“Let it be even so,” said the king. “I do not reject prudent counsel, but I will not go wandering a second time. If we cannot appear by this road, we will by another. But I think that you are alarmed in vain. Since the Swedes looked for us among the dragoons, as the people from Jivyets said, it is clear proof that they know nothing of us, and that there is no treason or conspiracy. Just consider; you are men of experience. The Swedes would not have attacked the dragoons, they would not have fired a gun at them if they know that we were following them. Be calm, gentlemen! Babinich has gone with his men for news, and he will return soon of a certainty.”
When he had said this the king turned his horse toward the pass; after him his attendants. They halted on the spot where the first mountaineer had shown them the boundary.
A quarter of an hour passed, then a half-hour and an hour.
“Have you noticed, gentlemen,” asked the voevoda of Lenchytsk on a sudden, “that the fire is decreasing?”
“It is going out, going out; you can almost see it die,” said a number of voices.
“That is a good sign,” said the king.
“I will go ahead with a few men,” said Tyzenhauz. “We will halt about a furlong from here, and if the Swedes come we will detain them till we die. In every case there will be time to think of the safety of the king’s person.”
“Remain with the party; I forbid you to go!” said the king.
To which Tyzenhauz answered—
“Gracious Lord, give command later to shoot me for disobedience, but now I will go, for now it is a question of you.” And calling upon a number of soldiers in whom it was possible to trust in every emergency, he moved forward.
They halted at the other end of the defile which opened into the valley, and stood in silence, with muskets ready, holding their ears toward every sound. The silence lasted long; finally the sound of snow trampled by horses’ feet came to them.
“They are coming!” whispered one of the soldiers.
“That is no party; only a few horses are to be heard,” answered the other. “Pan Babinich is returning.”
Meanwhile those approaching came in the darkness within a few tens of yards.
“Who is there?” cried Tyzenhauz.
“Ours! Do not fire there!” sounded the voice of Kmita.
At that moment he appeared before Tyzenhauz, and not knowing him in the darkness, inquired—
“But where is the king?”
“At the end of the pass.”
“Who is speaking, for I cannot see?”
“Tyzenhauz. But what is that great bundle which you have before you?” And he pointed to some dark form hanging before Kmita, on the front of the saddle.
Pan Andrei made no answer, but rode on. When he had reached the king’s escort, he recognized the person of the king, for it was much clearer beyond the pass, and cried—
“Gracious Lord, the road is open!”
“Are there no Swedes in Jivyets?”
“They have gone to Vadovitsi. That was a party of German mercenaries. But here is one of them, Gracious Lord; ask him yourself.” And Pan Andrei pushed to the ground that form which he held before him, so that a groan was heard in the still night.
“Who is that?” asked the astonished king.
“A horseman!”
“As God is dear to me! And you have brought an informant! How is that? Tell me.”
“Gracious Lord; when a wolf prowls in the night around a flock of sheep it is easy for him to seize one; and besides, to tell the truth, this is not the first time with me.”
The king raised his hands. “But this Babinich is a soldier, may the bullets strike him! I see that with such servants I can go even in the midst of Swedes.”
Meanwhile all gathered around the horseman, who did not rise from the ground however.
“Ask him, Gracious Lord,” said Kmita, not without a certain boastfulness in his voice; “though I do not know whether he will answer, for he is throttled a little and there is nothing here to burn him with.”
“Pour some gorailka into his throat,” said the king.
And indeed that medicine helped more than burning, for the horseman soon recovered strength and voice. Then Kmita, putting a sword-point to his throat, commanded him to tell the whole truth.
The prisoner confessed that he belonged to the regiment of Colonel Irlehorn, that they had intelligence of the passage of the king with dragoons, therefore they fell upon them near Suha, but meeting firm resistance they had to withdraw to Jivyets, whence they marched on to Vadovitsi and Krakow, for such were their orders.
“Are there other divisions of the Swedes in the mountains?” asked Kmita in German, while squeezing the throat of the horseman somewhat more vigorously.
“Maybe there are some,” answered he in a broken voice. “General Douglas sent scouting-parties around, but they are all withdrawing, for the peasants are attacking them in passes.”
“Were you the only ones in the neighborhood of Jivyets?”
“The only ones.”
“Do you know that the King of Poland has passed?”
“He passed with those dragoons who fought with us at Suha. Many saw him.”
“Why did you not pursue him?”
“We were afraid of the mountaineers.”
Here Kmita began again in Polish: “Gracious Lord, the road is open and you will find a night’s lodging in Jivyets, for only a part of the place is burned.”
But unconfiding Tyzenhauz was speaking at this time with the castellan of Voinik, and said: “Either that is a great warrior and true as gold, or a finished traitor. Consider, your worthiness, that all this may be simulated, from the taking of this horseman to his confederates. And if this is a trick—if the Swedes are in ambush in Jivyets—if the king goes and falls as into a net?”
“It is safer to convince
