Kmita, wishing to pass from Warsaw to Royal Prussia and Lithuania, had
really no easy task in the very beginning, for not farther from Warsaw
than Serotsk was a great Swedish force. Karl Gustav in his time had
commanded it to take position there purposely to hinder the siege of
the capital. But since Warsaw was captured, that army had nothing
better to do than stop the divisions which Yan Kazimir might send to
Lithuania or Prussia. At the head of the Swedish force were two Polish
traitors, Radzeyovski and Radzivill, with Douglas, a skilful warrior,
trained as no other of the Swedish generals in sudden warfare; with
them were two thousand chosen infantry and cavalry, with artillery of
equal number. When the leaders heard of Kmita’s expedition, since it
was necessary for them in every event to approach Lithuania to save
Tykotsin, besieged anew by Mazovians and men of Podlyasye, they spread
widely their nets for Pan Andrei in the triangle on the Bug, between
Serotsk on one side and Zlotorya on the other, and Ostrolenko at the
point.
Kmita had to pass through that triangle, for he was hurrying, and there
lay his nearest road. He noticed in good season that he was in a net,
but because he was accustomed to that method of warfare he was not
disconcerted. He counted on this,—that the net was too greatly
extended, and therefore the meshes in it were so widely stretched that
he would be able to pass through them. What is more, though they hunted
him diligently, not only did he double back, not only did he escape,
but he hunted them. First, he passed the Bug behind Serotsk, pushed
along the bank of the river to Vyshkov in Branshchyk; he cut to pieces
three hundred horse sent on a reconnoissance, so that, as the prince
had written, not a man returned to give account of the disaster.
Douglas himself pushed him into Dlugosyodle; but Kmita, dispersing the
cavalry, turned back, and instead of fleeing with all his might, went
straight to the eyes of the enemy as far as the Narev, which he crossed
by swimming. Douglas stood on the bank waiting for boats; but before
they were brought Kmita returned in the dark through the river, and
striking the vanguard of the Swedes brought panic and disorder to
Douglas’s whole division.
The old general was amazed at this movement; but next day his amazement
was greater, when he learned that Kmita had gone around the whole army,
and doubling back to the spot from which they had started him like a
wild beast, had seized at Branshchyk Swedish wagons following the army,
together with booty and money, cutting down at the same time fifty men
of the infantry convoy.
Sometimes the Swedes saw Kmita’s Tartars for whole days with the naked
eye on the edge of the horizon, but could not reach them. Still Pan
Andrei carried off something every moment. The Swedish soldiers were
wearied, and the Polish squadrons which held yet with Radzeyovski,
though formed of dissenters, served unwillingly. But the population
served Kmita with enthusiasm. He knew every movement of the smallest
scouting-party, of each wagon which went forward or remained in the
rear. Sometimes it seemed that he was playing with the Swedes, but that
was tiger-play. He spared no prisoners; he ordered the Tartars to hang
them, for the Swedes did the same. At times you would say that
irrepressible fury had come upon him, for he hurled himself with blind
insolence on superior forces.
“An insane man leads that division!” said Douglas.
“Or a mad dog!” said Radzeyovski.
Boguslav thought he was one and the other, but underneath both a
consummate soldier. The prince related boastingly to the generals that
he had hurled that cavalier twice to the earth, with his own hand.
In fact, Babinich attacked Boguslav most furiously. He sought him
evidently; the pursued became himself the pursuer.
Douglas divined that there must be some personal hatred in the matter.
The prince did not deny this, though he gave no explanations. He paid
Babinich with the same coin; for following the example of Hovanski, he
put a price on his head; and when that availed nothing, he thought to
take advantage of Kmita’s hatred and through it bring him into a trap.
“It is a shame for us to bother so long with this robber,” said he to
Douglas and Radzeyovski; “he is prowling around us like a wolf around a
sheepfold. I will go against him with a small division as a decoy; and
when he strikes me I will detain him till you come up; then we will not
let the craw-fish out of the net.”
Douglas, whom this chase had long since annoyed, made only small
opposition, asserting that he could not and should not expose the life
of such a great dignitary and relative of kings to the chance of being
seized by one marauder. But when Boguslav insisted, he agreed.
It was determined that the prince should go with a detachment of five
hundred troopers, that each man should have behind him a foot soldier
with a musket. This stratagem was to lead Babinich into error.
“He will not restrain himself when he hears of only five hundred
horsemen, and he will attack undoubtedly,” said the prince. “When the
infantry spit in his eyes, his Tartars will scatter like sand; he will
fall himself, or we shall take him alive.”
