The Deluge. Vol. 1

CHAPTER XXIX

Silence succeeded; but soon something began to rustle in the near thicket, as if wild beasts were passing. The movement, however, grew slower the nearer it came. Then there was silence a second time.

"How many of them are there?" asked Kmita. "About six, and perhaps eight; for to tell the truth I could not count them surely," said Soroka.

"That is our luck! They cannot stand against us."

"They cannot. Colonel; but we must take one of them alive, and scorch him so that he will show the road."

"There will be time for that. Be watchful!"

Kmita had barely said, "Be watchful," when a streak of white smoke bloomed forth from the thicket, and you would have said that birds had fluttered in the near grass, about thirty yards from the cabin.

"They shot from old guns, with hob-nails!" said Kmita; "if they have not muskets, they will do nothing to us, for old guns will not carry from the thicket."

Soroka, holding with one hand the musket resting on the saddle of the horse standing in front of him, placed the other hand in the form of a trumpet before his mouth, and shouted, -

"Let any man come out of the bushes, he will cover himself with his legs right away."

A moment of silence followed; then a threatening voice was heard in the thicket, -

"What kind of men are you?"

"Better than those who rob on the highroad."

"By what right have you found out our dwelling?"

"A robber asks about right! The hangman will show you right! Come to the cabin."

"We will smoke you out just as if you were badgers."

"But come on; only see that the smoke does not stifle you too."

The voice in the thicket was silent; the invaders, it seemed, had begun to take counsel. Meanwhile Soroka whispered to Kmita, -

"We must decoy some one hither, and bind him; we shall then have a guide and a hostage."

"Pshaw!" answered Kmita, "if any one comes it will be on parole."

"With robbers parole may be broken."

"It is better not to give it!" said Kmita.

With that questions sounded again from the thicket.

"What do you want?"

Now Kmita began to speak. "We should have gone as we came if you had known politeness and not fired from a gun."

"You will not stay there, – there will be a hundred horse of us in the evening."

"Before evening two hundred dragoons will come, and your swamps will not save you, for they will pass as we passed."

"Are you soldiers?"

"We are not robbers, you may be sure."

"From what squadron?"

"But are you hetman? We will not report to you."

"The wolves will devour you, in old fashion."

"And the crows will pick you!"

"Tell what you want, a hundred devils! Why did you come to our cabin?"

"Come yourselves, and you will not split your throat crying from the thicket. Nearer, nearer!"

"On your word."

"A word is for knights, not for robbers. If it please you, believe; if not, believe not."

"May two come?"

"They may."

After a while from out the thicket a hundred yards distant appeared two men, tall and broad-shouldered. One somewhat bent seemed to be a man of years; the other went upright, but stretched his neck with curiosity toward the cabin. Both wore short sheepskin coats covered with gray cloth of the kind used by petty nobles, high cowhide boots, and fur caps drawn down to their ears.

"What the devil!" said Kmita, examining the two men with care.

"Colonel!" cried Soroka, "a miracle indeed, but those are our people."

Meanwhile they approached within a few steps, but could not see the men standing near the cabin, for the horses concealed them.

All at once Kmita stepped forward. Those approaching did not recognize him, however, for his face was bound up; they halted, and began to measure him with curious and unquiet eyes.

"And where is the other son, Pan Kyemlich?" asked Kmita; "he has not fallen, I hope."

"Who is that-how is that-what-who is talking?" asked the old man, in a voice of amazement and as it were terrified.

And he stood motionless, with mouth and eyes widely open; then the son, who since he was younger had quicker vision, took the cap from his head.

"For God's sake, father! that's the colonel!" cried he.

"O Jesus! sweet Jesus!" cried the old man, "that is Pan Kmita!"

And both took the fixed posture of subordinates saluting their commanders, and on their faces were depicted both shame and wonder.

"Ah! such sons," said Pan Andrei, laughing, "and greeted me from a gun?"

Here the old man began to shout, -

"Come this way, all of you! Come!"

From the thicket appeared a number of men, among whom were the second son of the old man and the pitch-maker; all ran up at breakneck speed with weapons ready, for they knew not what had happened. But the old man shouted again, -

"To your knees, rogues, to your knees! This is Pan Kmita! What fool was it who fired? Give him this way!"

"It was you, father," said young Kyemlich.

"You lie, – you lie like a dog! Pan Colonel, who could know that it was your grace who had come to our cabin? As God is true, I do not believe my own eyes yet."

"I am here in person," answered Kmita, stretching his hand toward him.

"O Jesus!" said the old man, "such a guest in the pine-woods. I cannot believe my own eyes. With what can we receive your grace here? If we expected, if we knew!"

