CHAPTER XVI
Pan Zagloba had his head mightily full when he hurled the word "traitor" thrice at the eyes of the terrible hetman. At an hour nearer morning, when the wine had evaporated from his bald head, and he found himself with the two Skshetuskis and Pan Michael in a dungeon of Kyedani Castle, he saw, when too late, the danger to which he had exposed his own neck and the necks of his comrades, and was greatly cast down.
"But what will happen now?" asked he, gazing with dazed look on the little knight, in whom he had special trust in great peril.
"May the devil take life! it is all one to me!" answered Volodyovski.
"We shall live to such times and such infamy as the world and this kingdom have not seen hitherto!" said Pan Yan.
"Would that we might live to them!" answered Zagloba; "we could restore virtue in others by our good example. But shall we live? That is the great question."
"This is a terrible event, passing belief!" said Pan Stanislav. "Where has the like of it happened? Save me, gentlemen, for I feel that there is confusion in my head. Two wars, – a third, the Cossack, – and in addition treason, like a plague: Radzyovski, Opalinski, Grudzinski, Radzivill! The end of the world is coming, and the day of judgment; it cannot be otherwise! May the earth open under our feet! As God is dear to me, I am losing my mind!"
And clasping his hands at the back of his head, he began to pace the length and width of the cellar, like a wild beast in a cage.
"Shall we begin to pray, or what?" asked he at last. "Merciful God, save us!"
"Be calm!" said Zagloba; "this is not the time to despair."
Pan Stanislav ground his teeth on a sudden; rage carried him away. "I wish you were killed!" cried he to Zagloba. "It was your thought to come to this traitor. May vengeance reach you and him!"
"Bethink yourself, Stanislav," said Pan Yan, sternly. "No one could foresee what has happened. Endure, for you are not the only man suffering; and know that our place is here, and not elsewhere. Merciful God! pity, not us, but the ill-fated country."
Stanislav made no answer, but wrung his hands till the joints were cracking.
They were silent. Pan Michael, however, began to whistle through his teeth, in despair, and feigned indifference to everything happening around him, though, in fact, he suffered doubly, – first, for the misfortune of the country, and secondly, because he had violated his obedience to the hetman. The latter was a terrible thing for him, a soldier to the marrow of his bones. He would have preferred to die a thousand times.
"Do not whistle, Pan Michael," said Zagloba.
"All one to me!"
"How is it? Is no one of you thinking whether there are not means of escape? It is worth while to exercise one's wits on this. Are we to rot in this cellar, when every hand is needed for the country, when one man of honor must settle ten traitors?"
"Father is right," said Pan Yan.
"You alone have not become stupid from pain. What do you suppose? What does that traitor think of doing with us? Surely he will not punish us with death?"
Pan Michael burst out in a sudden laugh of despair. "But why not? I am curious to learn! Has he not authority, has he not the sword? Do you not know Radzivill?"
"Nonsense! What right do they give him?"
"Over me, the right of a hetman; over you, force!"
"For which he must answer."
"To whom, – to the King of Sweden?"
"You give me sweet consolation; there is no denying that!"
"I have no thought of consoling you."
They were silent, and for a time there was nothing to be heard but the measured tread of Scottish infantry at the door of the cellar.
"There is no help here," said Zagloba, "but stratagem."
No one gave answer; therefore he began to talk again after a while: "I will not believe that we are to be put to death. If for every word spoken in haste and in drink, a head were cut off, not one noble in this Commonwealth would walk around with his head on his shoulders. But neminem captivabimus? Is that a trifle?"
"You have an example in yourself and in us," answered Stanislav.
"Well, that happened in haste; but I believe firmly that the prince will take a second thought. We are strangers; in no way do we come under his jurisdiction. He must respect opinion, and not begin with violence, so as not to offend the nobles. As true as life, our party is too large to have the heads cut from all of us. Over the officers he has authority, I cannot deny that; but, as I think, he will look to the army, which surely will not fail to remember its own. And where is your squadron, Michael?"
"In Upita."
"But tell me, are you sure that the men will be true to you?"
"Whence should I know? They like me well enough, but they know that the hetman is above me."
Zagloba meditated awhile. "Give me an order to them to obey me in everything, as they would you, if I appear among them."
"You think that you are free!"
"There is no harm in that. I have been in hotter places, and God saved me. Give an order for me and the two Skshetuskis. Whoso escapes first will go straight to the squadron, and bring it to rescue the others."
