'Ought he to be King of Poland ?' argued some Polish Emissary at Petersburg: 'His Grandfather was Land-steward to the Sapiehas.' 'And if he himself had been it!' said the Empress, inflexible, though with a blush .-- It seems the family was really good, though fallen poor; and, since that Land-steward phasis, had bloomed well out again.

His Father was conspicuous as a busy, shifting kind of man, in the Charles-Twelfth and other troubles; had died two years ago, as 'Castellan of Cracow;' always a dear friend of Stanislaus Leczinski, who gets his death two years hence [in 1766, as we have seen].
"King Stanislaus Poniatowski had five Brothers: two of them dead long before this time; a third, still alive, was Bishop of Something, Abbot of Something; ate his revenues in peace, and demands silence from us.
The other two, Casimir and Andreas, are better worth naming,--especially the Son of one of them is.

Casimir, the eldest, is 'Grand Crown-Chamberlain' in the days now coming, is also 'Starost of Zips [a Country you may note the name of!]--and has a Son,' who is NOT the remarkable one.

Andreas, the second Brother (died 1773), was in the Austrian Service, 'Ordnance-Master,' and a man of parts and weight;--who has been here at Warsaw, ardently helping, in the late Election time.
He too had a Son (at this time a child in arms),--who is really the remarkable 'Nephew of King Stanislaus,' and still deserves a word from us.
"This Nephew, bred as an Austrian soldier, like his Father, is the JOSEPH PONIATOWSKI, who was very famous in the Newspapers fifty years ago.

By all appearance, a man of some real patriotism, energy and worth.
He had tried to believe (though, I think, never rightly able) what his omnipotent Napoleon had promised him, that extinct Poland should be resuscitated; and he fought and strove very fiercely, his Poles and he, in that faith or half-faith.