Korzeniowski:
“The man the Prince was expecting … was of a family of small nobles who for generations had been adherents, servants and friends of the Princes … He remembered the times before the last partition, and had taken part in the struggles of the last hour. He was a typical old Pole of that class, with a great capacity for emotion, for blind enthusiasm; with martial instincts and simple beliefs; and even with the old-time habit of larding his speech with Latin words. And his kindly shrewd eyes, his ruddy face, his lofty brow and his thick, grey, pendent moustache were also very tipical of his kind.” (214)
“The aristocracy we were talking about was the very highest, the great families of Europe, not impoverished, not converted, not liberalised, the most distinctive and specialised class of all classes, for which even ambition itself does not exist among the usual incentives to activity and regulators of conduct. The undisputed right of leadership having passed away from them we judged that their great fortunes, their cosmopolitanism, brought about by wide alliances, their elevated station, in which there is so little to gain and so much to lose, must make their position difficult in times of political commotion or national upheaval. No longer born to command - which is the very essence of aristocracy - it becomes difficult for them to do ought else but hold aloof from the great movements of popular passion.” (206-207)
[Prince Roman, Selected Short Stories, Wordsworth, 1997]
Imagem do escudo da revolta polaca de 1831 recolhida aqui.
Adenda: Aristocracia polaca.
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