Here he turned to his sons: "Run, some blockhead, to the cellar, bring mead!"

"Give the key to the padlock, father."

The old man began to feel in his belt, and at the same time looked suspiciously at his son.

"The key of the padlock? But I know thee, gypsy; thou wilt drink more thyself than thou'lt bring. What's to be done? I'll go myself; he wants the key of the padlock! But go roll off the logs, and I'll open and bring it myself."

"I see that you have spoons hidden under the logs, Pan Kyemlich," said Kmita.

"But can anything be kept from such robbers!" asked the old man, pointing to the sons. "They would eat up their father. Ye are still here? Go roll away the logs. Is this the way ye obey him who begat you?"

The young men went quickly behind the cabin to the pile of logs.

"You are in disagreement with your sons in old fashion, it seems?" said Kmita.

"Who could be in agreement with them? They know how to fight, they know how to take booty; but when it comes to divide with their father, I must tear my part from them at risk of my life. Such is the pleasure I have; but they are like wild bulls. I beg your grace to the cabin, for the cold bites out here. For God's sake! such a guest, such a guest! And under the command of your grace we took more booty than during this whole year. We are in poverty now, wretchedness! Evil times, and always worse; and old age, too, is no joy. I beg you to the cabin, over our lowly threshold. For God's sake! who could have looked for your grace here!"

Old Kyemlich spoke with a marvellously rapid and complaining utterance, and while speaking cast quick, restless glances on every side. He was a bony old man, enormous in stature, with a face ever twisted and sullen! He, as well as his two sons, had crooked eyes. His brows were bushy, and also his mustaches, from beneath which protruded beyond measure an underlip, which when he spoke came to his nose, as happens with men who are toothless. The agedness of his face was in wonderful contrast to the quickness of his movements, which displayed unusual strength and alertness. His movements were as rapid as if a spring stirred him; he turned his head continually, trying to take in with his eyes everything around, – men as well as things. Toward Kmita he became every minute more humble, in proportion as subservience to his former leader, fear, and perhaps admiration or attachment were roused in him.

Kmita knew the Kyemliches well, for the father and two sons had served under him when single-handed he had carried on war in White Russia with Hovanski. They were valiant soldiers, and as cruel as valiant. One son, Kosma, was standard-bearer for a time in Kmita's legion; but he soon resigned that honorable office, since it prevented him from taking booty. Among the gamblers and unbridled souls who formed Kmita's legion, and who drank away and lost in the day what they won with blood in the night from the enemy, the Kyemliches were distinguished for mighty greed. They accumulated booty carefully, and hid it in the woods. They took with special eagerness horses, which they sold afterward at country houses and in towns. The father fought no worse than the twin sons, but after each battle he dragged away from them the most considerable part of the booty, scattering at the same time complaints and regrets that they were wronging him, threatening a father's curse, groaning and lamenting. The sons grumbled at him, but being sufficiently stupid by nature they let themselves be tyrannized over. In spite of their endless squabbles and scoldings, they stood up, one for the other, in battle venomously without sparing blood. They were not liked by their comrades, but were feared universally, for in quarrels they were terrible; even officers avoided provoking them. Kmita was the one man who had roused indescribable fear in them, and after Kmita, Pan Ranitski, before whom they trembled when from anger his face was covered with spots. They revered also in both lofty birth; for the Kmitas, from old times, had high rank in Orsha, and in Ranitski flowed senatorial blood.

It was said in the legion that they had collected great treasures, but no one knew surely that there was truth in this statement. On a certain day Kmita sent them away with attendants and a herd of captured horses; from that time they vanished. Kmita thought that they had fallen; his soldiers said that they had escaped with the horses, the temptation in this case being too great for their hearts. Now, as Pan Andrei saw them in health, and as in a shed near the cabin horses were neighing, and the rejoicing and subservience of the old man were mingled with disquiet, he thought that his soldiers were right in their judgment. Therefore, when they had entered the cabin he sat on a plank bed, and putting his hands on his sides, looked straight into the old man's eyes and asked, -

"Kyemlich, where are my horses?"

"Jesus! sweet Jesus!" groaned the old man. "Zolotarenko's men took the horses; they beat us and wounded us, drove us ninety miles; we hardly escaped with our lives. Oh, Most Holy Mother! we could not find either your grace or your men. They drove us thus far into these pine-woods, into misery and hunger, to this cabin and these swamps. God is kind that your grace is living and in health, though, I see, wounded. Maybe we can nurse you, and put on herbs; and those sons of mine went to roll off the logs, and they have disappeared. What are the rogues doing? They are ready to take out the door and get at the mead. Hunger here and misery; nothing more! We live on mushrooms; but for your grace there will be something to drink and a bite to eat. Those men took the horses from us, robbed us, – there is no denying that! And they deprived us of service with your grace. We shall not have a bit of bread for old age, unless your grace takes us back into service."

