The stamp upon him; so they prize their friends,
As Jews do money.” Saying this, the Judge
Looked round in order on his guests, for though
He ever spake with fluency and judgment,
He knew young folks impatient now-a-days,
And that long speeches, though most eloquent,
Do weary them. But all in silence heard.
The Judge seemed with the Chamberlain to take
Counsel by glance of eye; the Chamberlain
Would not by praising interrupt, though oft
Assenting by a nod. The Judge was silent;
His friend still gave assent by beckoning.
The Judge filled up his goblet and his own,
And then continued: “Courtesy is not
A little thing; for when a man has learned
To estimate as is becoming birth,
Age, virtues, customs in all others, he
Perceiveth then his own weight; as on scales
If we would know our own, we first must lay
Some other weight upon the opposing scale.
But, gentlemen, now of your special heed
The courtesy is worthy, which young men
Do to the fair sex owe, especially
When houses’ greatness, fortune’s bounties more
Light up the charms and virtues nature gave.
Hence is the way to love, and marriage thence,
Magnificent allier of houses. Thus
Our elders thought, and therefore”—Here the Judge
With sudden turn of head to Thaddeus signed,
Threw a severe glance at him; as a sign
That he had reached the moral of his speech.
The Chamberlain his golden snuff-box tapped,
And said, “Good Judge, at one time ’twas far worse.
I do not know if we are changed by fashion,
We elder men, or if young men are better,
But now I see far less degeneracy.
I recollect the time, alas! when to
Our Fatherland French manners entered first.
When petty, foreign gentlemen, on sudden,
From stranger lands invaded us in hordes,
Worse than the Nogaj Tartars,23 persecuting
God in their country, their forefathers’ faith,
Their customs, laws, and even their ancient dress.
’Twas pitiful to see these dried-up youngsters,
Talking through noses, oft without their noses,
In brochures learnèd, and in the gazettes;
Proclaiming new beliefs, toilettes, and laws,
This rabble had great power upon men’s minds.
For when the Lord God lets chastisement loose
O’er nations, he bereaves them first of sense.24
And so the wisest dared not beard the fops;
And all the nation feared them like the plague,
Feeling disease’s germ within ev’n then.
They cried against the fashionable fops,
But took their pattern by them; changed their faith,
Their speech, their laws, their dress; it was indeed
A masquerade, a carnival of license,
For which a great fast followed—slavery.
“I recollect, although but then a child,
When to my father’s house in Oszmiana,
In a French chariot the Podczaszyc25 came,
The first in Litva who wore French costume,
And all pursued him as small birds a kite.26
The houses envied were, before whose threshold
The two-horse chaise in which he rode stood still,
Which in the French tongue they called cariole.
Instead of lackeys sat two dogs behind,
And on the box a great and ugly German,27
Thin as a plank, with long lean legs like hop-poles,
In stockings clad, and slippers silver-clasped,
And wig with queue tied up into a bag.
Seeing this equipage, the old men snorted
With laughter, and the peasants signed the cross,
And said that there was riding o’er the world
A Venice devil in a German car.
What the Podczaszyc was ’twere long to tell;
Enough to us he seemed an ape or parrot,
In a great peruke, that he loved to liken,
He to the golden fleece—we to the plica.28
If any one then felt our Polish dress
Was handsomer than aping foreign modes,
He dared not say so, lest the young men should
Cry out against it that it hindered culture,
It kept back progress, ’twas a treacherous thing;
Such was the power of that time’s prejudice.29
“Said the Podczaszyc that to reformate us,
He’d civilize and constitutionise us.30
He announced to us some Frenchmen eloquent
Had a discovery made, that men are equal;
Though in the law divine this long was writ,
And every priest from pulpit said the same.
Old was that knowledge; its fulfilment now
Concerned us; but at that time reigned such blindness,
That none believed the world’s most ancient things,
Unless they read them in a French gazette.
Despite equality, he took the title
Of Marquis; it is known that titles come
From Paris, and at that time there the title
Of Marquis was in fashion. So at last,
Soon as the fashion changed, this Marquis took
Title of Democrat; at length with change
Of fashion, when Napoleon reigned, the Democrat
Arrived from Paris as a Baron. Had he
Lived longer, with some other alteration,
He had rebaptized himself a Democrat.
For Paris glories in repeated change
Of fashion, and in what the French invent
The Pole delights. “Praise be to God that now
If our young men beyond the frontier pass,
’Tis not to seek for dress, or legislation
In shops of booksellers, or eloquence
To learn in Paris cafés. For Napoleon,
A prudent man and prompt, allows no time
To study fashions, or to chatter. Now
The sword resounds, and in us old men swell
Our hearts that once again the world is loud
With glory of the Poles. Now is there glory;
There will be therefore a Republic: since
From laurels ever blossoms Freedom’s tree.
Only ’tis sad, so many years drag on
For us, in idleness, and they still far!
So long to wait; even news so seldom comes.
Father Robak”31—in a lower tone he spoke
Unto the Bernardine—“I heard that you
Have news from that side Niemen; and perhaps
Your reverence knows something of our army?”
“No, nothing,” careless seeming answer made
The Bernardine; “I like not politics.
If I at times from Warsaw have a letter,
It is of things that but concern our Order,
Our Bernardine affairs, and wherefore talk
Of these at supper; all are laymen here,
Whom such affairs in no wise can concern.”
This saying, he looked askance where ’mid the feasters,
There sat one Russian guest, a Captain Rykow,
An ancient soldier, in the village near
He had been quartered. Him through courtesy
The Judge had asked to supper. Rykow ate
With appetite, scarce mingling in discourse;
But when they spoke of Warsaw, he rejoined,
Raising his head: “Fie! fie! Sir Chamberlain!
You are ever anxious about Bonaparte,
Always on Warsaw! what! your Fatherland!
I am no spy, yet understand I Polish.
Country! I feel all that! I understand it!
You are Poles, a
