in that direction; but was it to the Austrians, the uneasy usurpers of Gallicia, that they ought to confide the liberation of Volhynia?  Would they station liberty so near slavery?  Why did not they send Frenchmen and Poles there?  But then it would be necessary to halt, to carry on a more methodical war, and allow time for organization; while Napoleon, doubtless urged by his distance from his own territory, by the daily expense of provisioning his immense army, depending on that alone, and hurrying after victory, sacrificed every thing to the hope of finishing the war at a single blow.”

Here the speakers were interrupted:  these reasons, though true, appeared insufficient excuses.  “They concealed the most powerful cause of the immobility of their countrymen; it was to be discovered in the interested attachment of their grandees to the crafty policy of Russia, which flattered their self-love, respected their customs, and secured their right over the peasants, whom the French came to set free.  Doubtless, national independence appeared too dear a purchase at such a price.”

This reproach was well founded, and although it was not personal, the Lithuanian generals became irritated at it.  One of them exclaimed, “You talk of our independence; but it must be in great peril, since you, at the head of 400,000 men, are afraid to commit yourselves by its recognition; indeed, you have not recognized it either by your words or actions.  You have placed auditors, men quite new, at the head of an administration equally new, to govern our provinces.  They levy heavy contributions, but they forget to inform us for whom it is that we make such sacrifices, as are only made for our country.  They exhibit to us the emperor everywhere, but the republic hitherto nowhere.  You have held out no object to set us in motion, and you complain of our being unsteady.  Persons whom we do not respect as our countrymen, you set over us as our chiefs.  Notwithstanding our entreaties, Wilna remains separated from Warsaw; disunited as we thus are, you require of us that confidence in our strength which union alone can give.  The soldiers you expect from us are offered you; 30,000 would be now ready; but you have refused them arms, clothing, and the money in which we are deficient.”

All these imputations might still have been combated; but he added:  “True, we do not market for liberty, but we find that in fact it is not disinterestedly offered.  Wherever you go, the report of your disorders precedes your march; nor are they partial, since your army marches upon a line of fifty leagues in front.  Even at Wilna, notwithstanding the multiplied orders of your emperor, the suburbs have been pillaged, and it is natural that a liberty which brings such licence with it should be mistrusted.

“What then do you expect from our zeal?  A happy countenance, acclamations of joy, accents of gratitude?—­when every day each of us is apprised that his villages and granaries are devastated; for the little which the Russians did not carry away with them, your famishing columns have devoured.  In their rapid marches, a multitude of marauders of all nations, against whom it is necessary to keep on the watch, detach themselves from their wings.