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

Go at once; don’t fear the Cossacks, but look out for the Tartars, if there are any, and avoid them, for they will not respect the baton. Money, ducats, are buried in the ravine; take them out at once. Along the road you need only say, “Bogun’s wife is travelling,” and you will want for nothing. Besides,’ says he, ‘the witch is able to help herself. Only go, for my sake! Whom besides can I⁠—unfortunate man!⁠—send, whom can I trust, in this strange country, among enemies?’ He begged, my master, till he almost shed tears. Finally the beast asked me to take an oath that I would go; and I took the oath, but in my mind I added: ‘With my master!’ Then he rejoiced, and gave me the baton, the ring, and the knife at once, and whatever jewels he had; and I took them too, for I thought, better that they be with me than with a robber. At parting he told me what ravine is above the Valadinka, how to go and how to turn so exactly, that I could get there with my eyes bound; which you will see yourselves if you go with me, as I think you will.”

“Immediately! tomorrow!” said Volodyovski.

“What! tomorrow? We will order the horses to be saddled at daylight today.”

Joy seized the hearts of all. At one moment could be heard cries of gratitude to heaven, at another the joyful rubbing of hands; then new questions put to Jendzian, to which he answered with his usual deliberation.

“May the bullets strike you!” cried Zagloba; “what a servant Skshetuski has in you!”

“Well, what of it?” asked Jendzian.

“He will cover you with gold.”

“I think too that I shall not be without a reward, though I serve my master out of faithfulness.”

“What did you do with Bogun?” asked Volodyovski.

“This, my master, was for me the greatest torment, that he lay sick again, and I could not put a knife into him, for my master would blame me for that. Such was my luck! What had I to do? He had told me all he had to tell, had given me all he had to give, so to my head for wit. ‘Why,’ say I to myself, ‘should such a villain walk through the world? He imprisons a lady, and struck me in Chigirin. Better that he should not be, and let the hangman light his way. For,’ I thought to myself, ‘if he gets well, he will be after us with his Cossacks.’ Not thinking long then, I went to Pan Rogovski, the commandant, who is in Vlodava with his squadron, and I told him that it was Bogun, the worst of the rebels. They must have hanged him before this time.”

Having said this, Jendzian laughed stupidly enough, and looked on the audience as if waiting for applause; but how astonished was he when answered by silence! After some time Zagloba muttered, “No more of this!” but on the contrary Volodyovski kept silent, and Pan Longin began to click with his tongue, shake his head, and at last he said⁠—

“You have acted ignobly⁠—what is called ignobly!”

“How so, my master?” asked the astonished Jendzian; “should I have stabbed him?”

“And that would have been ugly, and this ugly. I know not which is better, to be a murderer or a Judas.”

“What do you say, my master? Is it to be a Judas to give up a rebel who is an enemy of the king and the whole Commonwealth?”

“True, but still the deed is ignoble. What did you say the name of that commandant is?”

“Pan Rogovski. They said his name was Jakob.”

“Ah, that’s the same man!” muttered the Lithuanian. “A relative of Pan Lashch, and an enemy of Skshetuski.”

But this remark was not heard, for Zagloba began⁠—

“Gentlemen, there is no reason for delay. God has so arranged through this youth, and has so directed, that we shall seek her under better conditions than hitherto. Praise be to God! We must leave in the morning. The prince has gone away already, but we must start without his permission, for there is no time to wait. Volodyovski will go; I with him, and Jendzian; but you, Pan Longin, would better stay, for your stature and your simplicity of soul might betray us.”

“No, brother; I’ll go too,” said the Lithuanian.

“For her safety you must stay at home. Whoever has seen you will not forget you for a lifetime. We have the baton, it is true, but they would not believe you, even with the baton. You suffocated Pulyan in sight of Krívonos’s whole rabble; and since such a pillar has stood before them, they would recognize it. You cannot go with us. You wouldn’t find three heads there, and the one you have wouldn’t help us much; you would ruin the undertaking.”

“Sad,” said the Lithuanian.

“Sad or not sad, you must stay. When we go to lift birds’ nests out of the trees we will take you, but not this time.”

“Disgusting to hear you!”

“Let me kiss you, for joy is in my heart. But stay! one thing more, gentlemen. This affair is of the greatest importance⁠—a secret. Let it not be known among the soldiers, and go from them to the peasants. Not a word to any man!”

“Not to the prince?”

“The prince is not here.”

“But to Skshetuski, if he comes?”

“To him especially not a word, for he would race after us at once. He will have time enough to be glad; and God guard us from a new disappointment!⁠—then he would lose his mind. Word of honor, gentlemen!”

“Word of honor,” said Podbipienta.

“Word, word!”

“And now let us thank God.”

Having said this, Zagloba knelt first, after him the others, and they prayed long and fervently.

LV

The prince had really set out for Zamost a few days before for the purpose of making new levies of troops, and it was not expected that he would return soon. Volodyovski, Zagloba, and Jendzian therefore started on their journey unknown to anyone and