"You are raving! It is a pity to lose time in empty talk! Who will escape from this place? Besides, on what can I give an order; have you paper, ink, pen? You are losing your head."
"Desperation!" cried Zagloba; "give me even your ring."
"Here it is, and let me have peace!"
Zagloba took the ring, put it on his little finger, and began to walk and meditate.
Meanwhile the smoking candle went out, and darkness embraced them completely; only through the grating of the high window a couple of stars were visible, twinkling in the clear sky. Zagloba's eye did not leave the grating. "If heaven-dwelling Podbipienta were living and with us," mattered the old man, "he would tear out that grating, and in an hour we should see ourselves beyond Kyedani."
"But raise me to the window," said Pan Yan, suddenly.
Zagloba and Pan Stanislav placed themselves at the wall; in a moment Yan was on their shoulders.
"It cracks! As God is dear to me, it cracks!" cried Zagloba.
"What are you talking about, father? I haven't begun to pull it yet."
"Crawl up with your cousin; I'll hold you somehow. More than once I pitied Pan Michael because he was so slender; but now I regret that he is not still thinner, so as to slip through like a snake."
But Yan sprang down from their shoulders. "The Scots are standing on this side!" said he.
"May God turn them into pillars of salt, like Lot's wife!" said Zagloba. "It is so dark here that you might strike a man in the face, and he could not see you. It will soon be daybreak. I think they will bring us food of some kind, for even Lutherans do not put prisoners to a hunger death. Perhaps, too, God will send reflection to the hetman. Often in the night conscience starts up in a man, and the devils pinch sinners. Can it be there is only one entrance to this cellar? I will look in the daytime. My head is somehow heavy, and I cannot think out a stratagem. To-morrow God will strengthen my wit; but now we will say the Lord's Prayer, and commit ourselves to the Most Holy Lady, in this heretical dungeon."
In fact they began a moment later to say the Lord's Prayer and the litany to the Mother of God; then Yan, Stanislav, and Volodyovski were silent, for their breasts were full of misfortune, but Zagloba growled in a low voice and muttered, -
"It must be beyond doubt that to-morrow he will say to us, aut, aut! (either, or). 'Join Radzivill and I will pardon everything.' But we shall see who outwits the other. Do you pack nobles into prison, have you no respect for age or services? Very good! To whom the loss, to him the weeping! The foolish will be under, and the wise on top. I will promise what you like, but what I observe would not make a patch for your boot. If you do not hold to the country, he is virtuous who holds not to you. This is certain, that final ruin is coming on the Commonwealth if its foremost dignitaries join the enemy. This has never been in the world hitherto, and surely a man may lose his senses from it. Are there in hell torments sufficient for such traitors? What was wanting to such a Radzivill? Is it little that the country has given him, that he should sell it like a Judas, and in the very time of its greatest misfortunes, in the time of three wars? Just is thy anger, O Lord! only give swiftest punishment. So be it! Amen! If I could only get out of here quickly, I would create partisans for thee, mighty hetman! Thou wilt know how the fruits of treason taste. Thou wilt look on me yet as a friend; but if thou findest no better, do not hunt a bear unless thy skin is not dear to thee."
Thus did Zagloba converse with himself. Meanwhile one hour passed, and a second; at last day began to dawn. The gray light falling through the grating dissipated slowly the darkness in the cellar, and brought out the gloomy figures sitting at the walls. Volodyovski and the Skshetuskis were slumbering from weariness; but when things were more visible, and when from the courtyard came the sounds of soldiers' footsteps, the clatter of arms, the tramp of hoofs, and the sound of trumpets at the gate, the knights sprang to their feet.
"The day begins not too favorably for us," said Yan.
"God grant it to end more favorably," answered Zagloba. "Do you know what I have thought in the night? They will surely treat us with the gift of life if we will take service with Radzivill and help him in his treason; we ought to agree to that, so as to make use of our freedom and stand up for the country."
"May God preserve me from putting my name to treason," answered Yan; "for though I should leave the traitor afterward, my name would remain among those of traitors as an infamy to my children. I will not do that, I prefer to die."
"Neither will I!" said Stanislav.
"But I tell you beforehand that I will. No one will think that I did it voluntarily or sincerely. May the devils take that dragon Radzivill! We shall see yet who gets the upper hand."
Further conversation was stopped by sounds in the yard. Among them were the ominous accents of anger and indignation. At the same time single voices of command, the echo of footsteps of whole crowds, and heavy thunder as of cannon in motion.
