The Hangings by Jaroslaw Marek Rymkiewicz

Author:Jaroslaw Marek Rymkiewicz [Rymkiewicz, Jaroslaw Marek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Polish History, Kosciuszko Uprising, Essays
Publisher: Winged Hussar Publishing, LLC
Published: 2022-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19.

THIRD FORM OF TRAVEL

François Blanchard took off from the Foksal Garden on May 10, 1789, at one o'clock in the afternoon. His aerial journey was supposed to take place the day before, but there were some obstacles - maybe the aerostatic machine (la machine aérostatique) could not be prepared in time or maybe the weather was unfavorable on May 9, stormy or rainy - and the Warsaw newspapers published a notice of the flight’s delay by one day ("in a company of a certain Lady", as was mentioned in the Gazeta Warszawska [The Warsaw Gazette]).

The main avenue of the Foksal Garden - also known as Vauxhall or the Vauxhall Garden - ran exactly as the roadway of Foksal Street now runs - from Nowy Świat Street towards the Vistula escarpment and a narrow passage, through which one can currently get to Smolna Street. This passage did not exist at that time because, as the plans show, there were no buildings on the southern and northern sides of the Foksal Garden. Then there were structures on the land separating Vauxhall from Nowy Świat - there was a wooden house under number 1297 that belonged to the banker Cabrit (or Kabrit). One could probably get on Foksal (I do not know if they spoke then, as we say now - on Foksal, or rather - to Vauxhall) through the gate of this house, surely also through one of the streets located at the back of Nowy Świat - through Wróbla or Szczygla. The carriage carrying the king, the pock faced Miss Grabowska, and the poet Trembecki to the show, thus went from the Castle - this is how I imagine it - through Krakowskie Przedmieście, past the Dominican Observant Church, turned left and through Aleksandria, and then Wróbla (just like Kopernik Street now runs), reached Vauxhall. Or it drove along Nowy Świat to Ordynacka Street and turned from Ordynacka Street onto Wróbla. Trembecki, although not young (he was fifty at the time), must have been quite excited. He wrote the first half of the ode Balon (Balloon) the day before (this is also my guess, of course) and was jumping in his seat in anticipation of what would happen next - whether the balloon would catch fire in the air and Blanchard and his lady would go up in flames over Warsaw (a spectacular eventuality), or whether the balloon would burst and Blanchard and the lady, having descended on two parachutes, would land in the Foksal Garden (also a spectacular eventuality, but a little less). - Trębuś - says the king - do not be nervous, don’t jump around, if you write your ode Balloon, you will get de ma cassette 50 ducats, as I promised you. They will go to pay off your debts. Though if you go with Blanchard and jump with a parachute, you will get them into your hand, and I, Trębuś, will add 20 de surplus to your pension mensuelle. - It is a pity that

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