This plan was carried out quickly and with great accuracy. First, news
was sent out, two days in advance, that a party of five hundred horse
was to march under Prince Boguslav. The generals calculated with
certainty that the local inhabitants would inform Babinich of this. In
fact, they did inform him.
The prince marched in the deep and dark night toward Vansosh and
Yelonka, passed the river at Cherevino, and leaving his cavalry in the
open field, stationed his infantry in the neighboring groves, whence
they might issue unexpectedly. Meanwhile Douglas was to push along by
the bank of the Narev, feigning to march on Ostrolenko. Radzeyovski was
in advance, with the lighter cavalry from Ksyenjopole.
Neither of the three leaders knew well where Babinich was at that
moment, for it was impossible to learn anything from the peasants, and
the cavalry were not able to seize Tartars. But Douglas supposed that
Babinich’s main forces were in Snyadovo, and he wished to surround
them, so that if Babinich should move on Boguslav, he would intercept
him on the side of the Lithuanian boundary and cut off his retreat.
Everything seemed to favor the Swedish plans. Kmita was really in
Snyadovo; and barely had the news of Boguslav’s approach reached him,
when he fell at once into the forest, so as to come out unexpectedly
near Cherevino.
Douglas, turning aside from the Narev, struck in a few days upon the
traces of the Tartar march, and advanced by the same road, therefore
from the rear after Babinich. Heat tormented the horses greatly, as
well as the men encased in iron armor; but the general advanced without
regard to those hindrances, absolutely certain that he would come upon
Babinich’s army unexpectedly and in time of battle.
Finally, after two days’ march he came so near Cherevino that the smoke
of the cottages was visible. Then he halted, and occupying all the
passages and narrow pathways, waited.
Some officers wished to advance as a forlorn hope and strike at once;
but Douglas restrained them, saying,—
“Babinich, after attacking the prince, when he sees that he has to do
not with cavalry alone, but also with infantry, will be obliged to
retreat; and as he can retreat only by the old road, he will fall as it
were into our open arms.”
In fact, it seemed that all they had to do was to listen, and soon
Tartar howling would be heard, and the first discharges of musketry.
Meanwhile one day passed, and in the forests of Cherevino it was as
silent as if a soldier’s foot had never been in it.
Douglas grew impatient, and toward night sent forward a small party to
the field, enjoining on them the utmost caution.
The party returned in the depth of the night, without having seen or
done anything. At daylight Douglas himself advanced with his whole
force. After a march of some hours he reached a place filled with
traces of the presence of soldiers. His men found remnants of biscuits,
broken glass, bits of clothing, and a belt with cartridges such as the
Swedish infantry use; it became certain that Boguslav’s infantry had
stopped in that place, but they were not visible anywhere. Farther on
in the damp forest Douglas’s vanguard found many tracks of heavy
cavalry horses, but on the edge tracks of Tartar ponies; still farther
on lay the carcass of a horse, from which the wolves had recently torn
out the entrails. About a furlong beyond they found a Tartar arrow
without the point, but with the shaft entire. Evidently Boguslav was
retreating, and Babinich was following him.
Douglas understood that something unusual must have happened. But what
was it? To this there was no answer. Douglas fell to pondering.
Suddenly his meditation was interrupted by an officer from the
vanguard.
“Your worthiness!” said the officer, “through the thicket about a
furlong away are some men in a crowd. They do not move, as if they were
on watch. I have brought the guard to a halt, so as to report to you.”
“Cavalry or infantry?” asked Douglas.
“Infantry. There are four or five of them in a group; it was not
possible to count them accurately, for the branches hide them. But they
seem yellow, like our musketeers.”
Douglas pressed his horse with his knees, pushed forward quickly to the
vanguard, and advanced with it. Through the thickets, now thinner, were
to be seen in the remoter deep forest a group of soldiers perfectly
motionless, standing under a tree.
“They are ours, they are ours!” said Douglas. “The prince must be in
the neighborhood.”
“It is a wonder to me,” said the officer; “they are on watch, and none
of them calls, though we march noisily.”
Here the thickets ended, and the forest was clean of undergrowth. The
men approached and saw four persons standing in a group, one at the
side of the other, as if they were looking at something on the ground.
From the head of each one rose a dark strip directly upward.
“Your worthiness!” said the officer at once, “these men are hanging.”
“That is true!” answered Douglas.
