Jendzian had no intention of passing a night at "The Mandrake," for
from Vansosh to Shchuchyn was not far,--he wanted merely to give rest
to his horses, especially to those drawing the loaded wagons.
Therefore, when Kmita let him travel farther, Jendzian lost no time,
and entered Shchuchyn late in the evening. Having announced himself to
the sentries, he took his place on the square; for the houses were
occupied by soldiers, who even then were not all able to find lodgings.
Shchuchyn passed for a town, but was not one in reality; for it had not
yet even walls, a town hall, courts of justice, or the college of
monks, founded in the time of King Yan III. It had a few houses, but a
greater number of cabins than houses, and was called a town, because it
was built in a quadrangular form with a market-place in the centre,
slightly less swampy than the pond at which the paltry little place was
situated.
Jendzian slept under his warm wolfskin till morning, and then went
straight to Pan Volodyovski, who, as he had not seen him for an age,
received him with gladness and took him at once to Pan Yan and Zagloba.
Jendzian shed tears at sight of his former master, whom he had served
faithfully so many years; and with whom he had passed through so many
adventures and worked himself finally to fortune. Without shame of his
former service, Jendzian began to kiss the hands of Pan Yan and repeat
with emotion,--
"My master, my master, in what times do we meet again!"
Then all began in a chorus to complain of the times; at last Zagloba
said,--
"But you, Jendzian, are always in the bosom of fortune, and as I see
have come out a lord. Did I not prophesy that if you were not hanged
you would have fortune? What is going on with you now?"
"My master, why hang me, when I have done nothing against God, nothing
against the law? I have served faithfully; and if I have betrayed any
man, he was an enemy,--which I consider a special service. And if I
destroyed a scoundrel here and there by stratagem, as some one of the
rebels, or that witch,--do you remember, my master?--that is not a sin;
but even if it were a sin, it is my master's, not mine, for it was from
you that I learned stratagems."
"Oh, that cannot be! See what he wants!" said Zagloba. "If you wish me
to howl for your sins after death, give me their fruit during life. You
are using alone all that wealth which you gained with the Cossacks, and
alone you will be turned to roast bacon in hell."
"God is merciful, my master, though it is untrue that I use wealth for
myself alone; for first I beggared our wicked neighbors with lawsuits,
and took care of my parents, who are living now quietly in Jendziane,
without any disputes,--for the Yavorskis have gone off with packs to
beg, and I, at a distance, am earning my living as I can."
"Then you are not living in Jendziane?" asked Pan Yan.
"In Jendziane my parents live as of old, but I am living in Vansosh,
and I cannot complain, for God has blessed me. But when I heard that
all you gentlemen were in Shchuchyn, I could not sit still, for I
thought to myself, 'Surely it is time to move again!' There is going to
be war, let it come!"
"Own up," said Zagloba, "the Swedes frightened you out of Vansosh?"
"There are no Swedes yet in Vidzka, though small parties appear, and
cautiously, for the peasants are terribly hostile."
"That is good news for me," said Volodyovski, "for yesterday I sent a
party purposely to get an informant concerning the Swedes, for I did
not know whether it was possible to stay in Shchuchyn with safety;
surely that party conducted you hither?"
"That party? Me? I have conducted it, or rather I have brought it, for
there is not even one man of that party who can sit on a horse alone."
"What do you say? What has happened?" inquired Volodyovski.
"They are terribly beaten!" explained Jendzian.
"Who beat them?"
"Pan Kmita."
The Skshetuskis and Zagloba sprang up from the benches, one
interrupting the other in questioning,--
"Pan Kmita? But what was he doing here? Has the prince himself come
already? Well! Tell right away what has happened."
Pan Volodyovski rushed out of the room to see with his eyes, to verify
the extent of the misfortune, and to look at the men; therefore
Jendzian said,--
"Why should I tell? Better wait till Pan Volodyovski comes back; for it
is more his affair, and it is a pity to move the mouth twice to repeat
the same story."
"Did you see Kmita with your own eyes?" asked Zagloba.
"As I see you, my master!"
"And spoke with him?"
"Why should I not speak with him, when we met at 'The Mandrake' not far
from here? I was resting my horses, and he had stopped for the night.
An hour would have been short for our talk. I complained of the Swedes,
and he complained also of the Swedes--"
"Of the Swedes? He complained also?" asked Pan Yan.
"As of devils, though he was going among them."
"Had he many troops?"
"He had no troops, only a few attendants; true, they were armed, and
had such snouts that even those men who slaughtered the Holy Innocents
at Herod's command had not rougher or viler. He gave himself out as a
small noble in pigskin boots, and said that he went with horses to the
fairs. But though he had a number of horses, his story did not seem
clear to me, for neither his person nor his bearing belonged to a
horse-dealer, and I saw a fine ring on his finger,--this one." Here
Jendzian held a glittering stone before the listeners.
Zagloba struck himself on the side and cried: "Ah, you gypsied that out
of him! By that alone might I know you, Jendzian, at the end of the
world!"
