224 VARSOVIE
Duchy of Warsaw was ruled as a Tsarist protectorate, awaiting the pleasure of
the victors.
The last act of independent will was carried out in the Duchy's behalf by Jozef
Poniatowski. Refusing offers of clemency from the Russians, he determined to
fight to the last at Napoleon's side. He gathered the reserves of his army
together, and retreated into Germany. His end came in the Battle of the Nations
at Leipzig, on 19 October. Surrounded in a bend of the River Elster by Prussian
and Russian forces, the Polish contingent was caught in the thick of the French
defeat. Mortally wounded by three bullets, Poniatowski scorned all suggestions
of surrender or retirement. Spurring his horse into the water, in a flurry of sniper
fire, he sank from view.^9
Poniatowski's death is often quoted as yet another example of suicidal Polish
courage. In effect, it was an outcome consistent with an intolerable predica-
ment. Like many of his countrymen, he had wavered long before throwing in his
lot with the French. For him, Napoleonic service had demanded a painful
change of direction and loyalties. It had involved years of devotion and blood-
letting. To have changed his loyalties yet again, as his master the King of Saxony
did, was all too worrying for an infinitely weary and honest man. Like the rest
of his generation he hoped; he fought; he served, and only found rest in hon-
ourable defeat.