“I tell you that I am ready, therefore explain yourself.”
“You are not ignorant, that scarce four thousand men now fight under my command: with these undoubtedly I have still an opportunity of tormenting our enemies; but with such feeble means, I dare not hope to be ever able to force them to leave our provinces. All the nobility would flock beneath our banners, if the King were in my camp.”
“What do you say? Can you hope that the King would ever consent to repair hither?”
“No: but he must be forced to do so.”
“Forced!”
“Yes! I know that an ancient friendship connects you with M. de P——: but since you have supported, along with Pulaski, the cause of liberty, you know also that you ought to sacrifice every thing to the good of your country; that an interest so sacred————”
“I know my duty, and I am ready to fulfil it; but what is it that you now propose to me? The King never leaves Warsaw.”
“True; and it is, therefore, at Warsaw that you must go and find him: it is from the heart of the capital that he must be forced.”
“What preparations have you made for so great an enterprise?”
“You behold yon Russian army, three times as strong as mine, and which has been encamped three months in sight of us: its General, tranquil at present within his entrenchments, impatiently waits until, forced by famine, I shall surrender myself at discretion.