CHAPTER III.
When Pan Andrei drove up to the mansion at Lyubich, the windows weregleaming, and bustle reached the front yard. The servants, hearingthe bell, rushed out through the entrance to greet their lord, forthey had learned from his comrades that he would come. They greetedhim with submission, kissing his hands and seizing his feet. The oldland-steward, Znikis, stood in the entrance holding bread and salt, andbeating worship with the forehead; all gazed with uneasiness andcuriosity,--how would their future lord look? Kmita threw a purse fullof thalers on the tray, and asked for his comrades, astonished that noone of them had come forth to meet his proprietary mightiness.
But they could not come forth, for they were then the third hour at thetable, entertaining themselves at the cup, and perhaps in fact they hadnot taken note of the sounding of the bell outside. But when he enteredthe room, from all breasts a loud shout burst forth: "The heir, theheir has come!" and all his comrades, springing from their places,started toward him with their cups. But he placed his hands on hiships, and laughed at the manner in which they had helped themselves inhis house, and had gone to drinking before his arrival. He laughed withincreasing heartiness when he saw them advance with tipsy solemnity.
Before the others went the gigantic Pan Yaromir Kokosinski, with theseal of Pypka, a famous soldier and swaggerer, with a terrible scaracross his forehead, his eye, and his cheek, with one mustache short,the other long, the lieutenant and friend of Kmita, the "worthycomrade," condemned to loss of life and honor in Smolensk for stealinga maiden, for murder and arson. At that time war saved him, and theprotection of Kmita, who was of the same age; and their lands wereadjoining in Orsha till Pan Yaromir had squandered his away. He came upholding in both hands a great-eared bowl filled with dembniak.
Next came Ranitski, whose family had arms,--Dry Chambers (SucheKomnaty). He was born in the province of Mstislavsk, from which he wasan outlaw for killing two noblemen, landowners. One he slew in a duel,the other he shot without an encounter. He had no estate, though heinherited his step-mother's land on the death of his father. War savedhim, too, from the executioner. He was an incomparable hand-to-handsword-slasher.
The third in order was Rekuts-Leliva, on whom blood did not weigh, savethe blood of the enemy. But he had played away, drunk away hissubstance. For the past three years he had clung to Kmita.
With him came the fourth, also from Smolensk, Pan Uhlik, under sentenceof death and dishonor for breaking up a court. Kmita protected himbecause he played beautifully on the flageolet.
Besides them was Pan Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus, in stature the equal ofKokosinski, in strength even his superior; and Zend, a horse-trainer,who knew how to imitate wild beasts and all kinds of birds,--a man ofuncertain descent, though claiming to be a noble of Courland; beingwithout fortune he trained Kmita's horses, for which he received anallowance.
These then surrounded the laughing Pan Andrei. Kokosinski raised theeared bowl and intoned:--
"Drink with us, dear host of ours, Dear host of ours! With us thou mightst drink to the grave, Drink to the grave!"
Others repeated the chorus; then Kokosinski gave Kmita the eared bowl,and Zend gave Kokosinski a goblet.
Kmita raised high the eared bowl and shouted, "Health to my maiden!"
"Vivat! vivat!" cried all voices, till the window-panes began to rattlein their leaden fittings. "Vivat! the mourning will pass, the weddingwill come!"
They began to pour forth questions: "But how does she look? Hei!Yendrus,[9] is she very pretty, or such as you pictured her? Is thereanother like her in Orsha?"
"In Orsha?" cried Kmita. "In comparison with her you might stopchimneys with our Orsha girls! A hundred thunders! there's not anothersuch in the world."
"That's the kind we wanted for you," answered Ranitski. "Well, when isthe wedding to be?"
"The minute the mourning is over."
"Oh, fie on the mourning! Children are not born black, but white."
"When the wedding comes, there will be no mourning. Hurry, Yendrus!"
"Hurry, Yendrus!" all began to exclaim at once.
"The little bannerets of Orsha are crying in heaven for the earth,"said Kokosinski.
"Don't make the poor little things wait!"
"Mighty lords," added Rekuts-Leliva, with a thin voice, "at the weddingwe'll drink ourselves drunk as fools."
"My dear lambs," said Kmita, "pardon me, or, speaking more correctly,go to a hundred devils, let me look around in my own house."
"Nonsense!" answered Uhlik. "To-morrow the inspection, but now all tothe table; there is a pair of demijohns there yet with big bellies."
"We have already made inspection for you. This Lyubich is a goldenapple," said Ranitski.
"A good stable!" cried Zend; "there are two ponies, two splendid hussarhorses, a pair of Jmud horses, and a pair of Kalmuks,--all in pairs,like eyes in the head. We will look at the mares and colts to-morrow."
Here Zend neighed like a horse; they wondered at his perfect imitation,and laughed.
"Is there such good order here?" asked Kmita, rejoiced.
"And how the cellar looks!" piped Rekuts; "resinous kegs and mouldyjugs stand like squadrons in ranks."
"Praise be to God for that! let us sit down at the table."
"To the table! to the table!"
They had barely taken their places and filled their cups when Ranitskisprang up again: "To the health of the Under-chamberlain Billevich!"
"Stupid!" answered Kmita, "how is that? You are drinking the health ofa dead man."
"Stupid!" repeated the others. "The health of the master!"
"Your health!"
"May we get good in these chambers!"
Kmita cast his eyes involuntarily along the dining-hall, and he saw onthe larch wood walls, blackened by age, a row of stern eyes fixed onhim. Those eyes were gazing out of the old portraits of theBilleviches, hanging low, within two ells of the floor, for the wallwas low. Above the portraits in a long unbroken row were fixed skullsof the aurochs, of stags, of elks, crowned with their antlers: some,blackened, were evidently very old; others were shining with whiteness.All four walls were ornamented with them.
