CHAPTER XX
A few hours later on old Krepetski took his son to Belchantska, thoughthe young man was unable to stand, and did not know clearly what washappening. First of all the servants had washed him with great trouble,and had put on him fresh linen, but after this had been done suchweakness came upon Martsian, that he fainted repeatedly, and thanksonly to the angelica and pimpernel bitters which Pani Dzvonkovski nowgave him was he brought back to consciousness. Pan Serafin advised toplace him in bed and defer the departure till recovery was perfect, butPan Krepetski, whose old heart was raging, did not wish to owegratitude to a man against whom he was planning a lawsuit for harboringthe young lady; hence he had them put hay in a wagon, and, placing arug, instead of a bed, under Martsian he moved toward Belchantska,hurling threats at the Bukoyemskis and also Pan Serafin. Whilethreatening vengeance he was forced to accept Pan Serafin's assistance,and borrow from him hay, clothing, and linen, but, blinded by anger, hetook no note of the strange situation. Pan Serafin himself had no mindwhatever for laughter; since the act of the four brothers disturbed andconcerned him very greatly.
At this juncture came Father Voynovski who had been summoned by letter.The Bukoyemskis, now greatly confused, were sitting in the office, notshowing their noses, hence Pan Serafin had to tell all that hadhappened. The priest struck the skirt of his soutane from time to timeas he listened, but he was not so grieved as Pan Serafin had expected.
"If Martsian dies," said he at length, "then woe to the Bukoyemskis,but if, as I think, he squirms out of it, I suppose that they will takeprivate vengeance and not raise a lawsuit."
"Why so?"
"Because it is unpleasant to be ridiculed by the country. At the sametime his conduct toward Panna Anulka would be discovered. That wouldgive him no enviable reputation. His life is not laudable, hence heshould avoid the chance of letting witnesses tell in public what theyknow of him."
"That may be true," said Pan Serafin, "but it is difficult to forgivethe Bukoyemskis tricks of such a character."
The priest waved his hand.
"The Bukoyemskis are the Bukoyemskis."
"How?" asked Pan Serafin, with astonishment. "I thought that your gracewould be more offended."
"My gracious sir," said the old man, "you have served in the army, butI have served longer, and have seen so many soldiers' tricks during mytime that nothing common can surprise me. It is bad that such thingshappen. I blame the Bukoyemskis, but I have seen worse things,especially as in this case the question was of an orphan. I will gostill farther and say sincerely, that I should grieve more ifMartsian's deeds had gone unpunished. Think, we are old, but if we wereyoung our hearts too would boil up over deeds such as his are. That iswhy I cannot blame the Bukoyemskis altogether."
"True, true, but still Martsian may not live until morning."
"That is in the hands of God; but you say he is not wounded?"
"He is not, but he is all one blue spot, and faints continually."
"Oh, he will get out of that; he fainted from fatigue. But I must go tothe Bukoyemskis and inquire how it happened."
The brothers received him with rapture, for they hoped that he wouldtake their part with Pan Serafin. They began to quarrel at once as towho should tell the tale, and stopped only when the priest gave Mateushthe primacy.
Mateush resumed his voice and spoke as follows,--
"Father benefactor, God saw our innocence! For, when we learned fromPani Dzvonkovski how that poor little orphan had blue lumps all overher body, we came into this room in such grief that had it not been forthe mead which Pan Serafin sent us in a pitcher, our hearts would haveburst perhaps. And I say to your grace, we drank and shed tears--wedrank and shed tears. And we had this in mind too, that she was nocommon girl, but a young lady descended from senators. It is known toyou, for example, that the higher blood a horse has, the thinner hisskin is; slash a common drudge with a whip, he will hardly feel it, butstrike a noble steed, and immediately a welt will come out on him.Think, Father benefactor, what a thin, tender skin such a dear littlegirl must have on her shoulders, and all over her body, just like awafer--say yourself--"
"What do I know of her skin?" cried Father Voynovski, in anger. "Tellme better, how did ye plaster up Martsian."