"With permission of my master, I did not gypsy it; for I am a noble,
not a gypsy, and feel myself the equal of any man, though I live on
rented lands till I settle on my own. This ring Pan Kmita gave as a
token that what he said was true; and very soon I will repeat his words
faithfully to your graces, for it seems to me that in this case our
skins are in question."
"How is that?" asked Zagloba.
At this moment Volodyovski came in, roused to the utmost, and pale from
anger; he threw his cap on the table and cried,--
"It passes imagination! Three men killed; Yuzva Butrym cut up, barely
breathing!"
"Yuzva Butrym? He is a man with the strength of a bear!" said the
astonished Zagloba.
"Before my eyes Pan Kmita stretched him out," put in Jendzian.
"I've had enough of that Kmita!" cried Volodyovski, beside himself;
"wherever that man shows himself he leaves corpses behind, like the
plague. Enough of this! Balance for balance, life for life; but now a
new reckoning! He has killed my men, fallen upon good soldiers; that
will be set to his account before our next meeting."
"He did not attack them, but they him; for he hid himself in the
darkest corner, so they should not recognize him," explained Jendzian.
"And you, instead of giving aid to my men, testify in his favor!" said
Volodyovski, in anger.
"I speak according to justice. As to aid, my men tried to give aid; but
it was hard for them, for in the tumult they did not know whom to beat
and whom to spare, and therefore they suffered. That I came away with
my life and my sacks is due to the sense of Pan Kmita alone, for hear
how it happened."
Jendzian began a detailed account of the battle in "The Mandrake,"
omitting nothing; and when at length he told what Kmita had commanded
him to tell, they were all wonder fully astonished.
"Did he say that himself?" asked Zagloba.
"He himself," replied Jendzian. "'I,' said he, 'am not an enemy to Pan
Volodyovski or the confederates, though they think differently. Later
this will appear; but meanwhile let them come together, in God's name,
or the voevoda of Vilna will take them one by one like lobsters from a
net.'"
"And did he say that the voevoda was already on the march?" asked Tan
Yan.
"He said that the voevoda was only waiting for Swedish reinforcements,
and that he would move at once on Podlyasye."
"What do you think of all this, gentlemen?" asked Volodyovski, looking
at his comrades.
"Either that man is betraying Radzivill, or he is preparing some ambush
for us. But of what kind? He advises us to keep in a body. What harm to
us may rise out of that?"
"To perish of hunger," answered Volodyovski. "I have just received news
that Jyromski, Kotovski, and Lipnitski must dispose their cavalry in
parties of some tens each over the whole province, for they cannot get
forage together."
"But if Radzivill really does come," asked Pan Stanislav, "who can
oppose him?"
No one could answer that question, for really it was as clear as the
sun that if the grand hetman of Lithuania should come and find the
confederates scattered, he could destroy them with the greatest ease.
"An astonishing thing!" repeated Zagloba; and after a moment's silence
he continued: "Still I should think that he had abandoned Radzivill.
But in such a case he would not be slipping past in disguise, and to
whom,--to the Swedes." Here he turned to Jendzian: "Did he tell you
that he was going to Warsaw?"
"He did."
"But the Swedish forces are there already."
"About this hour he must have met the Swedes, if he travelled all
night," answered Jendzian.
"Have you ever seen such a man?" asked Zagloba, looking at his
comrades.
"That there is in him evil with good, as tares with wheat, is certain,"
said Pan Yan; "but that there is any treason in this counsel that he
gives us at present, I simply deny. I do not know whither he is going,
why he is slipping past in disguise; and it would be idle to break my
head over this, for it is some mystery. But he gives good advice, warns
us sincerely: I will swear to that, as well as to this,--that the only
salvation for us is to listen to his advice. Who knows if we are not
indebted to him again, for safety and life?"
"For God's sake," cried Volodyovski, "how is Radzivill to come here
when Zolotarenko's men and Hovanski's infantry are in his way? It is
different in our case! One squadron may slip through, and even with one
we had to open a way through Pilvishki with sabres. It is another thing
with Kmita, who is slipping by with a few men; but when the prince
hetman passes with a whole army? Either he will destroy those first--"
Volodyovski had not finished speaking when the door opened and an
attendant came in.
"A messenger with a letter to the Colonel," said he.
"Bring it."
The attendant went out and returned in a moment with the letter. Pan
Michael broke the seal quickly and read,--
That which I did not finish telling the tenant of Vansosh yesterday, I
add to-day in writing. The hetman of himself has troops enough against
you, but he is waiting for Swedish reinforcements, so as to go with the
authority of the King of Sweden; for then if the Northerners[26] attack
him they will have to strike the Swedes too, and that would mean war
with the King of Sweden. They will not venture to make war without
orders, for they fear the Swedes, and will not take on themselves the
responsibility of beginning a war. They have discovered that it is
Radzivill's purpose to put the Swedes forward against them everywhere;
let them shoot or cut down even one man, there would be war at once.
