"But in the name of the most dear Jesus, we must first know with whom the war is and about what; we must proclaim that to the world," shouted the Prussian, "for what is going to make the people follow us? Where they are to go, and when, and how, we do not know ourselves. Brother gentlemen, we need discretion! My friends, we need order and method! If you wish war, let us make a confederacy,131 and discuss where to form it and under whose leadership. That was the way in Great Poland-we saw the retreat of the Germans, and what did we do? We consulted secretly together; we armed both the gentry and a company of peasants; and, when we were ready, we waited Dombrowski's orders; at last, to horse! We rose as one man!"

"I beg the floor," called out the manager of Kleck, a spruce young man, dressed in German costume. His name was Buchmann, but he was a Pole, born in Poland; it was not quite certain that he was of gentle birth, but of that they asked no questions, and everybody respected Buchmann, because he was in service with a great magnate, was a good patriot, and full of learning. From foreign books he had learned the art of farming, and conducted well the administration of his estate; on politics he had also formed wise opinions; he knew how to write beautifully and how to express himself with elegance: therefore all became silent when he began to discourse.

"I beg the floor," he repeated; he twice cleared his throat, bowed, and with tuneful lips thus proceeded:-

"My predecessors in their eloquent speeches have touched on all the princ.i.p.al and decisive points, and have raised the discussion to a higher plane; it only remains for me to unite into one focus the pertinent thoughts and considerations that have been put forward: I have the hope of thus reconciling contrary opinions. I have noted that the entire discussion consists of two parts; the division is already made, and that division I follow. First: why should we undertake an insurrection? in what spirit? That is the first vital question. The second concerns the revolutionary authority. The division is a proper one, only I wish to reverse it, and begin with the authority: when once we understand the authority, from it I will deduce the nature, spirit, and aim of the insurrection. As for the authority then-when I survey with my eyes the history of all humanity, what do I perceive therein? Why, that the human race, savage, and scattered in forests, gathers together, collects, unites for common defence, and considers it; that is its first consultation. Then each lays aside a part of his own liberty for the common good; that is the first foundation, from which, as from a spring, flow all laws. We see then that government is created by agreement, and does not proceed, as men erroneously hold, from the will of G.o.d. Thus, since government rests upon the social contract, the division of power is only its necessary consequence."

"So there you are at contracts! Do you mean those of Kiev or of Minsk?"132 said old Maciej. "You must mean the Babin government!133 Pan Buchmann, whether G.o.d or the devil chose to cast the Tsar upon us I will not dispute with Your Honour; Pan Buchmann, tell us, please, how to cast off the Tsar."

"There's the rub," shouted Sprinkler; "if I could only jump to the throne, and with my brush-splash-once moisten the Tsar, then he wouldn't come back, either through the Kiev tract or the Minsk tract, or by any one of Buchmann's contracts; the Russian priests would not revive him either by the power of G.o.d or by that of Beelzebub-the only brave way is to sprinkle. Pan Buchmann, your speech was very eloquent, but eloquence is nothing but noise; sprinkling is the princ.i.p.al thing."

"Good, good, good!" squealed Bartek the Razor, rubbing his hands, and running from Sprinkler to Maciek like a shuttle thrown from one side of the loom to the other. "Only do you, Maciek of the switch, and you, Maciek of the club, make up your disagreement, and, so help me Heaven, we will knock the Muscovites to splinters; Razor advances under the orders of Switch."

"Orders are good on parade," interrupted Sprinkler. "We had a standing order in the Kowno brigade, a short and pointed one: 'Strike terror and be not terrified; fight and do not surrender; advance always, and make quick strokes, slish, slash!' "

"Those are my principles," squealed Razor. "What's the use of spilling ink and drawing up acts of confederation? Do you want one? That's the whole question. Maciej is our marshal and his little switch is his baton of office."

"Long live c.o.c.k-on-the-Steeple!" shouted Baptist. The gentry answered, "Vivant the sprinklers!"

But in the corners a murmur had arisen, though it was stifled in the centre; evidently the council was dividing into two sides. Buchmann shouted: "I will never approve an agreement; that's my system." Somebody else yelled "Veto,"134 and others seconded him from the corners. Finally the gruff voice of Skoluba was heard, a gentleman from another hamlet.

