Kmitsits, which means "son of Kmita," as "starostsits" means "son of a starosta," is the name used by Sienkiewicz; but as that word would baffle most English readers, I have taken Kmita, the original form of the family name. Kmita is mentioned in Solovyóff's Russian history as co-operating with Sapyeha and Charnyetski against Hovanski and Dolgoruki; in that connection he is called Kmitich. NOTES. POLISH ALPHABET. Since the Polish alphabet has many peculiar phonetic combinations which are difficult to one who does not know the language, it was decided to transliterate the names of persons and places in which such combinations occur in this book. The following are the letters and combinations which are met with most frequently;-- Polish Letters. English Sounds. _c_ _ts_ _ch_ _h_ _cz_ _ch_ _rz_ _r_ followed by the French _j_ _sz_ _sh_ _szcz_ _shch_ _w_ _v_ _[.z]_ _j_ In this transliteration _ch_ retains its ordinary English sound. _J_ is the French _j_; the vowels _e_, _i_, _u_, are, respectively, _ai_ in "bait," _ee_ in "beet," _oo_ in "pool," when long; when short, "bet," "bit," "put" would represent their values. _I_, when unaccented and followed by a vowel, is sounded as _y_. The following names will illustrate the method of this transliteration:-- Polish Form of Name. Form in Transliteration. Potocki Pototski Chudzynski Hudzynski Czarnkowski Charnkovski Rzendzian Jendzian Bleszynski Bleshynski Szandarowski Shandarovski Szczaniecki Shchanyetski Wlostowski Vlostovski [.Z]yromski Jyromski In Jendzian and Jechytsa,--the only names, as I believe, beginning in Polish with _rz_ in this work,--the initial _r_ has been omitted in the transliteration on account of the extreme difficulty, for any one not a Pole, of pronouncing _r_ followed by the French _j_. ACCENT. All Polish words, with few exceptions, are accented on the syllable next the last, the penult. The exceptions are foreign names, some compounds, some words with enclitics. Polish names of men and places are generally accented on the penult. * * * * * MAP OF THE POLISH COMMONWEALTH. This map, though diminutive, contains data through which the reader may see, at least in part, the historical course of the Commonwealth.