MILITARY OPERATIONS.

181

consequences of a victory gained before Warsaw; and Krukowiecki might well perceive that it was the last chance for Poland. But other counsels prevailed; and it was decided to adopt Uminski's idea. Lubienski was detached upon the Palatinate of Plock with 2,800 men; Ramorino upon that of Podlachia with 20,400; and preparations were made to defend Warsaw against a siege, the troops, which covered the city, being divided into two corps under the command of Uminski and of Dembinski.

Ramorino passed the bridge of Praga the 21st of August, with orders to keep the country open for the supply of Warsaw, to fight Golowin, to prevent the Russians from constructing a bridge across the Vistula at Karczew just above Warsaw, and to stand ready to aid the capital, or to act against Rudiger, as circumstances might require. In executing these operations, Ramorino separated himself so far from Warsaw that he was unable to return to the capital in season to be of any service; and after Warsaw had fallen, he marched his corps up the Vistula, and meeting with one disaster after another, ended with taking refuge in Gallicia, and laying down his arms.

Lubienski proceeded in the opposite direction, down the Vistula; and the two wings of the Polish army being thus divided so widely from the centre and each other, Paskiewicz siezed the moment to pour down his forces upon Warsaw. He gathered around the city 70,000 men and 306 pieces of artillery, with all the means of assault; but before proceeding to extremities, he sought to obtain his object by negociations. At his invitation an interview was had, between Denneberg for the Russians, and Prondzynski for the Poles, on the 4th of September. Prondzynski declared that he had no power to treat definitely;

and Denneberg said that he could make no stipulations officially; but he gave assurances that Nicholas was disposed to redress the grievances of the Poles, forget the past, and give satisfactory guarantees for the future, except that he could make no promises for the inhabitants of the RussoPolish provinces, who had taken up arms. Krukowiecki convoked a council of ministers, Prince Radziwill and Count Ostrowski being invited to attend, to receive Prondzyski's report; and all, with the exception of Krukowiecki and Dembinski, were of opinion that accommodation was impossible; and an answer to that effect was transmitted to the Russian outposts.

Ac

Paskiewicz could no longer delay to commence his attack on the city. Finding that the Poles were determined to fight it out to the last, he caused his army to advance, on the 6th at daybreak, to the storm of the outer defences. cording to the Russians themselves, it was only after a desperate and sanguinary resistance, that the enormous masses, which they successively brought up to the assault, succeeded in making themselves masters of the redoubts in their line of march, and of the outer defences, which surrounded the city, one of which was in itself a perfect fortress. But after they had proceeded thus far, and having occupied the whole day in carrying the external line of intrenchments, they found that a second line of intrenchments, and a broad moat defended by bastions, remained to be carried.

The Poles had fought this day with their accustomed resolution. There was no failure on the part of the army; for all, from Malachowski down to the meanest soldier, did their duty nobly against the mighty host of the enemy. But Krukowiecki had made up his mind that the success of the Russians, in carrying the first line, was de

PUBLIC EXPECTATIONS.

193

scheme of reform or liberty. Their bravest and best have perished, or now waste their energies in the obscure sufferings of protracted banishment, in the heart-sickness of hope deferred; and what can be expected from the disheartened and persecuted at home, who have escaped only the worst punishment of unsuccessful rebellion?-In Spain, therefore, there is no question except between more or less liberal members of the absolutist party; and it is to the former rather than to the latter division that the wishes of the King are believed to lean, while Don Carlos favors the apostolical or ultra section of the enemies of free institutions. Of course, that portion of the Spanish nation, which deprecated the blind violence of the apostolicals, looked to the continuance of the sceptre in the hands of Ferdinand as preferable to its transfer to Carlos, and had anxiously desired the birth of a Prince of the Asturias to give succession to the elder line.

These circumstances were plainly calculated to attach interest to the arrival of Maria Cristina in Spain. Besides which, her parents, the King and Queen of the Two Sicilies, the latter herself an Infanta of Spain, were to accompany the new Queen to Madrid. They came from Naples by the South of France, and crossing the Pyrenees proceeded through Barcelona and Valencia to Madrid. Catalonia was ruled at this time with a rod of iron by the Conde de Espana, Captain General of the province, and one of the sternest agents of absolutism in Spain. The numerous individuals in Barcelona, who suffered on account of opinions, crowded around the path of the young Queen, to swell her welcome with their acclamations, promising themselves her aid in making their peace with the King. Similar gratulations attended her in other parts of her progress

Paskiewicz, as we have seen, had given the Poles a few hours' respite, for the purpose of enabling them to reflect upon the situation of affairs; and at the end of that time, he opened his fire upon the second line of intrenchments. The Russians advanced with great bravery, but they were received by men not less determined than themselves, and who were animated by the convulsive energy of despair. In this attack, it is said, Marshal Paskiewicz himself was wounded by a contusion on the left arm and breast, and obliged to quit the field, leaving General Toll to lead on the battalions to the assault. The Russians were at first repulsed; but they possessed a resource in their number which enabled them to continue the assault with fresh troops, while the unfortunate Poles had but small means of reinforcement. However, this devoted people defended every inch of ground with unshaken resolution. When the intrenchments were carried, they made a determined stand in the gardens and on the edge of the ditches around the city, so that it was already dark before the Russians had overcome the various successive obstacles, which impeded their access to the walls. Meanwhile the Russians had maintained a continual discharge of shells, some of which set fire to the suburb of Czyste, which was reduced to ashes; and a furious combat ensued under the very ramparts of the city, the Russians making repeated attempts to gain possession of the city, and being again and again repulsed at the point of the bayonet. Desperate attempts were made by the Russians to carry the barrier of Wola, the soldiers being lighted on by the burning houses of the suburbs and the numerous windmills in the environs. But here, at the close of another day of carnage, the Russians were obliged to pause to gather strength for assaulting the city at all points,

LAW OF SUCCESSION.

195

ions, embraced this occasion to offer their congratulations, and to propitiate the good will of the King. It was whispered that Ferdinand himself proposed that the healing measure, which the popular sentiment called for, should be frankly accorded. He countenanced the public expectations by some unequivocal acts emanating from himself. Thus he invited the venerable and amiable Don Manuel Josef Quintana, who, like every other ardent friend of letters, had favored the cause of the Constitution and had been since frowned upon by the court, -to write an epithalamium, and liberally recompensed the poet for his performance. But the representations of Don Francisco Tadeo Calomarde, the Minister of Grace and Justice, and delegate of the apostolical party in the cabinet, overcame the better intentions of the King, and prevented his recovering the forfeited title of amado Fernando, which the war of independence had consecrated. Only a few scanty favors were dealt out to individuals, who, like the Conde de Cartagena, Don Pablo Morillo, bore the stigma of royal reprobation after having served their country but too faithfully and zealously.

The promise of offspring by his Queen was hailed by Ferdinand with peculiar joy in consideration of the long disappointment of his wishes in this respect. He took occasion from the circumstance to revive the ancient constitution of the Spanish monarchy in regard to succession. When Philip of Anjou became King of Spain, among other violent changes in the institutions of the country, he saw fit to introduce the Salic law of his own family, in derogation of the rules of descent, which had elevated himself to the throne, and which had always obtained in the states of Castile. In anticipation of the possibility that