Father Matthias the whole business straight.
Years seventy-two Matthias numberèd;
A hale old man, of lordly stature, he,
An old Confederate of Bar.176 Both friends
And enemies remembered yet the strokes
His curved Damascus sabre gave, which cut
Asunder pikes and lances like to straw,
And which in jest received the modest name
Of Rod. He from Confederate became
A royalist, and held with Tyzenhaus,177
The Lithuanian Treasurer; but when
The king acceded to the Targowica,178
Matthew once more the royal party left.
So from his frequent change of politics,
He formerly was called the Weathercock,
Since, like the Weathercock, he changed his standard
With every turn of wind. In vain it were
To seek to know the cause of all these changes.
Matthew perhaps loved fighting overmuch;
And conquered on one side, would seek again
For war upon another. Or, may be,
In politics far-seeing, he had searched
The spirit of the times, and wheresoe’er
He saw his country’s good, he thither went.
But yet one thing was certain, the desire
Of glory, or vile gain, had lured him never.
For never with the Muscovitish party
He held, and if he only saw a Russian,
He foamed, and writhed about; and when the land
Was conquered, not to meet a Muscovite,
He kept within his own house, like a bear
Who sucks his paws, deep in the forest.179 He
Had long since for the last time gone to war,
To Wilna with Oginski, where they both
Together served beneath Jasinski;180 there
He with the Rod had wonders shown of courage.
Well known it was that he, being all alone,
Had sprung from Praga’s ramparts down, to rescue
Pan Pociej,181 who, upon the battle-field
Deserted, wounds had gotten twenty-three.
’Twas long supposed in Litva both were slain;
But both returned, though riddled through like sieves.
Soon as the war was over, Pociej,
Like to an honest man, would have repaid
His benefactor, the Dobrzynski, richly.
He gave him a five-acre farm for life,
And a yearly pension of a thousand florins
In gold assigned to him. But said Dobrzynski:
“Let Pociej have Matthew, and not Matthew
Have Pociej, for a benefactor.” Thus
The farm refused he, and would take no pay.
Returning to his house alone, he lived
By labour of his hands, made hives for bees.
For cattle medicine; he went to market
To sell the partridges he snared, and game.
In Dobrzyn there were sage old men enough,
Who Latin understood, and in the courts
From their youth upward had been exercised,
There were a many richer; but of all
The family, the poor, unlearnèd Matthew
Was highest honoured, not alone as swordsman
Renowned, by wielding of the Rod; but as
A man of sure and wise opinion, who
The history of the country, and the clan’s
Traditions knew completely, and was skilled
In law as husbandry; who secrets knew
Of hunting, and of medicine. They even
Ascribed to him (the parish priest said no)
Knowledge of strange and superhuman things.
One thing is certain, that he perfectly
Did understand the changes of the air,
And oftener than the farmer’s almanac
Would rightly guess. No wonder, then, that whether
The question were, when sowing to begin,
To send off barges, or to reap the corn,
Or go to law, or an agreement close,
Nought but by his advice was done in Dobrzyn.
The old man sought such influence not at all;
Rather desiring to be rid of it,
He grumbled at his clients, oftenest
He thrust them forth in silence from his house;
Advice he rarely gave, and not to all.
In most important quarrels or disputes
He scarce, when they inquired, his sentence gave;
And in not many words. ’Twas thought that he
Would sure take up the question of to-day,
And would in person head the enterprise,
Because he greatly loved to fight from youth,
And to the Russians was eternal foe.
The old man through his lonely garden walked,
Singing the song, “When morning dawn doth rise.”182
Right glad he was the weather clearer grew.
The mist had not arisen yet on high,
As it is wont to do when gather clouds,
But still fell down. The wind spread out its hands,
And stroked the mist, and smoothed it, spread it wide
Upon the meadow; meanwhile, from above,
The pale sun with a thousand rays pierced through
The web, and spread it o’er with gold and silver,
And rosy hues;—as when an artist pair
In Slucko weave rich girdles; on the ground
A maiden sitting lades the loom with silk,
And smoothes the warp down with her hand. Meanwhile
A weaver from above throws down to her
Silver and golden threads, and purple, colours
And flowers creating; so the wind to-day
Outspread the earth with wreaths of mist; the sun
Uplifted them. And Matthew sunned himself,
And said his prayers; then to his husbandry
Betook himself; he gathered grass and leaves,
And sat before his house, and gave a whistle.
Upon this whistle, swift from out the earth
A flock of rabbits spring, upon the grass,
Like flowerets of narcissus. Whitely gleam
Their long ears, and their little eyes beneath
Glitter like blood-red rubies, thickly set
On velvet of the green grass. On their hind-legs
The conies rear; each listens, looks; at last
The white-downed flock all run to the old man,
Allured by cabbage-leaves. Unto his feet
They spring, upon his knees, his shoulders; he,
Himself like a white rabbit, loves to gather
The conies thus around him, and to stroke
Their warm fur. But he with the other hand
Throws millet to the sparrows from his cap;
And from the roof the chattering rabble flock.
But as the old man thus did please himself,
Viewing that banquet, all at once the conies
Vanished beneath the ground, and to the roof
The sparrow crowds before new-comers fly,
Who with quick steps now enter in the farm.
The envoys these were from the assembly sent
Of nobles in the priest’s house, and they came
To Matthew for advice. They from afar
Saluted him, low bowing; with these words
They welcomed him: “May Jesus Christ be praised!”183
“For ever and ever, Amen!” he replied.
But when he heard the weight of their commission,
Within his cottage he invited them.
They entered, sat upon a bench; the first
Of these ambassadors stood in the midst,
And now began his sentence to unfold.
Meanwhile a crowd of other nobles came;
All the Dobrzynskis nearly, of the neighbours
Several from zascianki round about,
Armed and unarmed, in chaises and in cars,
On foot
