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

on them. Do I know what we shall do? Here is pure despair. I tell you, the devil has surely got after us⁠—which is not to be wondered at, for he must be a friend of Bogun, or his blood relation. What are we to do? May I turn into a horse if I know⁠—you would then at least have something to ride on. I am a scoundrel if ever I have been in such a fix.”

“Let us go on foot.”

“It is well for your ladyship to travel in peasant fashion, with your twenty years, but not for me with my circumference. I speak incorrectly, though, for here any clown can have a nag, only dogs travel on foot. Pure despair, as God is kind to me! Of course we shall not sit here, we shall walk on directly; but when we are to reach Zólotonosha is unknown to me. If it is not pleasant to flee on horseback, it is sorest of all on foot. Now the worst thing possible has happened to us. We must leave the saddles and carry on our own shoulders whatever we put between our lips.”

“I will not allow you to carry the burden alone; I too will carry whatever is necessary.”

Zagloba was pleased to see such resolution in Helena.

“I should be either a Turk or a Pagan to permit you. Those white hands and slender shoulders are not for burdens. With God’s help I will manage; only I must rest frequently, for, always too abstemious in eating and drinking, I have short breath now. Let us take the saddle-cloths to sleep on and some provisions; but there will not be much of them, since we shall have to strengthen ourselves directly.”

Straightway they began the strengthening, during which Pan Zagloba, abandoning his boasted abstemiousness, busied himself about long breath. Near midday they reached a ford through which men and wagons passed from time to time, for on both banks there were marks of wheels and horses’ tracks.

“Maybe that is the road to Zólotonosha.”

“There is no one to ask.”

Zagloba had barely stopped speaking, when voices reached their ears from a distance.

“Wait!” whispered Zagloba, “we must hide.”

The voices continued to approach them.

“Do you see anything?” inquired Helena.

“I do.”

“Who are coming?”

“A blind old man with a lyre. A youth is leading him, Now they are taking off their boots. They will come to us through the river.”

After a time the plashing of water indicated that they were really crossing. Zagloba and Helena came out of the hiding-place.

“Glory be to God!” said the noble, aloud.

“For the ages of ages!” answered the old man. “But who are you?”

“Christians. Don’t be afraid, grandfather!”

“May Saint Nicholas give you health and happiness!”

“And where are you coming from, grandfather?”

“From Brovarki.”

“And where does this road lead to?”

“Oh, to farmhouses and villages.”

“It doesn’t go to Zólotonosha?”

“Maybe it does.”

“Is it long since you left Brovarki?”

“Yesterday morning.”

“And were you in Rozlogi?”

“Yes. But they say that the knights came there, that there was a battle.”

“Who said that?”

“Oh, they said so in Brovarki. One of the servants of the princess came, and what he told was terrible!”

“And you didn’t see him?”

“I? I see no man, I am blind.”

“And this youth?”

“He sees, but he is dumb. I am the only one who understands him.”

“Is it far from here to Rozlogi, for we are going there?”

“Oh, it is far!”

“You say, then, that you were in Rozlogi?”

“Yes, we were.”

“So!” said Zagloba; and suddenly he seized the youth by the shoulder. “Ha! scoundrels, criminals, thieves! you are going around as spies, rousing the serfs to rebellion. Here, Fedor, Oleksa, Maksim, take them, strip them naked, and hang or drown them; beat them⁠—they are rebels, spies⁠—beat, kill them!”

He began to pull the youth about and to shake him roughly, shouting louder and louder every moment. The old man threw himself on his knees, begging for mercy; the youth uttered sounds of terror peculiar to the dumb, and Helena looked with astonishment at the attack.

“What are you doing?” inquired she, not believing her own eyes.

But Zagloba shouted, cursed, moved hell, summoned all the miseries, misfortunes, and diseases, threatened with every manner of torment and death.

The princess thought that his mind had failed.

“Go away!” cried he to her; “it is not proper for you to see what is going to take place here. Go away, I tell you!”

He turned to the old man. “Take off your clothes, you clown! If you don’t, I’ll cut you to pieces.”

When he had thrown the youth to the ground Zagloba began to strip him with his own hands. The old man, frightened, dropped his lyre, his bag, and his coat as quickly as he could.

“Throw off everything or you will be killed!” shouted Zagloba.

The old man began to take off his shirt.

Helena, seeing whither matters were tending, hurried away, and as she fled she heard the curses of Zagloba.

After she had gone some distance she stopped, not knowing what to do. Near by was the trunk of a tree thrown down by the wind; she sat on this and waited. The noises of the dumb youth, the groans of the old man, and the uproar of Zagloba came to her ears.

At last all was silent save the twittering of birds and the rustle of leaves. After a time the heavy steps of a man panting were heard. It was Zagloba. On his shoulders he carried the clothing stripped from the old man and the youth, in his hands two pair of boots and a lyre. When he came near he began to wink with his sound eye, to smile, and to puff. He was evidently in perfect humor.

“No herald in a court would have shouted as I have,” said he, “until I am hoarse; but I have got what I wanted. I let them go naked as their mother bore them. If the Sultan doesn’t make me a pasha, or hospodar of Wallachia, he is a thankless fellow, for I have made two Turkish saints. Oh, the scoundrels! they begged