"What is going on?" asked Zagloba. "Maybe there is some help for us."
"There is surely an uncommon uproar," said Volodyovski. "But raise me to the window, for I shall see right away what it is."
Yan took Volodyovski and raised him as he would a boy. Pan Michael caught the grating, and looked carefully through the yard.
"There is something going on, – there is!" said he, with sudden alertness. "I see the Hungarian castle regiment of infantry which Oskyerko led-they loved him greatly, and he too is arrested; they are demanding him surely. As God lives! they are in order of battle. Lieutenant Stahovich is with them; he is a friend of Oskyerko."
At that moment the cries grew still louder.
"Ganhoff has ridden up. He is saying something to Stahovich, and what a shout! I see that Stahovich with two officers is walking away from the troops. They are going of course as a deputation to the hetman. As God is dear to me, mutiny is spreading in the army! The cannon are pointed against the Hungarians, and the Scottish regiment is also in order of battle. Men from the Polish squadrons are gathering to the Hungarians. Without them they would not be so daring, for in the infantry there is stern discipline."
"In God's name!" cried Zagloba. "In that is salvation for us. Pan Michael, are there many Polish squadrons? If they rise, it will be a rising!"
"Stankyevich's hussars and Mirski's mailed squadrons are two days' march from Kyedani," answered Volodyovski. "If they had been here, the hetman would not have dared to arrest their commanders. Wait! There are Kharlamp's dragoons, one regiment, Myeleshko's another; they are for the prince. Nyevyarovski declared also for the prince, but his regiment is far away, – two Scottish regiments."
"Then there are four with the prince?"
"And the artillery under Korf, two regiments."
"Oh, that's a strong force!"
"And Kmita's squadron, well equipped, – six hundred men."
"And on whose side is Kmita?"
"I do not know."
"Did you not see him? Did he throw down his baton?"
"We know not."
"Who are against the prince, – what squadrons?"
"First, these Hungarians evidently, two hundred men; then a number of detached men from the commands of Mirski and Stankyevich; some nobles and Kmita, – but he is uncertain."
"God grant him! – By God's mercy! – Too few, too few."
"These Hungarians are as good as two regiments, old soldiers and tried. But wait! They are lighting the matches at the cannon; it looks like a battle!"
Yan and Stanislav were silent; Zagloba was writhing as in a fever, -
"Slay the traitors! Slay the dog-brothers! Ai, Kmita! Kmita! All depends on him. Is he daring?"
"As the devil, – ready for anything."
"It must be that he will take our side."
"Mutiny in the army! See to what the hetman has brought things!" cried Volodyovski.
"Who is the mutineer, – the army, or the hetman who rose against his own king?" asked Zagloba.
"Godwin judge that. Wait! Again there is a movement! Some of Kharlamp's dragoons take the part of the Hungarians. The very best nobles serve in that regiment. Hear how they shout!"
"The colonels! the colonels!" cried threatening voices in the yard.
"Pan Michael! by the wounds of God, cry to them to send for your squadron and for the armored regiment and the hussars."
"Be silent!"
Zagloba began to shout himself: "But send for the rest of the Polish squadrons, and cut down the traitors!"
"Be silent there!"
Suddenly, not in the yard, but in the rear of the castle, rang forth a sharp salvo of muskets.
"Jesus Mary!" cried Volodyovski.
"Pan Michael, what is that?"
"Beyond doubt they have shot Stahovich and the two officers who went as a deputation," said Volodyovski, feverishly. "It cannot be otherwise!"
"By the passion of our Lord! Then there is no mercy. It is impossible to hope."
The thunder of shots drowned further discourse. Pan Michael grasped the grating convulsively and pressed his forehead to it, but for a while he could see nothing except the legs of the Scottish infantry stationed at the window. Salvos of musketry grew more and more frequent; at last the cannon were heard. The dry knocking of bullets against the wall over the cellar was heard distinctly, like hail. The castle trembled to its foundation.
"Jump down, Michael, or you will be killed!" cried Yan.
"By no means. The balls go higher; and from the cannon they are firing in the other direction. I will not jump down for anything."
And Volodyovski, seizing the grating more firmly, drew himself entirely to the window-sill, where he did not need the shoulder of Pan Yan to hold him. In the cellar it became really dark, for the window was small and Pan Michael though slender filled it completely; but as a recompense the men below had fresh news from the field of battle every minute.
