CHAPTER VII.
The day rose gray, and lighted a group of ruins in Volmontovichi,--theburned remnants of houses, out-buildings, bodies of people and horsesburned or slain with swords. In the ashes amidst dying embers crowds ofpale people were seeking for the bodies of the dead or the remains oftheir property. It was a day of mourning and misfortune for all Lauda.The numerous nobility had obtained, it is true, a victory over Kmita'smen, but a grievous and bloody one. Besides the Butryms, who had fallenin greater numbers than the others, there was not a village in whichwidows were not bewailing husbands, parents sons, or children theirfathers. It was the more difficult for the Lauda people to finish theinvaders, since the strongest were not at home; only old men or youthsof early years took part in the battle. But of Kmita's soldiers not oneescaped. Some yielded their lives in Volmontovichi, defendingthemselves with such rage that they fought after they were wounded;others were caught next day in the woods and killed without mercy.Kmita himself was as if he had dropped into water. The people were lostin surmising what had become of him. Some insisted that he had reachedthe wilderness of Zyelonka and gone thence to Rogovsk, where theDomasheviches alone might find him. Many too asserted that he had goneover to Hovanski and was bringing the enemy; but these were the fewest,their fears were untimely.
Meanwhile the surviving Butryms marched to Vodokty, and disposedthemselves as in a camp. The house was full of women and children.Those who could not find a place there went to Mitruny, which PannaAleksandra gave up to those whose homes had been burned. There were,besides, in Vodokty for defence about a hundred armed men in partieswhich relieved one another regularly, thinking that Kmita did notconsider the affair ended, but might any day make an attempt on thelady with armed hand. The most important houses in the neighborhood,such as the Schyllings, the Sollohubs, and others, sent their attendantCossacks and haiduks. Vodokty looked like a place awaiting a siege. AndPanna Aleksandra went among the armed men, the nobles, the crowds ofwomen, mournful, pale, suffering, hearing the weeping of people, andthe curses of men against Pan Kmita,--which pierced her heart likeswords, for she was the mediate cause of all the misfortune. For her itwas that that frenzied man had come to the neighborhood, disturbed thepeace, and left the memory of blood behind, trampled on laws, killedpeople, visited villages with fire and sword like an infidel, till itwas a wonder that one man could commit so much evil in such a shorttime, and he a man neither entirely wicked nor entirely corrupt. Ifthere was any one who knew this best, it was Panna Aleksandra, who hadbecome acquainted with him most intimately. There was a precipicebetween Pan Kmita himself and his deeds. But it was for this reasonprecisely that so much pain was caused Panna Aleksandra by the thoughtthat that man whom she had loved with the whole first impulse of ayoung heart might be different, that he possessed qualities to make himthe model of a knight, of a cavalier, of a neighbor, worthy to receivethe admiration and love of men instead of their contempt, and blessingsinstead of curses.
At times, therefore, it seemed to the lady that some species ofmisfortune, some kind of power, great and unclean, impelled him to allthose deeds of violence; and then a sorrow really measureless possessedher for that unfortunate man, and unextinguished love rose anew in herheart, nourished by the fresh remembrance of his knightly form, hiswords, his imploring, his loving.
Meanwhile a hundred complaints were entered against him in the town, ahundred actions threatened, and the starosta, Pan Hlebovich, sent mento seize the criminal. The law was bound to condemn him.
Still, from sentences to their execution the distance was great, fordisorder increased every hour in the Commonwealth. A terrible war washanging over the land, and approaching Jmud with bloody steps. Thepowerful Radzivill of Birji, who was able alone to support the law witharms, was too much occupied with public affairs and still more immersedin great projects touching his own house, which he wished to elevateabove all others in the country, even at the cost of the common weal.Other magnates too were thinking more of themselves than of the State.All the bonds in the strong edifice of the Commonwealth had burst fromthe time of the Cossack war.
A country populous, rich, filled with a valiant knighthood, had becomethe prey of neighbors; and straightway arbitrariness and license raisedtheir heads more and more, and insulted the law, so great was the powerwhich they felt behind them. The oppressed could find the best andalmost the only defence against the oppressor in their own sabres;therefore all Lauda, while protesting in the courts against Kmita, didnot dismount for a long time, ready to resist force with force.
