“Take him!”
At this moment Biloüs and the gigantic Zavratynski seized both arms of the prince, and squeezed them till the bones cracked in their joints, and holding him in their iron fists, put spurs to their own horses.
The prince’s horse in the middle held the line, neither pushing ahead nor holding back an inch. Astonishment, fright, the whirlwind beating in his face, deprived Prince Boguslav of speech for the first moment. He struggled once and a second time—without result, however, for pain from his twisted arms pierced him through.
“What is this, ruffians? Know ye not who I am?” cried he at last.
Thereupon Kmita pushed him with the barrel of the pistol between the shoulders. “Resistance is useless; it will only bring a bullet in your body!” cried he.
“Traitor!” said the prince.
“But who are you?” asked Kmita.
And they galloped on farther.
XXVII
They ran long through the pine-forest with such speed that the trees by the roadside seemed to flee backward in panic; inns, huts of forest guards, pitch-clearings, flashed by, and at times wagons singly or a few together, going to Pilvishki. From time to time Boguslav bent forward in the saddle as if to struggle; but his arms were only wrenched the more painfully in the iron hands of the soldiers, while Pan Andrei held the pistol-barrel between the princess shoulders again, and they rushed on till the white foam was falling in flakes from the horses.
At last they were forced to slacken the speed, for breath failed both men and beasts, and Pilvishki was so far behind that all possibility of pursuit had ceased. They rode on then a certain time at a walk and in silence, surrounded by a cloud of steam, which was issuing from the horses.
For a long time the prince said nothing; he was evidently trying to calm himself and cool his blood. When he had done this he asked—
“Whither are you taking me?”
“Your highness will know that at the end of the road,” answered Kmita.
Boguslav was silent, but after a while said, “Cavalier, command these trash to let me go, for they are pulling out my arms. If you command them to do so, they will only hang; if not, they will go to the stake.”
“They are nobles, not trash,” answered Kmita; “and as to the punishment which your highness threatens, it is not known whom death will strike first.”
“Know ye on whom ye have raised hands?” asked the prince, turning to the soldiers.
“We know,” answered they.
“By a million horned devils!” cried Boguslav, with an outburst. “Will you command these people to let me go, or not?”
“Your highness, I will order them to bind your arms behind your back; then you will be quieter.”
“Impossible! You will put my arms quite out of joint.”
“I would give orders to let another off on his word that he would not try to escape, but you know how to break your word,” said Kmita.
“I will give another word,” answered the prince—“that not only will I escape at the first opportunity, but I will have you torn apart with horses, when you fall into my hands.”
“What God wants to give, he gives!” said Kmita. “But I prefer a sincere threat to a lying promise. Let go his hands, only hold his horse by the bridle; but, your highness, look here! I have but to touch the trigger to put a bullet into your body, and I shall not miss, for I never miss. Sit quietly; do not try to escape.”
“I do not care, Cavalier, for you or your pistol.”
When he had said this, the prince stretched his aching arms, to straighten them and shake off the numbness. The soldiers caught the horse’s bridle on both sides, and led him on.
After a while Boguslav said, “You dare not look me in the eyes, Pan Kmita; you hide in the rear.”
“Indeed!” answered Kmita; and urging forward his horse, he pushed Zavratynski away, and seizing the reins of the prince’s horse, he looked Boguslav straight in the face. “And how is my horse? Have I added even one virtue?”
“A good horse!” answered the prince. “If you wish, I will buy him.”
“This horse deserves a better fate than to carry a traitor till his death.”
“You are a fool, Pan Kmita.”
“Yes, for I believed the Radzivills.”
Again came a moment of silence, which was broken by the prince.
“Tell me, Pan Kmita, are you sure that you are in your right mind, that your reason has not left you? Have you asked yourself what you have done, madman? Has it not come to your head that as things are now it would have been better for you if your mother had not given you birth, and that no one, not only in Poland, but in all Europe, would have ventured on such a daredevil deed?”
“Then it is clear that there is no great courage in that Europe, for I have carried off your highness, hold you, and will not let you go.”
“It can only be an affair with a madman,” said the prince, as if to himself.
“My gracious prince,” answered Pan Andrei, “you are in my hands; be reconciled to that, and waste not words in vain. Pursuit will not come up, for your men think to this moment that you have come off with me voluntarily. When my men took you by the arms no one saw it, for the dust covered us; and even if
