‘To the Polish Army.--His Majesty the Emperor Alexander, your powerful protector, appeals to you by this. Gather round your standards, take up arms to defend your country and to maintain your political existence. While this august monarch prepares the happy future of your country, show the world that you are ready to sustain his whole efforts with the price of your blood. The same chiefs who during the last twenty years have led you on the road to glory will know how to lead you thither once more. The emperor is fully cognisant of your valour; amidst many disasters of a most fatal war he has seen your honour survive events which in no wise depended upon you. Signal feats of arms conferred distinction upon you in a struggle the motive of which was foreign to you; at present, when your efforts are directly devoted to your country, you will be invincible. Soldiers and warriors of all arms, be ye the first to give the example of all the virtues which should inspire your countrymen. A boundless devotion to the emperor, who has no other aim than the welfare of your country, an unalterable love for his august person; obedience, discipline, and courage--these are the means to ensure the prosperity of your country, which is under the ægis of the emperor. It is only by those means that you can attain the happy situation which others may promise you, but which he alone can bestow. His power and his virtues will be the guarantee of it to you.’ Two points in this document, more than any other, aroused profound astonishment. The Grand-duke, in inciting the Poles to rally around his brother the emperor, in soliciting their devotion to his person, forestalled, as it were, the supreme decision of the Congress. The question was practically pending before the sovereign tribunal, no decision whatsoever had been taken, nevertheless Constantine virtually proclaimed his brother the Protector of Poland. Secondly, what construction was to be placed on those threats of war, on that appeal to arms, when the whole of Europe was ostentatiously looking at the consolidation of a general appeasement? Against whom, then, were the Poles, guided by the Russians, to take up arms? Against the other Powers, who refused them their independence? Did Constantine in reality flatter himself that he was imposing upon the Poles and hoodwinking them by garbling the truth? Could she (Poland) be blinded by those protestations in favour of her nationality? Since the proclamation, denied for a moment, had acquired the stamp of authenticity, the discussion provoked by it stifled all others. In Talleyrand’s drawing-room it was the subject of all conversations. He was known to be a partisan of Saxony and Poland. It was also known that, together with Metternich, he was the soul of that far-seeing and imperturbable resistance to Russian projects.