It was there in 1822 that the 13-year-old met Adam Mickiewicz, the first of the Three Bards of Polish literature. Two years later, in 1824, Mickiewicz was arrested and exiled by the Russian authorities for his involvement in a secret patriotic Polish student society, the Philomaths; Słowacki likely met with him on Mickiewicz's final day in Wilno. Słowacki was educated at the Krzemieniec Lyceum, and at a Vilnius Imperial University preparatory "gymnasium" in Wilno. From 1825 to 1828 he studied law at Vilnius Imperial University. His earliest surviving poems date to that period, though he presumably wrote some earlier, none of which have survived. In 1829 he moved to Warsaw, where he found a job in Congress Poland's Governmental Commission of Revenues and Treasury. In early 1830 he debuted his literary career with the novel "Hugo", published in the periodical "Melitele". That year, the November 1830 Uprising began, and Słowacki published several poems with patriotic and religious overtones. His ""Hymn"", first published in "Polak Sumienny" ("The Conscientious Pole") on 4 December 1830, and other works such as "Oda do Wolności" ("Ode to Freedom"), won acclaim and were quickly reprinted several times. In January 1831 he joined the diplomatic staff of the revolutionary Polish National Government, led by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. Initially he served as a copyist. On 8 March 1831 he was sent on a courier mission to Dresden (some sources say this was not an official mission but a private journey). Many others left Warsaw around that time, in the aftermath of the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska and in expectation of a Russian advance on Warsaw. In Dresden, Słowacki was well received by the local Polish émigré community, and even welcomed as "the bard of fighting Warsaw." In July 1831 he volunteered to deliver messages from the National Government to its representatives in London and Paris, where he heard about the fall of the Uprising. Details of his mission (what letters he was carrying, and to whom) are not known. Like many of his countrymen, Słowacki decided to stay in France as a political refugee. In 1832 he published his first collections of poems and his first two dramas ("Mindowe" and "Maria Stuart").