Pagina 385 de 788

This much is sure, that never was he seduced either by desire for

personal fame, or by base greed, and that never had he supported

the Muscovite party; for at the very sight of a Muscovite he

frothed and grimaced. In order not to meet a Muscovite, after the

partition of the country, he sat at home like a bear that sucks

its paw in the woods.

His last experience in war was when he went with Oginski121 to

Wilno, where they both served under Jasinski, and there with his

switch he performed prodigies of valour. Everybody knew how he

had jumped down alone from the ramparts of Praga to defend Pan

Pociej,122 who had been deserted on the field of battle and had

received twenty-three wounds. In Lithuania they long thought that

both had been killed; but both returned, each as full of holes as

a sieve. Pan Pociej, an honourable man, immediately after the war

had wished to reward generously his defender Dobrzynski; he had

offered him for life a farm of five houses, and assigned him

yearly a thousand ducats in gold.