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

and a boat to the Grand Hetman. But the chief of the boat could not answer this, and the letter was secured with Pan Grodzitski’s seal. Having finished his inquiries, Bogun was putting his hand to his purse to give the men something to buy beer, when the door opened, and Zagloba burst like a thunderbolt into the room.

“Listen, Bogun!” cried he; “that traitor Dopula has kept his best triple mead hidden. I went with him to the cellar. I looked, I saw something in the corner; it was hay and it wasn’t hay. I asked, ‘What is that?’ ‘Dry hay,’ said he. When I looked more closely, the top of a bottle was sticking up, like the head of a Tartar, out of the grass. ‘Oh, you son of a such a one,’ said I, ‘let’s divide the labor! Do you eat the hay, for you are an ox; and I will drink the mead, for I am a man.’ I brought the fat bottle for an honest trial; only let us have the glasses now!”

Having said this, Zagloba put one hand on his hip, and with the other raised the bottle above his head and began to sing⁠—

“Hei Yagush, hei Kundush, but give us the glasses,
Give a kiss, and then care for naught else.”

Here Zagloba, seeing Jendzian, stopped suddenly, placed the bottle on the table, and said⁠—

“As God is dear to me! this is Pan Yan’s young man.”

“Whose?” asked Bogun, hastily.

“Pan Skshetuski’s, the lieutenant who went to Kudák, and before going treated me to such mead from Lubni that I wish all would keep it behind their tavern-signs. What is your master doing? Is he well?”

“Well, and asked to be remembered to you,” said Jendzian, confused.

“He is a man of mighty courage. How do you come to be in Chigirin? Why did your master send you from Kudák?”

“My master,” said Jendzian, “has his affairs in Lubni, on which he directed me to return, for I had nothing to do in Kudák.”

All this time Bogun was looking sharply at Jendzian, and suddenly he said: “I too know your master, I saw him in Rozlogi.”

Jendzian bent his head, and turning his ear as if he had not heard, inquired: “Where?”

“In Rozlogi.”

“That place belongs to the Kurtsevichi,” said Zagloba.

“To whom?” asked Jendzian again.

“Oh, I see you are hard of hearing,” said Bogun, curtly.

“Because I have not slept enough.”

“You will sleep enough yet. You say that your master sent you to Lubni?”

“Yes.”

“Doubtless he has some sweetheart there,” interrupted Zagloba, “to whom he sends his love through you.”

“How do I know, worthy sir? Maybe he has, maybe he has not,” said Jendzian. Then he bowed to Bogun and Zagloba. “Praise be to⁠—” said he, preparing to go out.

“Forever!” said Bogun. “But wait, my little bird; don’t be in a hurry! And why did you hide from me that you are the servant of Pan Skshetuski?”

“You didn’t ask me, and I thought, ‘What reason have I to talk of anything?’ Praise be to⁠—”

“Wait, I say! You have some letters from your master?”

“It is his affair to write, and mine to deliver, but only to him to whom they are written; therefore permit me to bid farewell to you, gentlemen.”

Bogun wrinkled his sable brows and clapped his hands. Two Cossacks entered the room.

“Search him!” cried he, pointing to Jendzian.

“As I live, violence is done me! I am a nobleman, though a servant, and, gentlemen, you will answer for this in court.”

“Bogun, let him go!” said Zagloba.

But that moment one of the Cossacks found two letters in Jendzian’s bosom, and gave them to the lieutenant-colonel. Bogun directed the Cossacks to withdraw at once, for not knowing how to read, he did not wish to expose himself before them; then turning to Zagloba, he said⁠—

“Read, and I will look after this young fellow.”

Zagloba shut his left eye, on which he had a cataract, and read the address:⁠—

“To my gracious lady and benefactress, Princess Kurtsevichova in Rozlogi.”

“So you, my little falcon, are going to Lubni, and you don’t know where Rozlogi is?” said Bogun, surveying Jendzian with a terrible look.

“Where they send me, there I go!”

“Am I to open it? The seal of a nobleman is sacred,” remarked Zagloba.

“The hetman has given me the right to examine all letters. Open and read!”

Zagloba opened and read:⁠—

“My gracious Lady⁠—I inform you that I have arrived in Kudák, from which, with God’s assistance, I shall go tomorrow morning to the Saitch. But now I am writing in the night, not being able to sleep from anxiety lest something may happen to you from that bandit Bogun and his scoundrels. Pan Grodzitski tells me that we are on the eve of a great war, which will rouse the mob; therefore I implore and beseech you this minute⁠—even before the steppes are dry, even if on horseback⁠—to go with the princess to Lubni; and not to neglect this, for I shall not be able to return for a time. Which request you will be pleased to grant at once, so that I may be sure of the happiness of my betrothed and rejoice after my return. And what need have you of dallying with Bogun and throwing sand in his eyes from fear, after you have given the princess to me? It is better to take refuge under the protection of my master, the prince, who will not fail to send a garrison to Rozlogi; and thus you will save your property. In the mean while I have the honor, etc.”

“Ho, ho! my friend Bogun,” said Zagloba, “the hussar wants in some way to put horns on you. So you have been paying compliments to the same girl! Why didn’t you speak of this? But be comforted, for once upon a time it happened to me⁠—”

But the joke that he had begun died suddenly on his lips. Bogun sat motionless at the table, but his face was pale and drawn, as if by convulsions; his eyes closed,