The Countess was preparing to reply, when a sudden volley of fire arms made Thaddeus spring upon nis feet. Loud outcries succeeded. The women rushed into the apartment, screaming," the ramparts are stormed!" and the next moment that quarter of the building rocked to its foundation. The Countess clung to the bosom of her son Thaddeus clasped her close to his breast, and casting his petitioning eyes up to heaven, "O my God!" cried he, "can I not find shelter for my mother!"

Another burst of cannon was followed by a heavy crash: and the most piercing shrieks were echoed through the palace. "All is lost!" cried a soldier, who appeared For an instant at the room door, and vanished.

Thaddeus, overwhelmed with despair, grasped his sword, which had fallen to the ground, and crying, "Mother, we will die together!" he would have given ber one last and assuring embrace, when his eyes met the dreadful sight of her before anxious, features, now tranquilized in death. She fell from his palsied arms back-on the sofa, and he stood gazing on her, as if struck by a power which had benumbed all his faculties.

The tumult in the palace increased every moment; but he heard it not, till Butzou, followed by two or three his soldiers, ran into the apartment calling out, "Cou save yourself!”

Sobieski still remained motionless. The general caught him by the arm, and throwing his mantle over the dead Countess, hurried him, almost unconscious, by an opposite door, through the state-chambers into the gardens.

Thaddeus did not recover his recollection, till he reached the outward-gate; then breaking from the hold of his friend, was returning to the sorrowful scene he had left, when Butzou, aware of his intentions, just stopped him time enough, to prevent his rushing on the bayonets of a party of Russian infantry, which was pursuing them at full speed.

The Count now rallied his distracted energies, and making a stand with the general and his three Poles, they compelled this merciless cetachment to seek refuge among the arcades of the building.

Batzou would not allow his yg lord to pursue these

wretches; but hurried him across the park.-He looked behind him; a long column of fire issued from the south towers. Thaddeus groaned. "All is indeed over!" and pressing his hand on his forehead, in that attitude followed the steps of the general towards the Vistula.

From the wind being very high, the flames spread itself over the roof of the palace, and catching at every combustible in its way, the Russians became so terrified at the quick progress of a fire, which threatened to consume themselves as well as their rich plunder, that they quitted it with precipitation; and descrying the Count and his soldiers at a little distance, directed their malice to that point speedily overtaking him, they blocked up the bridge by a file of men with fixed pikes, and not only menaced the Polanders as they advanced, but derided their means of defence.

Sobieski, indifferent alike to danger and to insults, stopped short to the left and followed by his friends, plunged into the stream, amidst a shower of musket balls from the enemy. In a few minutes he reached the opposite bank; where he was assisted out of the river by some of the weeping inhabitants of Warsaw, who had been watching the expiring ashes of Prague, and the flames which were feading on the boasted towers of Villanow.

Emerged from the waters, Thaddeus stood to regain his breath; and leaning on the shoulders of Butzou, he pointed to his burning palace, and said, with a smile of gony, "See what a funeral pile Heaven has given to he manes of my dear mother !"

The general did not speak; for his emotions choked aim; but motioning the two soldiers to proceed, he sup ported the Count into the citadel.

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM the termination of this sorrowful day, in which a brave and unhappy nation was consigned to slavery, Thaddeus had been confined to his apartment in the gar

It was now the latter end of November. General Butzou, supposing that the illness of his lord might continue some weeks, and feeling that no time ought to be lost; obtained his permission, and quitting Warsaw, joined prince Poniatowski, who was yet under arms, at the head of a few troops near Sachoryn.

Meanwhile the Count Sobieski, finding himself tolerably restored, except in those wounds of the heart which only time can heal, was enabled to leave his room, and breathe a little fresh air on the ramparts.

His first appearance was greeted by the officers with melancholy congratulations; but their replies soon displaced the faint smile which he tried to spread over his countenance; and with a contracted brow, he listened to the following information.

