Page:Henryk Sienkiewicz - Potop - The Deluge (1898 translation by Jeremiah Curtin) - Vol 1.djvu/583

Rh undoubted news from the Paulists in Cracow that the king is not in Cracow, nor in Little Poland, since he went to Warsaw immediately after the surrender of Cracow."

"He cannot have gone to Warsaw," answered Kmita, "and the best proof is that he is waiting for the surrender and homage of the quarter soldiers, who are with Pototski."

"General Douglas is to receive homage in the name of the king, so they write me from Cracow."

Kmita was silent; he knew not what to answer.

"But I will suppose," continued the prior, "that the King of Sweden does not wish to see the envoy of the emperor and has chosen purposely to avoid him. Carolus likes to act thus, — to come on a sudden, to go on a sudden; besides the mediation of the emperor displeases him. I believe then readily that he went away pretending not to know of the coming of the envoy. I am less astonished that Count Veyhard, a person of such note, was sent out to meet Lisola with an escort, for it may be they wished to show politeness and sugar over the disappointment for the envoy; but how are we to believe that Count Veyhard would inform Baron Lisola at once of his plans,"

"Unlikely!" said Father Nyeshkovski, "since the baron is a Catholic and friendly both to us and the Commonwealth."

"In my head too that does not find place," added Zamoyski.

"Count Veyhard is a Catholic himself and a well-wisher of ours," said another father.

"Does this cavalier say that he has heard this with his own ears?" asked Charnyetski, abruptly.

"Think, gentlemen, over this too," added the prior, "I have a safeguard from Carolus Gustavus that the cloister and the church are to be free forever from occupation and quartering."

"It must be confessed," said Zamoyski, with seriousness, "that in these tidings no one thing holds to another. It would be a loss for the Swedes, not a gain, to strike Yasna Gora; the king is not present, therefore Lisola could not go to him; Count Veyhard would not make a confidant of him; farther. Count Veyhard is not a heretic, but a Catholic, — not an enemy of the cloister, but its benefactor; finally, though Satan tempted him to make the attack, he would not dare to make it against the order and safeguard of the king." Here he turned to Kmita, —

"What then will you say, Cavalier, and why, with what