Note 48 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
The fate of Poland is well known. The destiny of the family bearing the name of Poniatowsky has been equally disastrous. At the battle of Leipsic, wounded, and while covering the retreat of the French army, in attempting to leap the narrow stream which flows past that city, Prince Joseph Poniatowsky fell, and was drowned. A simple monument is erected to him in a garden, on the bank of the river where he perished, with this inscription upon it:
Hic In Undis Elystri Josephus Poniatowsky Princeps Summus Exercitûs Polonorum Præfectus, Imperii Gallici Mareschallus, Tribus Vulneribus Letiferis acceptis, Ultimus ex Acie discedens Dum receptum magni Gallorum Exercitus tuetur, Vitâ Gloriæ et Patriæ sacratâ functus est Die 19 Octobris, An. 1813, Anno Ætatis Impleto 52. Popularis Populari, Duci Miles, Hoc Monumentum, Lachyrmis suis irrigatum, Posuit Alexander Rozniecki.