CHAPTER XXI
Consultations now followed touching the expedition; for not only werethere no voices against it, but Father Voynovski was searching for avicar in Radom. This plan, however, was an old one, modified by addingto it the person of Panna Anulka, who would be taken to Cracow andsecured from the Krepetskis through protection from the king or thecloister. Pan Serafin saw that the king, occupied as he was with thewar, would have no time to talk about private questions; but thereremained the queen, to whom access might be easy through notabledignitaries, related for the greater part to the Sieninskis and theTachevskis.
There was fear also that the Krepetskis might attack Yedlinka when PanSerafin and the Bukoyemskis had gone, and seize on rich property infurniture and silver. But Vilchopolski guaranteed that with theservants and the foresters he would defend the place and not let theKrepetskis touch anything. Pan Serafin, however, took the silver toRadom and left it in the Bernardine cloister, where he had placed moneybefore that in large sums, not wishing to keep it at home near the edgeof great forests.
Meanwhile, he kept an attentive ear toward Belchantska for muchdepended on that place. If Martsian died the Bukoyemskis would have togive a grave answer; if he recovered hope existed that there would notbe even a lawsuit, since it was difficult to admit that the Krepetskiswould expose themselves willingly to ridicule. Pan Serafin consideredit as more likely that the old man would not leave him at peacetouching Panna Anulka but he thought that if the orphan were in thecare of the king the kernel of a lawsuit would be lost to theKrepetskis.
He learned, through the butler, that the old man had gone to Radom andLublin, and remained rather long in those places.
For the first week Martsian suffered grievously, and there was fearthat the tar which he had swallowed might choke him, or stop hisintestines. But the second week he grew better. He did not, it is true,leave the bed, for he had not strength to stand unassisted, his bonespained him greatly, and he was mortally weary; but he began to cursethe Bukoyemskis, and to take keen delight in projects of vengeance. Infact, after two weeks had passed, his "revellers from Radom" began tovisit him, various gallows-birds with sabres held up by hempen cords,men with holes in their boots, and gaunt stomachs, thirsty and hungryat all hours. Meanwhile he counselled with these, and was plotting notonly against the Bukoyemskis and Pan Serafin, but against the younglady, of whom he could not think without gnashing of teeth; and hedeveloped such monstrous inventions against her, that his fatherforewarned him, that they were of criminal nature.
The echo of those plots and threats went to Yedlinka, and producedvarious impressions on different people. Pan Serafin, a man of muchcourage, but prudent, was somewhat alarmed by them, especially when heremembered that this enmity of wicked and dangerous people would strikehis son also. Father Voynovski, who had hotter blood in his veins, waskeenly indignant, and prophesied that the Krepetskis would meet a vileending. At the same time, though entirely won over to Anulka, he turnedfrom time to time to Pan Serafin, and then to the Bukoyemskis.
"Who caused the Trojan war? A woman! Who causes quarrels and battles atall times? A woman! And it is the same now! Innocent or guilty, awoman!"
But the Bukoyemskis cared little for the danger which threatened everyone from Martsian, and even promised themselves various amusementsbecause of it. They were warned, however, seriously from many sides.The Sulgostovskis, the Silnitskis, the Kohanovskis, and others, allgreatly indignant at Martsian, came, one after the other, with tidingsto Yedlinka. They said that he was gathering a party, and even banditsof the forest. They offered assistance, but the brothers wished noassistance. Lukash, who spoke most frequently in the name of the otherthree replied thus to Rafal Silnitski, who implored them to becareful,--
"There is no harm in thinking before war of our arms, and also ofmethods in which, from disuse, we have grown somewhat rusty, straightenourselves out, and have practice. Belchantska is no fortress, so letMartsian see to his own safety, for who knows what may strike him. Butif he wishes to nourish us with ingratitude, let him try it!"
Pan Silnitski looked with astonishment at Lukash, and asked,--
"Nourish with ingratitude? But, as I think, he owes you no gratitude."Lukash was sincerely indignant.
"How not owe? Could we not have cut him to pieces? Who gave him life?Pani Krepetski once, but a second time our moderation; if he is goingto count on it always, tell him that he is mistaken."
"And tell him that he will see Panna Anulka as much as he will see hisown ears," added Marek.
"Why should he not see her, then?" finished Yan. "It is not difficultfor a man to see his own ears if they are cut from him."
The conversation then ended. The brothers repeated it to Panna Anulkato calm her, which was superfluous, for the lady was not timid bynature. Her fear, too, of the Krepetskis, and especially of Martsian,was measured by her conviction that no danger threatened her inYedlinka. When, on the day after her arrival at Pan Serafin's, she sawthrough the window Martsian in feathers, looking like some filthybeast, urged on with whips by the Bukoyemskis, in the first moment ofher dreadful surprise, which was mixed with amazement and evencompassion, she conceived so much confidence in the power of thebrothers, that she could not even imagine how any one could avoidfearing them. Martsian passed for a terrible person and a fighter, andsee what they did with him. It is true that Yatsek in his time had cutup all those brothers, but Yatsek in her eyes had grown now beyondcommon estimate altogether, and in general he appeared to her beforethe last parting from a side so mysterious that she did not know withwhat measure to esteem him. The remarks which were made about him bythe Bukoyemskis themselves, and Pan Serafin, with the words of thepriest, who spoke of him oftenest, confirmed in her only wonder forthat friend of her childhood, who had been so near to her once, but wasnow so remote and so different. These accounts fixed in her thatlonging, and that still sweeter feeling toward Yatsek, which, confessedto the priest in a moment of excitement, she concealed again in thedepth of her heart, as a pearl is concealed in a mussel shell.
With all this she had in her soul a conviction, unshaken by anything,that she must meet him, and that she would meet him even in the nearfuture. She had torn herself from the house of the Krepetskis; she feltabove her the powerful hands of well-wishing people; hence thatcertainty became the joy and the root of her existence. It restored toher health with contentment, and she bloomed afresh, as a flower bloomsin springtime. That Yedlinka mansion which had been hitherto so seriouswas now bright from her presence. She had taken possession of PaniDzvonkovski, of Pan Serafin, and the Bukoyemskis. The whole house wasfilled with her, and wherever she showed her little confident nose andher young, gladsome eyes, delight and smiles followed. But she fearedFather Voynovski a little, since it seemed to her that he held in hishand her fate and also Yatsek's. Hence she looked upon him with acertain submissiveness. But with his compassionate heart, which ingeneral was as wax for all God's creation, he loved her sincerely, andbesides, when he learned to know her more closely, he esteemed her purespirit increasingly, though at times he called her a jaybird and asquirrel, because, as he said, she was this moment here and the next inanother place.
After that first confession they spoke no further of Yatsek, just as ifthey had agreed not to do so; both felt it too delicate a matter. PanSerafin made no mention of Yatsek to her in the presence of people, butwhen no one was with them he was not ceremonious on that point; andonce, when she asked if he would meet his son quickly in Cracow, heanswered with a question,--
"And would you not like to meet some one there also?"
He thought that she would wind out of it jestingly, but to her brightface came a shade of sadness, and she answered then seriously,--
"I should be glad to beg pardon, as soon as is possible, of any onewhom I have injured."
He looked at her with some emotion, but after a while it was clear thatanother idea had come to him, for he stroked her bright face, and thenadded,--
"Ei! thou hast the wherewithal to reward so that the king himself couldnot reward better."
When she heard this she lowered her eyes in his presence, and waswonderful as she stood there and blushed like the dawn of the morning.