"I see now!" cried Pan Michael. "The Hungarians are resting against the wall and are firing. I was afraid that they would be forced to a corner, then the cannon would destroy them in a moment. Good soldiers, as God is dear to me! Without officers, they know what is needed. There is smoke again! I see nothing-"
The firing began to slacken.
"O merciful God, delay not thy punishment!" cried Zagloba.
"And what, Michael?" asked Yan.
"The Scots are advancing to the attack!"
"Oh, brimstone thunderbolts, that we must sit here!" cried Stanislav.
"They are there already, the halberd-men! The Hungarians meet them with the sabre! Oh, my God! that you cannot look on. What soldiers!"
"Fighting with their own and not with an enemy."
"The Hungarians have the upper hand. The Scots are falling back on the left. As I love God! Myeleshko's dragoons are going over to them! The Scots are between two fires. Korf cannot use his cannon, for he would strike the Scots. I see Ganhoff uniforms among the Hungarians. They are going to attack the gate. They wish to escape. They are advancing like a storm, – breaking everything!"
"How is that? I wish they would capture this castle!" cried Zagloba.
"Never mind! They will come back to-morrow with the squadrons of Mirski and Stankyevich-Oh, Kharlamp is killed! No! He rises; he is wounded-they are already at the gate. What is that? Just as if the Scottish guard at the gate were coming over to the Hungarians, for they are opening the gate, – dust is rising on the outside; I see Kmita! Kmita is rushing through the gate with cavalry!"
"On whose side is he, on whose side?" cried Zagloba.
For a moment Pan Michael gave no answer; but very soon the clatter of weapons, shrieks, and shouts were heard with redoubled force.
"It is all over with them!" cried Pan Michael, with a shrill voice.
"All over with whom, with whom?"
"With the Hungarians. The cavalry has broken them, is trampling them, cutting them to pieces! Their flag is in Kmita's hand! The end, the end!"
When he had said this, Volodyovski dropped from the window and fell into the arms of Pan Yan.
"Kill me!" cried he, "kill me, for I had that man under my sabre and let him go with his life; I gave him his commission. Through me he assembled that squadron with which he will fight now against the country. I saw whom he got: dog-brothers, gallows-birds, robbers, ruffians, such as he is himself. God grant me to meet him once more with the sabre-God! lengthen my life to the death of that traitor, for I swear that he will not leave my hands again."
Meanwhile cries, the trample of hoofs, and salvos of musketry were thundering yet with full force; after a time, however, they began to weaken, and an hour later silence reigned in the castle of Kyedani, broken only by the measured tread of the Scottish patrols and words of command.
"Pan Michael, look out once more and see what has happened," begged Zagloba.
"What for?" asked the little knight. "Whoso is a soldier will guess what has happened. Besides, I saw them beaten, – Kmita triumphs here!"
"God give him to be torn with horses, the scoundrel, the hell-dweller! God give him to guard a harem for Tartars!"
CHAPTER XVII
Pan Michael was right. Kmita had triumphed. The Hungarians and a part of the dragoons of Myeleshko and Kharlamp who had joined them, lay dead close together in the court of Kyedani. Barely a few tens of them had slipped out and scattered around the castle and the town, where the cavalry pursued them. Many were caught; others never stopped of a certainty till they reached the camp of Sapyeha, voevoda of Vityebsk, to whom they were the first to bring the terrible tidings of the grand hetman's treason, of his desertion to the Swedes, of the imprisonment of the colonels and the resistance of the Polish squadrons.
Meanwhile Kmita, covered with blood and dust, presented himself with the banner of the Hungarians before Radzivill, who received him with open arms. But Pan Andrei was not delighted with the victory. He was as gloomy and sullen as if he had acted against his heart.
"Your highness," said he, "I do not like to hear praises, and would rather a hundred times fight the enemy than soldiers who might be of service to the country. It seems to a man as if he were spilling his own blood."
"Who is to blame, if not those insurgents?" answered the prince. "I too would prefer to send them to Vilna, and I intended to do so. But they chose to rebel against authority. What has happened will not be undone. It was and it will be needful to give an example."
"What does your highness think of doing with the prisoners?"
"A ball in the forehead of every tenth man. Dispose the rest among other regiments. You will go to-day to the squadrons of Mirski and Stankyevich, announce my order, to them to be ready for the campaign. I make you commander over those two squadrons, and over the third, that of Volodyovski. The lieutenants are to be subordinate to you and obey you in everything. I wished to send Kharlamp to that squadron at first, but he is useless. I have changed my mind."
