Pagina 393 van 788

"This is not, Pan Maciej, my brother, and revered father of us

all-this is not aid to be despised. I should rely on the French

in time of war as on four aces; they are a warlike people, and

since the times of Thaddeus Kosciuszko the world has not had such

a military genius as the great Emperor Bonaparte. I remember when

the French crossed the Warta; I was on a trip abroad at the time,

in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and six; I was

just then doing some trading with Dantzic, and, since I have many

kinsmen in the district of Posen, I had gone to visit them. So it

happened that Pan Joseph Grabowski125 and I-he is now colonel of

a regiment, but at that time he was living in the country near

Obiezierz-were out hunting small game together.