The Deluge. Vol. 1

"But where is the host?" inquired he, halting in the middle of the room.

"I am here!" answered the innkeeper, "at your service."

"Oats for the horses!"

"I have no oats, except what these men are using." Saying this, he pointed at Jendzian and the horse-dealer's men.

"Whose men are you?" asked Jendzian.

"And who are you yourself?"

"The starosta of Vansosh."

His own people usually called Jendzian starosta, as he was the tenant of a starostaship, and he thus named himself on the most important occasions.

Yuzva Butrym was confused, seeing with what a high personage he had to do; therefore he removed his cap, and said, -

"With the forehead, great mighty lord. It was not possible to recognize dignity in the dark."

"Whose men are these?" repeated Jendzian, placing his hands on his hips.

"The Lauda men from the former Billevich squadron, and now of Pan Volodyovski's."

"For God's sake! Then Pan Volodyovski is in the town of Shchuchyn?"

"In his own person, and with other colonels who have come from Jmud."

"Praise be to God, praise be to God!" repeated the delighted starosta. "And what colonels are with Pan Volodyovski?"

"Pan Mirski was," answered Butrym, "till apoplexy struck him on the road; but Pan Oskyerko is there, and Pan Kovalski, and the two Skshetuskis."

"What Skshetuskis?" cried Jendzian. "Is not one of them Skshetuski from Bujets?"

"I do not know where he lives," said Butrym, "but I know that he was at Zbaraj."

"Save us! that is my lord!"

Here Jendzian saw how strangely such a word would sound in the mouth of a starosta, and added, -

"My lord godson's father, I wanted to say."

The starosta said this without forethought, for in fact he had been the second godfather to Skshetuski's first son, Yaremka.

Meanwhile thoughts one after another were crowding to the head of Pan Kmita, sitting in the dark corner of the room. First the soul within him was roused at sight of the terrible graycoat, and his hand grasped the sabre involuntarily. For he knew that Yuzva, mainly, had caused the death of his comrades, and was his most inveterate enemy. The old-time Pan Kmita would have commanded to take him and tear him with horses, but the Pan Babinich of that day controlled himself. Alarm, however, seized him at the thought that if the man were to recognize him various dangers might come to his farther journey and the whole undertaking. He determined, therefore, not to let himself be known, and he pushed ever deeper into the shade; at last he put his elbow on the table, and placing his head in his palms began to feign sleep; but at the same time he whispered to Soroka, who was sitting at the table, -

"Go to the stable, let the horses be ready. We will go in the night."

Soroka rose and went out; Kmita still feigned sleep. Various memories came to his head. These people reminded him of Lauda, Vodokty, and that brief past which had vanished as a dream. When a short time before Yuzva Butrym said that he belonged to the former Billevich squadron, the heart trembled in Pan Andrei at the mere name. And it came to his mind that it was also evening, that the fire was burning in the chimney in the same way, when he dropped unexpectedly into Vodokty, as if with the snow, and for the first time saw in the servants' hall Olenka among the spinners.

He saw now with closed lids, as if with eyesight, that bright, calm lady; he remembered everything that had taken place, – how she wished to be his guardian angel, to strengthen him in good, to guard him from evil, to show him the straight road of worthiness. If he had listened to her, if he had listened to her! She knew also what ought to be done, on what side to stand; knew where was virtue, honesty, duty, and simply would have taken him by the hand and led him, if he had listened to her.

Here love, roused by remembrance, rose so much in Pan Andrei's heart that he was ready to pour out all his blood, if he could fall at the feet of that lady; and at that moment he was ready to fall on the neck of that bear of Lauda, that slayer of his comrades, simply because he was from that region, had named the Billeviches, had seen Olenka.

