Roch, fearing there would be violence, got his men together and urged them to be calm; but they were out of hand, each vociferating louder than the other.
“A slap in the face to the first who comes near us!”
“They want to have a little blood let!”
“What, boys! shall we let them flout all our people thus?”
“No, no! we must not—we must not!” cried the rest, pressing threateningly forward, till Matthew, setting Roch aside, pushed on to the Germans, showing his teeth like an angry wolf.
“Hear me, ye Germans!” he roared, clenching his fists. “We have spoken to you words of kindness, with honest intent; and you not only menace us with prison, but insult us as well! Good; but we play another game with you henceforth. Ye refuse to agree: therefore here we swear to you, before God and man, that you shall never settle down in Podlesie. We came to offer peace: you chose war. Very well: war let it be! Ye have the courts for you, the officials for you, the power of money for you; and we—nothing but our bare hands. And who will get the better—we shall see!—Let me say, besides, that ye may remember it after: Fire can burn, not straw only, but even brick-built houses, even unripe corn; and cattle may come to fall down in the pasture-lands; and men may be unable to escape deadly misadventure. Remember this that I have told you: war by day, war by night, war in every place.”
“War! War!—So help us God!” they all cried together.
The Germans sprang to their long staffs, standing by the wall; some ran for their guns or took up stones, while the women shrieked aloud.
“Let but one man shoot at us: all the villages will be here anon!”
“Kill one man, Long-Trousers! and ye’ll be beaten to death, as men beat a mad dog!”
“O Swabians! tackle not us peasants, or ye’ll be tackled yourselves.”
“And so well that the hungriest dog would not touch your carcasses!”
“Dare but to touch us, Long-Trousers!” they cried in loud defiance.
And now both parties were about to close, each glaring at the other, stamping, beating on the ground with their sticks, flinging menaces and insults broadcast, and boiling over with eagerness to clapperclaw the enemy. But Roch at last succeeded in drawing his party somewhat to the rear; and his men, wheeling round, carefully protected their flanks as they withdrew, followed by the derisive shouts of the Germans.
“Away from our country, abominable swine!”
“Or stay till the Red Cock wake you up at night!”
“We shall look in again to dance with your maidens!”
Their language at last grew so strong that Roch was obliged to silence them.
And now twilight had come; a cool wind swept the corn, the dew lay silver-grey on the damp grass, and evening, quiet and fragrant, reigned over the land.
The men were coming home, their white capotes flapping behind them. They talked and sang till the woods rang again, stopping from time to time, whistling and gloating over the Podlesie fields.
“They are easy to portion out, these lands,” said old Klemba.
“Aye, we can divide them into complete farms—each with its own meadow and bit of pasture.”
“Provided the Germans give in!” said the Soltys, with a sigh.
“No fear: we know they will,” Matthew said reassuringly.
“I should like the piece near the road, just at the end,” said Adam Prychek.
“And I,” said another, “the one in the middle, near the cross.”
“And I,” said a third, “want the patch close to Vola.”
“Oh,” sighed a fourth, “could I but get the garden-plot in the farm itself!”
“No fool you! You would snap up the best lot of all!”
“Come, come; there’s enough for us all,” Gregory said to pacify them, for they were near quarrelling over it!
“If the Squire agrees and gives up Podlesie to you,” observed Roch, “you will all have a great deal of work to do.”
“We shall manage to get through with it, though!” they cried in great glee.
“Work on one’s own land is never hard toil!”
“On such terms, who would not willingly take all the lands of the Squire?”
“Let him but give it you—you would see!”
“Why, we should take root in the soil, like trees; let him pluck us thence who can!”
And so they talked on, as they neared home; faster now, for they saw the women running out to meet them.
XI
It was early dawn, and all the country was covered over with a deep azure bloom of haze like a ripe plum, when Hanka drove up to the cabin, whose inmates were all asleep as yet. But with the sharp clatter of the wheels, Lapa fell to barking for joy, and leaping up in front of the horses.
“Why, where is Antek?” Yuzka exclaimed on the doorstep, putting on her skirt over her head.
“He is to be released in three days only,” was the tranquil reply, as Hanka kissed the little ones, and distributed pastry among them.
Vitek now came running out of the stable, and after him trotted the colt, whinnying and going straight to the mare, still in harness, while Pete was taking the parcels out of the cart.
“Have they begun to mow yet?” she asked, sitting down at once on the threshold to give suck to her baby.
“Yes, they began at noon yesterday: five of them. Philip, Raphael and Kobus to work out their debts to us; Adam Klemba and Matthew for hire.”
“What?—Matthew Golab?”
“I too thought it strange; but he would have it so. Said his carpentry work made him stoop too much, and he wanted to get straight again, scythe in hand.”
Yagna then opened her window and looked out.
“Is Father sleeping still?” she was asked.
“Aye, in the orchard. We left him out at night, so hot it is within doors.”
“And your mother, what of her?”
“As usual; perhaps somewhat better. Ambrose, who tends her, came yesterday with the shepherd of Vola, who fumigated her, rubbed her with
