Part 41 (1/2)

Martsian looked at him with staring eyes and open mouth as he panted.

Once and a second time he tried to say something, then hiccoughing seized him, his eyes grew expressionless, he closed his lids on a sudden, and then began a rattling in his throat as if the man were dying.

”Sleep, or die, dirty dog!” growled the butler as he looked at him. And he went from the room to the outbuildings. Half an hour later he returned and knocked at the young lady's chamber. Finding the two sisters with her he said to them,--

”Ladies, perhaps you would look in a moment at the chancellery, for the young lord has grown very feeble. But if he sleeps it is better not to wake him.”

Then when alone with Panna Anulka he inclined to her knees, and said,--

”Young lady, there is need to flee from this mansion. All is ready.”

And she, though broken and barely able to stand on her feet, sprang up in one instant.

”It is well, and I am ready! Save me!”

”I will conduct you to a wagon which is waiting beyond the river.

To-night I will bring your clothing. Pan Krepetski is as drunk as Bela, and will lie like a dead man till morning. Only take a cloak, and let us go. No one will stop us; have no fear on that point.”

”G.o.d reward! G.o.d reward!” repeated she, feverishly.

They went out through the garden to that gate by which Yatsek used to enter from Vyrambki. On the way the butler said to her,--

”Long ago Vilchopolski arranged with the servants that if an attack upon you were attempted, they would set fire to the granary. Pan Krepetski would be forced to the fire, and you would have time to escape through the garden to a place beyond the river, where a man was to wait with a wagon. But it is better not to burn anything. To set fire is a crime, no matter what happens. Krepetski will be like a stone until morning, so no pursuit threatens you.”

”Where are we going?”

”To Pan Serafin's; defence there is easy. Vilchopolski is there. So are the Bukoyemskis and other foresters. Krepetski will try to take you back, but will fail. And later on Pan Serafin will conduct you to Radom, or farther. That will be settled with the priests. Here is the wagon! Fear no pursuit. It is not far to Yedlinka, and G.o.d gives a wonderful evening. I will bring your clothing to-night. If they try to stop me I will not mind them. May the Most Holy Mother, the guardian and protectress of orphans conduct you!”

And taking her by the hand like a child, he seated her in the wagon.

”Move on!” cried he to the driver.

It was growing dark in the world, and the twilight of evening was quenching, but from the remnant of its rays the stars in the clear sky were rosy. The calm evening was filled with the odors of the earth, of leaves, and of blossoming alders, while nightingales were filling with their song, as with a warm rain of spring, the garden, the trees, and the whole region.

CHAPTER XVII

That evening Pan Serafin was sitting on a bench in the front of his mansion, entertaining Father Voynovski, who had come after evening prayers to see him, and the four Bukoyemskis, who were stopping then permanently at Yedlinka. Before them on a table, with legs crossed like the letter X, stood a pitcher of mead and some gla.s.ses. They, while listening to the murmur of the forest, were drinking from time to time and conversing of the war, raising their eyes to the heavens in which the sickle of the moon was s.h.i.+ning clearly.

”Thanks to your grace, our benefactor, we shall be ready soon for the road,” said Mateush Bukoyemski. ”What has happened is pa.s.sed. Even saints have their failings; then how must it be with frail men, who without the grace of G.o.d can do nothing? But when I look at that moon, which forms the Turkish standard, my fist is stung as if mosquitoes were biting. Well, G.o.d grant a man to gratify his hands at the earliest.”

The youngest Bukoyemski fell to thinking.

”Why is it, my reverend benefactor,” asked he at last, ”that Turks cherish some kind of wors.h.i.+p for the moon, and bear it on their standards?”

”But have not dogs some devotion toward the moon also?” asked the priest.

”Of course, but why should the Turks have it?”