Part 19 (1/2)
”World without end! Where do you come from?”
”From Malyczki.”
”Did you go there alone?”
”I carried Mikita the potatoes I had sold him.”
”What is the news down there?”
”Oh, there is some news; there is a great deal of news,” answered Chwedko, seating himself on the trunk of a fallen tree. ”The old chief of squadron is dead.”
”The old man is dead!” replied Iermola. ”Peace to his soul! he has suffered a long time.”
”And he knew pretty well how to make others suffer.”
”So he is really dead!” repeated Iermola. ”You see old men must look out; death may call them any time. I trust he will not come for us very soon.”
”He was very sick,” said Chwedko; ”and I do not see how he held out so many years. But there is a regular upturning at the _dwor_.”
”And how about his son?”
”His son and his people and every one whom he has tormented so much shed fountains of tears over him. All the people from the village are in the courtyard; it is a pitiful scene of desolation.”
”It is the destiny of us all,” replied Iermola, with a sigh.
”Yes, truly,” continued Chwedko; ”but to tell the truth, the chief of squadron was a perfect tyrant over his family. Sick, helpless, and infirm as he was, to the hour of his death he never gave up his keys nor the management of his household, never confided in either his son or his young ward. His son has grown old in his service without enjoying his fortune and without being able to attempt to direct his household; he never would allow him to marry, nor would he permit him to go away from him. He kept the young lady in equal bondage; and though he knew they loved each other, he always forbade them to marry under penalty of his curse.”
”Ah, well, they will marry now,” said Iermola.
”So you do not know about it, then? They have already been married for a long time; no one knew it at the _dwor_ except the old housekeeper.
The parish curate married them. There were witnesses; but what good did that do them? They could not live together, because the old father kept them both always by his bedside night and day; he would have one or other of them always by him. In addition to this, matters were so arranged at the _dwor_ that the stewards and servants were obliged to tell the master everything the young lord did, or else he would scold and abuse them all; and he had a.s.sured his son of his curse if he ever dared to think of such a marriage.”
”The old man was a little stern, it is true,” said Iermola, ”but he had his good side. And besides, he suffered a great deal,--so much that during the long hours of the night, one might hear him crying out almost every moment, 'Good Lord, have mercy on me and take me out of this world!' Toward strangers his manner was gentle as a lamb. It was he who managed so nicely to get Procope to teach me how to make pottery; and when I went to see him, he talked with me and told me stories of old times, and joked and laughed. But that was because he was an old friend of my master.”
The old men continued to talk a long time about the chief of squadron, relating in turn various small events of his life, mourning and regretting the dead man as people generally do, for each one of us on leaving this world leaves behind a certain measure of regret and remembrance. They were still talking when the sound of carriage-wheels was heard at a distance on the road from Malyczki; and they could hear that the vehicle which was coming was not the wagon of a peasant.
”That must certainly be Hudny going home,” said Iermola. ”Let us go inside the cabin; it is best that he should not see us.”
”Oh, no, it is not he,” answered Chwedko; ”it must be a stranger. From the sound of the wheels I should say it was a covered carriage. Some one has lost his way, surely.”
Curious to know who it could be, they stood still with their eyes fixed on that side of the plain which extended beyond the oaks and which was crossed by a narrow pathway. Soon, sure enough, a covered carriage appeared, a very neat and almost elegant one, which was coming at a brisk trot toward the village. ”Who can it be, I wonder,” murmured Iermola.
”Those are the chief of squadron's horses. And that is the young lord and his wife, I am sure. But why are they coming here?”
The carriage approached rapidly; and instead of going past the old inn, where the child and the two old men were standing gazing at it with astonished faces, it stopped suddenly in front of them.
A man of somewhat more than thirty years, and a woman who was still young, got out of it together and hastened up to Iermola; but before reaching him, they stopped. Then a startled cry, sobs, and tears were heard. The young woman rushed to Radionek; the strange man also stepped toward the boy, who drew back frightened.
Iermola understood the whole matter at once. He turned pale, stumbled, and was obliged to sit down, he felt so faint and overcome; for him had sounded that fatal hour, the very thought of which he had always dismissed from his mind with mortal terror.
”My son! my dear child!” cried the lady.