And yet she noted none of all these things.
They rose up before her, those past days of hunger and want and injustice, with the memory of Antek’s faithlessness, and of her manifold sorrows and afflictions—so great that she wondered how she could ever have found strength to bear them, and to await this happier lot now granted her by our Lord.
For behold, there she was, once more upon the farmlands of Boryna!
And who would now have the power to oust her thence?
During the past six months, she had undergone more than many go through in all their lives: now she could suffer what the Lord should choose her to suffer, until Antek returned to himself, and the land was theirs forever.
She recalled now how and when the young men had started for the forest expedition.
She had been forced to stay behind; to join them would, in her state, have been a difficult and dangerous attempt.
Antek, she had been told, was not with the others; and this made her uneasy. It was, she thought, no doubt out of spite against the old man his father … or possibly to spend the time with Yagna!
The thought had gnawed at her heart: but as to going and spying after him—never!
And then, just before noon, the Gulbas boy had run in, crying: “Victory! the Manor-folk are beaten!” and went past.
She arranged to go with Klembova and meet the men as they were coming home.
And then Paches had come, shouting from afar: “Boryna is slain, Antek slain, and Matthew, and many more!” and, clapping his hands, dropped down with an unintelligible mutter; and his teeth were set so fast (for he was quite senseless) that they must needs prize them open with a knife to give him water.
Happily, others came pouring in along the road from the forest, ere the lad was brought to. These related all that had taken place; and, a little after, Antek arrived, alive and walking by his father’s cart; but covered with blood, livid as a corpse, and beside himself.
Deep as was her sorrow, and near as she felt to weeping, she mastered herself nevertheless; and old Bylitsa, her father, took her on one side, and said:
“Look to it: Boryna will presently be no more, Antek is out of his wits, and there is none to see after Boryna’s cabin. The smith will establish himself therein, and who will drive him out then?”
Instantly she had hurried back to her hut and, taking quickly with her her children and all she could lay hands on, returned to her former lodgings on the side of the cabin opposite to where Boryna lived.
So while Ambrose was still bandaging the old man’s head, and the folk were out of doors, and the whole village seething with the excitement of victory, and resounding with the groans of the wounded—Hanka slipped quietly into the cabin, and settled there, not to be turned out again.
She watched and guarded the place with great vigilance; for the land was Antek’s, and his father was near his last gasp, and might expire at any moment. She knew well how important it was to be first in possession; for he that first fell upon a heritage and took possession of it could scarcely be driven away, and was sure to have the law on his side.
The smith, furious that she had stolen a march on him, now threatened and abused her dreadfully; but she did not mind.
Was she to ask his leave … or anyone’s? She had taken over all the property, and was guarding it with the fidelity of a dog: who else had the right? She knew that the old man must soon die, and that (as Roch had warned her) Antek would be put in prison.
To whose protection, then, should she fly? Let her help herself, and Heaven might help her.
When Antek was arrested, she took it quietly enough: she had nothing else to do.
And, moreover, with all the house and farm-work upon her shoulders, when could she find time for lamentation?
She neither shirked labour nor (though alone and single-handed) quailed before her enemies: Yagna, and the smith and his wife, all bitterly hostile; the Voyt, whose inclination for Yagna made him favour her strongly; and even his Reverence, whom Dominikova had set against her.
But they all were powerless; she yielded not one jot. Day by day, her grip upon the homestead grew firmer, and ere a fortnight had gone by, the whole farm was under her control and obeyed her commands.
True, she had to grudge herself food and sleep and rest of any kind, toiling incessantly from early dawn till late into the night.
For one so timid by nature, continually in the past snubbed and browbeaten by Antek, and accustomed neither to such work nor to such responsibilities, this position was at times especially hard and intolerable: but the dread of being turned out of the place, together with her hatred for Yagna, gave her the strength to pull through.
Whencesoever her energy had come, she remained steadfast at her post; and shortly everyone began to regard her with wonder and respect.
“Dear, dear!” would the best housewives of Lipka say to one another; “once we thought she could not say ‘Boo!’ to a goose; and lo, she is as good as an able husbandman!” Ploshkova and others even went the length of asking her advice at times, and willingly gave her their own counsel and help.
This she accepted with gratitude, but did not seek society at all, remembering too well how she had been dealt with so short