But a month passed, and no tidings of Kmita. People began to breathewith greater freedom. The more powerful nobility withdrew the armedservants whom they had sent to Vodokty as a guard. The lesser nobleswere yearning for their labors and occupations at home, and they toodispersed by degrees. But when warlike excitement calmed down, as timepassed, an increased desire came to that indigent nobility to overcomethe absent man with law and to redress their wrongs before thetribunals. For although decisions could not reach Kmita himself,Lyubich remained a large and handsome estate, a ready reward and apayment for losses endured. Meanwhile Panna Aleksandra restrained withgreat zeal the desire for lawsuits in the Lauda people. Twice did theelders of Lauda meet at her house for counsel; and she not only tookpart in these deliberations but presided over them, astonishing allwith her woman's wit and keen judgment, so that more than one lawyermight envy her. The elders of Lauda wanted to occupy Lyubich with armedhand and give it to the Butryms, but "the lady" advised against thisfirmly.
"Do not return violence for violence," said she; "if you do, your casewill be injured. Let all the innocence be on your side. He is apowerful man and has connections, he will find too in the courtsadherents, and if you give the least pretext you may suffer new wrongs.Let your case be so clear that any court, even if made up of hisbrothers, could not decide otherwise than in your favor. Tell theButryms to take neither tools nor cattle, and to leave Lyubichcompletely in peace. Whatever they need I will give them from Mitruny,where there is more than all the property that was at any time inVolmontovichi. And if Pan Kmita should appear here again, leave him inpeace till there is a decision, let them make no attempt on his person.Remember that only while he is alive have you some one from whom torecover for your wrongs."
Thus spoke the wise lady with prudent intent, and they applauded herwisdom, not seeing that delay might benefit also Pan Andrei, andespecially in this that it secured his life. Perhaps too Olenka wishedto guard that unfortunate life against sudden attack. But the nobilityobeyed her, for they were accustomed from very remote times to esteemas gospel every word that came from the mouth of a Billevich. Lyubichremained intact, and had Pan Andrei appeared he might have settledthere quietly for a time. He did not appear, but a month and a halflater a messenger came to the lady with a letter. He was some strangeman, known to no one. The letter was from Kmita, written in thefollowing words:--
"Beloved of my heart, most precious, unrelinquished Olenka! It isnatural for all creatures and especially for men, even the lowest, toavenge wrongs done them, and when a man has suffered evil he will payit back gladly in kind to the one who inflicted it. If I cut down thoseinsolent nobles, God sees that I did so not through cruelty, butbecause they murdered my officers in defiance of laws human and divine,without regard to their youth and high birth, with a death so pitilessthat the like could not be found among Cossacks or Tartars. I will notdeny that wrath more than human possessed me; but who will wonder atwrath which had its origin in the blood of one's friends? The spiritsof Kokosinski, Ranitski, Uhlik, Rekuts, Kulvyets, and Zend, of sacredmemory; slain in the flower of their age and repute, slain withoutreason, put arms in my hands when I was just thinking.--and I call Godto witness,--just thinking of peace and friendship with the nobles ofLauda, wishing to change my life altogether according to your pleasantcounsels. While listening to complaints against me, do not forget mydefence, and judge justly. I am sorry now for those people in thevillage. T
he innocent may have suffered; but a soldier avenging theblood of his brothers cannot distinguish the innocent from the guilty,and respects no one. God grant that nothing has happened to injure mein your eyes. Atonement for other men's sins and faults and my own justwrath is most bitter to me, for since I have lost you I sleep indespair and I wake in despair, without power to forget either you or mylove. Let the tribunals pass sentence on me, unhappy man; let the dietsconfirm the sentences, let them trumpet me forth to infamy, let theground open under my feet, I will endure everything, suffer everything,only, for God's sake, cast me not out of your heart! I will do all thatthey ask, give up Lyubich, give up my property in Orsha,--I havecaptured rubles buried in the woods, let them take those,--if you willpromise to keep faith with me as your late grandfather commands fromthe other world. You have saved my life, save also my soul; let merepair wrongs, let me change my life for the better; for I see that ifyou will desert me God will desert me, and despair will impel me tostill worse deeds."
