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In the next year, however, a group of upholders of the old

anarchic state of affairs, one of whose leaders was Ksawery

Branicki (p. 200), formed with the support of Russia a

confederacy which was proclaimed at Targowica (pp. 274, 324), a

small town in the Ukraine, and the object of which was the

undoing of the work of the Four Years' Diet. The Russian armies

entered the country and overcame the resistance of the Polish

troops, two of the foremost leaders of which were Prince Joseph

Poniatowski, the nephew of the King, and Kosciuszko. Then

followed the second partition of Poland (1793), by which the

territory of the Commonwealth was reduced to about one third of

its original dimensions. In the next year occurred a popular

revolt, of which Kosciuszko assumed the leadership, and which,

despite a brilliant victory at Raclawice (p. 252), near Cracow,

and some other successes, was soon quelled by the allied powers,

Russia, Prussia, and Austria. In a battle at Maciejowice (p.