"What is this, my friends of the Dobrzynski family? What does all this mean? How about us, shall we be deprived of our rights? When we were invited from our hamlet-and the Warden, My-boy Rembajlo invited us-we were told that great things were to be done, that the question did not affect the Dobrzynskis alone, but the whole district, the entire gentry; Robak mumbled the same thing, though he never finished his talk and always stammered and expressed himself obscurely. Well, finally we have gathered, and have called in our neighbours by messengers. You Dobrzynskis are not the only men here; from various other hamlets there are about two hundred of us here; so let us _all_ consult together. If we need a marshal, let us all vote, with an equal voice for each; long live equality!"

Then two Terajewiczes and four Stypulkowskis and three Mickiewiczes shouted, "Vivat equality," taking the side of Skoluba. Meanwhile Buchmann was crying, "Agreement will be our ruin!" Sprinkler yelled: "We can get along alone without you; long live our marshal, the Maciek of Macieks! Let him have the baton!" The Dobrzynskis cried, "We beg you to take it!" but the rest of the gentry shouted with one voice, "We forbid it!" The throng was breaking up into two groups, and, nodding their heads in contrary directions, one faction cried, "We forbid," and the other, "We beg you."

Old Maciek sat in their midst the one dumb man, and his head alone was unmoved. Opposite him stood Baptist, resting his hands on his club, and, moving his head, which was supported on the end of the club, like a pumpkin stuck on the end of a long pole, he nodded it, now forward and now backward, and cried incessantly, "Sprinkle, sprinkle!" Up and down the room the mobile Razor ran constantly from Sprinkler to Maciej's bench, but Bucket slowly walked across the room from the Dobrzynskis to the other gentry, as if he were trying to reconcile them. One shouted continually, "Shave," and the other, "Pour"; Maciek held his peace, but he was evidently beginning to be angry.

For a quarter of an hour the uproar seethed, when above the bawling crowd, out of the throng of heads, there leapt aloft a shining pillar. This was a sword two yards long and a whole palm broad, sharp on both edges.

Evidently it was a German sword, forged of Nuremberg steel; all gazed at the weapon in silence. Who had raised it up? They could not see, but at once they guessed.

"That is the penknife, long live the penknife!" they shouted; "vivat the penknife, the jewel135 of Rembajlo hamlet! Vivat Rembajlo, Notchy, Half-Goat, My-boy!"

At once Gerwazy, for it was he, pressed through the crowd into the middle of the room, carrying his flashing penknife; then, lowering the point before Maciek as a sign of greeting, he said:-

"The penknife bows to the switch. Brothers, gentlemen of Dobrzyn, I will give you no advice. Not at all; I will only tell you why I have a.s.sembled you; but what to do and how to do it, decide for yourselves. You know the rumour has long been current among the hamlets that great things are preparing in the world. Father Robak has been talking of this; do not you all know this?" ("We know it," they shouted.) "Well, so for a wise head,"

continued the orator, looking sharply at them, "two words are enough. Is not that true?" ("It is," they said.) "Since the French Emperor is coming from one direction," said the Warden, "and the Russian Tsar from the other, there will be war; the Tsar and the Emperor, kings and kings, will start to pummel one another as monarchs usually do-and shall we sit quiet?

When the great begin to choke the great, let us choke the smaller, each his own man. When we set to smiting above and below, great men great ones, and small men small ones, then all the rascals will be overthrown, and thus happiness and the Polish Commonwealth will bloom again. Is not this so?"

"As true as if you were reading it out of a book," they said.

"It is true!" repeated Baptist, "drop after drop, every bit."

"I am always ready to shave!" exclaimed Razor.

"Only make an agreement," courteously begged Bucket, "under whose leadership Baptist and Maciej shall proceed."

But Buchmann interrupted him: "Let fools agree; discussions do not harm the common weal. I beg you to be silent." ("We are listening.") "The case gains thereby; the Warden is considering it from a new point of view."

"Not at all," shouted the Warden, "I follow the old fashion. Of great things great men should think; for them there is an Emperor, and there will be a King, a Senate, and Deputies. Such things, my boy, are done in Cracow or in Warsaw, not here among us, in the hamlet of Dobrzyn. Acts of confederation are not written on a chimney with chalk, nor on a river barge, but on parchment; it is not for us to write such acts. Poland has the secretaries of the Kingdom and of Lithuania; such was the ancient custom: my business is to whittle with my penknife."

"To sprinkle with my brush," added Sprinkler.

"And to bore with my awl," cried Bartek the Awl, drawing his sword.

"I summon you all to witness," concluded the Warden; "did not Robak tell you, that before you receive Napoleon into your house you should sweep out the dirt? You all heard it, but do you understand? Who is the dirt of the district? Who traitorously killed the best of Poles; who robbed and plundered him? Who? Must I tell you?"

