The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-05 00:00:00

THE INSUR:

POLAND.

(From the times Correspondent.)

CRACOW, April 27.
The report circulated the last day or two as to
Padlewski, one of the best of the insurgent leaders,
having fallen into the hands of the Russiane, after
being contradicted, is now unfortunately confirmed.
Padlewski, who was formerly on officer in the
Russian army, which he quitted two years ago, is
at present a prisoner in the citadel at Warsaw,
This is the sixth military chief of distinction that
the Poles have lost since the beginning of the in.
surrection, the others being Frankowski, Langie-
wicz, Bentknowski, Mielencki, and Cieszkowski.
There is said, it is true, to be some chance now of
Mielencki recovering, but he is so badly wounded
that it is not Hide,' he will be able to take part
again in the present insurrection. Bentkowski is
still at liberty under parole, and it is supposed that
neither he nor Langiewicz will be brought to trial
for some time to come. Frankowski was one of the
first leaders who fell. As for the ill• fated Ciesz.
kowski, he may be said to have died a double death,
for he had already received a mortal wound when
the Russians broke into the house where he was
lying, and murdered the dying man in his bed. IT
is said that a Russian officer shot him with his own
hand, after which the inmates of the house that for
a time had sheltered the fugitive were murdered in
the usual manner.

A mass for poor Cieszkowski, six officers and all
who fell with him at Cieezkowki's last battle, was
celebrated a few days since at the Church of the
Carmelites here in Cracow. In the public announce-
ment of his death and of the service to be perfot med
for the repose of his soul the insurgent chief was
formally entitled " colonel in the national army,'
and his loss was evidently felt as a national
calamity. Nut only was the church crowded, but
the large open space in front was also filled by
persons in black, or in black edged with white,
the deepest mourning in Poland that can be worn.
The seven coffins were covered with significant red
cloth. Tt e ceremony was a very painful one, and
had more of a private than a public character, from
the fact that numbersof those present had evidently
lost relatives of their own. The congregation was
composed of persons of all classes, including a great
many peasants.
Immediately after the disaster which befel Lan-
giewicz's army, there was for some time but very
ittle fighting on the other side of the frontier, near
Cracow. But during the last three weeks we have
heard of collisions, great or small, every two or three
days, and since the funeral of the young Ostrowski
(a cousin, by the way, of the Marchioness Wielo-
polska) the doors of the churches have been placarded
every day with the names of the insurgents who
have fallen. The chaplain of Gregowiz's detachment
(mortally wounded at Szklary), was buried this
afternoon, and we have to-day received news of the
surprise and partial destruction of one of the com-
panies of Mossakowski's little corps, which entered
the kingdom by way of Kobelane about ten days ago.
It was supposed at first that as many as 50 men
had been killed, but 35 of the missing number have
since appeared in the flesh on this side of the fron-
tier. Among the fallen is a young Hungarian, for-
merly in the service of Garibaldi, who is said by an
eyewitness to have fought like a tiger, and to have
despatched a great number of Russians with his
own hand before he received his death-blow. The
Polish habit of regarding every one whose position
is not at first sight generally intelligible as a spy,
caused this young ma❑ to be looked upon as such
when he was in Cracow, where be was publicly in-
sulted by a mob only a few days before he joined
his regiment.
Further in the interior, in the district of Plock,
a battle of no great importance in itself has just
been fought, in which young Siemienski, the son of
Lucian Siemienski, the poet, was killed. When
Siemienski heard of his son's death, he fell o❑ his
knees and thanked God for having allowed him to
die in such a just cause. The young man (he
was 19) was until, last February librarian of
the Polish academy established at Les Batig
nolles. As soon as he heard of the insurrection
breaking out he ►ett Paris, and, his means falling
short before he reached Cracow, performed the last
50 miles of his journey on foot, so as not to lose time
by writing to his family and having to wait for
remittance. In his first battle he was shot through
the lungs, and for some days bad been lying
wounded, with three of his comrades, at a country
house, when the Russians suddenly appeared before
the place, brought there for money by a German
colonist, who it is not unreasonable to suppose must
have been of Prussian origin. Siemienski and his
friends, exhausted as they were, met them on
the threshold and defended themselves with revol-
vers for a tew minutes, when Siemienski, who waF
an excellent shot, brought down three or four of
his opponents. It is almost superfluous to add that
ultimately the Poles were overpowered and
massacred, the house plundered, and the grounds
laid waste.
Looking at the photographs of the most distin-
guished of the insurgents who have been killed in
battle, it is astonishing how many of them are very
young men, and lamentable to reflect that in a war

in which personal heroism plays so large a part,
and in which, as a rule, every man acts for himself,
those who think more of attacking the enemy than
of sheltering themselves are sure to fall the first.
Segur says of the Poles who served in the army of
1812, that they engaged very lightly to do exceed.
ing difficult things, but that they kept their words ;
and so in the present day you may hear insurgents
of 18 and 19 boast that they will be the first of their
detachment to touch the Russians; and, indeed,
when the time comes they throw themselves upon
them at any odds. In Mossakoweki's detachment,
the last that passed the frontier near Cracow, ayouth
who had vowed that he would strike the first blow,
was himself struck down before be could aim a
second. In the same way ten of the Lancers were
so eager to attack that they rushed upon a band of
Cossacks 50 strong, and though they sold their livee
dearly were killed to a man.
As regards the officers, I am told that it is abso-
lutely necessary they should distinguish themselves
in some brilliant manner in order to justify their
appointment and cause their authority to be fully
recognised by the rank and file, who in most cases
know as much and as little about the art of war as
their leaders. General Rechebrune owes entirely
his reputation and his present high position to his
almost unexampled personal daring. His former
pupal, the son of Count Moszynski, a Siberian exile
of the year 1825, who since that time has suffered
personally and through his family by every calamity
which has fallen upon Poland, had laid the founda-
tion of a similar renown when he was mortally
wounded at the head of his company inside Miechow.
It was strange that he should be there fighting
under the orders of a French gentlemen who had
come to Cracow for no other purpose than that of
directing his stud;ee, and it would appear strange
in the extreme to English parents—not accustomed
like the Poles to look forward to a violent death as
the probable end of any one of the children—to
hear the father speak with admiration of the pre-
ceptor, and refer with more pride than pain to the
fate of his young son.
Another chief of insurgents, whose portrait is in
every shop window is Boreieza, was killed in battle
at an age when in England he might have been
just thinking of entering a military school. He
looks, in his picturesque Polish costume, more as if
he were going to a fancy dress ball than to a war
against savages, and has rather the face of a timid,
or at least a gentle young girl, than of the intrepiu
warrior which he pruced himself to be in presence
of the enemy.
The hospital surgeons say that the young men
who are lying wounded are so eager to get back to
their detachment that their minds are never at
peace, and that their restoration to health is de-
layedin consequence. I can understand this from
the almost painful anxiety
with which many of
them ask for news either of the insurrection or of
the proceedings of the intervening Powers.
A Polish proprietor, in the kingdom, was sum-
moned not. long E ce before a Russian General,
charged with having rendered assistance to the in-
surgents, and solemnly cautioned against doing so
again. The proprietor explained his position. " If,"
he said, " the insurgents come to my place and ask