The text outlines the history of the so-called 'Czacki rock', as well as the question of the connection between Tadeusz Czacki and the natural setting of the rock near Zhytomyr. The main component of the text is a legend related to the rock and a sketch depicting Czacki's rock. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1863, T:8, p. 384., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Under Zhytomyr.

The tomb of the great exile on the island of St Helena was set with creeping willows, and the weaves of the pendulous branches, with the appropriate sunlight, formed the figure of the hero, in his usual posture, with his arms crossed on his chest. It was like an aerial monument, erected at certain moments by the mysterious spirit of nature, combining the play of light and shadows into familiar shapes, before the eye of illusion-seeking wanderers....

We experience a similar illusion on the banks of the Teterov River near Zhytomyr, a few dozen steps before the mouth of the Kamionka. This mysterious spirit of nature, anticipating the sign of remembrance of the countrymen, expressed a few years ago in the statue of Mr Oskar Sosnowski, formed the head of Tadeusz Czacki on the top of one of the rocks, called Sokola. An arrangement of several stones, some gravel and moss and a dwarf birch, as if enchanted in its growth, form, with the right direction of the sun's rays, the prominent features of the Novogrudok starost, who has so much right to be remembered by posterity.

From several points on the riverbank and from several others on the river itself, this pleasing illusion is repeated, giving the retreat the character of traditional solemnity. How any fisherman, when introducing a stranger to his boat, is bound to ask: Will you spit into the Czacki rock? and will stop the dugout in a suitable place to show his statue, carved by nature itself. But another story, a purely folkloric tale, is connected with that range of rocks above Teter, called Sokola... Long ago, a young Cossack, supposedly a bandit, made his home between the cliffs of these rocks.

But the heart of girls (especially girls of folk novels) does not usually ask for anything and relies on the love spells of a lover. And so our Cossack easily turned the head of a beautiful furor girl, the daughter of another Cossack, called Sokol and having a furor on a mountain known to this day by the name of Sukniowa Gora, distant from Zhytomyr by a few yards, by the former post road to Zwiahl. The adventurous Cossack, having seduced the girl, did not care about her plight, and swearing undying love, cooked up a betrayal close at hand.

One time, returning from Sokol's furor, with the thought of never returning to the girl he loved, he froze with his horse in this then empty place, which today is a small square extending the town's main square. This place, before the removal of the beaten path, was filled with lots of small wooden houses. I was reassured by some old people that in front of one of these houses, in a narrow lane, there was a large stone, bearing some resemblance to a horse's trunk, with a rider sitting on it, and that the communes, pointing to this stone, wanted to see confirmation of their novel, the end of which is nevertheless wonderful.

The seduced Lutheran woman from Sokolowa Góra, called Sokola from her father's name, having learnt about her treacherous lover's intentions through the power of witchcraft, turned him, as we have seen, into an immovable boulder. But the lust for revenge lasted only a moment, love overcame. So she gave chase after him, and seeing him arrive late, inconsolable in grief and despair, she threw herself into the river from the rock where he had taken refuge... Hence the name of these rocks Sokola, after the unfortunate lover...

The people, however, rarely end the punishment of their heroes with death. The belief in the immortality of the soul, deeply rooted even in pre-Christian times, makes fantasy pursue them beyond the grave... So you will hear assurances among the local people that under the Sokóla rocks some red figures can often be seen at night, seemingly covered with their own or someone else's blood, and these are the suicidal Sokóla and her lover, with the accomplices of their robbery.

This picturesque retreat on the banks of the Teterowo river, called Sokóla's rock or Czacki's rock, has already been described in Mr Wilczyński's album; but the sketch by Mrs I' attached here better highlights the character of the rock, which bears the name of the former patron of the Krzemieniec school.