At the moment when the king was saying that the voevoda of Vilna was
standing, perhaps, before the judgment of God, he spoke as it were with
a prophetic spirit, for at that hour the affair of Tykotsin was
decided.
On December 25 Sapyeha was so sure of capturing Tykotsin that he went
himself to Tyshovtsi, leaving the further conduct of the siege to Pan
Oskyerko. He gave command to wait for the final storm till his return,
which was to follow quickly; assembling, therefore, his more prominent
officers, he said,—
“Reports have come to me that among the officers there is a plan to
bear apart on sabres the voevoda of Vilna immediately after capturing
the castle. Now if the castle, as may happen, should surrender during
my absence, I inform you, gentlemen, that I prohibit most strictly an
attack on Radzivill’s life. I receive letters, it is true, from persons
of whom you gentlemen do not even dream, not to let him live when I
take him. But I do not choose to obey these commands; and this I do not
from any compassion, for the traitor is not worthy of that, but because
I have no right over his life, and I prefer to bring him before the
Diet, so that posterity may have in this case an example that no
greatness of family, no office can cover such offence, nor protect him
from public punishment.”
In this sense spoke the voevoda of Vityebsk, but more minutely, for his
honesty was equalled by this weakness: he esteemed himself an orator,
and loved on every occasion to speak copiously, and listened with
delight to his own words, adding to them the most beautiful sentences
from the ancients.
“Then I must steep my right hand well in water,” answered Zagloba, “for
it itches terribly. But I only say this, that if Radzivill had me in
his hands, surely he would not spare my head till sunset. He knows well
who in great part made his troops leave him; he knows well who
embroiled him with the Swedes. But even if he does, I know not why I
should be more indulgent to Radzivill than Radzivill to me.”
“Because the command is not in your hands and you must obey,” said
Sapyeha, with dignity.
“That I must obey is true, but it is well at times also to obey
Zagloba. I say this boldly, because if Radzivill had listened to me
when I urged him to defend the country, he would not be in Tykotsin
to-day, but in the field at the head of all the troops of Lithuania.”
“Does it seem to you that the baton is in bad hands?”
“It would not become me to say that, for I placed it in those hands.
Our gracious lord, Yan Kazimir, has only to confirm my choice, nothing
more.”
The voevoda smiled at this, for he loved Zagloba and his jokes.
“Lord brother,” said he, “you crushed Radzivill, you made me hetman,
and all this is your merit. Permit me now to go in peace to Tyshovtsi,
so that Sapyeha too may serve the country in something.”
Zagloba put his hands on his hips, thought awhile as if he were
considering whether he ought to permit or not; at last his eye gleamed,
he nodded, and said with importance,—
“Go, your grace, in peace.”
“God reward you for the permission!” answered the voevoda, with a
laugh.
Other officers seconded the voevoda’s laugh. He was preparing to start,
for the carriage was under the window; he took farewell of all,
therefore, giving each instructions what to do during his absence; then
approaching Volodyovski, he said,—
“If the castle surrenders you will answer to me for the life of the
voevoda.”
“According to order! a hair will not fall from his head,” said the
little knight.
“Pan Michael,” said Zagloba to him, after the departure of the voevoda,
“I am curious to know what persons are urging our Sapyo[2] not to let
Radzivill live when he captures him.”
“How should I know?” answered the little knight.
“If you say that what another mouth does not whisper to your ear your
own will not suggest, you tell the truth! But they must be some
considerable persons, since they are able to command the voevoda.”
“Maybe it is the king himself.”
“The king? If a dog bit the king he would forgive him that minute, and
give him cheese in addition. Such is his heart.”
“I will not dispute about that; but still, do they not say that he is
greatly incensed at Radzivill?”
“First, any man will succeed in being angry,—for example, my anger at
Radzivill; secondly, how could he be incensed at Radzeyovski when he
took his sons in guardianship, because the father was not better? That
is a golden heart, and I think it is the queen who is making requests
against the life of Radzivill. She is a worthy lady, not a word against
that, but she has a woman’s mind; and know that if a woman is enraged
at you, even should you hide in a crack of the floor, she will pick you
out with a pin.”