"The hunting must be splendid, for I see abundance of wild beasts,"said Kmita.
"We will go to-morrow or the day after. We must learn theneighborhood," answered Kokosinski. "Happy are you, Yendrus, to have aplace to shelter your head!"
"Not like us," groaned Ranitski.
"Let us drink for our solace," said Rekuts.
"No, not for our solace," answered Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus, "but oncemore to the health of Yendrus, our beloved captain. It is he, my mightylords, who has given here in Lyubich an asylum to us poor exileswithout a roof above our heads."
"He speaks justly," cried a number of voices; "Kulvyets is not sostupid as he seems."
"Hard is our lot," piped Rekuts. "Our whole hope is that you will notdrive us poor orphans out through your gates."
"Give us peace," said Kmita; "what is mine is yours."
With that all rose from their places and began to take him by theshoulders. Tears of tenderness flowed over those stern drunken faces.
"In you is all our hope, Yendrus," cried Kokosinski, "Let us sleep evenon pea straw; drive us not forth."
"Give us peace," repeated Kmita.
"Drive us not forth; as it is, we have been driven,--we nobles and menof family," said Uhlik, plaintively.
"To a hundred fiends with you, who is driving you out? Eat, drink! Whatthe devil do you want?"
"Do not deny us," said Ranitski, on whose face spots came out as on theskin of a leopard. "Do not deny us, Andrei, or we are lost altogether."
Here he began to stammer, put his finger to his forehead as ifstraining his wit, and suddenly said, looking with sheepish eyes onthose present, "Unless fortune changes."
And all blurted out at once in chorus, "Of course it will change."
"
And we will yet pay for our wrongs."
"And come to fortune."
"And to office."
"God bless the innocent! Our prosperity!"
"Your health!" cried Pan Andrei.
"Your words are holy, Yendrus," said Kokosinski, placing his chubbyface before Kmita. "God grant us improvement of fortune!"
Healths began to go around, and tufts to steam. All were talking, oneinterrupting the other; and each heard only himself, with the exceptionof Rekuts, who dropped his head on his breast and slumbered. Kokosinskibegan to sing, "She bound the flax in bundles," noting which Uhlik tooka flageolet from his bosom and accompanied him.
Ranitski, a great fencer, fenced with his naked hand against an unseenopponent, repeating in an undertone, "You thus, I thus; you cut, Istrike,--one, two, three, check!"
The gigantic Kulvyets-Hippocentaurus stared fixedly for some time atRanitski; at last he waved his hand and said: "You're a fool! Strikeyour best, but still you can't hold your own before Kmita with asabre."
"For no one can stand before him; but try yourself."
"You will not win against me with a pistol."
"For a ducat a shot."
"A ducat! But where and at what?"
Ranitski cast his eyes around; at last he cried out, pointing at theskulls, "Between the antlers, for a ducat!"
"For what?" asked Kmita.
"Between the antlers, for two ducats, for three! Bring the pistols!"
"Agreed!" cried Kmita. "Let it be three. Zend, get the pistols!"
All began to shout louder and louder, and bargain among themselves;meanwhile Zend went to the antechamber, and soon returned with pistols,a pouch of bullets, and a horn with powder.
Ranitski grasped for a pistol. "Is it loaded?" asked he.
"Loaded."
"For three, four, five ducats!" blustered Kmita, drunk.
"Quiet! you will miss, you will miss."
"I shall hit at that skull between the antlers--one! two!"
All eyes were turned to the strong elk-skull fixed in front ofRanitski. He straightened his arm; the pistol turned in his palm.
"Three!" cried Kmita.
The shot sounded; the room was filled with powder smoke.
"He has missed, he has missed! See where the hole is!" cried Kmita,pointing with his hand at the dark wall from which the bullet had tornout a brighter chip.
"Two shots each time!"
"No; give it to me," cried Kulvyets.
At that moment the astonished servants ran in at the sound of the shot.
"Away! away!" called Kmita. "One! two! three!"
Again the roar of a shot; this time the pieces fell from the bone.
"But give us pistols too!" shouted all at the same time.
And springing up, they began to pound on the shoulders of theirattendants, urging them to hurry. Before a quarter of an hour hadpassed, the whole room was thundering with shots. The smoke hid thelight of the candles and the forms of the men shooting. The report ofdischarges was accompanied by the voice of Zend, who croaked like araven, screamed like a falcon, howled like a wolf, bellowed like anaurochs. The whistle of bullets interrupted him; bits flew from theskulls, chips from the wall, and portraits from their frames; in thedisorder the Billeviches were shot, and Ranitski, falling into fury,slashed them with his sabre.
The servants, astonished and terrified, stood as if bereft of theirsenses, gazing with startled eyes on that sport which resembled aTartar invasion. The dogs began to howl and bark. All in the house wereon their feet; in the yard groups of people assembled. The girls of thehouse ran to the windows, and putting their faces to the panes,flattening their noses, gazed at what was passing within.
Zend saw them at last; he whistled so piercingly that it rang in theears of all, and then shouted, "Mighty lords! titmice are under thewindow,--titmice!"
"Titmice! titmice!"
"Now for a dance!" roared dissonant voices.
The drunken crowd sprang through the anteroom to the porch. The frostdid not sober their steaming heads. The girls, screaming in voices thatrose to the sky, ran in every direction through the yard; but the menchased them, and brought each one they seized to the room. After awhile they began dancing in the midst of smoke, bits of bone, and chipsaround the table on which spilled wine lay in pools.
In such fashion did Pan Kmita and his wild company revel in Lyubich.