The sixty or seventy Great Sejm deputies seated on the eastern side rose to their feet one after another, passionately voicing their support for Jan Kiliński:
"Trying to curry favor with the Russians is a betrayal of the warriors who died in the Patriotic War!"
"The Russians deceived us with lies for decades. We must never trust them again!"
"Count Branicki, you may kneel before your Tsar and wag your tail for mercy, but we will never do the same!"
"Damn it, we drove the Russians out with our blood. We will never allow them to return..."
Though Count Branicki's side had only around a dozen people, they stubbornly shouted back:
"We cannot keep dragging this out forever."
"Why don't you go to Babruysk or Turov and see for yourselves? The people there cannot afford their taxes and are forced to flee east of the Dnieper River."
"We may hate the Russians, but we still have to trade with them."
"If this continues, the Eastern Provinces will erupt into rebellion!"
Kiliński's people immediately drowned them out with even louder voices.
The two sides argued for a full half hour and were on the verge of coming to blows. Speaker Czartoryski had no choice but to order the guards to separate them, then declared Parliament adjourned. The proposal submitted by Branicki would be put to a vote one week later.
The dozen or so deputies of the "Peace Faction" were escorted out of the parliamentary hall first. When Gorsakovsky reached the main doors, he turned around and shouted through a gap between the guards at the other deputies, "I must remind you all: if the proposal does not pass, the east will surely fall into chaos!"
Watching the figures of the "Peace Faction" disappear, Kiliński said anxiously, "We cannot just sit