Volodyovski sighed at this, and said,—
“Why should any woman be angry with me, since I have never made trouble
for one in my life?”
“Ah, but you would have been glad to do so. Therefore, though you serve
in the cavalry, you rush on so wildly against the walls of Tykotsin
with infantry, for you think not only is Radzivill there, but Panna
Billevich. I know you, you rogue! Is it not true? You have not driven
her out of your head yet.”
“There was a time when I had put her thoroughly out of my head; and
Kmita himself, if now here, would be forced to confess that my action
was knightly, not wishing to act against people in love. I chose to
forget my rebuff, but I will not hide this: if Panna Billevich is now
in Tykotsin, and if God permits me a second time to save her from
trouble, I shall see in that the expressed will of Providence. I need
take no thought of Kmita, I owe him nothing; and the hope is alive in
me that if he left her of his own will she must have forgotten him, and
such a thing will not happen now as happened to me the first time.”
Conversing in this way, they reached their quarters, where they found
Pan Yan and Pan Stanislav, Roh Kovalski and the lord tenant of Vansosh,
Jendzian.
The cause of Sapyeha’s trip to Tyshovtsi was no secret, hence all the
knights were pleased that so honorable a confederacy would rise in
defence of the faith and the country.
“Another wind is blowing now in the whole Commonwealth,” said Pan
Stanislav, “and, thanks be to God, in the eyes of the Swedes.”
“It began from Chenstohova,” answered Pan Yan. “There was news
yesterday that the cloister holds out yet, and repulses more and more
powerful assaults. Permit not, Most Holy Mother, the enemy to put Thy
dwelling-place to shame.”
Here Jendzian sighed and said: “Besides the holy images how much
precious treasure would go into enemies’ hands; when a man thinks of
that, food refuses to pass his throat!”
“The troops are just tearing away to the assault; we can hardly hold
them back,” said Pan Michael. “Yesterday Stankyevich’s squadron moved
without orders and without ladders, for they said, ‘When we finish this
traitor, we will go to relieve Chenstohova;’ and when any man mentions
Chenstohova all grit their teeth and shake their sabres.”
“Why have we so many squadrons here when one half would be enough for
Tykotsin?” asked Zagloba. “It is the stubbornness of Sapyeha, nothing
more. He does not wish to obey me; he wants to show that without my
counsel he can do something. As you see yourselves, how are so many men
to invest one paltry castle? They merely hinder one another, for there
is not room for them all.”
“Military experience speaks through you,—it is impossible!” answered
Pan Stanislav.
“Well, I have a head on my shoulders.”
“Uncle has a head on his shoulders!” cried Pan Roh, suddenly; and
straightening his mustaches, he began to look around on all present as
if seeking some one to contradict him.
“But the voevoda too has a head,” answered Pan Yan; “and if so many
squadrons are here, there is danger that Prince Boguslav might come to
the relief of his cousin.”
“Then send a couple of light squadrons to ravage Electoral Prussia,”
said Zagloba; “and summon volunteers there from among common people. I
myself would be the first man to go to try Prussian beer.”
“Beer is not good in winter, unless warmed,” remarked Pan Michael.
“Then give us wine, or gorailka, or mead,” said Zagloba.
Others also exhibited a willingness to drink; therefore the lord tenant
of Vansosh occupied himself with that business, and soon a number of
decanters were on the table. Hearts were glad at this sight, and the
knights began to drink to one another, raising their goblets each time
for a new health.
“Destruction to the Swedes, may they not skin our bread very long!”
said Zagloba. “Let them devour their pine cones in Sweden.”
“To the health of his Royal Grace and the Queen!” said Pan Yan.
“And to loyal men!” said Volodyovski.
“Then to our own healths!”
“To the health of Uncle!” thundered Kovalski.
“God reward! Into your hands! and empty though your lips to the bottom.
