany to consult upon measures of insurrection, when the doors were forced by a regiment of Cossacs, who entered and sabred part of the patriots within the church itself, making prisoners of most of the residue. Upon this the Lithuanian patriots in the vicinity armed themselves, and gave the first impulse to the ready zeal of the inhabitants. In a short time, about 2,000 Lithuanians had succeeded in driving out Russian garrisons to the number of eight or ten thousand, spreading revolt and consternation through the extensive region between the Dwina and the Niemen. Their strength was continually increased by means of the arms taken from the Russians; and thus the forces under Diebitsch were placed in the critical position of having a victorious Polish army in their front, a wasted country around them, and spreading revolt in Lithuania between them and Russia.

The danger of Diebitsch's position was greatly augmented by the next movement of the Poles. The remains of the corps of Rosen and Geissmar having been united, were stationed at Boimie, the place where a battle was fought in February. Skrzynecki planned another successful attack on these devoted troops, which took place at Igani in the same neighborhood, the 9th of April, and was one of the most brilliant victories of the whole The Russians lost great numbers in prisoners and killed and left the field of battle to the Poles, being saved from total ruin only by the necessity the Poles were under of suspending their operations to construct a bridge over the river

war.

of late. Enormous losses had been sustained in the course of the late expedition, without any adequate advantage in return; and in consequence of this, differences had grown up between Skrzynecki on the one side, and Uminski, Krukowiecki, and Prondzynski, three of the most able and intelligent generals in the whole service. Dissatisfied with the existing government, which Skrzynecki accused of not supporting him with sufficient energy, he proposed to the Diet a radical change in its organization.

It is to be remembered that the Government, as constituted in January, consisted of five persons. The Commander in Chief was independent of them, and not a member of the Government; but as nothing could be done without full and cordial concurrence between them, it became necessary, in practice, that Skrzynecki should have a place among them whenever he desired it, although he directed the operations of war upon his own individual responsibility. He conceived the idea of substituting instead of the Commission of five, the authority of a single person, which person would have been Czartoryski.

The plan was discussed in the Diet at his suggestion, and led to extreme irritation in that body, and among the people at large. Here sprang up the epithets of clubists and aristocrats, denoting a radical difference of parties, in regard to the true theory of government. After an exceedingly warm discussion, the existing form of government was sustained in the Chamber of Nuncios by a majority of eight votes. The Nuncios themselves did not allow their acts to be influenced by the feelings which this question elicited; but it sensibly affected the popularity of Skryznecki, and unloosed the elements of party discord in the city, where the Patriotic Society was again becoming a

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rallying point of popular opinion. We shall have occasion to note the deplorable effects of this in the sequel.

The progress of things now leads us to detail the important operations in Lithuania. The insurgents in that quarter, seemed to need only the presence of a small organized force of their Polish friends, to be more than a match for the Russians; and several corps were successively detached by Skrzynecki to afford the requisite assistance. A small corps under General Chlapowski started the 19th of May, and traversed the province of Bialystok triumphantly, gaining considerable advantages over bodies of Russians at Bielsk and at Narewka. A second, commanded by Colonel Sierakowski, after pursuing a division of the Imperial Guard under General Sacken, had orders to proceed onward in the direction of Lithuania. Finally General Gielgud and his division started from Lomza for the same destination on the 27th of May. Upon this hazardous service a very considerable portion of the Polish army was employed, amounting to 6,350 infantry, 1,300 horse, and 28 field pieces.

General Gielgud soon came up with Colonel Sierakowski and his corps, and they proceeded together until they overtook the Russians on the 29th, at the lake of Raygrod near the village of Graiewo. A battle ensued, in which the Poles obtained a decisive victory, after which the Russians hastily retreated by the road to Kowno. Instead of pressing the attack, Gielgud suffered General Sacken to make progress on the way to Wilna, the capital of Lithuania, while the endeavor should have been to intercept him in his march, so as to prevent the scattered corps of Russians from concentrating themselves in that important city, and suppressing the patriotic de

signs of its inhabitants. General Gielgud committed another fault. Lithuania is bounded, on the side towards Warsaw, by the river Niemen, or Memel as it is called in a part of its course. Wilna is situated on a small branch of this river, called Wilyia, which flows into the Niemen at Kowno. It so happened that the brave little corps under Chłapowski had already passed Grodno, and. pushed itself forward to the tract of country between Kowno and Wilna; and had Gielgud crossed the Niemen in the direct course towards Kowno, he would have been but a day's march from Chlapowski. Instead of this he continued on to a place called Gielgudiski, thirty two miles below Wilna.

Having passed the Niemen, and entered Lithuania, Gielgud was joined by Chlapowski on the 6th of June, and the united corps marched to Zeymy. Many Lithuanians rallied around the Poles on their march; and among them was the celebrated Countess Emilia Plater, who came in with a regiment of five hundred Lithuanians raised and equipped at her own expense. This young heroine was uniformly at the head of her regiment in the hottest engagements, and sacrificed every thing in her country's cause. The ancients would have raised altars to such a splendid example of female patriotism as being something divine; in the middle age knights and men at arms would have flocked to her banners from the remotest corners of Christendom, as to a crusade; but in these calculating days of political combination, when protocols alone are potent to save, the Countess Plater enjoys the melancholy honors of a glorious exile.

The Polish generals commenced operations by an attempt on Wilna. Their plan was that General Dembinski should make a detour so as to