Pan Michael

With that the door opened and Basia burst into the room like a whirlwind, excited, pale, with fingers in both her eyes; stamping in the middle of the floor, like a little child, she began to scream, "Rescue! save! Pan Michael has gone to kill Ketling! Whoso believes in G.o.d, let him fly to stop him! Rescue! rescue!"

"What is the matter, girl?" cried Zagloba, seizing her hands.

"Rescue! Pan Michael will kill Ketling! Through me blood will be shed, and Krysia will die, all through me!"

"Speak!" cried Zagloba, shaking her. "How do you know? Why is it through you?"

"Because I told him in anger that they love each other; that Krysia is going behind the grating for Ketling's sake. Whoso believes in G.o.d, stop them! Go quickly; go all of you! Let us all go!"

Zagloba, not wont to lose time in such cases, rushed to the yard and gave command to bring the carriage out at once. Pani Makovetski wished to ask Basia about the astonis.h.i.+ng news, for up to that moment she had not suspected the love between Krysia and Ketling; but Basia rushed after Zagloba to look to the harnessing of the horses. She helped to lead out the beasts and attach them to the carriage; at last, though bareheaded, she mounted the driver's seat before the entrance, where two men were waiting and already dressed for the road.

"Come down!" said Zagloba to her.

"I will not come down! Take your seats; you must take your seats; if not, I will go alone!" So saying, she took the reins, and they, seeing that the stubbornness of the girl might cause a considerable delay, ceased to ask her to come down.

Meanwhile the servant ran up with a whip: and Pani Makovetski succeeded in bringing out a shuba and cap to Basia, for the day was cold. Then they moved on. Basia remained on the driver's seat. Zagloba, wis.h.i.+ng to speak with her, asked her to sit on the front seat; but she was unwilling, it may be through fear of being scolded. Zagloba therefore had to inquire from a distance, and she answered without turning her head.

"How do you know," asked he, "that which you told your uncle about those two?"

"I know all."

"Did Krysia tell you?"

"Krysia told me nothing."

"Then maybe the Scot did?"

"No, but I know; and that is why he is going to England. He fooled everybody but me."

"A wonderful thing!" said Zagloba.

"This is your work," said Basia; "you should not have pushed them against each other."

"Sit there in quiet, and do not thrust yourself into what does not belong to you," answered Zagloba, who was struck to the quick because this reproach was made in presence of Makovetski. Therefore he added after a while, "I push anybody! I advise! Look at that! I like such suppositions."

"Ah, ha! do you think you did not?" retorted the maiden.

They went forward in silence. Still, Zagloba could not free himself from the thought that Basia was right, and that he was in great part the cause of all that had happened. That thought grieved him not a little; and since the carriage jolted unmercifully, the old n.o.ble fell into the worst humor and did not spare himself reproaches.

"It would be the proper thing," thought he, "for Michael and Ketling to cut off my ears in company. To make a man marry against his will is the same as to command him to ride with his face to a horse's tail. That fly is right! If those men have a duel, Ketling's blood will be on me.

What kind of business have I begun in my old age! Tfu, to the Devil!

Besides, they almost fooled me, for I barely guessed why Ketling was going beyond the sea--and that daw to the cloister; meanwhile the haiduk had long before found out everything, as it

Michael borrowed eyes from a crawfish to put aside such as she for that doll!"

Meanwhile they had arrived at the city; but there their troubles began really. None of them knew where Ketling was lodging, or where Pan Michael might go; to look for either was like looking for a particular poppy-seed in a bushel of poppy-seeds. They went first to the grand hetman's. People told them there that Ketling was to start that morning on a journey beyond the sea. Pan Michael had come, inquired about the Scot, but whither the little knight had gone, no one knew. It was supposed that he might have gone to the squadron stationed in the field behind the city.

Zagloba commanded to return to the camp; but there it was impossible to find an informant. They went to every inn on Dluga Street; they went to Praga; all was in vain. Meanwhile night fell; and since an inn was not to be thought of, they were forced to go home. They went back in tribulation. Basia cried some; the pious Makovetski repeated a prayer; Zagloba was really alarmed. He tried, however, to cheer himself and the company.

"Ha!" said he, "we are distressed, and perhaps Michael is already at home."

"Or killed!" said Basia. And she began to wail there in the carriage, repeating, "Cut out my tongue! It was my fault, my fault! Oh, I shall go mad!"