They sprang forward, and stood for a while near the corpses. Four
foot-soldiers were hanging together by ropes, like a bunch of thrushes,
their feet barely an inch above the ground, for they were on the lower
branches.
Douglas looked at them indifferently enough; then said as if to
himself, “Now we know that the prince and Babinich have passed this
way.”
Then he fell to thinking again, for he did not know well whether to
continue on by the forest path or go out on the Ostrolenko highway.
Half an hour later they found two other corpses. Evidently they were
marauders or sick men whom Babinich’s Tartars had seized while pursuing
the prince.
“But why did the prince retreat?”
Douglas knew him too well—that is, both his daring and his military
experience—to admit even for a moment that the prince had not
sufficient reasons. Therefore something must have intervened.
Only next day was the affair explained. Pan Byes Kornie had come from
Prince Boguslav, with a party of thirty horse, to report that Yan
Kazimir had sent beyond the Bug against Douglas the full hetman Pan
Gosyevski, with six thousand Lithuanians and Tartar horse.
“We learned this,” said Pan Byes, “before Babinich came up; for he
advanced very carefully and attacked frequently, therefore annoyingly.
Gosyevski is twenty or twenty-five miles distant. When the prince
received the tidings, he was forced to retreat in haste, so as to join
Radzeyovski, who might be cut to pieces easily. But by marching quickly
we made the junction. The prince sent out at once parties of a few tens
of men in every direction, with a report to your worthiness. Many of
them will fall into Tartar or peasant hands, but in such a war it
cannot be otherwise.”
“Where are the prince and Radzeyovski?”
“Ten miles from here, at the river.”
“Did the prince bring back all his forces?”
“He was forced to leave the infantry, which is coming through the
thickest forest, so as to escape the Tartars.”
“Such cavalry as the Tartar is made to go through the densest forests.
I do not expect to see that infantry again. But no one is to blame, and
the prince acted like an experienced leader.”
“The prince threw out one party the most considerable to Ostrolenko, to
lead Gosyevski into error. He will go to Ostrolenko at once, thinking
that our whole force is there.”
“That is well!” said Douglas, comforted. “We will manage Gosyevski.”
And he marched without delay to join Boguslav and Radzeyovski. They met
that same day, to the great delight, especially, of Radzeyovski, who
feared captivity more than death, for he knew that as a traitor and the
originator of all the misfortunes of the Commonwealth he would have to
give a terrible answer. But now, after the junction with Douglas, the
Swedish army had more than four thousand men; therefore it was able to
offer an effective resistance to the forces of the full hetman. He had,
it is true, six thousand cavalry; but Tartars—except those of Babinich,
who were trained—could not be used in offensive battle, and Pan
Gosyevski himself, though a skilled and learned warrior, was not able,
like Charnyetski, to inspire men with an enthusiasm which nothing could
resist.
But Douglas was at a loss to understand why Yan Kazimir should send the
full hetman beyond the Bug. The Swedish king with the elector was
marching on Warsaw; a general battle must therefore follow, sooner or
later. And though Yan Kazimir was at the head of a force superior in
numbers to the Swedes and the Brandenburgers, still six thousand men
formed too great a force for the King of Poland to set aside
voluntarily.
It is true that Gosyevski had saved Babinich from trouble, but still
the king did not need to send out a whole division to the rescue of
Babinich. Hence there was in this expedition some secret object, which
the Swedish general, despite all his penetration, could not divine.
In the letter of the King of Sweden sent a week later great alarm was
evident, and as it were astonishment caused by that expedition, but a
few words explained the reasons of this. According to the opinion of
Karl Gustav, the hetman was not sent to attack Douglas’s army, nor to
go to Lithuania to aid the uprising there, for in Lithuania the Swedes,
as it was, were not able to do anything but to threaten Royal Prussia,
namely, the eastern part of it, which was completely stripped of
troops.
“The calculation is,” wrote the king, “to make the elector waver in
faithfulness to the treaty of Marienburg and to us; which may easily
happen, since the elector is ready to enter into alliance with Christ
against the Devil and at the same time with the Devil against Christ,
so as to win something from both.”
The letter ended by enjoining on Douglas to strive with all his forces
not to let the hetman go to Prussia, “who if he cannot reach there in
the course of a few weeks, will be forced beyond doubt to return to
Warsaw.”
Douglas saw that the task given him did not surpass his powers at all.
Not so long before he had met with a certain success in opposing
Charnyetski himself; therefore Gosyevski was not terrible. The Swedish
general did not hope, it is true, to crush Gosyevski’s division, but he
felt certain that he would be able to stop him and curb all his
movements.