"That may happen too," answered Kmita.

Now the two sons of the old man came in, – Kosma and Damian, twins, big fellows, awkward, with enormous heads completely overgrown with an immensely thick bush of hair, stiff as a brush, sticking out unevenly around the ears, forming hair-screws and fantastic tufts on their skulls. When they came in they stood near the door, for in presence of Kmita they dared not sit down; and Damian said, -

"The cellar is cleared."

"'Tis well," answered old Kyemlich, "I will go to bring mead."

Here he looked significantly at his sons.

"And Zolotarenko's men took the horses," said he, with emphasis; and went out of the cabin.

Kmita glanced at the two who stood by the door, and who looked as if they had been hewn out of logs roughly with an axe.

"What are you doing now?"

"We take horses!" answered the twins at the same time.

"From whom?"

"From whomsoever comes along."

"But mostly?"

"From Zolotarenko's men."

"That is well, you are free to take from the enemy; but if you take from your own you are robbers, not nobles. What do you do with those horses?"

"Father sells them in Prussia."

"Has it happened to you to take from the Swedes? Swedish companies are not far from here. Have you attacked the Swedes?"

"We have."

"Then you fall on single men or small companies; but when they defend themselves, what then?"

"We pound them."

"Ah, ha, you pound them! Then you have a reckoning with Zolotarenko's men and with the Swedes, and surely you could not have got away dry had you fallen into their hands."

Kosma and Damian were silent.

"You are carrying on a dangerous business, more becoming to robbers than nobles. It must be, also, that some sentences are hanging over you from old times?"

"Of course there are!" answered Kosma and Damian.

"So I thought. From what parts are you?"

"We are from these parts."

"Where did your father live before?"

"In Borovichko."

"Was that his village?"

"Yes, together with Pan Kopystynski."

"And what became of him?"

"We killed him."

"And you had to flee before the law. It will be short work with you Kyemliches, and you'll finish on trees. The hangman will light you, it cannot be otherwise!"

Just then the door of the room creaked, and the old man came in bringing a decanter of mead and two glasses. He looked unquietly at his sons and at Kmita, and then said, -

"Go and cover the cellar."

The twins went out at once. The old man poured mead into one glass; the other he left empty, waiting to see if Kmita would let him drink with him.

But Kmita was not able to drink himself, for he even spoke with difficulty, such pain did the wound cause him. Seeing this, the old man said, -

"Mead is not good for the wound, unless poured in, to clear it out more quickly. Your grace, let me look at the wound and dress it, for I understand this matter as well as a barber."

Kmita consented. Kyemlich removed the bandage, and began to examine the wound carefully.

"The skin is taken off, that's nothing! The ball passed along the outside; but still it is swollen."

"That is why it pains me."

"But it is not two days old. Most Holy Mother! some one who must have been very near shot at your grace."

"How do you know that?"

"Because all the powder was not burned, and grains like cockle are under the skin. They will stay with your grace. Now we need only bread and spider-web. Terribly near was the man who fired. It is well that he did not kill your grace."

"It was not fated me. Mix the bread and the spider-web and put them on as quickly as possible, for I must talk with you, and my jaws pain me."

The old man looked suspiciously at the colonel, for in his heart there was fear that the talk might touch again on the horses said to have been taken by the Cossacks; but he busied himself at once, kneaded the moistened bread first, and since it was not hard to find spider-webs in the cabin he attended promptly to Kmita.

"I am easy now," said Pan Andrei; "sit down, worthy Kyemlich."

"According to command of the colonel," answered the old man, sitting on the edge of a bench and stretching out his iron-gray bristly head uneasily toward Kmita.

But Kmita, instead of conversing, took his own head in his hands and fell into deep thought. Then he rose and began to walk in the room; at moments he halted before Kyemlich and gazed at him with distraught look; apparently he was weighing something, wrestling with thoughts. Meanwhile about half an hour passed; the old man squirmed more and more uneasily. All at once Kmita stopped before him.

"Worthy Kyemlich," said he, "where are the nearest of those squadrons which rose up against the prince voevoda of Vilna?"

The old man began to wink his eyes suspiciously. "Does your grace wish to go to them?"

"I do not request you to ask, but to answer."

"They say that one squadron is quartered in Shchuchyn, – that one which came here last from Jmud."

"Who said so?"

"The men of the squadron themselves."

"Who led it?"

"Pan Volodyovski."

"That's well. Call Soroka!"

The old man went out, and returned soon with the sergeant.

"Have the letters been found?" asked Kmita.

"They have not, Colonel," answered Soroka.

