THE THAW AND THE JANUARY RISING 2.65farm his estate in obscurity for five^1 months after the outbreak of the Rising, but
in May was finally persuaded to take command of a guerrilla band of 160 men
in the Dziadkowicki Forst near Kobryn. In July, he made his own way to
Warsaw and impressed himself into Majewski's entourage. His rise thereafter
was swift. In August and September, he visited Western Europe on behalf of the
National Government, gaining personal interviews in Paris with Napoleon III
and with the French Foreign Minister, Drouyn de Lhuys, and in Brussels arrang-
ing for the purchase of arms. He returned convinced that the western govern-
ments looked on Russia principally as 'a goldmine for capitalists', and that no
early intervention could be expected. He slipped back into Poland with a pass-
port made out in the name of a Galician merchant called Michal Czarniecki,
took up residence in the Saski Hotel in Warsaw vis-d-vis the Viceroy, and calmly
told the National Government of the Reds of his intention of forming a secret
dictatorship. All opposition collapsed. The Reds either withdrew or submitted.
On 17 October 1863, the National Government ceased to function. Henceforth,
all business was co-ordinated, and all decisions of policy were taken by
Traugutt alone. From his lodging at 3 Smolno Street with Mrs Kirkor, he
attended to all correspondence, and personally supervised the activities of the
Ministries. Together with his close confidants — Marian Dubecki, Jozef
Gatezowski, J. K. Janowski, the Chief Executive and keeper of the seals, and
Aleksander Waszkowski, the rough and ready 'City Commander' - he led a
team of extraordinary skill and forceful-ness. He purged the movement of all
'private firebrands', threatening to release the names of all recalcitrants to the
police. He contrived to impose a tax on Polish citizens abroad, and floated a
National Loan. He completely reformed the military organization, abolishing
all separate commands and autonomous formations, and introducing the cadres
of a regular army with corps, divisions, regiments, and battalions. He revived
the idea of a pospolite ruszenie, the levee-en-masse of the entire population. He
called for the implementation of the KCN's Emancipation decree, and ruled that
each village should elect one man who could manage the changes. He even
issued a decree providing the death sentence for landowners who continued to
exact payment in lieu of labour dues. As a devout Catholic, he paid special
attention to religious affairs and conducted a long correspondence with the
Vatican, castigating the Pope's ambiguous posture towards Russian 'bar-
barism'. The last dispatch, to his agent in Rome, Jozef Ordega, concerned an
alliance recently signed with a Hungarian Committee professing similar aims.
At 1 a.m. on 10 April 1864, he was seized in his bed by a squad of armed police,
and incarcerated in the Pawiak Prison.^9
The full exposure of the conspiratorial government proved no easy matter.
Whereas the Police were successfully penetrated by sympathizers of the Rising,
they themselves had not succeeded in penetrating the conspiracy. The cover
which the leaders used was most convincing. Less than twenty people knew the
Dictator's real identity. Only six persons were empowered to visit his lodging.
The system of pseudonyms acted as a barrier between all officials and their