Here he pressed Kmita’s arm with his fingers. “This house,” continued he, pointing with his finger to the fortress, “is on fire, and a fool is he who flees not from a house when ’tis burning. Maybe you fear the name of traitor? Spit on those who would call you that! Come to our company; I, Kuklinovski, propose this. Obey, if you like; if you don’t like, obey not—there will be no offence. General Miller will receive you well, I guarantee that; you have touched my heart, and I speak thus from good wishes. Ours is a joyous company, joyous! A soldier’s freedom is in this—to serve whom he likes. Monks are nothing to you! If a bit of virtue hinders you, then cough it out. Remember this also, that honest men serve with us. How many nobles, magnates, hetmans! What can be better? Who takes the part of our little Kazimir? No man save Sapyeha alone, who is bending Radzivill.”
Kmita grew curious; “Did you say that Sapyeha is bending Radzivill?”
“I did. He is troubling him terribly there in Podlyasye, and is besieging him now in Tykotsin. But we do not disturb him.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the King of Sweden wants them to devour one another. Radzivill was never reliable; he was thinking of himself. Besides, he is barely breathing. Whoever lets himself be besieged is in a fix, he is finished.”
“Will not the Swedes go to succor him?”
“Who is to go? The king himself is in Prussia, for there lies the great question. The elector has wriggled out hitherto; he will not wriggle out this time. In Great Poland is war, Wittemberg is needed in Krakow, Douglas has work with the hill-men; so they have left Radzivill to himself. Let Sapyeha devour him. Sapyeha has grown, that is true, but his turn will come also. Our Karl, when he finishes with Prussia, will twist the horns of Sapyeha. Now there is no power against him, for all Lithuania stands at his side.”
“But Jmud?”
“Pontus de la Gardie holds that in his paws, and heavy are the paws, I know him.”
“How is it that Radzivill has fallen, he whose power was equal to that of kings?”
“It is quenching already, quenching—”
“Wonderful are the ordinances of God!”
“The wheel of war changes. But no more of this. Well, what? Do you make up your mind to my proposition? You’ll not be sorry! Come to us. If it is too hurried today, think till tomorrow, till the day after, before the heavy artillery comes. These people here trust you evidently, since you pass through the gate as you do now. Or come with letters and go back no more.”
“You attract others to the Swedish side, for you are an envoy of Sweden,” said Kmita; “it does not beseem you to act otherwise, though in your soul who knows what you think? There are those who serve the Swedes, but wish them ill in their hearts.”
“Word of a cavalier!” answered Kuklinovski, “that I speak sincerely, and not because I am filling the function of an envoy. Outside the gate I am no longer an envoy; and if you wish I will remove the office of envoy of my own will, and speak to you as a private man. Throw that vile fortress to the devil!”
“Do you say this as a private man?”
“Yes.”
“And may I give answer to you as to a private man?”
“As true as life I propose it myself.”
“Then listen, Pan Kuklinovski,” Here Kmita inclined and looked into the very eyes of the ruffian. “You are a rascal, a traitor, a scoundrel, a crab-monger, an arch-cur! Have you enough, or shall I spit in your eyes yet?”
Kuklinovski was astounded to such a degree that for a time there was silence.
“What is this? How is this? Do I hear correctly?”
“Have you enough, you cur? or do you wish me to spit in your eyes?”
Kuklinovski drew his sabre; but Kmita caught him with his iron hand by the wrist, twisted his arm, wrested the sabre from him, then slapped him on the cheek so that the sound went out in the darkness; seized him by the other side, turned him in his hand like a top, and kicking him with all his strength, cried—
“To a private man, not to an envoy!”
Kuklinovski rolled down like a stone thrown from a ballista. Pan Andrei went quietly to the gate.
The two men parted on the slope of the eminence; hence it was difficult to see them from the walls. But Kmita found waiting for him at the gate Kordetski, who took him aside at once, and asked—
“What were you doing so long with Kuklinovski.”
“I was entering into confidence with him,” answered Pan Andrei.
“What did he say?”
“He said that it was true concerning the Khan.”
“Praise be to God, who can change the hearts of pagans and make friends out of enemies.”
“He told me that Great Poland is moving.”
“Praise be to God!”
“That the quarter soldiers are more and more unwilling to remain with the Swedes; that in Podlyasye, the voevoda of Vityebsk, Sapyeha, has beaten the traitor Radzivill, and that he has all honest people with him. As all Lithuania stands by him, except Jmud, which De la Gardie has taken.”
“Praise be to God! Have you had no other talk with each other?”
“Yes; Kuklinovski tried afterward to persuade me to go over to the Swedes.”
“I expected that,” said the prior; “he is a bad man. And what did you answer?”
“You see he told me, revered father, as follows: ‘I put aside my office of envoy, which without that is finished beyond the gates, and I persuade you as a private man.’ And I to make sure asked, ‘May I answer as to a private man?’ He said, ‘Yes’—then—”
“What then?”
“Then I gave it to him in the snout, and he rolled down hill.”
“In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”
“Be not angry, father; I acted very carefully, and that he will not say a word about the matter to any