Zagloba is not yet entirely old! Worthy gentlemen! may we smoke this
badger out of his hole with all haste, and move then to Chenstohova.”
“To Chenstohova!” shouted Kovalski. “To the rescue of the Most Holy
Lady.”
“To Chenstohova!” cried all.
“To defend the treasures of Yasna Gora from the Pagans!” added
Jendzian.
“Who pretend that they believe in the Lord Jesus, wishing to hide their
wickedness; but in fact they only howl at the moon like dogs, and in
this is all their religion.”
“And such as these raise their hands against the splendors of Yasna
Gora!”
“You have touched the spot in speaking of their faith,” said
Volodyovski to Zagloba, “for I myself have heard how they howl at the
moon. They said afterward that they were singing Lutheran psalms; but
it is certain that the dogs sing such psalms.”
“How is that?” asked Kovalski. “Are there such people among them?”
“There is no other kind,” answered Zagloba, with deep conviction.
“And is their king no better?”
“Their king is the worst of all. He began this war of purpose to
blaspheme the true faith in the churches.”
Here Kovalski, who had drunk much, rose and said: “If that is true,
then as sure as you are looking at me, and as I am Kovalski, I’ll
spring straight at the Swedish king in the first battle, and though he
stood in the densest throng, that is nothing! My death or his! I’ll
reach him with my lance,—hold me a fool, gentlemen, if I do not!”
When he had said this he clinched his fist and was going to thunder on
the table. He would have smashed the glasses and decanters, and broken
the table; but Zagloba caught him hastily by the arm and said,—
“Sit down, Roh, and give us peace. We will not think you a fool if you
do not do this, but know that we will not stop thinking you a fool
until you have done it. I do not understand, though, how you can raise
a lance on the King of Sweden, when you are not in the hussars.”
“I will join the escort and be enrolled in the squadron of Prince
Polubinski; and my father will help me.”
“Father Roh?”
“Of course.”
“Let him help you, but break not these glasses, or I’ll be the first
man to break your head. Of what was I speaking, gentlemen? Ah! of
Chenstohova. _Luctus_ (grief) will devour me, if we do not come in time
to save the holy place. _Luctus_ will devour me, I tell you all! And
all through that traitor Radzivill and the philosophical reasoning of
Sapyeha.”
“Say nothing against the voevoda. He is an honorable man,” said the
little knight.
“Why cover Radzivill with two halves when one is sufficient? Nearly ten
thousand men are around this little booth of a castle, the best cavalry
and infantry. Soon they will lick the soot out of all the chimneys in
this region, for what was on the hearths they have eaten already.”
“It is not for us to argue over the reasons of superiors, but to obey!”
“It is not for you to argue, Pan Michael, but for me; half of the
troops who abandoned Radzivill chose me as leader, and I would have
driven Karl Gustav beyond the tenth boundary ere now, but for that
luckless modesty which commanded me to place the baton in the hands of
Sapyeha. Let him put an end to his delay, lest I take back what I
gave.”
“You are only so daring after drink,” said Volodyovski.
“Do you say that? Well, you will see! This very day I will go among the
squadrons and call out, ‘Gracious gentlemen, whoso chooses come with me
to Chenstohova; it is not for you to wear out your elbows and knifes
against the mortar of Tykotsin! I beg you to come with me! Whoso made
me commander, whoso gave me power, whoso had confidence that I would do
what was useful for the country and the faith, let him stand at my
side. It is a beautiful thing to punish traitors, but a hundred times
more beautiful to save the Holy Lady, our Mother and the Patroness of
this kingdom from oppression and the yoke of the heretic.’”
Here Zagloba, from whose forelock the steam had for some time been
rising, started up from his place, sprang to a bench, and began to
shout as if he were before an assembly,—
“Worthy gentlemen! whoso is a Catholic, whoso a Pole, whoso has pity on
the Most Holy Lady, let him follow me! To the relief of Chenstohova!”
“I go!” shouted Roh Kovalski.
