“Terrible is the Turkish power, and to no potentate are so many kings subject as to the Sultan. The Turks themselves say that were it not for Lehistan,—thus they name our mother,—they would have been lords of the earth long ago. ‘Behind the shoulders of the Pole,’ say they, ‘the rest of the world live in injustice; for the Pole,’ say they, ‘lies like a dog in front of the cross, and bites our hands.’ And they are right, for it is that way, and it will be that way. And we here in Hreptyoff and the commands farther on in Mohiloff, in Yampol, in Rashkoff,—what else are we doing? There is a world of wickedness in our Commonwealth; but still I think that God will account to us for this service sometime, and perhaps men too will account to us.
“But now I will return to what happened to me. The
