Imperfectly, his vote gave to Domejko.
When at a feast Marshal Rupejko once
Proposed a health, ‘Long live Dowejko!’ others
Cried out ‘Domejko!’ And who midmost sat
Could never get it right, especially
In speaking indistinct of dinner-time.
“It came to even worse. One day in Wilna,
Some drunken noble with Domejko fought,
And got two sabre wounds. And later on,
That nobleman, returning home from Wilna,
By strange hap crossed the ferry with Dowejko.
As in one boat they crossed o’er the Wilejka,
He asks his neighbour, ‘Who is that?’—‘Dowejko,’
The answer was. Without delay, this noble
Whips forth his rapier from beneath his cloak,
And cut Dowejko underneath the whiskers,
Thinking he was Domejko. But at last
As for the finishing stroke, it needs must be,
That at a hunting party thus it chanced:
The namesakes stood, and at the same she-bear
Together fired. ’Tis true, she lifeless fell
After their shots; but she already bore
Ten bullets in her body; many persons
Had guns of like calibre; who had slain
The she-bear? Well, find out! But by what means?
“Here then they cried: ‘Enough, the thing must be
Once for all ended. Whether God or devil
Joined us, we must be parted. Two of us,
Like two suns, are too many in the world.’
So to their sabres, and they stood at distance.
Both honourable men, the more the nobles
Surround them, the more fiercely on each other
They strike. They changed their weapons; and from sabres
It came to pistols; and they stood. We cry
That they too nearly have approached the standpoints.
They in pure spite swore then to fire across
The bear-skin! death inevitable! nearly
One barrel to the other! both sure shots!
‘Be second now, Hreczecha!’ I replied,
‘Agreed; but let the sexton dig a grave
At once, for such a quarrel cannot end
In nothing; fight like noblemen, and not
Like butchers. ’Tis enough to place the standpoints
More near; I see that you are desperadoes.
Will you then fight, the barrels on your chests?
I will not suffer this. Agreed, let it
With pistols be, but at no greater distance,
Or less, than o’er the bear-skin. I, as second,
With mine own hands will stretch it on the ground,
And I myself will station you; you, sir,
On one side, stand upon the muzzle’s end,
And you, sir, on the tail.’—‘Agreed!’ they shouted.
‘The time?’—‘To-morrow.’—‘Place?’—‘The tavern Usza!’
They rode away. But I went to my Virgil.”
A shout the Wojski interrupted: “Vytcha!”
And right from underneath the horses’ hoofs
Darted a hare. Now Kusy, and now Sokol
Pursued him. To the hunt the dogs were brought,
Since on returning one might easily
A hare encounter on the plain. The dogs
Beside the horses free from leashes ran,
And when they saw the hare, straightway, before
The hunters urged them, swiftly they pursued.
The Regent and the Assessor too would urge
Their horses onward; but the Wojski stayed them,
Crying: “Ware! stand and look on! I allow
No one to stir from this place by a step.
From hence we all shall well observe; the hare
Is going to the plains.” In truth the hare,
Perceiving dogs and hunters close behind,
Rushed headlong to the plain; his long ears he
Like to a roe’s two horns erected. O’er
The plain he spread himself, his legs, stretched out,
Beneath him like four rods appearing. Well
Might one have said he moved them not, but only
Skimmed o’er the surface of the earth, like swallow
Kissing the waters. Dust behind him, dogs
Behind the dust; from far away it seemed
That hare, and dogs, and greyhounds formed one body,
As though some sort of viper o’er the plain
Were gliding, with the hare as head, the dust
The snake’s blue length, that like a double tail
Kept wagging to and fro the dogs. The Regent
And the Assessor gazed; their lips stood open;
They held their breath. At once the Regent turned
Pale as a linen cloth, the Assessor pale
Turned also. They behold, most fatally
It chanced. The further off that viper ran,
The more it lengthened, and it broke in two.
Now vanished was that neck of dust, the head
Already neared the wood; the tails, where are they?
Behind. The head had vanished; once it seemed
As some one waved a tassel; it had entered
The wood; the tail broke off beside the wood.
The poor dogs, stupefied, beneath the thicket
Ran, seeming to take counsel, and accuse
Each other. They at last return; they slowly
Spring o’er the brushwood, drooping low their ears,
Their tails close pressed unto their chests, and when
They had approached, they scarce dared raise their eyes
For very shame, and ’stead of going to
Their masters, stood upon one side. The Regent
Drooped down his gloomy brow upon his breast;
The Assessor cast a glance, but one unjoyful.
Then to the hearers both would demonstrate
How that their greyhounds were unused to go
Unleashed, how unforeseen the hare ran out,
How ill they set upon him, in a field
Where the dogs truly should have put on boots;
So full it was of pebbles and sharp stones.
Wise things expounded these experienced prickers.
The sportsmen might therefrom have reaped much profit,
But they did not attend with diligence.
Some began whistling, others laughed aloud;
Some, having in their memory the bear,
Of him talked. With the late hunt occupied,
The Wojski scarce had glanced upon the hare,
And seeing it escape, turned round his head
Indifferently, his interrupted story
Concluding: “Where did I leave off? Ah! ha!
Just where I took them both so at their word,
To fire at one another o’er the bear-skin.
The noblemen cried out ’twas certain death!
Barrel to barrel nearly. But I laughed,
For my friend Maro taught me that a bear-skin
Is not a paltry measure; for you know
How when Queen Dido sailed to Libya,
She with the greatest trouble, for herself
Purchased such piece of land as might be covered
O’er with an ox-hide; and she founded Carthage
Upon this bit of land.146 So in the night
This passage I discussed with care. “The day
Had scarce begun; from one side in a carriage
Dowejko drove, Domejko from the other
On horseback came. They look; across the river
Behold a hairy bridge, a girdle of
The bear-skin cut up into strips. I placed
Dowejko on the beast’s tail on one side,
Domejko on the other. ‘Now,’ I said,
Bang