mentions a variant of Szulc’s story, saying that some biographers pretended that Nicholas Chopin was descended from one of the name of Szop, a soldier, valet, or heyduc (reitre, valet, ou heiduque) in the service of Stanislas Leszczinski, whom he followed to Lorraine.] Indeed, until we get possession of indisputable proofs, it will be advisable to disregard these more or less fabulous reports altogether, and begin with the first well-ascertained fact—­namely, Nicholas Chopin’s birth, which took place at Nancy, in Lorraine, on the 17th of August, 1770.  Of his youth nothing is known except that, like other young men of his country, he conceived a desire to visit Poland.  Polish descent would furnish a satisfactory explanation of Nicholas’ sentiments in regard to Poland at this time and subsequently, but an equally satisfactory explanation can be found without having recourse to such a hazardous assumption.

In 1735 Stanislas Leszczynski, who had been King of Poland from 1704 to 1709, became Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and reigned over the Duchies till 1766, when an accident—­some part of his dress taking fire—­put an end to his existence.  As Stanislas was a wise, kind-hearted, and benevolent prince, his subjects not only loved him as long as he lived, but also cherished his memory after his death, when their country had been united to France.  The young, we may be sure, would often hear their elders speak of the good times of Duke Stanislas, of the Duke (the philosophe bienfaisant) himself, and of the strange land and people he came from.  But Stanislas, besides being an excellent prince, was also an amiable, generous gentleman, who, whilst paying due attention to the well-being of his new subjects, remained to the end of his days a true Pole.  From this circumstance it may be easily inferred that the Court of Stanislas proved a great attraction to his countrymen, and that Nancy became a chief halting-place of Polish travellers on their way to and from Paris.  Of course, not all the Poles that had settled in the Duchies during the Duke’s reign left the country after his demise, nor did their friends from the fatherland altogether cease to visit them in their new home.  Thus a connection between the two countries was kept up, and the interest taken by the people of the west in the fortunes of the people in the east was not allowed to die.  Moreover, were not the Academie de Stanislas founded by the Duke, the monument erected to his memory, and the square named after him, perpetual reminders to the inhabitants of Nancy and the visitors to that town?

Nicholas Chopin came to Warsaw in or about the year 1787.  Karasowski relates in the first and the second German edition of his biography of Frederick Chopin that the Staroscina [footnote:  The wife of a starosta (vide p. 7.)] Laczynska made the acquaintance of the latter’s father, and engaged him as tutor to her children; but in the later Polish edition he abandons this account in favour of one