"What shall I do in case of resistance? For with Volodyovski are Lauda men who hate me terribly."
"Announce that Mirski, Stankyevich, and Volodyovski will be shot immediately."
"Then they may come in arms to Kyedani to rescue these officers. All serving under Mirski are distinguished nobles."
"Take a regiment of Scottish infantry and a German regiment. First surround them, then announce the order."
"Such is the will of your highness."
Radzivill rested his hands on his knees and fell to thinking.
"I would gladly shoot Mirski and Stankyevich were they not respected in the whole country as well as in their own regiments. I fear tumult and open rebellion, an example of which we have just had before our eyes. I am glad, thanks to you, that they have received a good lesson, and each squadron will think twice before rising against us. But it is imperative to act swiftly, so that resisting men may not go to the voevoda of Vityebsk."
"Your highness has spoken only of Mirski and Stankyevich, you have not mentioned Volodyovski and Oskyerko."
"I must spare Oskyerko, too, for he is a man of note and widely related; but Volodyovski comes from Russia21 and has no relatives here. He is a valiant soldier, it is true. I counted on him, – so much the worse that I was deceived. If the devil had not brought hither those wanderers his friends, he might have acted differently; but after what has happened, a bullet in the forehead waits him, as well as those two Skshetuskis and that third fellow, that bull who began first to bellow, 'Traitor, traitor!'"
Pan Andrei sprang up as if burned with iron: "Your highness, the soldiers say that Volodyovski saved your life at Tsibyhova."
"He did his duty; therefore I wanted to give him Dydkyemie for life. Now he has betrayed me; hence I give command to shoot him."
Kmita's eyes flashed, and his nostrils began to quiver.
"Your highness, that cannot be!"
"How cannot be?" asked Radzivill, frowning.
"I implore your highness," said Kmita, carried away, "that not a hair fall from Volodyovski. Forgive me, I implore. Volodyovski had the power not to deliver to me the commission, for it was sent to him and left at his disposal. But he gave it. He plucked me out of the whirlpool. Through that act of his I passed into the jurisdiction of your highness. He did not hesitate to save me, though he and I were trying to win the same woman. I owe him gratitude, and I have vowed to repay him. Your highness, grant for my sake that no punishment touch him or his friends. A hair should not fall from the head of either of them, and as God is true, it will not fall while I live. I implore your highness."
Pan Andrei entreated and clasped his hands, but his words were ringing with anger, threats, and indignation. His unrestrained nature gained the upper hand, and he stood above Radzivill with flashing eyes and a visage like the head of an angry bird of prey. The hetman too had a storm in his face. Before his iron will and despotism everything hitherto in Lithuania and Russia had bent. No one had ever dared to oppose him, no one to beg mercy for those once condemned; but now Kmita's entreating was merely for show, in reality he presented demands; and the position was such that it was impossible to refuse him.
At the very beginning of his career of treason, the despot felt that he would have to yield more than once to the despotism of men and circumstances, and would be dependent on adherents of far less importance than this one; that Kmita, whom he wished to turn into a faithful dog, would be rather a captive wolf, ready when angry to bite its master's hand.
All this roused the proud blood of Radzivill. He resolved to resist, for his inborn terrible vengefulness urged him to that.
"Volodyovski and the other three must lose their heads," said he, with a loud voice.
But to speak thus was to throw powder on fire.
"If I had not dispersed the Hungarians, these are not the men who had lost their heads," shouted Kmita.
"How is this? Are you renouncing my service already?" asked the hetman, threateningly.
"Your highness," answered Pan Andrei, with passion, "I am not renouncing; I am begging, imploring. But the harm will not happen. These men are famous in all Poland. It cannot be, it cannot be! I will not be a Judas to Volodyovski. I will follow your highness into fire, but refuse not this favor."
"But if I refuse?"
"Then give command to shoot me; I will not live! May thunderbolts split me! May devils take me living to hell!"
"Remember, unfortunate, before whom you are speaking."
"Bring me not to desperation, your highness."
"To a prayer I may give ear, but a threat I will not consider."
"I beg, – I implore." Here Pan Andrei threw himself on his knees. "Permit me, your highness, to serve you not from constraint, but with my heart, or I shall go mad."
Radzivill said nothing. Kmita was kneeling; pallor and flushes chased each other like lightning gleams over his face. It was clear that a moment more and he would burst forth in terrible fashion.
