As touches the tobacco, hum! it comes
From further parts than good Skoluba thinks.
It comes from Jasna Gora,122 and the Paulines
Make snuff like this in Czenstochowa’s town,
Where is that picture for such wonders famed,
The Virgin, Mother of our Lord, and Queen
Of Poland, and Princess of Lithuania.
True, still she watches o’er her royal crown,
But now the schism123 in Litva’s duchy reigns.”
“From Czenstochowa?” Wilbik said; “I went
There to confession thirty years ago,
When I was there for pardon. Is it true
That in the town the Frenchman resteth now,
And that he wishes to throw down the church,
And seize the treasure, for all this is in
The Lithuanian Courier?”—“ ’Tis not true,”
Replied the Bernardine; “illustrious sir,
Napoleon is a Catholic, and most
Exemplary; the Pope anointed him;
They live in harmony together, and
Convert men in the Frankish nation, which
Had grown somewhat corrupt. ’Tis true much silver
Was given from Czenstochowa to the treasury
Of the nation, for the Fatherland, for Poland;
For so the Lord himself commands, his altars
Are aye the treasury of the Fatherland.
We have a hundred thousand Polish troops
In Warsaw’s duchy, and perhaps shall soon
Have more, and who should for the army pay,
If not yourselves, Litvini? you but give
Your money to the coffers of the Russians.”
“The devil may give!” cried Wilbik, “they take from us
By force!”—“Alas! good sir,” a peasant said
Humbly, while bowing to the priest, and scratching
His head; “that’s for the nobles; they but bear
Half of the burden; we are stripped like bark.”
“Thou churl!”124 Skoluba cried; “thou fool! thou hast
The best of it; you peasants are used thereto
As eels to skinning; but to us well-born,
To us Most Powerful, used to golden freedom—
Ah, brothers! ‘once a noble on his land’ ”—
“Yes, yes,” cried all; “ ‘might with a Wojewode stand.’125
To-day they our nobility dispute,
Command us to search papers through and prove
Our noble birth by paper.”—“That’s a less
Affair for you,” Juraha cried, “for you
From peasant ancestors have been ennobled;
But I am sprung of princes! Ask of me
A patent! When I first became a noble,
The Lord alone remembers. Let the Russian
Into the forest go to ask the oaks
Who gave to them a patent to grow high
Above all plants.”—“Prince,” answered Zagiel;
“Tell tales to whom you list; here will you find
No doubt a mitre, and in not one house.”
“A cross is in your ’scutcheon,” cried Podhajski;
“A hidden allusion to a neophyte
Once in your family.”—“ ’Tis false!” cried Birbasz;
“I come of Tartar Counts, and bear the cross
Above my crest of Arks.”—“The Poraj,”126 cried
Mickiewicz; “with a mitre on field or,
A princely ’scutcheon is. Stryjkowski127 wrote
Concerning this a great deal.” Thereupon
Arose loud murmurs in the tavern. Then
The Bernardine resorted to his snuff-box;
In turn all speakers he regaled. At once
The murmurs ceased, and each one took a pinch
From courtesy, and several times they sneezed.
The Bernardine continued, profiting
By this divergence: “Ah! great men have sneezed
On this tobacco! Would you, gentlemen,
Believe that from this snuff-box General
Dombrowski took a pinch three times?”—“Dombrowski?”
They cried.—“Yes, yes, the General himself.
I was in camp when from the Germans he
Recovered Dantzig.128 He something had to write,
And, fearing he might sleep, he took a pinch.
He took one, sneezed, twice clapped me on the shoulder.
“Priest Robak,” said he, “Friar Bernardine,
We’ll meet again in Litva, may be ere
A year has passed; tell the Litvini they
With Czenstochowa snuff must me await,
For I will take no other kind but this.”
The friar’s discourse such great astonishment
Aroused, such joy, that all that company
So noisy now kept silence for a while.
Then they repeated, in half-silent words,
“Tobacco brought from Poland? Czenstochowa?
Dombrowski? from Italian land?”—until
At last together, as though thought with thought,
And word with word together ran, they all
With one accordant voice, as at a signal,
Shouted: “Dombrowski!” All together shouted,
Pressed close; the peasant with the Tartar Count,
The Mitre with the Cross, the Poraj with
The Griffin and the Ark, forgetting all,
Even the Bernardine, they only sang,
Exclaiming, “Wódka, mead, and wine!” Long time
Friar Robak hearkened to the melody.
At length he wished to break it off; he took
His snuff-box in both hands, and with his sneezing
Confused the melody, and ere they might
Tune up again, thus made he haste to speak:
“You praise my snuff, good sirs; now pray observe,
What’s doing in the inside of the box.”
Here, wiping with a cloth the inside soiled,
He showed a tiny army painted there,
Like swarm of flies; a horseman in the midst,
Large as a beetle, certainly their leader.
He spurred the horse, as though he fain would leap
Into the heavens; one hand upon the reins,
The other at his nose. “Look here,” said Robak,
“Look at this threatening form; guess ye who ’tis?”
All looked with curiosity. “He is
A great man, and an Emperor, but not
That of the Muscovites; their Czars have never
Taken tobacco.”—“That a great man!” Czydzik
Exclaimed; “and in a capote! I had thought
That great men went in gold. Because among
The Muscovites each petty general,
Good sir, shines all in gold, just like a pike
In saffron!”—“Pooh!” said Rymsza; “I once saw,
When I was young, our nation’s chief, Kosciuszko,
And he wore a Cracovian sukmana,
That’s a czamara.”—“What sort of czamara?”129
Objected Wilbik; “that’s a taratatka.”
“But that has fringes, this thing is quite plain,”
Cried Mickiewicz. Thereon arose disputes
Concerning taratatki and czamary.130
The prudent Robak, seeing the discourse
Was scattering thus, began once more to gather
All to the central fire, unto his snuff-box.
Regaled them, they all sneezed, and wished good health
To one another; he proceeded further
Upon the theme. “When the Emperor Napoleon
Takes in a battle snuff, time after time,
It is a sure sign he will win the fight.
At Austerlitz for instance;131 thus the French
Stood with their guns, and on them charged a cloud
Of Muscovites. The Emperor looked thereon,
And silence kept. Each time the Frenchmen fired,
The Russian regiments strewed the
