The little knight, or rather the little devil, teased Zagloba to accompany him in these expeditions, for he loved his company above all things; but the worthy noble opposed every suggestion, and thus explained his inactivity:—
“My stomach is too big, Pan Michael, for these struggles and encounters; and besides, each man has his special power. To strike with hussars in the thick of the enemy in the open day, break through a camp, capture standards,—that’s my forte, the Lord God created and fitted me for that; but to hunt a rabble in the night through the brush,—I leave that to you, who are as slender as a needle, and can easily push through everywhere. I am a knight of ancient date, and I prefer to tear through as the lion does, rather than creep along like a bloodhound on trails. Besides, after the evening milking I must to bed, for that is my best time.”
Volodyovski therefore went alone, and alone conquered, till a certain time when, going out toward the end of April, he returned in the middle of May, as woe-begone and gloomy as if he had met a defeat and wasted his men. Thus it appeared to all; but in that long and difficult expedition Volodyovski had gone beyond Ostrog to the neighborhood of Golovna, and had defeated there, not a common band made up of the rabble, but several hundred Zaporojians, half of whom he killed and the other half captured. The more astonishing, therefore, was the profound gloom which as a fog covered his face, joyous by nature. But Pan Volodyovski said not a word to any man; scarcely had he dismounted when he went for a long conversation with the prince, taking two unknown knights, and then, in company with them, went to Zagloba without stopping, though those eager for news seized him by the sleeve along the way.
Zagloba looked with a certain astonishment on the two gigantic men, whom he had never seen before, and whose uniform, with gilt shoulder-knots, showed that they served in the Lithuanian army. Volodyovski said,—
“Shut the door, and give orders to admit no one, for we have to speak on affairs of importance.”
Zagloba gave the order to the servant; then he began to look unquietly on the strangers, noting from their faces that they had nothing good to tell.
“These are,” said Volodyovski, pointing to the young man, “the Princes Bulygi Kurtsevichi, Yuri and Andrei.”
“The cousins of Helena!” cried Zagloba.
The princes bowed and said both at once: “Cousins of the deceased Helena.”
The ruddy face of Zagloba became pale blue in a moment. He began to beat the air with his hands as if he had been struck with a bullet. He opened his lips, unable to catch breath, rolled his eyes, and said or rather groaned: “How?”
“There is news,” answered Volodyovski, gloomily, “that the princess was murdered in the monastery of Nikolai the Good.”
“The mob suffocated with smoke in a cell twelve young ladies and some nuns, among whom was our cousin,” added Prince Yuri.
This time Zagloba’s countenance, formerly blue, became so red that those present were afraid of apoplexy. Slowly his lids dropped over his eyes; he covered them with his hands, and from his mouth came a fresh groan: “Oh, world! world! world!” Then he was silent.
But the princes and Volodyovski began to complain.
“Oh, good lady, we your friends and relatives gathered together,—we who wished to go to save you,” said the young knight, sighing time after time; “but it is evident that we were late with our aid. Our willingness was in vain, in vain our sabres and our courage; for you are in another and better than this bad world, waiting upon the Queen of Heaven.”
“Oh, cousin,” cried the gigantic Yuri, who in grief seized his hair anew, “forgive us our faults, and for every drop of your blood we will pour out three gallons.”
“So help us God!” responded Andrei.
The two men stretched their hands to heaven. Zagloba rose from his seat, advanced a few steps toward the bed, tottered like one drunk, and fell on his knees before the image.
After a moment the bells in the castle sounded for midday,—sounded as gloomily as if they were death-bells.
“She is no more!” said Volodyovski again. “The angels have taken her to heaven, leaving us tears and sighs.”
Sobbing shook the heavy body of Zagloba, and it trembled; but they complained without ceasing, and the bells were tolling.
At last Zagloba calmed himself; they had thought indeed that perhaps wearied by pain he had fallen asleep on his knees. After a time, however, he rose, stood up, sat on the bed; but he had become as it were another man. His eyes were red, bloodshot; his head drooping; his lower lip hung upon his beard; imbecility had settled on his face, and a certain unexampled decrepitude, so that it might in truth appear that the former Zagloba, lively, jovial, full of fancy, had died, and there remained only an old man weighted and wearied with years.
Meanwhile, in spite of the protests of the servant at the door, Podbipienta entered; and again began complaints and regrets. The Lithuanian called to mind Rozlogi, and the first meeting with the princess,—her sweetness, youth, beauty. At length he remembered that there was some one more unhappy than any of them,—her betrothed, Pan Skshetuski,—and he began to ask the little knight about him.
“Skshetuski is with Prince Koretski, at Korets, to which place he came from Kieff; and he lies there in illness, unconscious of God’s world,” said Volodyovski.
