Strona 11 z 788

During 1833 he wrote a continuation of The Forefathers, in an

entirely different tone from that of his youthful poem of ten

years before. The action is based on the persecution by the

Russian authorities of the Polish students in Wilno; the lovelorn

Gustaw of the earlier poem is transformed into the patriotic

martyr Konrad. In this same year he settled in Paris, along with

many other Polish exiles or "emigrants," who were made homeless

by the downfall of the national cause, and who, if the truth be

said, were split up into bitterly hostile factions. Mickiewicz

was now beginning to assume the role of prophet and seer. For the

reproof and instruction of his fellow-countrymen he composed his

_Books of the Polish Nation and of the Polish Pilgrimage,_ a

mystical work, written in biblical prose, and intended to bring

comfort and harmony to the distracted exiles.