In fact, from that moment began very skilful approaches of the two
armies, which, avoiding on both sides a general battle, endeavored each
to flank the other. Both leaders emulated each other; but the
experienced Douglas was in so far superior that he did not let
Gosyevski advance beyond Ostrolenko. But Babinich, saved from
Boguslav’s attack, did not hasten to join the Lithuanian division, for
he occupied himself with great zeal on that infantry which Boguslav in
his hurried march to Radzeyovski was forced to leave behind. Babinich’s
Tartars, guided by local woodmen, pursued night and day, finishing
every moment the incautious or those who dropped into the rear. Lack of
provisions forced the Swedes at last to separate into small detachments
which could find food more easily; this was all that Babinich was
waiting for.
He divided his forces into three commands, under lead of Akbah Ulan,
Soroka, and himself, and in a few days he destroyed the greater part of
that infantry. It was an untiring hunt after men in forest thickets, in
willows, in reeds,—a hunt full of noise, uproar, shouting, shooting,
and death.
Widely did it spread the glory of Babinich’s name among the Mazovians.
Bands collected and joined Gosyevski at Ostrolenko itself, when the
full hetman, whose march was only a demonstration, received a command
from the king to march back to Warsaw. For a short period only could
Babinich rejoice with his acquaintances; namely, with Zagloba and
Volodyovski, who at the head of the Lauda squadron attended the hetman.
But they greeted one another very cordially, for great friendship and
intimacy existed already between them. The young colonels were sharply
annoyed that they could not act now against Boguslav; but Zagloba
consoled them by pouring frequently into their glasses, and saying,—
“That is nothing! My head has been working since May over stratagems,
and I have never racked it over anything in vain. I have a number
ready,—very excellent stratagems; but there is no time to apply them,
unless at Warsaw, whither we are all marching.”
“I must go to Prussia,” said Babinich, “and cannot be at Warsaw.”
“Can you reach Prussia?” asked Volodyovski.
“As God is in heaven, I shall spring through; and I promise you
sacredly to make not the worst cabbage-hash, for I shall say to my
Tartars, ‘Riot, my soul!’ They would be glad even here to draw the
knife across people’s throats; but I have told them that pay for every
violence is the rope. But in Prussia I will give way even to my own
will. Why should I not spring through? You were not able; but that is
another thing, for it is easier to stop a large force than such a party
as mine, with which it is easy to hide. More than once was I sitting in
the rushes, and Douglas’s men passed right there, knowing nothing of
me. Douglas too will surely follow you, and leave the field free to
me.”
“But, as we hear, you have wearied him out too,” said Pan Michael, with
satisfaction.
“Ah, the scoundrel!” added Zagloba. “He had to change his shirt every
day, he sweated so. You never stole up to Hovanski better than to him,
and I must acknowledge that I could not have done better myself,
though, in his time, Konyetspolski said that Zagloba in partisan
warfare was unsurpassed.”
“It seems to me,” said Pan Michael to Kmita, “that if Douglas returns
he will leave Boguslav here to attack you.”
“God grant it! I have the same hope,” answered Kmita, quickly. “Were I
to seek him, and he me, we should find each other. He will not pass
through me a third time; and if he does, then I shall not rise again. I
remember your secrets well; and all the Lubni thrusts I have in memory
like ‘Our Father.’ Every day, too, I try them with Soroka, so as to
train my hand.”
“What are stratagems good for?” exclaimed Pan Michael; “the sabre is
the main thing.”
This maxim touched Zagloba somewhat; therefore he said at once: “Every
windmill thinks that the main thing is to whirl its wings. Do you know
why, Michael? Because it has chaff under its roof; that is, in its
head. Military art rests on stratagems; if not, Roh Kovalski might be
grand hetman and you full hetman.”
“And what is Pan Kovalski doing?” asked Kmita.
“Pan Kovalski has now an iron helmet on his head, and justly, for
cabbage is best out of a pot. He has grown rich on plunder in Warsaw,
has come into good repute, and gone to the hussars, to Prince
Polubinski, and all so as to be able to put a spear into Karl Gustav.
He comes every day to our tent, and stares to see if the neck of the
decanter is sticking out of the straw. I cannot break that lad of
drinking. Good example goes for nothing; but I prophesied to him that
this desertion of the Lauda squadron would turn out evil. The rogue!
the thankless fellow! in return for all the benefits which I have shown
him, such a son for a lance!”
“But did you rear him?”
