The saying probably originated after the 1772 collapse of the Bar Confederation (1768–72), which had been formed to defend the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from aggression by the Russian Empire. According to Julian Krzyżanowski, the saying was inspired by the political asylum in Szepesség, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Spiš, Slovakia), of the confederation's leaders. According to another source, it "comes from the period when the Generality of the Bar Confederation Confederation's supreme authority took up residence in Eperjes (now Prešov in eastern Slovakia) between 1769 and 1772".