406 AGONIA
enemy. The rendezvous was arranged in Cracow. On 24 March 1794, on the
western side of the Market Square, Kosciuszko read the 'Act of Insurrection of
the Citizens and Inhabitants of the Palatinate of Cracow'. Dressed in national
costume, with a feather in his four-cornered hat, surrounded by the blue and sil-
ver of the infantry and the green, black, and gold of the artillery men, by the ban-
ners of the guilds and by placards proclaiming 'Equality and Freedom' and 'For
Cracow and the Fatherland', he swore the solemn oath:
I, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, swear before God and to the whole Polish nation, that I shall
employ the authority vested in me for the integrity of the frontiers, for gaining national
self-rule and for the foundation of general liberty, and not for private benefit. So help me,
Lord God, and the innocent suffering of Thy Son!^28
Next, the assembled citizenry swore 'to free the country from the shameful
oppression and the foreign yoke, or to perish and be buried in the ruins'. A
Supreme National Council was to direct the government. Its seals were to bear
the inscription 'Liberty, Integrity, Independence'. All men from 18 to 28 regard-
less of rank were to be conscripted. This form of proceeding was adopted in all
the cities and provinces to which the insurrection spread. Ten days later, on the
field of Raclawice, battle was joined with the Russians of General Tormasov.
The issue was decided by the brave charge of Kosciuszko's peasant scythe-men,
who captured the enemy's guns. Tormasov withdrew. Amid the popular rejoic-
ing, Kosciuszko conducted the last ceremonial ennoblement of the Republic's
history. Wojciech Bartos, a peasant, who was first to reach the guns and had
placed his cap on the barrel of a cannon to the amazement of the Muscovite gun-
ner, was dubbed with the noble name of 'Glowacki', received into Kosciuszko's
own clan of Korczak, given possession of his land, and offered an officer's
commission. In the same spirit, on 7 May Kosciuszko issued the 'Manifesto of
Polaniec', freeing the peasantry as a whole from servitude, halving their dues,
and promising the help of the insurrectionary authorities against the wrath of
the landowners.^29
Meanwhile, both Warsaw and Wilno had been liberated. In the Polish capital,
in Easter Week, rumour spread that the Russians would try to disarm the Polish
garrison when the people were at prayer in the churches. On Easter Thursday,
17 April, therefore, the Polish troops and the city mob took the Russians by sur-
prise. Good Friday turned into an orgy of killing. Isolated Russian patrols were
hounded through the streets and cut to pieces. The pace was set by the revolu-
tionary tailor Jan Kilinski (1760-1819), and by the Guild of Slaughterers under
their President, Sierakowski, whose spikes and axes added a professional touch
to the business in hand. The Jacobin Club came into the open. The prisons were
opened.^30 The Russian ambassador fled. The remnants of his guard struggled
out of the city across the Vistula bridges. Bishop Kossakowski, and Hetman
Ozarowski, together with Jozef Zabiello (d. 1794), Marshal of the Permanent
Council and of the Confederation of Targowica, and Jozef Ankwicz (1750-94),
leader of the Russian Party at the Grodno Sejm, were dragged before an