"Quiet there, girl! the fault is not yours," said Zagloba; "and know this,--if any man is killed, it is not Michael."

"But I am sorry for the other. We have paid him handsomely for his hospitality; there is nothing to be said on that point. O G.o.d, O G.o.d!"

"That is the truth!" added Pan Makovetski.

"Let that rest, for G.o.d's sake! Ketling is surely nearer to Prussia than to Warsaw by this time. You heard that he is going away; I have hope in G.o.d too, that should he meet Volodyovski they will remember old friends.h.i.+p, service rendered together. They rode stirrup to stirrup; they slept on one saddle; they went together on scouting expeditions; they dipped their hands in one blood. In the whole army their friends.h.i.+p was so famous that Ketling, by reason of his beauty, was called Volodyovski's wife. It is impossible that this should not come to their minds when they see each other."

"Still, it is this way sometimes," said the discreet Makovetski, "that just the warmest friends.h.i.+p turns to the fiercest animosity. So it was in our place when Pan Deyma killed Pan Ubysh, with whom he had lived twenty years in the greatest agreement. I can describe to you that unhappy event in detail."

"If my mind were more at ease, I would listen to you as gladly as I do to her grace, my benefactress, your grace's spouse, who has the habit also of giving details, not excepting genealogies; but what you say of friends.h.i.+p and animosity has stuck in my head. G.o.d forbid! G.o.d forbid that it should come true this time!"

"One was Pan Deyma, the other Pan Ubysh. Both worthy men and fellow-soldiers--"

"Oi, oi, oi!" said Zagloba, gloomily. "We trust in the mercy of G.o.d that it will not come true this time; but if it does, Ketling will be the corpse."

"Misfortune!" said Makovetski, after a moment of silence. "Yes, yes!

Deyma and Ubysh. I remember it as if to-day. And it was a question also of a woman."

"Eternally those women! The first daw that comes will brew such beer for you that whoever drinks will not digest it," muttered Zagloba.

"Don't attack Krysia, sir!" cried Basia, suddenly.

"Oh, if Pan Michael had only fallen in love with you, none of this would have happened!"

Thus conversing, they reached the house. Their hearts beat on seeing lights in the windows, for they thought that Pan Michael had returned, perhaps. But Pani Makovetski alone received them; she was alarmed and greatly concerned. On learning that all their searching had resulted in nothing, she covered herself with bitter tears and began to complain that she should never see her brother again. Basia seconded her at once in these lamentations. Zagloba too was unable to master his grief.

"I will go again to-morrow before daylight, but alone," said he; "I may be able to learn something."

"We can search better in company," put in Makovetski.

"No; let your grace remain with the ladies. If Ketling is alive, I will let you know."

"For G.o.d's sake! We are living in the house of that man!" said Makovetski. "We must find an inn somehow to-morrow, or even pitch tents in the field, only not to live longer here."

"Wait for news from me, or we shall lose each other," said Zagloba. "If Ketling is killed--"

"Speak more quietly, by Christ's wounds!" said Pani Makovetski, "for the servants will hear and tell Krysia; she is barely alive as it is."

"I will go to her," said Basia.

And she sprang upstairs. Those below remained in anxiety and fear. No one slept in the whole house. The thought that maybe Ketling was already a corpse filled their hearts with terror. In addition, the night became close, dark; thunder began to roar and roll through the heavens; and later bright lightning rent the sky each moment. About midnight the first storm of the spring began to rage over the earth.

Even the servants woke.

Krysia and Basia went from their chamber to the dining-room. There the whole company prayed and sat in silence, repeating in chorus, after each clap of thunder, "And the Word was made fles.h.!.+" In the whistling of the whirlwind was heard at times, as it were, a certain horse-tramp, and then fear and terror raised the hair on the heads of Basia, Pani Makovetski, and the two men; for it seemed to them that at any moment the door might open, and Pan Michael enter, stained with Ketling's blood. The usually mild Pan Michael, for the first time in his life, oppressed people's hearts like a stone, so that the very thought of him filled them with dread.

However, the night pa.s.sed without news of the little knight. At daylight, when the storm had abated in a measure, Zagloba set out a second time for the city. That whole day was a day of still greater alarm. Basia sat till evening in the window in front of the gate, looking at the road along which Pan Zagloba might return.