And he had to speak long in pacifying the angry brothers. He explained
to them that were they to cut down Krepetski at once it would be the
act not of nobles but assassins.
"There is need first of all," said he, "to visit our neighbors, to come
to an understanding with Father Tvorkovski, to have the support of the
clergy and the nobles, to obtain the testimony of the servants at
Belchantska, then to take the case before a tribunal, and only when the
sentence is passed to stand behind it with weapons. If," continued he,
"ye were to bear Martsian apart on your sabres immediately, his father
would not fail to report in all places that ye did so through agreement
with Panna Anulka; by this her reputation might suffer, and the old man
would summon you, and, instead of going to the war, ye would have to
drag around through tribunals, for, not being under the authority of
the hetman as yet, ye would not escape a civil summons. That is how
this matter stands at the moment."
"How so?" inquired Yan, with sorrow; "then we are to let the wrong done
this dove go unpunished?"
"But do ye think," said the priest, "that life will be pleasant for
Krepetski when infamy is hanging over him, or the axe of the headsman,
and in addition when general contempt is surrounding him? That is a
worse torment than a quick death would be, and I should not wish, for
all the silver in Olkuts, to be in his skin at this moment."
"But if he will wriggle out?" inquired Marek. "His father is an old
trickster, who has won more than one lawsuit."
"If he wriggles out, Yatsek on returning will whisper a word in his
ear."
"Ye do not know Yatsek yet! He has the eyes of a maiden, but it is
safer to take her young cubs from a she-bear than to pain him
unjustly."
Hereupon Vilchopolski till then only listening spoke in gloomy
accents,--
"Pan Krepetski has written his own sentence, whether he awaits the
return of Pan Tachevski or not-- But there is another point; he will
try, with armed hand, to get back the young lady, and then--"
"Then we shall see!" interrupted Pan Serafin. "But let him only try!
That is something quite different!"
And he shook his sabre, threateningly, while the Bukoyemskis began to
grit their teeth straightway.
"Let him try! let him try!" said they.
"But, gentlemen," said Vilchopolski, "you are going to the war."
"We will arrange then in another way," replied Father Voynovski.
Further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the butler. He
had brought trunks filled with the wardrobe of Panna Sieninski which,
as he said, he did only with difficulty. The Krepetski sisters tried to
prevent him, and even wished to wake Martsian, and keep the trunks in
the mansion, but they could not wake him; and the butler persuaded them
that they should not act thus, both in view of their own good and that
of their brother, otherwise an action would be brought against them for
robbery, and they would be summoned for damages before a tribunal. As
women who do not know law they were frightened and yielded. The butler
thought that Martsian would try surely to get back the young lady, but
he did not think that the man would use violence immediately.
"He will be restrained from that," said the butler, "by his father, who
understands well the significance of _raptus puellae_. He knows nothing
yet of what has happened, but from here I will go to him directly and
explain the whole matter, for two reasons. First, so that he may
restrain Martsian, and second, because I do not wish to be in
Belchantska to-morrow when Martsian wakes and learns that I have helped
the young lady in fleeing. He would rush on me surely, and then to one
of us something ugly might happen."
Pan Serafin and Father Voynovski praised the man's prudence and,
finding that he was a well-wishing person, and experienced, a man who
had eaten bread from more than one oven, and to whom law itself was no
novelty, begged him to aid in examining the question. There were two
councils then, one of these being formed of the four Bukoyemskis.
Pan Serafin, knowing how to restrain them most easily from murderous
intentions, and detain them at home, sent a large demijohn of good mead
to the brothers; this they were glad to besiege at the moment, and
began to drink one to another. Their hearts were moved, and they
remembered involuntarily the night when Panna Anulka crossed for the
first time the threshold of that house there in Yedlinka. They recalled
how they had fallen in love with her straightway, how through her they
had quarrelled, and then in one voice adjudged her to Stanislav, and
thus made an offering of their passion to friendship.
At last Mateush drank his mead, put his head on his palm, sighed, and
continued,--
"Yatsek was sitting that night on a tree like a squirrel. Who could
have thought then that he was just the man to whom the Lord God had
given her?"
"And commanded us to continue in our orphanhood," added Marek.
"Do ye remember," asked Lukash, "how the rooms were all bright from her
presence? They would not have been brighter from a hundred burning
candles. And she at one time stood up, at another sat down, and a third
time she laughed. And when she looked at a man it was as warm in his
bosom as if he had drunk heated wine that same instant. Let us take a
glass now on our terrible sadness."
They drank again; then Mateush struck a blow with his fist on the
table, and shouted,--
"Ei! if she had not loved that Yatsek so!"
"Then what?" asked Yan, angrily, "dost think that she would fall in
love with thee right away? Look at him--my dandy!"
"Well thou art no beauty!" retorted Mateush.
And they looked at each other with ill-feeling. But Lukash, though
given greatly to quarrels, began now to pacify his brothers.
"Not for thee, not for thee, not for any of us," said he. "Another will
get her and take her to the altar."
"For us there is nothing but sorrow and weeping," blurted out Marek.
"Then at least we will love one another. No one in this world loves us!
No one!"
"No one! no one!" repeated they all in succession, mingling their wine
with their tears as they said so.
"But she is sleeping up there!" added Yan on a sudden.
"She is sleeping, the poor little thing," responded Lukash; "she is
lying down like a flower cut by the scythe, like a lamb torn by a
villainous wolf. My born brothers! is there no man here who will take
even a pull at the wild beast?"
"It cannot be but there is!" cried out Mateush, Marek, and Yan. And
again they grew indignant, and the more they drank the oftener they
gritted their teeth, first one, then another, or one of them struck his
fist on the table.
"I have an idea!" said the youngest on a sudden.
"Tell it! Have God in thy heart!"
"Here it is. We have promised Pan Serafin not to cut up that 'stump.'
Have we not promised?"
"We have, but tell what thou hast to say; ask no questions."
"Though we have promised we must take revenge for our young lady. Old
Krepetski will come here, as they said, to see if Pan Serafin will not
give back the young lady. But we know that he will not give her, do we
not?"
"He will not! he will not!"
"But think ye not this way: Martsian will hurry to meet his father on
the road back, to see and inquire if he has succeeded."
"As God is in heaven, he will do so."
"On the road, half-way between Belchantska and Yedlinka, is a tar pit
near the roadside. If we should wait at that tar pit for Martsian--?"
"Well, but what for?"
"Psh! quiet!"
"Psh!"
And they began to look around through the room, though they knew that
save themselves there was not a living soul in it, and then they
whispered. They whispered long, now louder, now lower. At last their
faces grew radiant, they finished their wine at one draught, embraced
one another, and in silence went out of the room one after the other,
in goose fashion.
They saddled their horses without the least noise, and each led his
beast by the bit from the courtyard. When they had gone through the
gate they mounted and rode stirrup by stirrup to the roadway where Yan,
though the youngest, took command and said then to his brothers,--
"Now I with Marek will go to the tar pit, and do ye bring that cask
before daybreak."