How many voices of pity rose in the soul of Olenka in defence of PanAndrei, who can tell! Love flies swiftly, like the seed of a tree borneon by the wind; but when it grows up in the heart like a tree in theground, you can pluck it out only with the heart. Panna Billevich wasof those who love strongly with an honest heart, therefore she coveredthat letter of Kmita's with tears. But still she could not forgeteverything, forgive everything after the first word. Kmita'scompunction was certainly sincere, but his soul remained wild and hisnature untamed; surely it had not changed so much through those eventsthat the future might be thought of without alarm. Not words, but deedswere needed for the future on the part of Pan Andrei. Finally, howcould she say to a man who had made the whole neighborhood bloody,whose name no one on either bank of the Lauda mentioned without curses,"Come! in return for the corpses, the burning, the blood, and thetears, I will give you my love and my hand"? Therefore she answered himotherwise:--
"Since I have told you that I do not wish to know you or see you, Iremain in that resolve, even though my heart be rent. Wrongs such asyou have inflicted on people here are not righted either with propertyor money, for it is impossible to raise the dead. You have not lostproperty only, but reputation. Let these nobles whose houses you haveburned and whom you have killed forgive you, then I will forgive you;let them receive you, and I will receive you; let them rise up for youfirst, then I will listen to their intercession. But as this can neverbe, seek happiness elsewhere; and seek the forgiveness of God beforethat of man, for you need it more."
Panna Aleksandra poured tears on every word of the letter; then shesealed it with the Billevich seal and took it herself to the messenger.
"Whence art thou?" asked she, measuring with her glance that strangefigure, half peasant, half servant.
"From the woods, my lady."
"And where is thy master?"
"That is not permitted me to say. But he is far from here; I rode fivedays, and wore out my horse."
"Here is a thaler!" said Olenka. "And thy master is well?"
"He is as well, the young hero, as an aurochs."
"And he is not in hunger or poverty?"
"He is a rich lord."
"Go with God."
"I bow to my lady's feet."
"Tell thy master--wait--tell thy master--may God aid him!"
The peasant went away; and again began to pass days, weeks, withouttidings of Kmita, but tidings of public affairs came worse and worse.The armies of Moscow under Hovanski spread more and more widely overthe Commonwealth. Without counting the lands of the Ukraine, in theGrand Duchy of Lithuania alone, the provinces of Polotsk, Smolensk,Vitebsk, Mstislavsk, Minsk, and Novgorodek were occupied; only a partof Vilna, Brest-Litovsk, Trotsk, and the starostaship of Jmud breathedyet with free breast, but even these expected guests from day to day.
The Commonwealth had descended to the last degree of helplessness,since it was unable to offer resistance to just those forces' whichhitherto had been despised and which had always been beaten. It is truethat those forces were assisted by the unextinguished and re-arisenrebellion of Hmelnitski, a genuine hundred-headed hydra; but in spiteof the rebellion, in spite of the exhaustion of forces in precedingwars, both statesmen and warriors gave assurance that the Grand Duchyalone might be and was in a condition not only to hurl back attack, butto carry its banners victoriously beyond its own borders. Unfortunatelyinternal dissension stood in the way of that strength, paralyzing theefforts even of those citizens who were willing to sacrifice theirlives and fortunes.
Meanwhile thousands of fugitives had taken refuge in the lands stillunoccupied,--both nobles and common people. Towns, villages, andhamlets in Jmud were filled with men brought by the misfortunes of warto want and despair. The inhabitants of the towns were unable either togive lodgings to all or to give them sufficient food; therefore peopledied not infrequently of hunger,--namely, those of low degree. Notseldom they took by force what was refused them; hence tumults,battles, and robbery became more and more common.
