Note 13 — Front matter

The chief of spies, general Rozniecki, escaped. He was one of the most vicious characters imaginable: his crimes surpass expression. He was the oldest general in the Polish army, in which he had served forty years. He entered the service under king Stanislaus. Under Napoleon he commanded a brigade, and subsequently a division of cavalry. Of his character, while in the service of Napoleon, not much is known. Under the government of Russia, this man, already sixty years old, degraded himself irredeemably by becoming one of the most atrocious and detestable tools of tyranny. A volume might be filled with the history of his intrigues, swindlings, and other crimes. As chief of the secret police, he had under him many agents whom he sent throughout the land to extort money for him on unjust pretences. Wo to the unhappy man who refused compliance with any of his demands! He was sure to find his fate in a prison. In the army, those who bribed him were promoted. Rozniecki was the intimate friend of the Grand Duke. The following anecdote may serve to give the reader some idea of his consummate art in fraud.

It was a part of Rozniecki's business to pay the spies, and they received their salaries at his house. He divided the delators into several classes, and rewarded them according to the quickness and importance of their information. By his arrangement of this business he cheated the very spies! In the room where he received their denunciations he had a chest of drawers placed, behind which a clerk was concealed. This clerk wrote down their reports as he heard them, taking care to date them somewhat earlier. When the spy had ended his story and applied for his reward, Rozniecki would declare that he recollected having heard the whole affair the day before. He would then leave the room and return with the forged record. Thus would he defraud the spy of his shameful earnings. Accounts of immense sums received by him were found in his house during the revolution. He was more than once accused of murder by poison, and other enormous crimes, but the proceedings against him were suppressed. On the first evening of the revolution this man happened to be in an assembly of spies in the City Hall. He was there to give his instructions. On hearing the tumult, his conscience smote him, and he stole away without saying a word. Finding a coach at hand, he offered the coachman money to permit him to drive himself whither he pleased. He made his escape in the coachman's cloak. His effigy was exhibited on the gallows seven days, decorated with a dozen Russian orders.