Zagloba looked for a while on those present, and seeing astonishment
and silent faces, he came down from the bench and said,—
“I’ll teach Sapyeha reason! I am a rascal if by tomorrow I do not take
half the army from Tykotsin and lead it to Chenstohova.”
“For God’s sake, restrain yourself, father!” said Pan Yan.
“I’m a rascal, I tell you!” repeated Zagloba.
They were frightened lest he should carry out his threat, for he was
able to do so. In many squadrons there was murmuring at the delay in
Tykotsin; men really gnashed their teeth thinking of Chenstohova. It
was enough to cast a spark on that powder; and what if a man so
stubborn, of such immense knightly importance as Zagloba, should cast
it? To begin with, the greater part of Sapyeha’s army was composed of
new recruits, and therefore of men unused to discipline, and ready for
action on their own account, and they would have gone as one man
without doubt after Zagloba to Chenstohova.
Therefore both Skshetuskis were frightened at this undertaking, and
Volodyovski cried,—
“Barely has a small army been formed by the greatest labor of the
voevoda, barely is there a little power for the defence of the
Commonwealth, and you wish with disorder to break up the squadrons,
bring them to disobedience. Radzivill would pay much for such counsel,
for it is water to his mill. Is it not a shame for you to speak of such
a deed?”
“I’m a scoundrel if I don’t do it!” said Zagloba.
“Uncle will do it!” said Kovalski.
“Silence, you horseskull!” roared out Pan Michael.
Pan Roh stared, shut his mouth, and straightened himself at once.
Then Volodyovski turned to Zagloba: “And I am a scoundrel if one man of
my squadron goes with you; you wish to ruin the army, and I tell you
that I will fall first upon your volunteers.”
“O Pagan, faithless Turk!” said Zagloba. “How is that? you would attack
knights of the Most Holy Lady? Are you ready? Well, I know you! Do you
think, gentlemen, that it is a question with him of an army or
discipline? No! he sniffs Panna Billevich behind the walls of Tykotsin.
For a private question, for your own wishes you would not hesitate to
desert the best cause. You would be glad to flutter around a maiden, to
stand on one foot, then the other, and display yourself. But nothing
will come of this! My head for it, that better than you are running
after her, even that same Kmita, for even he is no worse than you.”
Volodyovski looked at those present, taking them to witness what
injustice was done him; then he frowned. They thought he would burst
out in anger, but because he had been drinking, he fell all at once
into tenderness.
“This is my reward,” said he. “From the years of a stripling I have
served the country; I have not put the sabre out of my hand! I have
neither cottage, wife, nor children; my head is as lone as a
lance-point. The most honorable think of themselves, but I have no
rewards save wounds in the flesh; nay, I am accused of selfishness,
almost held a traitor.”
Tears began to drop on his yellow mustaches. Zagloba softened in a
moment, and throwing open his arms, cried,—
“Pan Michael, I have done you cruel injustice! I should be given to the
hangman for having belittled such a tried friend!”
Then falling into mutual embraces, they began to kiss each other; they
drank more to good understanding, and when sorrow had gone considerably
out of his heart, Volodyovski said,—
“But you will not ruin the army, bring disobedience, and give an evil
example?”
“I will not, Pan Michael, I will not for your sake.”
“God grant us to take Tykotsin; whose affair is it what I seek behind
the walls of the fortress? Why should any man jeer at me?”
Struck by that question, Zagloba began to put the ends of his mustaches
in his mouth and gnaw them; at last he said: “Pan Michael, I love you
as the apple of my eye, but drive that Panna Billevich out of your
head.”
“Why?” asked Pan Michael, with astonishment.
“She is beautiful, _assentior_ (I agree),” answered Zagloba, “but she
is distinguished in person, and there is no proportion whatever between
you. You might sit on her shoulder, like a canary-bird, and peck sugar
out of her mouth. She might carry you like a falcon on her glove, and
let you off against every enemy, for though you are little you are
venomous like a hornet.”
“Well, have you begun?” asked Volodyovski.