“Should not we go to him?” asked the Lithuanian.
“There is no reason to go,” replied Volodyovski. “The prince’s physician answers for his health. Pan Sukhodolski—one of Prince Dominik’s colonels, but a great friend of Skshetuski—is there, and our old Zatsvilikhovski; they both have him in care and watchfulness. He lacks for nothing, and that delirium does not leave him is the better for him.”
“Oh, God of power!” said the Lithuanian, “have you seen Skshetuski with your own eyes?”
“I saw him; but if they had not told me that that was he, I should not have known him, pain and sickness have so devoured him.”
“Did he recognize you?”
“He knew me undoubtedly, though he said nothing, for he smiled and nodded his head. Such pity possessed me that I could stay no longer. Prince Koretski wishes to come here with his squadron. Zatsvilikhovski will come with him, and Pan Sukhodolski swears that he will come too, even if he has an order to the contrary from Prince Dominik. They will bring Pan Yan unless disease gets the better of him.”
“And whence have you tidings of the princess’s death?” asked Pan Longin. “Have these young men brought it?” added he, pointing to the princes.
“No. These knights learned all by chance in Korets, where they had come with messages from the voevoda of Vilna, and came here with me, for they had letters from the voevoda to our prince. War is certain, and nothing will come of the commission.”
“We know that already ourselves, but tell us who informed you of the death of the princess?”
“Zatsvilikhovski told me, and he knows it from Skshetuski. Hmelnitski gave Skshetuski permission to search for her in Kieff, and the metropolitan himself had to assist. They searched mainly in the monasteries, for those of our people who remained in Kieff are secreted in them. And they thought surely that Bogun had placed the princess in some monastery. They sought and sought and were of good heart, though they knew that the mob had suffocated twelve young ladies with smoke at Nikolai the Good. The metropolitan contended that they would not have attacked the betrothed of Bogun, but it has turned out otherwise.”
“Then she was at the convent of Nikolai the Good?”
“She was. Skshetuski met Pan Yoakhim Yerlich, who was hiding in a monastery; and as he had asked every one about the princess, he asked him too. Pan Yerlich said that there were certain young ladies whom the Cossacks had taken, but at Nikolai the Good twelve remained, whom afterward they suffocated with smoke,—among them Kurtsevichovna. Skshetuski, since Yerlich is a hypochondriac and only half-witted from continual terror, did not be
lieve him, and hurried off immediately a second time to Nikolai the Good to inquire. Unfortunately the nuns, three of whom were suffocated in the same cell, did not know the names, but hearing the description which Skshetuski gave, they said that she was the one. Then Skshetuski went away from Kieff and straightway fell ill.”
“The only wonder is that he is still alive.”
“He would have died undoubtedly but for that old Cossack who nursed him during captivity in the Saitch, and then came here with letters from him, and when he had returned, helped him again in his search. He took him to Korets and gave him into the hands of Zatsvilikhovski.”
“May God protect him, for he has never yet consoled him!” said Podbipienta.
Volodyovski ceased, and a silence of the grave reigned over all. The princes resting upon their elbows sat motionless with frowning brows; Podbipienta raised his eyes to heaven, and Zagloba fixed his glassy gaze on the opposite wall as if sunk in the deepest thought.
“Rouse yourself!” said Volodyovski, shaking him by the shoulder. “Of what are you thinking so? You will not think out anything, and all your stratagems will be useless.”
“I know that,” answered Zagloba, with a broken voice. “I am thinking that I am old, that I have nothing to do in this world.”
CHAPTER LIV.
“Picture to yourself,” said Volodyovski to Pan Longin a few days later, “that that man has changed in one hour as if he had grown ten years older. So joyous was he, so talkative, so full of tricks, that he surpassed Ulysses himself. Now he does not let two words out of his lips, but dozes away whole days, complains of old age, and speaks as in a dream. I knew that he loved her, but I did not think that he loved her to this degree.”
“What is there wonderful in that?” answered the Lithuanian, sighing. “He was the more attached to her that he snatched her from the hands of Bogun, and went through so many dangers and adventures in the flight. While there was hope his wit was exerted in inventions, and he kept on foot; but now he has really nothing to do in the world, being alone and without heart for anything.”
“I tried to drink with him, hoping that drink would restore his former vigor, but in vain. He drinks, but does not think as before, does not talk about his exploits; only becomes sensitive, and then hangs his head on his breast and goes to sleep. I do not know if even Pan Yan is in greater despair than he.”
“It is an unspeakable loss, for withal he was a great knight. Let us go to him, Pan Michael. He had the habit of scoffing at me and teasing me on every occasion; perhaps the desire will take him now. My God, how people change! He was such a gladsome man.”
