Part 54 (1/2)

”Whence did Krepetski come hither?”

”He rode into Cracow. He was here five days. He rode in behind us.”

”Let one speak. Speak thou, but to the point.”

Here the priest turned to Yan, the youngest.

”An acquaintance of ours from the regiment of the Bishop of Sandomir,”

began Yan, ”told us by chance, three days ago, that he had seen in a wineshop on Kazamir street a certain wonder. 'A n.o.ble,' says he, 'as thick as a tree stump, with a great head so thrust into his body that his shoulders come up to his ears, on short crooked legs,' says he, 'and he drinks like a dragon. A viler monkey I have not seen in my life,' says he. And we, since the Lord Jesus has given us this gift from birth, take everything in at a twinkle, we look at one another that instant: Well, is not that Krepetski? Then we said to the man, 'Take us to that wineshop.' 'I will take you.' And he took us. It was dark, but we looked till we saw something black in one corner behind a table. Lukash walked up to it, and made sparks fly before the very eyes of him who was hiding there. 'Krepetski,' cries he, and grabs him by the shoulder. We to our sabres. Krepetski sprang away, but saw that there was no escape, for we were between him and the doorway. Did he not jump then? He jumped up time after time as a c.o.c.k does. 'What,'

says he, 'do ye think that I am afraid? Only come at me one by one, not in a crowd, unless ye are murderers, not n.o.bles.'”

”The scoundrel!” interrupted the priest.

”What did he try to do with us? That is what Lukash asked him. 'Oh!'

said Lukash, 'thou son of such a mother, thou didst hire a whole regiment of cut-throats against us. It would be well,' said he, 'to give thee to the headsman, but this is the shorter way!' Then he presses on, and they fall to cutting. After the third or fourth blow, his head leans to one side. I look--and there is an ear on the floor.

Mateush raises it immediately, and cries,--'Leave the other to us, do not cut it. This,' said he 'will be for Yatsek, and the other for Panna Anulka.' But Martsian dropped his sabre, for his blood had begun to flow terribly, and he fainted. We poured water on his head, and wine into his mouth, thinking that he would revive and meet the next one of us; but that could not be. He recovered consciousness, it is true, and said: 'Since ye have sought justice yourselves, ye are not free to seek any other,' and he fainted again. We went away then, sorry not to have the other ear. Lukash said that he could have killed the man, but he spared him for us, and especially for Yatsek. And I do not know if any one could act more politely, for it is no sin to crush such vermin as Martsian, but it is clear that politeness does not pay now-a-days, since we have to suffer for showing it.”

”True! He speaks justly!” said the other brothers.

”Well,” said the priest, ”if the matter stands thus it is different, but still the gift is unsavory.”

The brothers looked with amazement one at another.

”Why say unsavory?” asked Marek. ”You do not think we brought it for Yatsek to eat, do you?”

”I thank you from my soul for your good wishes,” said Tachevski. ”I think that ye did not bring it to me to be stored away.”

”It has grown a little green--it might be smoke-dried.”

”Let a man bury it at once,” said the priest with severity; ”it is the ear of a Christian in every case.”

”In Kieff we have seen better treatment,” growled out Mateush.

”Krepetski came hither undoubtedly,” remarked Yatsek, ”to make a new attack on Anulka.”

”He will not take her away from the king's palace,” said the prudent Pan Serafin, ”but he did not come for that, if I think correctly. His attack failed, so I suppose he only wanted to learn whether we know that he arranged it, and if we have complained of him. Perhaps old Krepetski did not know of his son's undertaking; but perhaps he did know; if he did, then both must be greatly alarmed, and I am not at all surprised that Martsian came here to investigate.”

”Well,” said Stanislav, laughing, ”he has no luck with the Bukoyemskis, indeed he has not.”

”Let him go,” said Tachevski. ”To-day I am ready to forgive him.”

The Bukoyemskis and Stanislav, who knew the stubbornness of the young cavalier, looked at him with astonishment, and he, as if answering them, added,--

”For Anulka will be mine immediately, and to-morrow I shall be a Christian knight and defender of the faith, a man whose heart should be free of all hate and personalities.”

”G.o.d bless thee for that!” cried the priest.