The Northerners themselves know not what to do now, for Lithuania is
given up to the Swedes; they stay therefore in one place, only waiting
for what will be, and warring no further. For these reasons they do not
restrain Radzivill, nor oppose him. He will go directly against you,
and will destroy you one after the other, unless you collect in one
body. For God's sake, do this, and beg the voevoda of Vityebsk to come
quickly, since it is easier for him to reach you now through the
Northerners while they stand as if stupefied. I wanted to warn you
under another name, so that you might more easily believe, but because
tidings are given you already from another, I write my own name. It is
destruction if you do not believe. I am not now what I was, and God
grant that you will hear something altogether different about me.
Kmita.
"You wished to know how Radzivill would come to us; here is your
answer!" said Pan Yan.
"That is true, he gives good reasons," answered Volodyovski.
"What good reasons! holy reasons!" cried Zagloba. "There can be no
doubt here. I was the first to know that man; and though there are no
curses that have not been showered on his head, I tell you we shall
bless him yet. With me it is enough to look at a man to know his value.
You remember how he dropped into my heart at Kyedani? He loves us, too,
as knightly people. When he heard my name the first time, he came near
suffocating me with admiration, and for my sake saved you all."
"You have not changed," remarked Jendzian; "why should Pan Kmita admire
you more than my master or Pan Volodyovski?"
"You are a fool!" answered Zagloba. "He knew you at once; and if he
called you the tenant, and not the fool of Vansosh, it was through
politeness."
"Then maybe he admired you through politeness!" retorted Jendzian.
"See how the bread swells; get married, lord tenant, and surely you
will swell better--I guarantee that."
"That is all well," said Volodyovski; "but if he is so friendly, why
did he not come to us himself instead of slipping around us like a wolf
and biting our men?"
"Not your head, Pan Michael. What we counsel do you carry out, and no
evil will come of it. If your wit were as good as your sabre, you would
be grand hetman already, in place of Revera Pototski. And why should
Kmita come here? Is it not because you would not believe him, just as
you do not now believe his letter, from which it might come to great
trouble, for he is a stubborn cavalier. But suppose that you did
believe him, what would the other colonels do, such as Kotovski,
Jyromski, or Lipnitski? What would your Lauda men say? Would not they
cut him down the moment you turned your head away?"
"Father is right!" said Pan Yan; "he could not come here."
"Then why was he going to the Swedes?" insisted the stubborn Pan
Michael.
"The devil knows, whether he is going to the Swedes; the devil knows
what may flash into Kmita's wild noddle. That is nothing to us, but let
us take advantage of the warning, if we wish to carry away our heads."
"There is nothing to meditate on here," said Pan Stanislav.
"It is needful to inform with all speed Kotovski, Jyromski, Lipnitski,
and that other Kmita," said Pan Yan. "Send to them, Michael, news at
once; but do not write who gave the warning, for surely they would not
believe."
"We alone shall know whose the service, and in due time we shall not
fail to publish it!" cried Zagloba, "Onward, lively, Michael!"
"And we will move to Byalystok ourselves, appointing a muster there for
all. God give us the voevoda of Vityebsk at the earliest," said Yan.
"From Byalystok we must send a deputation from the army to him. God
grant that we shall stand before the eyes of the hetman of Lithuania,"
said Zagloba, "with equal force or greater than his own. It is not for
us to rush at him, but it is different with the voevoda. He is a worthy
man, and honest; there is not another such in the Commonwealth."
"Do you know Pan Sapyeha?" asked Stanislav.
"Do I know him! I knew him as a little boy, not higher than my sabre.
But he was then like an angel."
"And now he has turned into money, not only his property, not only his
silver and jewels, but most likely he has melted into coin the metal of
his horse-trappings, so as to collect as many troops as possible
against the enemy," said Volodyovski.
"Thank God that there is even one such man," answered Pan Stanislav,
"for remember how we trusted in Radzivill."
"Oh that is blasphemous!" cried Zagloba. "Voevoda of Vityebsk, ba! ba!
Long life to the voevoda of Vityebsk! And you, Michael, to the road
with all speed, to the road! Let the mudfish remain in these swamps of
Shchuchyn, but we will go to Byalystok, where perhaps we shall find
other fish. The Jews there, on Sabbath, bake very excellent bread.
Well, at least war will begin; I am yearning for it. And if we break
through Radzivill we will begin at the Swedes. We have shown them
already what we can do. To the road, Michael, for _periculum in mora_
(there is danger in delay)!"
"I will go to put the squadrons in line!" said Pan Yan.
An hour later, messengers, between ten and twenty in number, were
flying as a horse gallops toward Podlyasye, and soon after them moved
the whole squadron of Lauda. The officers went in advance, arranging
and discussing; and Roh Kovalski, the lieutenant, led the soldiers.
They went through Osovyets and Gonyandz, shortening for themselves the
road to Byalystok, where they hoped to find other confederate
squadrons.