Page:Henryk Sienkiewicz - Potop - The Deluge (1898 translation by Jeremiah Curtin) - Vol 1.djvu/216

186 "I asked Harasimovich last night."

"What did he say?" asked Zagloba.

"He would explain nothing, but he put his finger on his mouth and said, 'They are traitors!'"

"How traitors?" cried Volodyovski, seizing his head. "Neither the treasurer nor Pan Yudytski is a traitor. The whole Commonwealth knows them as honorable men and patriots."

"At present 'tis impossible to have faith in any man," answered Pan Stanislav, gloomily. "Did not Pan Opalinski pass for a Cato? Did he not reproach others with defects, with offences, with selfishness? But when it came to do something, he was the first to betray, and brought not only himself, but a whole province to treason."

"I will give my head for the treasurer and Pan Yudytski!" cried Volodyovski.

"Do not give your head for any man, Michael dear," said Zagloba. "They were not arrested without reason. There must have been some conspiracy; it cannot be otherwise, — how could it be? The prince is preparing for a terrible war, and every aid is precious to him. Whom, then, at such a time can he put under arrest, if not those who stand in the way of war? If this is so, if these two men have really stood in the way, then praise be to God that Radzivill has anticipated them. They deserve to sit under ground. Ah, the scoundrels! — at such a time to practise tricks, communicate with the enemy, rise against the country, hinder a great warrior in his undertaking! By the Most Holy Mother, what has met them is too little, the rascals!"

"These are wonders, — such wonders that I cannot put them in my head," said Kharlamp; "for letting alone that they are such dignitaries, they are arrested without judgment, without a diet, without the will of the whole Commonwealth, — a thing which the king himself has not the right to do."

"As true as I live," cried Pan Michael.

"It is evident that the prince wants to introduce Roman customs among us," said Pan Stanislav, "and become dictator in time of war."

"Let him be dictator if he will only beat the Swedes," said Zagloba; "I will be the first to vote for his dictatorship."

Pan Yan fell to thinking, and after a while said, "Unless