The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-09 00:00:00

Claudia Potocki was born in the Grand Wchysof
Posen, in 1802. She was the lineal descendant of
that Dzialynski, who in the beginning of the seventeenth
century was sent by Sigisrnundus 111., as an Ambas-
sador to Queen Elizabeth, to remonstrate against the
infraction of a treaty between England and Poland,
and whose eloquence and boldness of speech—though
the latter rather startled the susceptibility of the power-
ful Queen—arc recorded by the historians of both na-
tions, together With a high encomium passed over the
performance of his successful mission.
Previous to the great political convulsion, which im-
posed other duties upon Claudia, her life glided hap-
pily and cheerfully on, in the midst of youthful plea-
sures and those serious studies towards which her taste
inclined. In 1824 she was married to Count Bernard
Potocki. The explosion of the 26th of Nov. 1830, dis-
turbed her quiet and uniform existence, and called forth
those virtues which have made her name so dear to Po-1
land. Claudia was then residing in the Grand Duchy of
Posen. The first appeal of their native country was re-
ceived by the youth of that ancient province with an uni-
versal burst of enthusiastic sympathy. In defiance of
the vigilance of the Prussian corps stationed along the
frontier, notwithstanding the threat of the Prussian
Government, thousands of courageous citizens crossed
the armed line, and hastened to the support of their
brethren. The patriotic exertions and munificence of
Claudia urged and enabled many to swell their ranks.
She soon reached the capital of the free kingdom ; and
though she did not join those intrepid heroine, who,
" all unsexed, dared the deed of war," and " stalked
with Minerva's step where Mars might quake to tread,"
yet her services in the national cause were neither less
useful nor less perilous. The hospitals of Warsaw
were the scene of her heroic devotion ; there, accom-
panied by many distinguished associates, and sur-
rounded by wounded warriors and those stricken with
malignant cholera, she sacrificed every thing to the du-
ties she had undertaken. Seated by the couches of the
sick, during seven successive months, she was con-
stantly occupied in dressing their wounds and alleviat-
ing their sufferings. Neither the sight of hideous gashes
nor the'fear of contagion deterred her from her course
of persevering charity. One of the richest and most
gifted ladies, the daughterof Dzialynski, and the wife of
Potocki, became the humble and attentive nurse of
Poland's brave sons. Such modest and unostentatious
devotion is as truly heroic, and perhaps more profound,
than that displayed on the field of battle. When the
day of adversity came, Countess Claudia accompanied
the Polish army in its retreat to Modlin ; there, in the
midst of general confusion, she once procured a truss
of straw on which to repose her wearied head, but,
perceiving a sick officer, relinquished it in his favour.
Having, as a lady, more facility in obtaining a pass-
port, she availed herself of it, for the purpose of sav-
ing, at great risk and peril, several patriots deeply
compromised during the revolution. Many, disguised
as her domestics, were enabled to traverse Prussia un-
discovered. On one occasion they were placed in im-
minent danger. At Thorn, the Prussian police dis-
covered the generous stratagem, and intended to im-
prison the disguised patriots, but the Countess de-
clared that she would be responsible for all; she offered
the whole of her possessions as a guarantee, and by
this bold act again preserved them. On quitting
Prussia, Claudia took up her abode at Dresden, there
to deplore in solitude the misfortunes of her country ;
but the wants of her unfortunate countrymen called
forth again her energies into action. She formed a
ladies' committee, in order to alleviate the destitution
of the refugees. The remains of her fortune, her
influence, her personal exertions, were entirely at the
disposal of the unfortunate. A lady of her ac-
quaintance having one day made inquiries for a per-
son to copy a voluminous manuscript, the Countess
offered to provide one ; under this pretext she obtained
possession of the work, and laboured at it herself day
and night in order to deposit the proceeds of her in-
dustry in the funds of the committee. But all her
endeavours, all her sacrifices, were insufficient to pro-
vide for the Polish soldiers, who, without provisions
and without clothes, in the depth of a severe winter,
resisted the cunning policy of the Prussian Govern-
ment, and resolved rather to perish of cold and hun-
ger than to return to a land henceforth under the des-
potism of Russia. At one time the committee were
at a loss how to afford the required assistance, when
our young heroine hit upon an expedient for obviating
that difficulty. She instantly pledged the jewels and
cachemeres which the foreign police had not succeeded
in depriving her of, and the following day the sum of
40,000 florins was sent for its pious destination. It
was in honor of this noble action that the Poles as-
sembled at Dresden presented to her a bracelet with an
inscription commemorative of the act, and pointing it
out for national gratitude.

When the remainder of the Polish army was driven
from Germany, and sought refuge in France, Claudia
fixed her residence in Switzerland, to be nearer at
hand in ministering to the wants of the exiles. It would
be difficult to imagine the sufferings and privations
which she was subjected to when exerting herself in
behalf of those Poles, who, in consequence of their un-
successful attempt upon Savoy in 1833, were driven
back into Switzerland, and obliged to depend mostly
on private exertions, till they were transported to Eng-
land. Here, again, her benevolence came in aid of
their miserable condition. She used to entrust some
of her friends with certain sums of money, and with
the power to divide them amongst the most necessi-
tous, under one condition only—that they should never
know the name of their benefactor. In the exercise of
these Christian virtues, but worn out by silent grief,
her soul pined and destroyed her delicate frame. She
died at Geneva, on the Bth of June, admired alike by
her countrymen and the foreigners amidst whom she
resided. So general was the mourning, so universal
the grid', that all the shops in the streets through
which her body was carried to its last abode were
spontaneously shut up, and remained closed for the
whole day of that melancholy ceremony.
Two months afterwards Captain Calixt Borzewski,
the chief of the Polish insurrection in 1833, falls at
the battle of Ynego, in which the Polish Regiment of
Lancers, lately enrolled in the service of the Queen of
Spain, so bravely distinguished itself. He falls at the
head of his regiment, pierced at the same time with
two murderous shots. He exemplified in his charac-
ter the rare union of a generous and kind disposition,
a womanlike mildness, with that undaunted courage,
that love of danger, which often bespeaks a savage or
a disordered temper. Cherished by all his comrades,
he was carried safe through all the imminent dangers
to which he constantly exposed himself during the
late Polish war. , After the untimely end of that great
struggle he entered into the Belgian service. But his
mind could not enjoy any rest while there was still
a ray of hope for Poland. Trusting in a -general
commotion in Europe, in 1833, he entered the king-
dom of Poland, put himself at the head of a small
band, traversed a large space of the country, drew
after him many Russian regiments, fought Often to
open himself a passage or to attack a Russian post,
and did not leave the land of his heart till forced to
dlo SQ by his friends, anxious to rescue him from the
inevitable fate to which his rashness exposed him. It
will be remembered that his comrade and friend, his
associate in that expedition, Zawisca, was taken, and
underwent most cruel and barbarous treatment during
a year, at the end of which he was publicly hanged at
Warsaw. Having marvellous) escaped a similar
i
doom, Borzewski returned to Prance, and strcom
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