“If I have begun, then let me finish. There is one woman as if created
for you, and she is precisely that kernel— What is her name? That one
whom Podbipienta was to marry?”
“Anusia Borzobogati!” cried Pan Yan. “She is indeed an old love of
Michael’s.”
“A regular grain of buckwheat, but a pretty little rogue; just like a
doll,” said Zagloba, smacking his lips.
Volodyovski began to sigh, and to repeat time after time what he always
repeated when mention was made of Anusia: “What is happening to the
poor girl? Oh, if she could only be found!”
“You would not let her out of your hands, for, God bless me, I have not
seen in my life any man so given to falling in love. You ought to have
been born a rooster, scratch the sweepings in a house-yard, and cry,
‘Co, co, co,’ at the top-knots.”
“Anusia! Anusia!” repeated Pan Michael. “If God would send her to
me—But perhaps she is not in the world, or perhaps she is married—”
“How could she be? She was a green turnip when I saw her, and
afterward, even if she ripened, she may still be in the maiden state.
After such a man as Podbipienta she could not take any common fellow.
Besides, in these times of war few are thinking of marriage.”
“You did not know her well,” answered Pan Michael. “She was wonderfully
honest; but she had such a nature that she let no man pass without
piercing his heart. The Lord God created her thus. She did not miss
even men of lower station; for example, Princess Griselda’s physician,
that Italian, who was desperately in love with her. Maybe she has
married him and he has taken her beyond the sea.”
“Don’t talk such nonsense, Michael!” cried Zagloba, with indignation.
“A doctor, a doctor,—that the daughter of a noble of honorable blood
should marry a man of such low estate! I have already said that that is
impossible.”
“I was angry with her myself, for I thought, ‘This is without limit;
soon she will be turning the heads of attorneys.’”
“I prophesy that you will see her yet,” said Zagloba.
Further conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Pan
Tokarzevich, who had served formerly with Radzivill, but after the
treason of the hetman, left him, in company with others, and was now
standard-bearer in Oskyerko’s regiment.
“Colonel,” said he to Volodyovski, “we are to explode a petard.”
“Is Pan Oskyerko ready?”
“He was ready at midday, and he is not willing to wait, for the night
promises to be dark.”
“That is well; we will go to see. I will order the men to be ready with
muskets, so that the besieged may not make a sortie. Will Pan Oskyerko
himself explode the petard?”
“He will—in his own person. A crowd of volunteers go with him.”
“And I will go!” said Volodyovski.
“And we!” cried Pan Yan and Pan Stanislav.
“Oh, ’tis a pity that old eyes cannot see in the dark,” said Zagloba,
“for of a surety I should not let you go alone. But what is to be done?
When dusk comes I cannot draw my sword. In the daytime, in the daytime,
in the sunlight, then the old man likes to move to the field. Give me
the strongest of the Swedes, if at midday.”
“But I will go,” said, after some thought, the tenant of Vansosh. “When
they blow up the gate the troops will spring to the storm in a crowd,
and in the castle there may be great wealth in plate and in jewels.”
All went out, for it was now growing dark; in the quarters Zagloba
alone remained. He listened for a while to the snow squeaking under the
steps of the departing men, then began to raise one after another the
decanters, and look through them at the light burning in the chimney to
see if there was something yet in any of them.
The others marched toward the castle in darkness and wind, which rose
from the north and blew with increasing force, howling, storming,
bringing with it clouds of snow broken fine.
“A good night to explode a petard!” said Volodyovski.
“But also for a sortie,” answered Pan Yan. “We must keep a watchful eye
and ready muskets.”
“God grant,” said Pan Tokarzevich, “that at Chenstohova there is a
still greater storm. It is always warmer for our men behind the walls.
But may the Swedes freeze there on guard, may they freeze!”
“A terrible night!” said Pan Stanislav; “do you hear, gentlemen, how it
howls, as if Tartars were rushing through the air to attack?”
“Or as if devils were singing a requiem for Radzivill!” said
Volodyovski.