Prague had not only been razed to the ground; but upwards of thirty thousand persons, besides old men, women, and defenceless infants, had either perished by the sword, or had been cast into the river, or into the flames. All the horrors of Ismail had been reacted by Suworrow on the banks of the Vistula. The citizens of Warsaw intimidated by such a spectacle, had assembled in a body, and, driven to desperation, repaired to the foot of the *brone; on their knees they implored his majesty to forget the contested rights of his subjects; and in pity to their wives and children, allow them, by a timely submission, to save those dear relatives from the ignominy and cruelty which had been wreaked upon the inhabitants of Prague. Stanislaus saw that opposition would be fruitless; the walls of his capital were already surrounded by a train of artillery, prepared to blow the town to atoms on the first command of the Russian general; therefore, with a deep sigh, he assented to the petition, and sent deputies to the enemy's camp.

"And," continued the officer, "Suworrow, in reply, demands, that every man in Poland, shall not only surrender his arms, but shall sue for pardon for the past; and these conditions are consented to."

They never shall be, by me," said Sobieski; and turning from his informer, he walked towards the royal palace, hardly knowing what were his intentions, or what he had else to hope or fear.

When his majesty was apprized that the young Count Sobieski awaited him in the audience chamber, he left his closet, where he had been musing alone, and entered the room. Thaddeus, with a swelling heart, would have thrown himself on his knees, but the king prevented him with emotion, and pressed him in his arms.

"Brave young man !" cried he, in a faultering voice, "I embrace in you the last of those Polish youths, who were so lately the brightest jewels in my crown."

Tears stood in the monarch's eyes as he spoke; and Sobieski, with hardly a steady utterance, answered, "I come to receive your majesty's commands. I will obey them in all things, but in surrendering this sword, (which my grandfather bequeathed me) into the hands of your enemies."

"I will not desire you my noble friend," replied Stan islaus; "by my acqiescence with the terms of Russia, I only comply with the earnest prayers of my people; I do ot compel any. I shall not ask you to betray your country; but alas! you must not throw away your life in a now hopeless cause. Fate has consigned Poland to subjection; and when heaven, in its all wise, though mysterious decrees, confirms the destruction of kingdoms, man has no farther duty than resignation. For myself, I am ordered by our conqueror, to bury my griefs, and indignities in the castle of Grodno.

The blood rushed over the cheek of Thaddeus, at this meek declaration of his majesty to which the proud indignation of his soul could in no way subscribe; with a heated and agitated voice, he exclaimed, "if my sovereign be already at the command of our oppressors, then indeed is Poland no more! and I have nothing to do but to perform the dying will of my mother. Will your majesty grant me permission to set off for England, before I am obliged to witness this last calamity of my wretched country?"

"I would to heaven," replied the king, "that I too,might repose my age and sorrows in that happy kingdom! Go Sobieski, my prayers and blessings shall follow

you."

Thaddeus pressed his majesty's hand to his lips.

Believe me, my dear Count," continued Stanislaus,

66

my soul bleeds at this parting.

I know the treasure

which your family has always been to this nation; I know your own individual merit: I know the wealth which you have sacrificed for me, and my subjects; and I am powerless to express my gratitude.'

"Had I done any thing more than absolute duty," replied he, "such words from your majesty's lips, would have been a reward adequate to every deprivation: but, alas, no! I have perhaps performed less than my duty; the blood of a Sobieski ought not to have been spared one drop, when the liberties of his country perished!" Thaddeus blushed while he spoke; and almost repented the too ready zeal of his friends in having saved him from the general slaughter at Villanow.

The voice of the venerable Stanislaus became fainter, as he resumed

"Perhaps had a Sobieski reigned at this time, these horrors might not have been accomplished! That tyrannous power which has crushed my people, I cannot forget, was the same which put the sceptre into my hand. Catharine misunderstood my principles: she calculated on giving a traitor to the Poles: but when she made me a king, she could not obliterate that stamp that the King of KINGS had graven upon my heart: I believed myself to be his vicegerent; and, to the utmost I have struggled to fulfil my

trust.

"Yes, my sovereign!" cried Thaddeus," and whilst there remains one man on earth, who has drawn his first breath in Poland he will bear witness in all the lands through which he may be doomed to wander, that he has felt from you the care and affection of a father. O! sir, how will future ages believe, that in the midst of civilized Europe, that a brave people and a virtuous monarch, were suffered unaided, undeplored, to fall into the grasp of usurpation and murder ?”

Stanislaus laid his hand on the arm of the count, and with a languid smile gleaming from his eyes, which still shed benign lustre through his gray locks, he said

"Man's ambition and baseness are monstrous, only to the contemplation of youth. Your are learning your les son early: I have studied mine for many years; and with