“My dear sir, do not make me a bear-trainer! To Sapyeha, who asked me
the same question. I answered that he and Roh had the same preceptor,
but not me; for I in youthful years was a cooper, and knew how to set
staves very well.”[10]
“To begin with, you would not dare to tell that to Sapyeha,” said
Volodyovski; “and secondly, though you grumble at Kovalski, you love
him as the apple of your eye.”
“I prefer him to you, Pan Michael; for I could never endure May-bugs,
nor soapy little fellows who at the sight of the first woman who comes
along play antics like German dogs.”
“Or like those monkeys in the Kazanovski Palace, with which you were
carrying on war.”
“Oh, laugh, laugh! You can take Warsaw without me next time.”
“Was it you, then, who took Warsaw?”
“But who captured the Cracow Gate? Who invented captivity for the
generals? They are sitting now on bread and water in Zamost; and when
Wittemberg looks at Wrangel, he says, ‘Zagloba put us here!’ and both
fall to weeping. If Sapyeha were not ill, and if he were present, he
would tell you who first drew the Swedish claw from the skin of
Warsaw.”
“For God’s sake!” said Kmita, “do this for me,—send news of that battle
for which they are preparing at Warsaw. I shall be counting the days
and nights on my fingers till I know something certain.”
Zagloba put his finger to his forehead. “Listen to my forecast,” said
he, “for what I tell you will be accomplished as surely as that this
glass is standing before me— Is it not standing before me?”
“It is, it is! Speak on.”
“We shall either lose this general battle, or we shall win it—”
“Every man knows that!” put in Volodyovski.
“You might be silent, Michael, and learn something. Supposing that we
lose this battle, do you know what will happen? You see you do not
know, for you are moving those little awls under your nose like a
rabbit. Well, I will tell you that nothing will happen—”
Kmita, who was very quick, sprang up, struck his glass on the table,
and said,—
“You are beating around the bush!”
“I say nothing will happen!” repeated Zagloba. “You are young,
therefore you do not know. As affairs now stand, our king, our dear
country, our armies may lose fifty battles one after another, and the
war will go on in the old fashion,—the nobles will assemble, and with
them the lower ranks. But if they do not succeed one time, they will
another, until the enemy’s force has melted away. But when the Swedes
lose one great battle, the Devil will take them without salvation, and
with them the elector to boot.”
Here Zagloba grew animated, emptied his glass, struck it on the table,
and continued,—
“Listen,—for you will not hear this from every mouth, for not every one
knows how to take a general view of things. Many a man is thinking,
‘What is waiting for us now? how many battles, how many
defeats,’—which, in warring with Karl, are not unlikely,—‘how many
tears, how much bloodshed, how many grievous paroxysms?’ And many a one
will doubt and blaspheme against the mercy of God and the Most Holy
Mother. But I tell you this: do you know what is waiting for those
vandal enemies?—destruction; do you know what is waiting for
us?—victory! If they beat us one hundred times, very well; but we will
beat them the hundred and first time, and that will be the end.”
When he had said this, Zagloba closed his eyes for a moment, but soon
opened them. He looked ahead with gleaming vision, and suddenly shouted
with the whole force of his breast: “Victory! victory!”
Kmita was flushed from delight: “In God’s name, he is right, he speaks
justly. It cannot be otherwise! Such an end has to come!”
“It must be acknowledged that you are not lacking here,” said
Volodyovski, putting his finger on his forehead. “The Commonwealth may
be occupied; but to stay in it is impossible, so at last the Swedes
will have to go out.”
“Well, is that it? I am not lacking!” said Zagloba, rejoiced at the
praise. “If that is true, then I will prophesy further. God is with the
just!” Here he turned to Kmita. “You will finish the traitor Radzivill;
you will go to Taurogi, recover the maiden, marry her, rear posterity.
May I have the pip on my tongue if this will not happen as I say! But
for God’s sake, don’t smother me!”
Zagloba was rightfully cautious, for Kmita seized him in his arms,
raised him, and began to hug him so that the old man’s eyes were
bursting out. He had barely come to his feet and recovered breath, when
Pan Michael, greatly delighted, seized him by the hand,—
“It is my turn! Tell what awaits me.”
“God bless you, Michael! your pretty tufted lark will hatch out a whole
brood,—never fear. Uf!”
“Vivat!” cried Volodyovski.
“But first, we will make an end of the Swedes,” added Zagloba.
“We will, we will!” cried the young colonels, shaking their sabres.
“Vivat! victory!”