The Deluge. Vol. 2

The king smiled at the simple soldierly confidence, and read on. After a while he sighed, and said, —

"Radzivill might have been the first pearl in this glorious kingdom, if pride and the errors which he committed had not withered his soul. It is accomplished! Inscrutable are the decisions of God! Radzivill and Opalinski – almost in the same hour! Judge them, O Lord, not according to their sins, but according to Thy mercy."

Silence followed; then the king again began to read.

"We are thankful to the voevoda," said he, when he had finished, "for sending a whole squadron and under the greatest cavalier, as he writes. But I am safe here; and cavaliers, especially such as you, are more needed in the field. Rest a little, and then I will send you to assist Charnyetski, for on him evidently the greatest pressure will be turned."

"We have rested enough already at Tykotsin, Gracious Lord," said the little knight, with enthusiasm; "if our horses were fed a little, we might move to-day, for with Charnyetski there will be unspeakable delights. It is a great happiness to look on the face of our gracious lord, but we are anxious to see the Swedes."

The king grew radiant. A fatherly kindness appeared on his face, and he said, looking with pleasure on the sulphurous figure of the little knight, —

"You were the first little soldier to throw the baton of a colonel at the feet of the late prince voevoda."

"Not the first, your Royal Grace; but it was the first, and God grant the last, time for me to act against military discipline." Pan Michael stopped, and after a while added, "It was impossible to do otherwise."

"Certainly," said the king. "That was a grievous hour for those who understood military duty; but obedience must have its limits, beyond which guilt begins. Did many officers remain in with Radzivill?"

"In Tykotsin we found only one officer, Pan Kharlamp, who did not leave the prince at once, and who did not wish afterward to desert him in misery. Compassion alone kept Kharlamp with Radzivill, for natural affection drew him to us. We were barely able to restore him to health, such hunger had there been in Tykotsin, and he took the food from his own mouth to nourish the prince. He has come here to Lvoff to implore pardon of your Royal Grace, and I too fall at your feet for him; he is a tried and good soldier."

"Let him come hither," said the king.

"He has also something important to tell, which he heard in Kyedani from the mouth of Prince Boguslav, and which relates to the person of your Royal Grace, which is sacred to us."

"Is this about Kmita?"

"Yes, Gracious Lord."

"Did you know Kmita?"

"I knew him and fought with him; but where he is now, I know not."

"What do you think of him?"

"Gracious Lord, since he undertook such a deed there are no torments of which he is not worthy, for he is an abortion of hell."

"That story is untrue," said the king; "it is all an invention of Prince Boguslav. But putting that affair aside, what do you know of Kmita in times previous?"

"He was always a great soldier, and in military affairs incomparable. He used to steal up to Hovanski so that with a few hundred people he brought the whole force of the enemy to misery; no other man could have done that. It is a miracle that the skin was not torn from him and stretched over a drum. If at that time some one had placed Prince Radzivill himself in the hands of Hovanski, he would not have given him so much pleasure as he would had he made him a present of Kmita. Why! it went so far that Kmita ate out of Hovanski's camp-chests, slept on his rugs, rode in his sleighs and on his horse. But he was an infliction on his own people too, terribly self-willed; like Pan Lashch, he might have lined his cloak with sentences, and in Kyedani he was lost altogether."

Here Volodyovski related in detail all that had happened in Kyedani.

Yan Kazimir listened eagerly, and when at last Pan Michael told how Zagloba had freed first himself and then all his comrades from Radzivill's captivity, the king held his sides from laughter.

"Vir incomparabilis! vir incomparabilis (an incomparable man)!" he repeated. "But is he here with you?"

"At the command of your Royal Grace!" answered Volodyovski.

"That noble surpasses Ulysses! Bring him to me to dinner for a pleasant hour, and also the Skshetuskis; and now toll me what you know more of Kmita."

"From letters found on Roh Kovalski we learned that we were sent to Birji to die. The prince pursued us afterward and tried to surround us, but he did not take us. We escaped luckily. And that was not all, for not far from Kyedani we caught Kmita, whom I sent at once to be shot."

"Oh!" said the king, "I see that you had sharp work there in Lithuania."

"But first Pan Zagloba had him searched to find letters on his person. In fact, a letter from the hetman was found, in which we learned that had it not been for Kmita we should not have been taken to Birji, but would have been shot without delay in Kyedani."

"But you see!" said the king.

"In view of that we could not take his life. We let him go. What he did further I know not, but he did not leave Radzivill at that time. God knows what kind of man he is. It is easier to form an opinion of any one else than of such a whirlwind. He remained with Radzivill and then went somewhere. Later he warned us that the prince was marching from Kyedani. It is hard to belittle the notable service he did us, for had it not been for that warning Radzivill would have fallen on unprepared troops, and destroyed the squadrons one after the other. I know not myself, Gracious Lord, what to think, – whether that was a calumny which Prince Boguslav uttered."

"That will appear at once," said the king; and he clapped his hands. "Call hither Pan Babinich!" said he to a page who appeared on the threshold.

The page vanished, and soon the door of the king's chamber opened, and in it stood Pan Andrei. Volodyovski did not know him at once, for he had changed greatly and grown pale, as he had not recovered from the struggle in the pass. Pan Michael therefore looked at him without recognition.

"It is a wonder," said he at last; "were it not for the thinness of lips and because your Royal Grace gives another name, I should say this is Pan Kmita."

The king smiled and said, —

"This little knight has just told me of a terrible disturber of that name, but I explained as on my palm that he was deceived in his judgment, and I am sure that Pan Babinich will confirm what I say."

"Gracious Lord," answered Babinich, quickly, "one word from your grace will clear that disturber more than my greatest oath."

"And the voice is the same," said Pan Michael, with growing astonishment; "but that wound across the mouth was not there."

"Worthy sir," answered Kmita, "the head of a noble is a register on which sometimes a man's hand writes with a sabre. And here is your note; recognize it."

He bowed his head, shaven at the sides, and pointed at the long whitish scar.

"My hand!" cried Volodyovski.

"But I say that you do not know Kmita," put in the king.

"How is that, Gracious Lord?"

"For you know a great soldier, but a self-willed one, an associate in the treason of Radzivill. But here stands the Hector of Chenstohova, to whom, next to Kordetski, Yasna Gora owes most; here stands the defender of the country and my faithful servant, who covered me with his own breast and saved my life when in the pass I had fallen among the Swedes as among wolves. Such is this new Kmita. Know him and love him, for he deserves it."

Volodyovski began to move his yellow mustaches, not knowing what to say; and the king added, —

"And know that not only did he promise Prince Boguslav nothing, but he began on him the punishment for Radzivill intrigues, for he seized him and intended to give him into your hands."

"And he warned us against Prince Yanush!" cried Volodyovski. "What angel converted you?"

"Embrace each other!" said the king.

"I loved you at once!" said Kmita to Volodyovski.

Then they fell into each other's embraces, and the king looked on them and pursed out his lips with delight, time after time, as was his habit. But Kmita embraced the little knight with such feeling that he raised him as he would a cat, and not soon did he place him back on his feet.

Then the king went to the daily council, for the two hetmans of the kingdom had come to Lvoff, they were to form the army there, and lead it later to the aid of Charnyetski, and the confederate divisions marching, under various leaders, throughout the country.