When Pan Andrei drove up to the mansion at Lyubich, the windows were
gleaming, and bustle reached the front yard. The servants, hearing
the bell, rushed out through the entrance to greet their lord, for
they had learned from his comrades that he would come. They greeted
him with submission, kissing his hands and seizing his feet. The old
land-steward, Znikis, stood in the entrance holding bread and salt, and
beating worship with the forehead; all gazed with uneasiness and
curiosity,--how would their future lord look? Kmita threw a purse full
of thalers on the tray, and asked for his comrades, astonished that no
one of them had come forth to meet his proprietary mightiness.
But they could not come forth, for they were then the third hour at the
table, entertaining themselves at the cup, and perhaps in fact they had
not taken note of the sounding of the bell outside. But when he entered
the room, from all breasts a loud shout burst forth: "The heir, the
heir has come!" and all his comrades, springing from their places,
started toward him with their cups. But he placed his hands on his
hips, and laughed at the manner in which they had helped themselves in
his house, and had gone to drinking before his arrival. He laughed with
increasing heartiness when he saw them advance with tipsy solemnity.
Before the others went the gigantic Pan Yaromir Kokosinski, with the
seal of Pypka, a famous soldier and swaggerer, with a terrible scar
across his forehead, his eye, and his cheek, with one mustache short,
the other long, the lieutenant and friend of Kmita, the "worthy
comrade," condemned to loss of life and honor in Smolensk for stealing
a maiden, for murder and arson. At that time war saved him, and the
protection of Kmita, who was of the same age; and their lands were
adjoining in Orsha till Pan Yaromir had squandered his away. He came up
holding in both hands a great-eared bowl filled with dembniak.
Next came Ranitski, whose family had arms,--Dry Chambers (Suche
Komnaty). He was born in the province of Mstislavsk, from which he was
an outlaw for killing two noblemen, landowners. One he slew in a duel,
the other he shot without an encounter. He had no estate, though he
inherited his step-mother's land on the death of his father. War saved
him, too, from the executioner. He was an incomparable hand-to-hand
sword-slasher.
The third in order was Rekuts-Leliva, on whom blood did not weigh, save
the blood of the enemy. But he had played away, drunk away his
substance. For the past three years he had clung to Kmita.
With him came the fourth, also from Smolensk, Pan Uhlik, under sentence
of death and dishonor for breaking up a court. Kmita protected him
because he played beautifully on the flageolet.
Besides them was Pan Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus, in stature the equal of
Kokosinski, in strength even his superior; and Zend, a horse-trainer,
who knew how to imitate wild beasts and all kinds of birds,--a man of
uncertain descent, though claiming to be a noble of Courland; being
without fortune he trained Kmita's horses, for which he received an
allowance.
These then surrounded the laughing Pan Andrei. Kokosinski raised the
eared bowl and intoned:--
"Drink with us, dear host of ours,
Dear host of ours!
With us thou mightst drink to the grave,
Drink to the grave!"
Others repeated the chorus; then Kokosinski gave Kmita the eared bowl,
and Zend gave Kokosinski a goblet.
Kmita raised high the eared bowl and shouted, "Health to my maiden!"
"Vivat! vivat!" cried all voices, till the window-panes began to rattle
in their leaden fittings. "Vivat! the mourning will pass, the wedding
will come!"
They began to pour forth questions: "But how does she look? Hei!
Yendrus,[9] is she very pretty, or such as you pictured her? Is there
another like her in Orsha?"
"In Orsha?" cried Kmita. "In comparison with her you might stop
chimneys with our Orsha girls! A hundred thunders! there's not another
such in the world."
"That's the kind we wanted for you," answered Ranitski. "Well, when is
the wedding to be?"
"The minute the mourning is over."
"Oh, fie on the mourning! Children are not born black, but white."
"When the wedding comes, there will be no mourning. Hurry, Yendrus!"
"Hurry, Yendrus!" all began to exclaim at once.
"The little bannerets of Orsha are crying in heaven for the earth,"
said Kokosinski.
"Don't make the poor little things wait!"
"Mighty lords," added Rekuts-Leliva, with a thin voice, "at the wedding
we'll drink ourselves drunk as fools."
"My dear lambs," said Kmita, "pardon me, or, speaking more correctly,
go to a hundred devils, let me look around in my own house."
"Nonsense!" answered Uhlik. "To-morrow the inspection, but now all to
the table; there is a pair of demijohns there yet with big bellies."
"We have already made inspection for you. This Lyubich is a golden
apple," said Ranitski.
"A good stable!" cried Zend; "there are two ponies, two splendid hussar
horses, a pair of Jmud horses, and a pair of Kalmuks,--all in pairs,
like eyes in the head. We will look at the mares and colts to-morrow."
Here Zend neighed like a horse; they wondered at his perfect imitation,
and laughed.
"Is there such good order here?" asked Kmita, rejoiced.
"And how the cellar looks!" piped Rekuts; "resinous kegs and mouldy
jugs stand like squadrons in ranks."
"Praise be to God for that! let us sit down at the table."
"To the table! to the table!"
They had barely taken their places and filled their cups when Ranitski
sprang up again: "To the health of the Under-chamberlain Billevich!"
"Stupid!" answered Kmita, "how is that? You are drinking the health of
a dead man."
"Stupid!" repeated the others. "The health of the master!"
"Your health!"
"May we get good in these chambers!"
Kmita cast his eyes involuntarily along the dining-hall, and he saw on
the larch wood walls, blackened by age, a row of stern eyes fixed on
him. Those eyes were gazing out of the old portraits of the
Billeviches, hanging low, within two ells of the floor, for the wall
was low. Above the portraits in a long unbroken row were fixed skulls
of the aurochs, of stags, of elks, crowned with their antlers: some,
blackened, were evidently very old; others were shining with whiteness.