"Rise!" said Radzivill.
Pan Andrei rose.
"To defend a friend you are able. I have the test that you will also be able to defend me and will never desert. But God made you of nitre, not of flesh, and have a care that you run not to fluid. I cannot refuse you anything. Listen to me: Stankyevich, Mirski, and Oskyerko I will send to the Swedes at Birji; let the two Skshetuskis and Volodyovski go with them. The Swedes will not tear off their heads there, and it is better that they sit out the war in quiet."
"I thank your highness, my father," cried Andrei.
"Wait," said the prince. "I have respected your oath already too much; now respect mine. I have recorded death in my soul to that old noble, – I have forgotten his name, – that bellowing devil who came here with Skshetuski. He is the man who first called me traitor. He mentioned a bribe; he urged on the others, and perhaps there would not have been such opposition without his insolence." Here the prince struck the table with his fist. "I should have expected death sooner, and the end of the world sooner, than that any one would dare to shout at me, Radzivill, to my face, 'Traitor!' In presence of people! There is not a death, there are not torments befitting such a crime. Do not beg me for him; it is useless."
But Pan Andrei was not easily discouraged when once he undertook a thing. He was not angry now, nor did he blaze forth. But seizing again the hand of the hetman, he began to cover it with kisses and to entreat with all the earnestness in his soul-
"With no rope or chain could your highness bind my heart as with this favor. Only do it not half-way nor in part, but completely. That noble said yesterday what all thought. I myself thought the same till you opened my eyes, – may fire consume me, if I did not! A man is not to blame for being unwise. That noble was so drunk that what he had on his heart he shouted forth. He thought that he was defending the country, and it is hard to punish a man for love of country. He knew that he was exposing his life, and shouted what he had on his mind. He neither warms nor freezes me, but he is to Pan Volodyovski as a brother, or quite as a father. Volodyovski would mourn for him beyond measure, and I do not want that. Such is the nature within me, that if I wish good to a man I would give my soul for him. If any one has spared me, but killed my friend, may the devil take him for such a favor! Your highness, my father, benefactor, do a perfect kindness, – give me this noble, and I will give you all my blood, even tomorrow, this day, this moment!"
Radzivill gnawed his mustaches. "I determined death to him yesterday in my soul."
"What the hetman and voevoda of Vilna determined, that can the Grand Prince of Lithuania and, God grant in the future, the King of Poland, as a gracious monarch, efface."
Pan Andrei spoke sincerely what he felt and thought; but had he been the most adroit of courtiers he could not have found a more powerful argument in defence of his friends. The proud face of the magnate grew bright at the sound of those titles which he did not possess yet, and he said, -
"You have so understood me that I can refuse you nothing. They will all go to Birji. Let them expiate their faults with the Swedes; and when that has happened of which you have spoken, ask for them a new favor."
"As true as life, I will ask, and may God grant as quickly as possible!" said Kmita.
"Go now, and bear the good news to them."
"The news is good for me, not for them; and surely they will not receive it with gratitude, especially since they did not suspect what threatened them. I will not go, your highness, for it would seem as if I were hurrying to boast of my intercession."
"Do as you please about that, but lose no time in bringing the squadrons of Mirski and Stankyevich; immediately after there will be another expedition for you, from which surely you will not flee."
"What is that?"
"You will go to ask on my behalf Pan Billevich, the sword-bearer of Rossyeni, to come to me here at Kyedani, with his niece, and stay during the war. Do you understand?"
Kmita was confused. "He will not be ready to do that. He went from Kyedani in a great rage."
"I think that the rage has left him already. In every case take men, and if they will not come of their own will put them in a carriage, surround it with dragoons, and bring them. He was as soft as wax when I spoke with him; he blushed like a maiden and bowed to the floor, but he was as frightened at the name of the Swedes as the devil is at holy water, and went away. I want him here for myself and for you; I hope to form out of that wax a candle that I can light when I like and for whom I like. It will be all the better if it happens so; but if not, I will have a hostage. The Billeviches are very powerful in Jmud, for they are related to almost all the nobles. When I have one of them in my hands, and that one the eldest, the others will think twice before they undertake anything against me. Furthermore, behind them and your maiden are all that throng of Lauda men, who, if they were to go to the camp of the voevoda of Vityebsk, would be received by him with open arms. That is an important affair, so important that I think to begin with the Billeviches."