Your whole life long, but I’ll not let you go
Till you are friends together.’ Both were furious;
But here the nobles rolled upon the ground
With laughter, and the priest and I with solemn
Words, from the Gospels now, now from the Statutes,
Discoursed to them. There was no help for it,
They laughed, and were obliged now to be friends.
“Their quarrel changed into a lifelong friendship.
Dowejko wed the sister of Domejko;
Domejko also wed his brother’s sister.
They shared their property in equal halves,
And on the spot where this had come to pass,
They built a tavern, calling it the Bear.”
Book V
Diplomacy and the Chase
Telimena’s hunting plans—The gardening nymph comes out into society, and receives the instructions of her guardian—The hunters’ return—Great astonishment of Thaddeus—The second meeting in the Sanctuary of Meditation, and reconciliation effected by means of ants—The subject of the hunt is discussed at table—The Wojski’s story of Rejtan and Prince Denassau interrupted—The conclusion of conditions between the parties, likewise interrupted—An apparition with a key—The quarrel—The Count and Gervasy enter on a council of war.
Having the chase thus ended gloriously,
The Wojski from the pine-woods home returns;
But Telimena now begins a hunt
Deep in the lonely mansion. She indeed
Sat motionless, with hands upon her lap
Folded; but she two heads of game pursued
In thought; considered best how to surround
The two of them, and how best hunt them down;—
The Count and Thaddeus. The Count, he was
A young lord, heir of a great family,
Good-looking very, and already somewhat
In love; but what of that? he well might change.
Then, did he love sincerely? Did he wish
To marry with a woman some years older,
Not rich? Will his relations suffer it?
What will the world say? Telimena, thus
Considering, from the sofa rose, and stood
Her full height; one might say her stature grew.
She somewhat bared her bosom, bent aside,
And with attentive eyes herself reviewed,
And once again asked counsel of the mirror.
A moment past, she dropped her eyes, and sighed,
And sat down. Well, the Count was a young lord,
And rich men are inconstant in their tastes.
The Count was fair-complexioned, they are not
Over emotional. And Thaddeus?
He was simplicity its very self,
A good boy, very near unto a child!
He now begins for the first time to love,
And if looked after, will not easily
These first bonds sever; and besides, he is
Obliged to Telimena. Men, while young,
Though changing in their thoughts, are in emotions
Far steadier than their grandsires; they possess
A conscience. Simple is a young man’s heart,
And maidenlike, and long it will retain
For love’s first sweetness gratitude, and will
Both welcome joy, and bid farewell to it
With pleasure, like a modest banquet shared
With friends; the ancient debauchee alone,
Whose entrails are already scorched, doth loathe
That drink wherewith he drenched him to excess.
These things to Telimena well were known,
For she had wit and great experience.
But what will people say? Why then, depart
From out their sight, to other parts remove;
Live in retirement, or far better yet,
Remove entirely from the neighbourhood.
As for example, go a little journey
Unto the capital, and introduce
The young lad to the world, direct his steps,
And be his helper and his counsellor,
And form his heart, to have in him a friend,
A brother, and at length—enjoy the world,
While years suffice. Thus thinking, through the alcove
Gaily and boldly many times she passed.
Again she dropped her eyes. It seemed worth while
Of the Count’s destiny to think; would it
Not answer to push Sophy in his way?
She was not rich, but in her birth his equal,
Of senatorial house, a dignitary’s
Daughter. And if this marriage come to pass,
Then Telimena for the future owns
A sure asylum in their house, as being
Sophia’s relation, and the Count’s betrother.
To this young couple she will be a mother.
When she this plan of action thus had formed
In council with herself, she called Sophia,
Who in the orchard was at play. Sophia,
In morning dress, and with uncovered head,
Stood, in her hands a sieve upraised. Around
Her feet the poultry hastened. On one side
The tufted hens pressed forward in a knot;
And there the crested cocks, upon their heads
Shaking the coral helmets; with their wings
Oaring their way through furrows and through bushes,
Widely their spur-armed feet they stretch. Behind,
The bloated turkey slowly pushes on,
Snorting at grumbles of his noisy spouse.
Thither, like rafts almost, with lengthy tails,
Steer o’er the meadow, and at times descend,
Like flakes of snow, the pigeons silver-plumed;
In centre of a circle of green turf
The poultry circle, noisy, stirring, crowds,
Engirdled by a band of pigeons, like
A snowy ribbon, varied in the midst
By stars, by spots, by stripes. Here amber beaks,
There coral crests, from out the depth of plumage
Like fish from under waves, rock to and fro,
Like water-tulips; thousand eyes like stars
Gleam towards Sophia. In the centre she
Towered high above the birds, herself all white,
Like to a fountain, playing amid flowers;
O’er wings and heads she scattered from the sieve
With pearl-white hand, a plenteous, pearly rain
Of wheaten grains. Such grain, of noble tables
Worthy, is used to make Litvanian rosol.147
Sophia from the household stores abstracts
This grain to feed her poultry, doing mischief
Unto the housekeeping. She heard the call
Of “Sophy!” ’twas her aunt’s voice. So she flung
The dainty’s last remains unto the birds,
And twirling round the sieve, as dancers twirl
A tambourine around, and beating time
Upon it, did the playful girl skip o’er
The peacocks, pigeons, hens. The birds, confused,
Did flutter upwards all tumultuously.
Sophia, the ground scarce touching with her feet,
Appeared to soar the highest among them all.
Before her the white doves, which in her course
She startled, flew as though before the car
Of Pleasure’s lovely goddess. In Sophia
Flew through the window, with a joyous cry,
And rested on her aunt’s lap, out of breath.
And Telimena, kissing her, and stroking
Beneath the chin, considered with delight
The child’s high spirits, and her beauty, for
She truly loved her charge. But now again
Her features she composed to gravity;
She rose, and walking to and fro along
The alcove, with her finger on her lips,
Pronounced these words: “My dear Sophia, you quite
Forget your age and station; this same day
You end your fourteenth year.
