The Deluge. Vol. 2

"Give no embellishments!" interrupted Charnyetski; "you are not with the hetman."

Kharlamp was greatly confused, and continued: "At midday the voevoda himself went out. The Swedes under cover of these trenches began to build a bridge. They worked till evening, to our great astonishment; for we thought that as to building they would build, but as to crossing they would not be able to do that. Next day they built on. The voevoda put the troops in order, for he expected a battle."

"All this time the bridge was a pretext, and they crossed lower down over another bridge, and turned your flank?" interrupted Charnyetski.

Kharlamp stared and opened his mouth, he was silent in amazement; but at last said, —

"Then your worthiness has had an account already?"

"No need of that!" said Zagloba; "our grandfather guesses everything concerning war on the wing, as if he had seen it in fact."

"Speak on!" said Charnyetski.

"Evening came. The troops were in readiness, but with the first star there was a feast again. This time the Swedes passed over the second bridge lower down, and attacked us at once. The squadron of Pan Koshyts, a good soldier, was at the edge. He rushed on them. The general militia which was next to him sprang to his aid; but when the Swedes spat at them from the guns, they took to their heels. Pan Koshyts was killed, and his men terribly cut up. Now the general militia, rushing back in a crowd on the camp, put everything in disorder. All the squadrons that were ready advanced; but we effected nothing, lost cannon besides. If the king had had more cannon and infantry, our defeat would have been severe; but fortunately the greater number of the infantry regiments with the cannon had sailed away in boats during the night. Of this no one of us knew."

"Sapyo has blundered! I knew it beforehand!" cried Zagloba.

"We got the correspondence of the king," added Kharlamp, "which the Swedes dropped. The soldiers read in it that the king is to go to Prussia to return with the elector's forces, for, he writes, that with Swedish troops alone he cannot succeed."

"I know of that," said Charnyetski. "Pan Sapyeha sent me that letter." Then he muttered quietly, as if speaking to himself: "We must follow him to Prussia."

"That is what I have been saying this long time," put in Zagloba.

Charnyetski looked at him for a while in thoughtfulness. "It is unfortunate," said he, aloud; "for if I had returned to Sandomir the hetman and I should not have let a foot of them out alive. Well! it has passed and will not return. The war will be longer; but death is fated to this invasion and to these invaders."

"It cannot be otherwise!" cried the knights in chorus; and great consolation entered their hearts, though a short time before they had doubted.

Meanwhile Zagloba whispered something in Jendzian's ear; he vanished through the door, and soon returned with a decanter. Seeing this, Volodyovski inclined to the knee of the castellan.

"It would be an uncommon favor for a simple soldier," he began.

"I will drink with you willingly," said Charnyetski; "and do you know why? – because we must part."

"How is that?" cried the astonished Pan Michael.

"Sapyeha writes that the Lauda squadron belongs to the Lithuanian army, and that he sent it only to assist the forces of the kingdom; that now he will need it himself, especially the officers, of whom he has a great lack. My Volodyovski, you know how much I love you; it is hard for me to part with you, but here is the order. It is true Pan Sapyeha as a courteous man leaves the order in my power and discretion. I might not show it to you. – Well, it is as pleasant to me as if the hetman had broken my best sabre. I give you the order precisely because it is left to my discretion, and do your duty. To your health, my dear soldier!"

Volodyovski bowed again to the castellan's knees; but he was so distressed that he could not utter a word, and when Charnyetski embraced him tears ran in a stream over his yellow mustaches.

"I would rather die!" cried he, pitifully. "I have grown accustomed to toil under you, revered leader, and there I know not how it will be."

"Pan Michael, do not mind the order," cried Zagloba, with emotion. "I will write to Sapyo myself, and rub his ears for him fittingly."

But Pan Michael first of all was a soldier; therefore he flew into a passion, —

"But the old volunteer is ever sitting in you. You would better be silent when you know not the question. Service!"

"That is it," said Charnyetski.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Zagloba when he stood before the hetman did not answer his joyous greeting, but put his hands behind his back, pouted his lips, and looked on him like a just but stern judge. Sapyeha was pleased when he saw that mien, for he expected some pleasantry and said, —

"How are you, old rogue? Why twist your nose as if you had found some unvirtuous odor?"

"In the whole camp of Sapyeha it smells of hashed meat and cabbage."

"Why? Tell me."

"Because the Swedes have cut up a great many cabbage-heads!"

"There you are! You are already criticising us. It is a pity they did not cut you up too."

"I was with a leader under whom we are the cutters, not the cut."

"The hangman take you! if they had even clipped your tongue!"

"Then I should have nothing to proclaim Sapyeha's victory with."

"Ah, lord brother, spare me! The majority already forget my service to the country, and belittle me altogether. I know too that there are many who make a great outcry against my person; still, had it not been for that rabble of a general militia, affairs might have gone differently. They say that I have neglected the enemy for night feasting; but the whole Commonwealth has not been able to resist that enemy."

Zagloba was somewhat moved at the words of the hetman, and answered, —

"Such is the custom with us, always to put the blame on the leader. I am not the man to speak evil of feasting, for the longer the day, the more needful the feast. Pan Charnyetski is a great warrior; still, according to my head, he has this defect, – that he gives his troops for breakfast, for dinner, and for supper nothing but Swedes' flesh. He is a better leader than cook; but he acts ill, for from such food war may soon become disgusting to the best cavaliers."

"Was Charnyetski very much enraged at me?"

"No, not very! In the beginning he showed a great change; but when he discovered that the army was unbroken, he said at once: 'The will of God, not the might of men! That is nothing! any general may lose a battle. If we had Sapyehas only in the land, we should have a country in which every man would be an Aristides.'"

"For Pan Charnyetski I would not spare my blood!" answered Sapyeha. "Every other would have lowered me, so as to exalt himself and his own glory, especially after a fresh victory; but he is not that kind of man."

"I will say nothing against him but this, – that I am too old for such service as he expects of soldiers, and especially for those baths which he gives the army."

"Then are you glad to return to me?"

"Glad and not glad, for I hear of feasting for an hour, but somehow I don't see it."

"We will sit down to the table this minute. But what is Charnyetski undertaking now?"

"He is going to Great Poland to help those poor people; from there he will march against Steinbock and to Prussia, hoping to get cannon and infantry from Dantzig."

"The citizens of Dantzig are worthy people, and give a shining example to the whole Commonwealth. We shall meet Charnyetski at Warsaw, for I shall march there, but will stop a little first around Lublin."

"Then have the Swedes besieged Lublin again?"

"Unhappy place! I know not how many times it has been in the hands of the enemy. There is a deputation here now from Lubelsk, and they will appear with a petition asking me to save them. But as I have letters to despatch to the king and the hetmans, they must wait awhile."

"I will go gladly to Lublin, for there the fair heads are comely beyond measure, and sprightly. When a woman of that place is cutting bread, and puts the loaf against herself, the crust on the lifeless bread blushes from delight."