Our own army began soon to conceive high hopes, and to dream of victory under its brave chief.[42] At this period, with the exception of Prussia, who had publicly manifested her hostility to our cause, none of the great powers had directly injured us. Austria was occupied with Italy. From France and England the Poles had even cherished hopes of a favorable interposition. From the former, especially, after the intelligence derived from the correspondence of the two ministers, Lubecki and Grabowski, found among the papers of Constantine, which has been presented to the reader, (giving satisfactory evidence that Russia was in preparation for a campaign against her, and showing that our cause was the cause of France,) we had certainly the right to cherish the strongest hopes. But more important still than all these circumstances, was the intelligence received of a revolution which had broken out in the Russian department of Orenburg, under the famous Yermolow, and the point of concentration of which was to have been the town of Samara, situated on the frontier of Europe and Asia. The highest expectations were entertained of the results of this movement, from our knowledge of the character of this celebrated general, and of his great influence, as one of that distinguished family of Yermolow, perhaps the most influential in the empire, (which, in fact, cherishes pretensions to the throne,) and of the distinction which he had acquired as a bold and firm leader, in a service of many years. His proclamations to the Russians, of which a few copies were found on the persons of their officers who were killed in the battle of Grochow, were full of energy, and breathed the sentiments of a true republican--of one who calmly and dispassionately aims at the good of his country. These proclamations were published in all the gazettes of Warsaw on the first of March.[43]