It is quite unnecessary to say that the Polish count, though an exile,
was no expense to the French government. Comte Adam Laginski belonged
to one of the oldest and most illustrious families in Poland, which
was allied to many of the princely houses of Germany,--Sapieha,
Radziwill, Mniszech, Rzewuski, Czartoryski, Leczinski, Lubormirski,
and all the other great Sarmatian SKIS. But heraldic knowledge is not
the most distinguishing feature of the French nation under
Louis-Philippe, and Polish nobility was no great recommendation to
The bourgeoisie who were lording it in those days. Besides, when Adam
first made his appearance, in 1833, on the boulevard des Italiens, at
Frascati, and at the Jockey-Club, he was leading the life of a young
man who, having lost his political prospects, was taking his pleasure
in Parisian dissipation. At first he was thought to be a student.

The Polish nationality had at this period fallen as low in French
estimation, thanks to a shameful governmental reaction, as the
republicans had sought to raise it. The singular struggle of the
Movement against Resistance (two words which will be inexplicable
thirty years hence) made sport of what ought to have been truly
respected,--the name of a conquered nation to whom the French had
offered hospitality, for whom fetes had been given (with songs and
dances by subscription), above all, a nation which in the Napoleonic
struggle between France and Europe had given us six thousand men, and
what men!

Do not infer from this that either side is taken here; either that of
the Emperor Nicholas against Poland, or that of Poland against the
Emperor. It would be a foolish thing to slip political discussion into
tales that are intended to amuse or interest. Besides, Russia and