The winter was excessive in its severity. At last April came, and deepsnow was lying not only in the forests but on the fields. When thesupplies of the preceding year were exhausted and there were no newones yet, Famine, the brother of War, began to rage, and extended itsrule more and more widely. It was not difficult for the wayfarer tofind corpses of men lying in the field, at the roadside, emaciated,gnawed by wolves, which having multiplied beyond example approached thevillages and hamlets in whole packs. Their howling was mingled with thecries of people for charity; for in the woods, in the fields, andaround the many villages as well, there gleamed in the night-time firesat which needy wretches warmed their chilled limbs; and when any manrode past they rushed after him, begging for a copper coin, for bread,for alms, groaning, cursing, threatening all at the same time.Superstitious dread seized the minds of men. Many said that those warsso disastrous, and those misfortunes till then unexampled, were coupledwith the name of the king; they explained readily that the letters "J.C. K." stamped on the coins signified not only "Joannes Casimirus Rex,"but also "Initium Calamitatis Regni" (beginning of calamity for thekingdom). And if in the provinces, which were not yet occupied by war,such terror rose with disorder, it is easy to understand what happenedin those which were trampled by the fiery foot of war. The wholeCommonwealth was distracted, torn by parties, sick and in a fever, likea man before death. New wars were foretold, both foreign and domestic.In fact, motives were not wanting. Various powerful houses in theCommonwealth, seized by the storm of dissension, considered one anotheras hostile States, and with them entire lands and districts formedhostile camps. Precisely such was the case in Lithuania, where thefierce quarrel between Yanush Radzivill, the grand hetman, andGosyevski, full hetman, and also under-treasurer of Lithuania, becamealmost open war. On the side of the under-treasurer stood the powerfulSapyeha, to whom the greatness of the house of Radzivill had long beenas salt in the eye. These partisans loaded the grand hetman with heavyreproaches indeed,--that wishing glory for himself alone, he haddestroyed the army at Shklov and delivered the country to plunder; thathe desired more than the fortune of the Commonwealth, the right for hishouse of sitting in the diets of the German Empire; that he evenimagined for himself an independent crown, and that he persecuted theCatholics.
It came more than once to battles between the partisans of both sides,as if without the knowledge of their patrons; and the patrons madecomplaints against one another in Warsaw. Their quarrels were foughtout in the diets; at home license was let loose and disobedienceestablished. Such a man as Kmita might be sure of the protection of oneof those magnates the moment he stood on his side against his opponent.
Meanwhile the enemy were stopped only here and there by a castle;everywhere else the advance was free and without opposition. Under suchcircumstances all in the Lauda region had to be on the alert and underarms, especially since there were no hetmans near by, for both hetmanswere struggling with the troops of the enemy without being able toeffect much, it is true, but a
t least worrying them with attacks andhindering approach to the provinces still unoccupied. Especially didPavel Sapyeha show resistance and win glory. Yanush Radzivill, a famouswarrior, whose name up to the defeat at Shklov had been a terror to theenemy, gained however a number of important advantages. Gosyevski nowfought, now endeavored to restrain the advance of the enemy bynegotiations; both leaders assembled troops from winter quarters andwhencesoever they could, knowing that with spring war would blaze upafresh. But troops were few, and the treasury empty; the generalmilitia in the provinces already occupied could not assemble, for theenemy prevented them. "It was necessary to think of that before theaffair at Shklov," said the partisans of Grosyevski; "now it is toolate." And in truth it was too late. The troops of the kingdom couldnot give aid, for they were all in the Ukraine and had grievous workagainst Hmelnitski, Sheremetyeff, and Buturlin.
Tidings from the Ukraine of heroic battles, of captured towns, ofcampaigns without parallel, strengthened failing hearts somewhat, andgave courage for defence. The names of the hetmans of the kingdomthundered with a loud glory, and with them the name of StefanCharnetski was heard more and more frequently in the mouths of men; butglory could not take the place of troops nor serve as an auxiliary. Thehetmans of Lithuania therefore retreated slowly, without ceasing tofight among themselves.
At last Radzivill was in Jmud. With him came momentary peace in Lauda.But the Calvinists, emboldened by the vicinity of their chief, raisedtheir heads in the towns, inflicting wrongs and attacking Catholicchurches. As an offset, the leaders of various volunteer bands andparties--it is unknown whose--who under the colors of Radzivill,Grosyevski, and Sapyeha had been ruining the country, vanished in theforests, discharged their ruffians, and let people breathe more freely.
Since it is easy to pass from despair to hope, a better feeling sprangup at once in Lauda. Panna Aleksandra lived quietly in Vodokty. PanVolodyovski, who dwelt continually in Patsuneli, and just now had begunto return gradually to health, gave out the tidings that the king withnewly levied troops would come in the spring, when the war would takeanother turn. The encouraged nobles began to go out to the fields withtheir ploughs. The snows too had melted, and on the birch-trees thefirst buds were opening. Lauda River overflowed widely. A milder skyshone over that region, and a better spirit entered the people.
Meanwhile an event took place which disturbed anew the quiet of Lauda,tore away hands from the plough, and let not the sabres be stained withred rust.