"Why, it is Soplica," interrupted Bucket; "and now he even wants to s.n.a.t.c.h the remnants from the hands of the heir; he is a scoundrel."

"O, he is a tyrant!" squealed Razor.

"Then sprinkle him!" added Baptist.

"If he is a traitor," said Buchmann, "to the gallows with him!"

"Hurrah!" they all cried, "down with Soplica!"

But the Prussian ventured to undertake the defence of the Judge, and cried with arms held up towards the gentry:-

"Brother gentlemen! O! O! By G.o.d's wounds, what means this? Warden, are you mad? Was it this we were discussing? Because a man had a crazy, outlaw brother, shall we punish him on his brother's account? That is a Christian way of doing things! The Count is behind all this. As for the Judge's being hard on the gentry, that is not true! In Heaven's name! Why, it is you who summon _him_ to court, but he always seeks a peaceful settlement with you; he yields his rights and even pays the costs. He has a lawsuit with the Count, but what of that? Both are rich; let magnate fight magnate: what do we people care? The Judge a tyrant! He was the first to forbid that the peasants should bow low before him, saying that that was a sin. Often a company of peasants-I have seen this myself-sit at table with him; he has paid the taxes for the village, and it is quite different at Kleck, though there, Pan Buchmann, you run things in German fashion. The Judge a traitor! I have known him since we were in the primary school; as a lad he was honest, and to-day he is the same; he loves Poland above everything, he keeps up Polish customs, he will not yield to Muscovite fashions. Whenever I return from Prussia, and want to wash off the German taint, I drop in at Soplicowo, as the centre of Polish ways; there a man drinks and breathes his Country! In G.o.d's name, brothers Dobrzynski; I am one of you, but I will not let the Judge be wronged; nothing will come of that. It was not thus in Great Poland, brothers: what a spirit! what harmony! It is pleasant to remember it! There no one dared to interrupt our counsels with such a trifle."

"It is no trifle to hang scoundrels!" shouted the Warden.

The murmur was increasing. Suddenly Jankiel asked a hearing, jumped on a bench, took his stand on it, and thus raised above their heads a beard like a tavern bush, which hung down to his belt. With his right hand he slowly took from his head his foxskin hat, with his left he adjusted his disordered skull-cap; then he tucked his right hand in his girdle and spoke thus, bowing low to all with his foxskin hat:-

"Well, gentlemen of Dobrzyn, I am nothing but a Jew; the Judge is no kith or kin of mine; I respect the Soplicas as very good gentlemen and my landlords; I respect also the Bartek and Maciej Dobrzynskis, as good neighbours and my benefactors; but I say thus: if you want to do violence to the Judge, that is very bad; some of you may get hurt and be killed.

But how about the a.s.sessors? and the police-captain? and the prison? For in the village near Soplica's house there are heaps of soldiers, all yagers! The a.s.sessor is at the house; he need only whistle, and they will march right up and stand there ready for action. And what will happen then? But if you are expecting the French, why the French are still far off, a long road. I'm a Jew and know nothing of war, but I have been in Bielica, where I met Jews straight from the boundary. The report is that the French were stationed on the river Lososna, and that if there is to be war, it will not come till spring. Well, I tell you, wait; the farm of Soplicowo is not a fair booth, that is taken apart, put in a waggon, and carried off; the farm will stand as it is until spring. And the Judge is no Jew in a rented tavern; he won't run away, you can find him in the spring. But now pray disperse, and don't speak aloud of what has occurred, for to talk of it will do no good. And I beg you all, kind gentlemen, follow me: my Sarah has given birth to a little Jankiel, and to-day I treat the crowd; and the music is splendid! I will order bagpipes, a ba.s.s viol, and two fiddles; and Pan Maciek, my friend, likes old July mead and a new mazurka. I have new mazurkas, and I have taught my kids to sing just fine."

