With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz (big ebook reader .txt) 📕

“You will go by way of Babitse and Lipki to Zaborovo, where horses for the regiment are waiting; you will inspect them, reject those unfit, and pay Pan Tshaskovski for those accepted; then you will bring them for the soldiers. The money you will receive here in Warsaw from the paymaster on this my order.”

Volodyovski set about the work briskly. He took the money, and on the same day he and Zagloba with eight others set out with a wagon bearing the money. They moved slowly, for that side of Warsaw was swarming with nobles, attendants, and horses; the villages as far as Babitse were so packed that in every cottage there were guests. It was easy to meet adventures in a press of people of various humors; and in spite of their greatest efforts and modest bearing, our two friends did not escape them.

On reaching Babitse they saw before the public house a number of nobles who were just mounting to continue their journey. The two parties, after saluting each other, were about to pass, when suddenly one of the riders looked at Volodyovski, and without saying a word rode up to him on a trot.

“Ah, you are here, my little fellow!” cried he. “You have been skulking, but I have found you. You won’t escape me this time! Eh, gentlemen!” shouted he to his comrades, “just wait a bit. I have something to say to this little stub of an officer, and I should like to have you as witnesses of my words.”

Volodyovski smiled with pleasure, for he recognized Pan Kharlamp. “God is my witness that I was not hiding,” said he; “more than that, I was looking for you myself to ask if you still cherished rancor against me, but somehow we couldn’t meet.”

“Pan Michael,” whispered Zagloba, “you are on duty.”

“I remember,” muttered Volodyovski.

“Come to business!” roared Kharlamp. “Gentlemen, I have promised this milksop, this bald mustache, to clip his ears for him, and I’ll clip them as true as I am Kharlamp. Be witnesses, gentlemen, and you, youngster, come up here!”

“I cannot, as God is dear to me, I cannot,” said Volodyovski; “let me off even for a couple of days.”

“Why can you not? You are frightened, I suppose. If you do not meet me at once, I will slap you so with my sword that you’ll think of your grandfather and grandmother. Oh, you dodger, you venomous gadfly, you know how to get in the way, you know how to buzz, you know how to bite, but when it comes to the sabre you are not there.”

Here Zagloba interfered. “It seems to me that you are pressing matters rather far,” said he to Kharlamp, “and look out that this fly does not sting; if he does, no plaster will help you. Tfu! the devil take it, don’t you see that this officer is on duty? Look at that wagon with money which we are taking to the regiment, and understand that his person is not at his own disposal and he cannot meet you. Whoever can’t understand that is a dunce and not a soldier. We serve under the voevoda of Rus, and we have fought men different from you; but today it is impossible, and what is deferred will not escape.”

“It is certain,” said one of Kharlamp’s comrades, “that they are transporting money; he cannot meet you.”

“What is their money to me?” screamed the irrepressible Kharlamp; “let him stand before me or I’ll slap him with my sword.”

“I will not meet you today, but I give you the word of a soldier to meet you in three or four days, wherever you please, the moment I have carried out my orders. And if this does not satisfy you, gentlemen, I shall give order to touch the triggers, for I shall believe that I have to do not with soldiers, but with brigands. Take yourselves off then to all the devils, for I have no time to loiter.”

On hearing this, the dragoons of the escort turned the muzzles of their guns on the aggressors. That movement, as well as the decisive words of Pan Michael, produced an evident impression on the comrades of Kharlamp. “Oh, let him off!” said they. “You are a soldier yourself, you know what service is; it is certain that you will receive satisfaction. He is a bold piece, like all men of the Russian squadron; restrain yourself, since we ask you.”

Pan Kharlamp blustered awhile longer, but saw at last that he would either make his companions angry or expose them to an uncertain struggle with the dragoons. He turned therefore to Volodyovski, and said: “Give me your word that you will meet me.”

“I will seek you myself, were it only because you have asked twice about such a thing. Today is Wednesday, and let it be Saturday at two o’clock in the afternoon. Select your ground.”

“Here in Babitse there is a crowd of travellers,” said Kharlamp; “something might interfere. Let it be over there at Lipki; it is quieter, and not far for me, because our quarters are in Babitse.”

“Will there be as large a company of you as today?” asked the prudent Zagloba.

“Oh, it’s not necessary,” said Kharlamp; “I shall come only with the Selitskis, my relatives. You will be without your dragoons, I trust.”

“Perhaps they fight duels with the aid of soldiers among you,” replied Pan Michael; “but it is not the custom with us.”

“In four days then, on Saturday,” said Kharlamp. “We shall be in front of the public house at Lipki; and now with God!”

“With God!” said Volodyovski and Zagloba.

The opponents parted quietly. Pan Michael was made happy by the coming amusement, and promised himself to make a present to Pan Longin of mustaches shorn from the light-horseman. He went therefore in good spirits to Zaborovo, where he found Prince Kazimir, who had come to hunt. But Pan Michael saw his future lord only at a distance, for