"A friend," said Zagloba, opening the door. "Ah, begging your pardon, maybe I"m not in season," he added, pushing his head into the room. He drew back suddenly, and slammed the door as if he had looked on death.
On his face was depicted terror coupled with the greatest astonishment.
His mouth was open, and he looked with vacant stare on Volodyovski and Kushel.
"What is the matter?" asked Volodyovski.
"By the wounds of Christ, be quiet!" said Zagloba. "Bogun is there!"
"Who? What"s happened to you?"
"There--Bogun!"
Both officers rose to their feet.
"Have you lost your reason? Compose yourself! Who is it?"
"Bogun! Bogun!"
"Impossible!"
"As I live! As I stand before you here, I swear to you by G.o.d and all the saints."
"Why are you so disturbed?" asked Volodyovski. "If he is there, then G.o.d has given him into our hands. Compose yourself! Are you sure that it is he?"
"As sure as that I am speaking to you, I saw him; he was changing his clothes."
"And did he see you?"
"I don"t know; I think not."
Volodyovski"s eyes gleamed like coals. "Jew," whispered he, beckoning hurriedly with his hand. "This way! Are there doors from the room?"
"No, only through this room."
"Kushel, you go under the window!" whispered Pan Michael. "Oh, he will not escape us this time!"
Kushel, without speaking a word, ran out of the room.
"Come to your senses," said Volodyovski. "Not over you, but over his neck hangs destruction. What can he do to you? Nothing!"
"Nothing; but from astonishment I am unable to catch my breath." And he thought to himself: "True, I have nothing to fear. Pan Michael is with me. Let Bogun be afraid!" And putting on a terribly savage look, he grasped the hilt of his sabre. "Pan Michael, he must not escape us."
"But is it he?--for still I can"t believe. What should he be doing here?"
"Hmelnitski has sent him as a spy; that is most certain. Wait! Pan Michael, we will seize him and lay down the condition that unless he gives up the princess, we will deliver him to justice. If he gives up the princess, then let the devil take him."
"But are there not too few of us,--two, and Kushel? He will defend himself like a madman, and he has attendants also."
"Kharlamp will come with two; there will be six of us. That"s enough; be quiet!"
At that moment the door opened, and Bogun entered the room. He could not have seen Zagloba looking into his room, for at the sight of him he quivered suddenly, a flush as it were went over his face, and his hand as quick as lightning rested on the hilt of his sabre; but all this lasted only the twinkle of an eye. The flush went from his face, which grew slightly pale.
Zagloba looked at him, and said nothing. The ataman also remained silent, and in the room a fly on the wing could be heard. Those two persons whose fates had crossed in such a wonderful manner pretended at the moment not to know each other. The interval was rather long; it appeared to Pan Michael that whole ages were pa.s.sing.
"Jew," said Bogun, all at once, "is it far from here to Zaborovo?"
"Not far," answered the Jew. "Are you going now?"
"Yes," said Bogun, and turned toward the door leading to the anteroom.
"With your permission," sounded the voice of Zagloba.
The chief halted at once as if he had grown to the floor, and turning to Zagloba, fastened his dark and terrible eyes on him. "What do you wish?" asked he, curtly.
"It seems to me that we made acquaintance somewhere,--at a wedding on a farm in Russia, was it not?"
"Yes," said the chief haughtily, putting his hand again on the hilt.
"How does your health serve you?" asked Zagloba. "For you rode off in such haste that I had no time to bid you farewell."
"And were you sorry for that?"
"Of course I was sorry. We should have had a dance, and the company would have been larger." Here Zagloba pointed to Volodyovski. "This is the cavalier who came in, and he would have been glad of a nearer acquaintance with you."
"Enough of this!" shouted Pan Michael, rising suddenly. "I arrest you, traitor!"
"With what authority?" asked the ataman, raising his head haughtily.
"You are a rebel, an enemy of the Commonwealth, and have come here as a spy."
"And who are you?"
"Oh, I will not explain that to you; but you won"t escape me!"
"We shall see," said Bogun. "I should not explain to you who I am if you had challenged me to sabres like a soldier; but since you threaten with arrest, then I will explain. Here is a letter which I carry from the Zaporojian hetman to Prince Kazimir, and not finding him in Nyeporente, I am going with it to Zaborovo. How will you arrest me now?"
Bogun looked haughtily and sneeringly at Volodyovski. Pan Michael was greatly confused, like a hound which feels that the game is escaping him; and not knowing what to do, he turned an inquiring look at Zagloba. A painful moment of silence followed.
"It is difficult indeed," said Zagloba. "Since you are an envoy, we cannot arrest you; and you will not meet this cavalier with a sabre, for you have already fled before him till the earth groaned."
Bogun"s face grew purple, for that moment he recognized Volodyovski.
Shame and wounded pride sprang into play in the fearless chief. The remembrance of that flight scorched him like fire. It was the single stain on the fame of his heroism,--the fame which he loved beyond life, beyond all.
The inexorable Zagloba continued in cold blood: "You had almost lost your trousers, when pity penetrated this cavalier. Tfu! young hero, you have a woman"s face, and a woman"s heart too. You were brave with the old princess and the lad her son, but with a knight you are a wind-bag.
Carry letters, steal young ladies,--that"s your work, not war! As G.o.d is dear to me, I saw with my own eyes how your trousers were flying around. Tfu, tfu! Now you talk of the sabre, for you are carrying a letter. How are we to meet you when you shield yourself with that letter? All dust in the eyes, young hero! Hmelnitski is a good soldier, Krivonos a good one; but among the Cossacks there is many a cowardly sneak."
Bogun pushed up suddenly to Zagloba, and Zagloba drew back with equal swiftness behind Volodyovski, so that the two young knights stood before each other, eye to eye.
"Not from fear did I retreat before you, but to save my men," said Bogun.