His own name repeated a number of times by Yuzva Butrym roused him first from his musing. The tenant of Vansosh inquired about acquaintances, and Yuzva told him what had happened in Kyedani from the time of the memorable treaty of the hetman with the Swedes; he spoke of the oppression of the army, the imprisonment of the colonels, of sending them to Birji, and their fortunate escape. The name of Kmita, covered with all the horror of treason and cruelty, was repeated prominently in those narratives. Yuzva did not know that Pan Volodyovski, the Skshetuskis, and Zagloba owed their lives to Kmita; but he told of what had happened in Billeviche, -

"Our colonel seized that traitor in Billeviche, as a fox in his den, and straightway commanded to lead him to death; I took him with great delight, for the hand of God had reached him, and from moment to moment I held the lantern to his eyes, to see if he showed any sorrow. But no! He went boldly, not considering that he would stand before the judgment of God, – such is his reprobate nature. And when I advised him to make even the sign of the cross, he answered, 'Shut thy mouth, fellow; 'tis no affair of thine!' We posted him under a pear-tree outside the village, and I was already giving the word, when Pan Zagloba, who went with us, gave the order to search him, to see if he had papers on his person. A letter was found. Pan Zagloba said, 'Hold the light!' and he read. He had barely begun reading when he caught his head: 'Jesus, Mary! bring him back to the house!' Pan Zagloba mounted his horse and rode off, and we brought Kmita back, thinking they would burn him before death, to get information from him. But nothing of the kind! They let the traitor go free. It was not for my head to judge what they found in the letter, but I would not have let him go."

"What was in that letter?" asked the tenant of Vansosh.

"I know not; I only think that there must have been still other officers in the hands of the prince voevoda, who would have had them shot right away if we had shot Kmita. Besides, our colonel may have taken pity on the tears of Panna Billevich, for she fell in a faint so that hardly were they able to bring her to her senses. I do not make bold to complain; still evil has happened, for the harm which that man has done, Lucifer himself would not be ashamed of. All Lithuania weeps through him; and how many widows and orphans and how many poor people complain against him is known to God only. Whoso destroys him will have merit in heaven and before men."

Here conversation turned again to Pan Volodyovski, the Skshetuskis, and the squadrons in Podlyasye.

"It is hard to find provisions," said Butrym, "for the lands of the hetman are plundered completely, – nothing can be found in them for the tooth of a man or a horse; and the nobles are poor in the villages, as with us in Jmud. The colonels have determined therefore to divide the horses into hundreds, and post them five or ten miles apart. But when winter comes, I cannot tell what will happen."

Kmita, who had listened patiently while the conversation touched him, moved now, and had opened his mouth to say from his dark corner, "The hetman will take you, when thus divided, one by one, like lobsters from a net." But at that moment the door opened, and in it stood Soroka, whom Kmita had sent to get the horses ready for the road. The light from the chimney fell straight on the stern face of the sergeant. Yuzva Butrym glanced at him, looked a long time, then turned to Jendzian and asked, -

"Is that a servant of your great mightiness? I know him from some place or another."

"No," replied Jendzian; "those are nobles going with horses to fairs."

"But whither?" asked Yuzva.

"To Sobota," said old Kyemlich.

"Where is that?"

"Not far from Pyantek."

Yuzva accounted this answer an untimely jest, as Kmita had previously, and said with a frown, "Answer when people ask!"

"By what right do you ask?"

"I can make that clear to you, for I am sent out to see if there are not suspicious men in the neighborhood. Indeed it seems to me there are some, who do not wish to tell where they are going."

Kmita, fearing that a fight might rise out of this conversation, said, without moving from the dark corner, -

"Be not angry, worthy soldier, for Pyantek and Sobota are towns, like others, in which horse-fairs are held in the fall. If you do not believe, ask the lord starosta, who must know of them."

"They are regular places," said Jendzian.

"In that case it is all right. But why go to those places? You can sell horses in Shchuchyn, where there is a great lack of them, and those which we took in Pilvishki are good for nothing; they are galled."

"Every man goes where it is better for him, and we know our own road," answered Kmita.

"I know not whether it is better for you; but it is not better for us that horses are driven to the Swedes and informants go to them."

"It is a wonder to me," said the tenant of Vansosh. "These people talk against the Swedes, and somehow they are in a hurry to go to them." Here he turned to Kmita: "And you do not seem to me greatly like a horse-dealer, for I saw a fine ring on your finger, of which no lord would be ashamed."