Kmita shook his hands. "Oh, misery, misery! You may go, Soroka. For those letters which you have lost you deserve to hang. You may go. Worthy Kyemlich, have you anything on which to write?"

"I hope to find something," answered the old man.

"Even two leaves of paper and a pen."

The old man vanished through the door of a closet which was evidently a storeroom for all kinds of things, but he searched long. Kmita was walking the while through the room, and talking to himself, -

"Whether I have the letters or not," said he, "the hetman does not know that they are lost, and he will fear lest I publish them. I have him in hand. Cunning against cunning! I will threaten to send them to the voevoda of Vityebsk. That is what I will do. In God is my hope, that the hetman will fear this."

Further thought was interrupted by old Kyemlich, who, coming out of the closet, said, -

"Here are three leaves of paper, but no pens or ink."

"No pens? But are there no birds in the woods here? They may be shot with a gun."

"There is a falcon nailed over the shed."

"Bring his wing hither quickly!"

Kyemlich shot off with all speed, for in the voice of Kmita was impatience, and as it were a fever. He returned in a moment with the falcon's wing. Kmita seized it, plucked out a quill, and began to make a pen of it with his dagger.

"It will do!" said he, looking at it before the light; "but it is easier to cut men's heads than quills. Now we need ink."

So saying, he rolled up his sleeve, cut himself deeply in the arm, and moistened the quill in blood.

"Worthy Kyemlich," said he, "leave me."

The old man left the room, and Pan Andrei began to write at once: -

I renounce the service of your highness, for I will not serve traitors and deceivers. And if I swore on the crucifix not to leave your highness, God will forgive me; and even if he were to damn me, I would rather burn for my error than for open and purposed treason to my country and king. Your highness deceived me, so that I was like a blind sword in your hand, ready to spill the blood of my brethren. Therefore I summon your highness to the judgment of God, so that it may be known on whose side was treason, and on whose honest intention. Should we ever meet, though you are powerful and able to strike unto death, not only a private man, but the whole Commonwealth, and I have only a sabre in my hand, still I will vindicate my own, and will strike your highness, for which my regret and compunction will give me power. And your highness knows that I am of those who without attendant squadrons, without castles and cannon, can injure. While in me there is breath, over you there is vengeance, so that you can be sure neither of the day nor the hour. And this is as certain to be as that this is my own blood with which I write. I have your letters, letters to ruin you, not only with the King of Poland, but the King of Sweden, for in them treason to the Commonwealth is made manifest, as well as this too, that you are ready to desert the Swedes if only a leg totters under them. Even had you twice your present power, your ruin is in my hands, for all men must believe signatures and seals. Therefore I say this to your highness: If a hair falls from the heads which I love and which are left in Kyedani, I will send those letters and documents to Pan Sapyeha, and I will have copies printed and scattered through the land. Your highness can go by land or water (you have your choice); but after the war, when peace comes to the Commonwealth, you will give me the Billeviches, and I will give you the letters, or if I hear evil tidings Pan Sapyeha will show them straightway to Pontus de la Gardie. Your highness wants a crown, but where will you put it when your head falls either from the Polish or the Swedish axe? It is better, I think, to have this understanding now; though I shall not forget revenge hereafter, I shall take it only in private, excepting this case. I would commend you to God were it not that you put the help of the devil above that of God. Kmita.

P. S. Your highness will not poison the confederates, for there will be those who, going from the service of the devil to that of God, will forewarn them to drink beer neither in Orel nor Zabludovo.

Here Kmita sprang up and began to walk across the room. His face was burning, for his own letter had heated him like fire. This letter was a declaration of war against the Radzivills; but still Kmita felt in himself some extraordinary power, and was ready, even at that moment, to stand eye to eye before that powerful family who shook the whole country. He, a simple noble, a simple knight, an outlaw pursued by justice, who expected assistance from no place, who had offended all so that everywhere he was accounted an enemy, – he, recently overthrown, felt in himself now such power that he saw, as if with the eyes of a prophet, the humiliation of Prince Yanush and Boguslav, and his own victory. How he would wage war, where he would find allies, in what way he would conquer, he knew not, – what is more, he had not thought of this. But he had profound faith that he would do what he ought to do, – that is, what is right and just, in return for which God would be with him. He was filled with confidence beyond measure and bounds. It had become sensibly easier in his soul. Certain new regions were opened as it were entirely before him. Let him but sit on his horse and ride thither to honor, to glory, to Olenka.

"But a hair will not fall from her head," repeated he to himself, with a certain feverish joy; "the letters will defend her. The hetman will guard her as the eye in his head, – as I myself would. Oh, I have settled this! I am a poor worm, but they will be afraid of my sting."