"We promised Pan Serafin on oath not to cut him in pieces, but we knewthat old Krepetski would come here, and we guessed immediately thatMartsian would gallop out to meet him. So, according to arrangement,two of us took down to the tar pit before daylight a great salt-barrelfilled with feathers, which we got from the wife of a forester. Wepicked out at the place a cask of thick tar, and waited at the hut nearthat tar pit. We look--old Krepetski is riding along--that is no harm,let him ride! We wait, we wait till we are tired of waiting; then wethink about going to Belchantska. That moment a boy from the tar pittells us that Martsian is coming up the road. We ride out and haltthere in front of him. 'With the forehead! With the forehead!' 'Butwhither?' 'Straight ahead,' says he, 'by the woods.' 'But to whoseharm?' 'To harm or to profit,' says he, 'get ye out of this!' And thento the sabre. But we seized him by the neck. 'Oh! this cannot be!'cried he. In a flash we had him down from the horse, which Yan took bythe bridle. He fell to screaming, to kicking, to biting, to gnawing,but we, like a lightning flash, took him to the barrels which stood onenear the other, and said, 'Oh! thou son of such an one! thou wiltinjure orphans, threaten young ladies with infamy, disregard loftyblood, beat an orphan on the shoulders, and think that no one will takethe part of thy victim; learn now that there are tender hearts in thecountry.' And that moment we thrust him into the tar, head downward. Weraise him out, and again in with him. 'Learn that there are feelingsouls!' said we.--And in with him then among the feathers!--'Learn nowthat there is chivalrous daring!' And again with him into the tarbarrel. 'Learn to know the Bukoyemskis!' And again with him into thefeathers! We wanted to give him another dose, but the tar boilershouted that he would smother; and indeed he was thickly coated, sothat neither his nose nor his eyes were visible to any one; we put himthen on the saddle and tied his feet firmly under the animal's bellylest he fly from his position. We painted the horse, and scatteredfeathers over him also, then lashing this rather wild beast with whips,after we had taken off his bridle, we drove him ahead of us."
"And ye drove him up here?"
"As a strange beast, for we wished to console the young lady even alittle, and show her our brotherly affection."
"Ye gave her a lovely consolation. When she saw him through the window,the fright nearly killed her."
"When she recovers she will think of us gratefully. Orphans always liketo feel guardianship over them."
"Ye have done her more harm than service. Who knows if the Krepetskiswill not take her away again?"
"How is that? By the dear God! will we let them?"
"But who will defend the girl when ye are in prison?"
When they heard this the brothers were greatly concerned, and lookedwith anxious eyes at one another. But Lukash at last struck hisforehead. "We will not be imprisoned," said he, "for first we will goto the army; but if it comes to that, if there is a question of PannaAnulka's safety, help will be found."
"Found! Of course it will," cried out Marek.
"What help?" inquired Father Voynovski.
"We will challenge Martsian as soon as he recovers. He will not goalive out of our hands."
"But if he dies now?"
"Then God will help us."
"But ye will pay with your lives!"
"Before that we will shell out the Turks, and the Lord Jesus willreward us for that service. Only let your grace take our part with PanSerafin; for if Stanislav had been here he would have been with uswhile giving this bath to that Martsian."
"But would not Yatsek give it?" inquired Mateush.
"Yatsek will give him a better bath!" cried the priest, as ifunwittingly.
Further converse was stopped by the coming of Pan Serafin, who appearedwith a ready and weighty de
cision.
"I have been thinking of what we should do," said he, very seriously."And does your grace know what I have decided? It is this, that weshould all go to Cracow with Panna Anulka. I know not if we shall seeour boys in that city, for no one knows where the regiments will bequartered, or what will be the order of their marching. But we shouldplace the girl under protection of the king or the queen; or, if thatis not done, secure her in some cloister for a season. I have alsodetermined, as you know, to take the field in my old age and serve withmy son, or, if such be God's will, to die with him. During our absencethe girl would not be safe, even in Radom, under the protection of theprelate Tvorkovski. These gentlemen"--here he pointed to theBukoyemskis "need to be under the hetman immediately. It is unknownwhat might happen should they stay here. I have acquaintances atcourt,--Pan Matchynski, Pan Gninski, Pan Grothus,--and shall get theirinfluence for the orphan, as I think. That done I will findZbierhovski's regiment, and go straight to my son where I shall seeYatsek also. What think you of this, my benefactor?"
"As God lives," cried Father Voynovski, "this is a splendid idea! And Iwill go with you--and I will go with you to Yatsek. And as to PannaAnulka, oh, all will be well! The Sobieskis owe a great debt to theSieninskis. She will be out of danger in Cracow and nearer; for I amcertain that Yatsek has not forgotten her. And when the war ends thatwill happen which God wishes. Give me a substitute here in my parishfrom Radom, and I will be with you!"
"All together!" roared the Bukoyemskis with rapture "to Cracow!"
"And the field of glory!" cried Father Voynovski.