All four walls were ornamented with them.
"The hunting must be splendid, for I see abundance of wild beasts,"
said Kmita.
"We will go to-morrow or the day after. We must learn the
neighborhood," answered Kokosinski. "Happy are you, Yendrus, to have a
place to shelter your head!"
"Not like us," groaned Ranitski.
"Let us drink for our solace," said Rekuts.
"No, not for our solace," answered Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus, "but once
more to the health of Yendrus, our beloved captain. It is he, my mighty
lords, who has given here in Lyubich an asylum to us poor exiles
without a roof above our heads."
"He speaks justly," cried a number of voices; "Kulvyets is not so
stupid as he seems."
"Hard is our lot," piped Rekuts. "Our whole hope is that you will not
drive us poor orphans out through your gates."
"Give us peace," said Kmita; "what is mine is yours."
With that all rose from their places and began to take him by the
shoulders. Tears of tenderness flowed over those stern drunken faces.
"In you is all our hope, Yendrus," cried Kokosinski, "Let us sleep even
on pea straw; drive us not forth."
"Give us peace," repeated Kmita.
"Drive us not forth; as it is, we have been driven,--we nobles and men
of family," said Uhlik, plaintively.
"To a hundred fiends with you, who is driving you out? Eat, drink! What
the devil do you want?"
"Do not deny us," said Ranitski, on whose face spots came out as on the
skin of a leopard. "Do not deny us, Andrei, or we are lost altogether."
Here he began to stammer, put his finger to his forehead as if
straining his wit, and suddenly said, looking with sheepish eyes on
those present, "Unless fortune changes."
And all blurted out at once in chorus, "Of course it will change."
"And we will yet pay for our wrongs."
"And come to fortune."
"And to office."
"God bless the innocent! Our prosperity!"
"Your health!" cried Pan Andrei.
"Your words are holy, Yendrus," said Kokosinski, placing his chubby
face before Kmita. "God grant us improvement of fortune!"
Healths began to go around, and tufts to steam. All were talking, one
interrupting the other; and each heard only himself, with the exception
of Rekuts, who dropped his head on his breast and slumbered. Kokosinski
began to sing, "She bound the flax in bundles," noting which Uhlik took
a flageolet from his bosom and accompanied him.
Ranitski, a great fencer, fenced with his naked hand against an unseen
opponent, repeating in an undertone, "You thus, I thus; you cut, I
strike,--one, two, three, check!"
The gigantic Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus stared fixedly for some time at
Ranitski; at last he waved his hand and said: "You're a fool! Strike
your best, but still you can't hold your own before Kmita with a
sabre."
"For no one can stand before him; but try yourself."
"You will not win against me with a pistol."
"For a ducat a shot."
"A ducat! But where and at what?"
Ranitski cast his eyes around; at last he cried out, pointing at the
skulls, "Between the antlers, for a ducat!"
"For what?" asked Kmita.
"Between the antlers, for two ducats, for three! Bring the pistols!"
"Agreed!" cried Kmita. "Let it be three. Zend, get the pistols!"
All began to shout louder and louder, and bargain among themselves;
meanwhile Zend went to the antechamber, and soon returned with pistols,
a pouch of bullets, and a horn with powder.
Ranitski grasped for a pistol. "Is it loaded?" asked he.
"Loaded."
"For three, four, five ducats!" blustered Kmita, drunk.
"Quiet! you will miss, you will miss."
"I shall hit at that skull between the antlers--one! two!"
All eyes were turned to the strong elk-skull fixed in front of
Ranitski. He straightened his arm; the pistol turned in his palm.
"Three!" cried Kmita.
The shot sounded; the room was filled with powder smoke.
"He has missed, he has missed! See where the hole is!" cried Kmita,
pointing with his hand at the dark wall from which the bullet had torn
out a brighter chip.
"Two shots each time!"
"No; give it to me," cried Kulvyets.
At that moment the astonished servants ran in at the sound of the shot.
"Away! away!" called Kmita. "One! two! three!"
Again the roar of a shot; this time the pieces fell from the bone.
"But give us pistols too!" shouted all at the same time.
And springing up, they began to pound on the shoulders of their
attendants, urging them to hurry. Before a quarter of an hour had
passed, the whole room was thundering with shots. The smoke hid the
light of the candles and the forms of the men shooting. The report of
discharges was accompanied by the voice of Zend, who croaked like a
raven, screamed like a falcon, howled like a wolf, bellowed like an
aurochs. The whistle of bullets interrupted him; bits flew from the
skulls, chips from the wall, and portraits from their frames; in the
disorder the Billeviches were shot, and Ranitski, falling into fury,
slashed them with his sabre.
The servants, astonished and terrified, stood as if bereft of their
senses, gazing with startled eyes on that sport which resembled a
Tartar invasion. The dogs began to howl and bark. All in the house were
on their feet; in the yard groups of people assembled. The girls of the
house ran to the windows, and putting their faces to the panes,
flattening their noses, gazed at what was passing within.
Zend saw them at last; he whistled so piercingly that it rang in the
ears of all, and then shouted, "Mighty lords! titmice are under the
window,--titmice!"
"Titmice! titmice!"
"Now for a dance!" roared dissonant voices.
The drunken crowd sprang through the anteroom to the porch. The frost
did not sober their steaming heads. The girls, screaming in voices that
rose to the sky, ran in every direction through the yard; but the men
chased them, and brought each one they seized to the room. After a
while they began dancing in the midst of smoke, bits of bone, and chips
around the table on which spilled wine lay in pools.
In such fashion did Pan Kmita and his wild company revel in Lyubich.