The eloquence of the universally beloved Jankiel touched the hearts of his hearers; there arose cries and exclamations of joy; the murmur of approbation was even spreading beyond the house, when Gerwazy aimed his penknife at Jankiel. The Jew jumped down and disappeared in the crowd; the Warden shouted:-

"Begone, Jew, don't stick your fingers into the door; this is not your business! Prussian, because you, sir, conduct your trading with the Judge's pair of miserable boats, are you shouting for him? Have you forgotten, my boy, that your respected father used to make the trip to Prussia with twenty h.o.r.eszko boats? Thence he and his family grew rich; yes, and every one of you that are living here in Dobrzyn. For you old men remember, and you young men have heard, that the Pantler was the father and benefactor of you all. Whom did he send as manager to his Pinsk estates? A Dobrzynski. Who were his accountants? Dobrzynskis. He chose none for majordomos and none for butlers except Dobrzynskis; his house was full of Dobrzynskis. He pressed your cases before the courts, he gained pensions for you from the king; he put your children by droves in the Piarist136 schools, and paid for their clothes, board, and lodging; when they grew up he even got places for them, also at his own expense. Why did he do this? Because he was your neighbour. To-day Soplica's landmarks touch your borders; what good has _he_ ever done you?"

"Not a bit!" interrupted Bucket, "for he is an upstart that rose from being a petty landholder. But how haughtily he blows out his cheeks, pooh, pooh, pooh; how high he holds his head! You remember, I invited him to my daughter's wedding; I offered him drink, but he wouldn't take it; he said: 'I don't drink as much as you gentry; you gentry swill like bitterns.'

What a magnate! a milksop made of pastry flour!137 He wouldn't drink, so we poured it down his throat; he cried, 'This is an act of violence!' Just wait; I'll pour it into him out of my bucket!"

"The knave!" exclaimed Baptist; "I'll just sprinkle him on my own account.

My son used to be a clever lad; now he's turned so stupid that they call him Buzzard,138 and he has become such a ninny all because of the Judge. I said to him once, 'What do you run off to Soplicowo for? If I catch you there, G.o.d help you!' Immediately he slunk off to Zosia again, and stole through the hemp; I caught him, and then took him by the ears and sprinkled him. But he blubbered and blubbered like a peasant's baby: 'Father, you may kill me, but I must go there!' and he kept on sobbing.

'What's the matter with you?' I asked, and he told me that he was in love with Zosia, and wanted to have a look at her! I felt sorry for the poor lad, and said to the Judge: 'Judge, give me Zosia for Buzzard.' 'She is still too young,' he answered. 'Wait about three years, and then she may do as she likes.' The scoundrel! He lies; he's already arranging another match for her. I have heard of it; just let me screw myself in there at the wedding, and I'll bless their marriage bed with my sprinkler."

"And shall such a scoundrel hold sway," cried the Warden, "and ruin ancient magnates, better men than he? And shall both the memory and the name of the h.o.r.eszkos perish! Where is there grat.i.tude in the world? There is none in Dobrzyn. Brothers, do you wish to wage war with the Russian Emperor and yet do you fear a battle with Soplicowo farm? Are you afraid of prison! Do I summon you to brigandage? G.o.d forbid! Gentlemen and brothers, I stand on my rights. Why, the Count has won several times and has obtained no few decrees; the only trouble is to execute them! This was the ancient custom: the court wrote the decree, and the gentry carried it out, and especially the Dobrzynskis, and thence grew your fame in Lithuania! Yes, at the foray of Mysz the Dobrzynskis alone fought with the Muscovites, who were led by the Russian general Voynilovich, and that scoundrel, his friend, Pan Wolk of Logomowicze. You remember how we took Wolk captive, and how we were going to hang him to a beam in the barn, because he was a tyrant to the peasantry and a servant of the Muscovites; but the stupid peasants took pity on him! (I must roast him some time on this penknife.) I will not mention countless other great forays, from which we always emerged as befitted gentlemen, both with profit and with general applause and glory! Why should I remind you of this! To-day the Count, your neighbour, carries on his lawsuit and gains decrees in vain, for not one of you is willing to aid the poor orphan! The heir of that Pantler who nourished hundreds, to-day has no friend except me, his Warden, and except this faithful penknife of mine!"

"And my brush," said Sprinkler. "Where you go, dear Gerwazy, there will I go too, while I have a hand, and while this splish-splash is in my hands.

Two are a pair! In Heaven's name, my Gerwazy! You have your sword, I have my sprinkling-brush! In Heaven's name, I will sprinkle, and do you strike; and thus slish and slash, splish and splash; let others prate!"

"But, my brothers," said Razor, "you will not exclude Bartek; all that you may soap I will shave."

"I too prefer to move on with you," added Bucket, "since I cannot make them agree on the choice of a marshal. What care I for votes and b.a.l.l.s for voting? I have other b.a.l.l.s." (Here he took from his pocket a handful of bullets and rattled them.) "Here are b.a.l.l.s!" he cried, "all these b.a.l.l.s are for the Judge!"

"We will join you," shouted Skoluba, "indeed we will!"