Page:Henryk Sienkiewicz - Potop - The Deluge (1898 translation by Jeremiah Curtin) - Vol 1.djvu/492

462 "You have not changed," remarked Jendzian; "why should Pan Kmita admire you more than my master or Pan Volodyovski?"

"You are a fool!" answered Zagloba. "He knew you at once; and if he called you the tenant, and not the fool of Vansosh, it was through politeness."

"Then maybe he admired you through politeness!" retorted Jendzian.

"See how the bread swells; get married, lord tenant, and surely you will swell better—I guarantee that."

"That is all well," said Volodyovski; "but if he is so friendly, why did he not come to us himself instead of slipping around us like a wolf and biting our men?"

"Not your head. Pan Michael. What we counsel do you carry out, and no evil will come of it. If your wit were as good as your sabre, you would be grand hetman already, in place of Revera Pototski. And why should Kmita come here? Is it not because you would not believe him, just as you do not now believe his letter, from which it might come to great trouble, for he is a stubborn cavalier. But suppose that you did believe him, what would the other colonels do, such as Kotovski, Jyromski, or Lipnitski? What would your Lauda men say? Would not they cut him down the moment you turned your head away?"

"Father is right!" said Pan Yan; "he could not come here."

"Then why was he going to the Swedes?" insisted the stubborn Pan Michael.

"The devil knows, whether he is going to the Swedes; the devil knows what may flash into Kmita's wild noddle. That is nothing to us, but let us take advantage of the warning, if we wish to carry away our heads."

"There is nothing to meditate on here," said Pan Stanislav.

"It is needful to inform with all speed Kotovski, Jyromski, Lipnitski, and that other Kmita," said Pan Yan. "Send to them, Michael, news at once; but do not write who gave the warning, for surely they would not believe."

"We alone shall know whose the service, and in due time we shall not fail to publish it!" cried Zagloba. "Onward, lively, Michael!"

"And we will move to Byalystok ourselves, appointing a muster there for all. God give us the voevoda of Vityebsk at the earliest," said Yan.