Strona 600 z 788

"Often have I succeeded in penetrating into this land, bearing

orders from the generals, or collecting information, or

concluding agreements-the men of Galicia know this monkish

cowl-and in Great Poland they know it too! For a year I toiled in

a Prussian fortress, chained to a wheelbarrow; thrice the

Muscovites have cut up my back with stripes, and once they had me

on the road to Siberia; later the Austrians buried me in the

dungeons of Spielberg, at hard labour, in carcer durum-but by a

miracle the Lord God delivered me and granted that I should die

among my own people, with the sacraments.

"Perchance even now, who knows? Perchance I have sinned anew!

Perchance I have hastened too much the insurrection, exceeding

the commands of my generals. The thought that the house of the

Soplicas should be the first to take up arms, and that my kindred

should raise the first banner of the Warhorse in Lithuania!-That

thought ... seems pure.--