“Let us go,” said Volodyovski. “It is already late; but it is most grievous for him in the evening,—for dozing all day, he is unable to sleep at night.”
Thus conversing, they betook themselves to the quarters of Zagloba, whom they found sitting under the open window with his head resting on his hand. It was late; every movement in the castle had ceased; only the sentinels answered in prolonged tones, and in the thickets separating the castle from the town the nightingales brought out their passionate trills, whistling, smacking, and clapping as quickly as fall the drops in a spring shower. Through the open window came in the warm breeze of May and the clear rays of the moon, which lighted the downcast face of Zagloba and the bald crown bent toward his breast.
“Good-evening!” said the two knights.
“Good-evening!” answered Zagloba.
“Why have you forgotten yourself before the window instead of going to bed?” asked Volodyovski.
Zagloba sighed. “It is not a question of sleep with me,” said he, with a drawling voice. “A year ago I was fleeing with her on the Kagamlik from Bogun, and in this same way those birds were twittering; and where is she now?”
“God has so ordained,” said Volodyovski.
“Ordained to tears and sorrow, Pan Michael. There is no more consolation for me.”
They were silent; but through the open window came, with power increasing each moment, the trill of the nightingales, with which all that clear night seemed filled.
“Oh, God, God!” sighed Zagloba, “exactly as it was on the Kagamlik.”
Pan Longin shook a tear from his great mustaches, and the little knight said after a while,—
“Sorrow is sorrow; but drink some mead with us, for there is nothing better against sorrow. At the glass we will talk of better times.”
“Let us drink,” said Zagloba, with resignation.
Volodyovski ordered the servant to bring a light and decanter, and afterward, when they had sat down, knowing that reminiscences enlivened Zagloba more than anything else, he inquired: “It is just a year, is it not, since you fled with her before Bogun from Rozlogi?”
“It was in May, in May,” answered Zagloba. “We passed through the Kagamlik to flee to Zólotonosha. Oh, it is hard in this world!”
“And she was disguised?”
“As a Cossack. I had to cut off her hair with my sabre, poor thing! so that she shouldn’t be discovered. I know the place under the tree where I hid the hair, together with the sabre.”
“Oh, she was a sweet lady!” added Longin, with a sigh.
“I tell you, gentlemen, from the first day I fell in love with her as if I had paid homage to her from youthful years. And she would clasp her hands before me and thank me for her rescue and my care. I wish they had killed me before I had lived to this day! Would that I had not lived to it!”
Then came silence again, and the three knights drank mead mixed with tears. After that Zagloba began to speak again.
“I thought to pass a calm old age with them, but now"—here his hands hung down powerless—"nowhere solace, nowhere solace, but in the grave—”
Before Zagloba had finished speaking a disturbance rose in the anteroom; some one wished to enter, and the servant would not let him in. A wordy struggle followed, in which it seemed to Volodyovski that he recognized some known voice; therefore he called to the servant not to forbid entrance further.
The door opened, and in it appeared the plump, ruddy face of Jendzian, who, passing his eyes over those present, bowed and said: “May Jesus Christ be praised!”
“For the ages of ages,” said Volodyovski. “This is Jendzian?”
“I am he,” said the young man, “and I bow to your knees. And where is my master?”
“Your master is in Korets, and ill.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, what do you tell me? And is he seriously ill, which God forbid?”
“He was, but he is better now. The doctor says he will recover.”
“For I have come with news about the lady to my master.”
The little knight began to nod his head in melancholy fashion. “You need not hasten, for Pan Skshetuski already knows of her death, and we here are shedding tears of mourning for her.”
Jendzian’s eyes were bursting from his head. “By violence! What do I hear? Is she dead?”
“Not dead, but murdered in Kieff by robbers.”
“What are you talking about? In what Kieff?”
“Don’t you know Kieff?”
“For God’s sake, are you fooling with me? What had she to do in Kieff when she is hidden in the ravine at Valadinka, not far from Rashkoff, and the witch was commanded not to move a step till Bogun should come? As God is dear to me, must I run mad?”
“What witch are you speaking of?”
“Why, Horpyna! I know that bass-viol well.”
Zagloba stood up suddenly from the bench, and began to strike out with his hands like a man who has fallen into deep water and is trying to save himself from drowning.
“By the living God, be quiet!” said he to Volodyovski. “By God’s wounds, let me ask him!”
The company trembled, so pale was Zagloba, and the perspiration came out on his bald head. He sprang over the bench to J
endzian, and seizing the young fellow by the shoulders, asked in a hoarse voice,—
“Who told you that she is near Rashkoff, secreted?”
“Who should tell me? Bogun!”
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