Thus ten days had passed in continual and bloody actions upon the same position, during which the Polish army had been uniformly successful, and at the end of which the enemy discontinued his attacks, thus giving the most convincing proof of the extent of the losses he had suffered on all points, during that period, amounting, in fact, in killed, wounded and prisoners, to full 30,000 men. In this space of ten days, the whole Russian army had been engaged, and that army amounted, as we have already said, and as will be confirmed by all the official reports, to more than 150,000 infantry, 50,000 cavalry, and 300 pieces of cannon. To this force was opposed a handful, comparatively, of Poles, consisting of 30,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry, and 96 pieces of cannon; a sixth part, in fact, of the Russian force. This memorable commencement of our war will show to the world what can be effected by a nation fighting in defence of its liberty and to throw off an oppressive yoke. Those bloody combats, and that enthusiasm, to which my feeble pen cannot render justice, but which some better historian will present to the world in their true colors, should convince men that the immense mercenary forces which a despot may lead on, and by which he trusts to enforce his will, may avail him little. His enormous masses are like a heap of sand, which a little stone can pierce. Without animating motives, and therefore without energy,--a machine scarcely to be trusted,--that army itself, upon the slightest change of circumstances, may become terrible to the despot, of whom and of whose creatures it was to have been made the unhappy sacrifice.