“You wished to know how Radzivill would come to us; here is your answer!” said Pan Yan.
“That is true, he gives good reasons,” answered Volodyovski.
“What good reasons! holy reasons!” cried Zagloba. “There can be no doubt here. I was the first to know that man; and though there are no curses that have not been showered on his head, I tell you we shall bless him yet. With me it is enough to look at a man to know his value. You remember how he dropped into my heart at Kyedani? He loves us, too, as knightly people. When he heard my name the first time, he came near suffocating me with admiration, and for my sake saved you all.”
“You have not changed,” remarked Jendzian; “why should Pan Kmita admire you more than my master or Pan Volodyovski?”
“You are a fool!” answered Zagloba. “He knew you at once; and if he called you the tenant, and not the fool of Vansosh, it was through politeness.”
“Then maybe he admired you through politeness!” retorted Jendzian.
“See how the bread swells; get married, lord tenant, and surely you will swell better—I guarantee that.”
“That is all well,” said Volodyovski; “but if he is so friendly, why did he not come to us himself instead of slipping around us like a wolf and biting our men?”
“Not your head, Pan Michael. What we counsel do you carry out, and no evil will come of it. If your wit were as good as your sabre, you would be grand hetman already, in place of Revera Pototski. And why should Kmita come here? Is it not because you would not believe him, just as you do not now believe his letter, from which it might come to great trouble, for he is a stubborn cavalier. But suppose that you did believe him, what would the other colonels do, such as Kotovski, Jyromski, or Lipnitski? What would your Lauda men say? Would not they cut him down the moment you turned your head away?”
“Father is right!” said Pan Yan; “he could not come here.”
“Then why was he going to the Swedes?” insisted the stubborn Pan Michael.
“The devil knows, whether he is going to the Swedes; the devil knows what may flash into Kmita’s wild noddle. That is nothing to us, but let us take advantage of the warning, if we wish to carry away our heads.”
“There is nothing to meditate on here,” said Pan Stanislav.
“It is needful to inform with all speed Kotovski, Jyromski, Lipnitski, and that other Kmita,” said Pan Yan. “Send to them, Michael, news at once; but do not write who gave the warning, for surely they would not believe.”
“We alone shall know whose the service, and in due time we shall not fail to publish it!” cried Zagloba, “Onward, lively, Michael!”
“And we will move to Byalystok ourselves, appointing a muster there for all. God give us the voevoda of Vityebsk at the earliest,” said Yan.
“From Byalystok we must send a deputation from the army to him. God grant that we shall stand before the eyes of the hetman of Lithuania,” said Zagloba, “with equal force or greater than his own. It is not for us to rush at him, but it is different with the voevoda. He is a worthy man, and honest; there is not another such in the Commonwealth.”
“Do you know Pan Sapyeha?” asked Stanislav.
“Do I know him! I knew him as a little boy, not higher than my sabre. But he was then like an angel.”
“And now he has turned into money, not only his property, not only his silver and jewels, but most likely he has melted into coin the metal of his horse-trappings, so as to collect as many troops as possible against the enemy,” said Volodyovski.
“Thank God that there is even one such man,” answered Pan Stanislav, “for remember how we trusted in Radzivill.”
“Oh that is blasphemous!” cried Zagloba. “Voevoda of Vityebsk, ba! ba! Long life to the voevoda of Vityebsk! And you, Michael, to the road with all speed, to the road! Let the mudfish remain in these swamps of Shchuchyn, but we will go to Byalystok, where perhaps we shall find other fish. The Jews there, on Sabbath, bake very excellent bread. Well, at least war will begin; I am yearning for it. And if we break through Radzivill we will begin at the Swedes. We have shown them already what we can do. To the road, Michael, for periculum in mora (there is danger in delay)!”
“I will go to put the squadrons in line!” said Pan Yan.
An hour later, messengers, between ten and twenty in number, were flying as a horse gallops toward Podlyasye, and
