Immediately after the arrival of the sad news from Lithuania, the nation demanded explanations of the generalissimo. They demanded to know how he could have given the command of so important an expedition to a man like Gielgud, one who had never been esteemed by the nation or the army, and who had not even the reputation of a general of talent. How could an expedition which demanded the very highest talents, and the most undoubted patriotism, have been confided to a man like him? With him had been associated general Chlapowski, who was the brother-in-law of the Grand Duke Constantine. That circumstance alone, they justly considered, should have been enough to suggest suspicion, and to have at least indicated the expediency of keeping him near the eye of the commander in chief, and subject to his constant observation. Such were the complaints of the people, and they went to the heart of the commander in chief, and the president of the National Government; for they were conscious, but too late, of their justice.[81] The Russian army, the command of which, on the death of general Diebitsch, was taken by general count Paszkewicz, and the main body of which remained in a state of inaction at Ostrolenka, having no longer any apprehensions from Lithuania, could now act with freedom, and the offensive was recommenced under the command of its new chief, who decided to pass the Vistula, and to act upon the left bank. I may be allowed to detain the attention of the reader a moment upon this passage of the Vistula by Paszkewicz, a manoeuvre of which so much boast has been made, and to consider whether it is really to be regarded as a great and bold step, or one of necessity. What was the state of the Russian army after the battle of Ostrolenka?--A month had passed, and that army had not made a single movement, but was kept there merely to be fed by Prussia. Was not this inactivity an infallible evidence of weakness? Does it not show that, alarmed by the prospects in Lithuania, it was in a state of hesitation, not daring to advance into the kingdom, and holding itself in readiness to evacuate it on an occasion of necessity, which indeed seemed near at hand? In this period of hesitation, the new general arrives from the regions of the Caucasus. He must do something. The question presents itself to him,--what course is best to be taken? His army, now reinforced by the corps which had been in Lithuania, amounted to perhaps near one hundred and fifty thousand men. Although this force was considerable, yet to attack the fortifications of Praga, which, as is known to the reader, had been augmented, and which the Russian army in their primitive and unimpaired strength had never had the temerity to attack, was out of the question. What other course could he take, unless he could submit to continue in this state of inactivity, but to pass the Vistula, and under the assistance of Prussia, to make his attempts against Warsaw