The lieutenant felt his heart melting like snow in springtime, and answered: "May G.o.d be as good to me as I am ready to rush into the fire or shed my blood for such thanks, though the service is so slight that I ought not to accept a reward."
"If you contemn my thanks, then I, poor orphan, have no other way to show my grat.i.tude."
"I do not contemn them," said he, with growing emphasis; "but for such favor I wish to perform true and enduring service, and I only beg you to accept me for that service."
The princess, hearing these words, blushed, was confused, then suddenly grew pale, raised her hands to her face, and said in a sad voice: "Such a service could bring only misfortune to you."
The lieutenant bent through the door of the carriage, and spoke quietly and feelingly: "Let it bring what G.o.d gives; even should it bring suffering, still I am ready to fall at your feet and beg for it."
"It cannot be that you, who have just seen me for the first time, should conceive such a great desire for that service."
"I had scarcely seen you when I had forgotten myself altogether, and I see that it has come to the soldier hitherto free to be changed to a captive; but such clearly is the will of G.o.d. Love is like an arrow which pierces the breast unexpectedly; and now I feel its sting, though yesterday I should not have believed this if any man had told it me."
"If you could not have believed it yesterday, how am I to believe it to-day?"
"Time will convince you best; but you can see my sincerity even now, not only in my words but in my face."
Again the princess raised her eyes, and her glance met the manly and n.o.ble face of the young soldier, and his look, so full of rapture that a deep crimson covered her face. But she did not lower her glance, and for a time he drank in the sweetness of those wonderful eyes, and they looked at each other like two beings who, though they have met merely on the highroad through the steppe, feel in a flash that they have chosen each other, and that their souls begin to rush to a meeting like two doves.
The moment of exaltation was disturbed for them by the sharp voice of Constantine"s widow calling to the princess. The carriages had arrived.
The attendants began to transfer the packages from the carriages, and in a moment everything was ready. Pan Rozvan Ursu, the gracious boyar, gave up his own carriage to the two ladies, the lieutenant mounted his horse, and all moved forward.
The day was nearing its rest. The swollen waters of the Kagamlik were bright with gold of the setting sun, and purple of the evening light.
High in the heavens flocks of small clouds reddening drifted slowly to the horizon, as if, tired from flying through the air, they were going to sleep somewhere in an unknown cradle.
Pan Yan rode by the side of Princess Helena, but without conversation, since he could not speak to her before strangers as he had spoken a few moments before, and frivolous words would not pa.s.s his lips now. But in his heart he felt happiness, and in his head something sounding as if from wine.
The whole caravan pushed on briskly, and quiet was broken only by the snorting of the horses or the clank of stirrup against stirrup. After a time the escort at the rear wagons began a plaintive Wallachian song; soon, however, they stopped, and immediately the nasal voice of Pan Longin was heard singing piously,--
"In heaven I caused an endless light to dwell, And mist I spread o"er all the earth."
That moment it grew dark, the stars twinkled in the sky, and from the damp plains white mists rose, boundless as the sea.
They entered a forest, but had gone only a few furlongs when the sound of horses" feet was heard and five riders appeared before the caravan.
They were the young princes, who, informed by the driver of the accident which had happened to their mother, were hurrying to meet her, bringing a wagon drawn by four horses.
"Is that you, my sons?" called out the old princess.
The riders approached the carriage. "We, mother!"
"Come this way! Thanks to these gentlemen, we need no more a.s.sistance.
These are my sons, whom I commend to your favor, gentlemen,--Simeon, Yury, Andrei, Nikolai-- And who is the fifth?" asked she, looking around attentively. "Oh! if my old eyes can see in the darkness, it is Bogun."
The princess drew back quickly to the depth of the carriage.
"Greetings to you, Princess, and to you, Princess Helena!" said the fifth.
"Ah, Bogun! You have come from the regiment, my falcon? And have you brought your lute? Welcome, welcome! Well, my sons, I have asked these gentlemen to spend the night with us at Rozlogi; and now greet them! A guest in the house is G.o.d in the house. Be gracious to our house, gentlemen!"
The young men removed their caps. "We entreat you most respectfully to cross our lowly threshold."
"They have already promised me,--the envoy has promised and the lieutenant. We shall receive honorable guests, but I am not sure that our poor fare will be savory for men accustomed to castle dainties."
"We are reared on the fare of soldiers, not of castles," said Skshetuski.
And Pan Rozvan added: "I have tried the hospitality of country-houses, and know that it is better than that of castles."
The carriages moved on, and the old princess continued: "Our best days have pa.s.sed long ago. In Volynia and Lithuania there are still members of the Kurtsevich family who have retinues of attendants and live in lordly fashion, but they do not recognize their poor relations, for which G.o.d punish them. We live in real Cossack poverty, which you must overlook, and accept with a good heart what we offer with sincerity. I and my five sons live on one village and a few hamlets, and in addition we have this young lady to care for."
These words astonished the lieutenant not a little, for he had heard in Lubni that Rozlogi was no small estate, and also that it belonged to Prince Va.s.sily, the father of Helena. He did not deem it proper, however, to inquire how the place had pa.s.sed into the hands of Constantine and his widow.
"Then you have five sons, Princess?" asked Pan Rozvan Ursu.
"I had five, all like lions," answered she; "but the infidels in Belgorod put out the eyes of the eldest, Va.s.sily, with torches, wherefore his mind has failed him. When the young men go on an expedition I stay at home with him and this young lady, with whom I have more suffering than comfort."
The contemptuous tone with which the princess spoke of her niece was so evident that it did not escape the attention of the lieutenant. His breast boiled up in anger, and he had almost allowed an unseemly oath to escape him; but the words died on his lips when he looked at the young princess, and in the light of the moon saw her eyes filled with tears.
"What has happened? Why do you weep?" asked he, in a low voice.
She was silent.
"I cannot endure to see you weep," said Pan Yan, and bent toward her.
Seeing that the old princess was conversing with the envoy and not looking toward him, he continued: "In G.o.d"s name, speak but one word, for I would give blood and health to comfort you!"
All at once he felt one of the hors.e.m.e.n press against him so heavily that the horses began to rub their sides together. Conversation with the princess was interrupted. Skshetuski, astonished and also angered, turned to the intruder. By the light of the moon he saw two eyes, which looked at him insolently, defiantly, sneeringly. Those terrible eyes shone like those of a wolf in a dark forest.
"What devil is that?" thought the lieutenant,--"a demon or who?" And then, looking closely into those burning eyes, he asked: "Why do you push on me with your horse, and dig your eyes into me?"
The horseman did not answer, but continued to look with equal persistence and insolence.
"If it is dark, I can strike a light; and if the road is too narrow, then to the steppe with you!" said the lieutenant, in a distinct voice.
"Off with you from the carriage, Pole, if you see the steppe!" answered the horseman.
The lieutenant, being a man quick of action, instead of an answer struck his foot into the side of his enemy"s horse with such force that the beast groaned and in a moment was on the very edge of the road.
The rider reined him in on the spot, and for a moment it seemed that he was about to rush on the lieutenant; but that instant the sharp, commanding voice of the old princess resounded.
"Bogun, what"s the matter?"
These words had immediate effect. Bogun whirled his horse around, and pa.s.sed to the other side of the carriage to the princess, who continued: "What is the matter? You are not in Pereyaslav nor the Crimea, but in Rozlogi. Remember this! But now gallop ahead for me, conduct the carriages; the ravine is at hand, and it is dark. Hurry on, you vampire!"
Skshetuski was astonished, as well as vexed. Bogun evidently sought a quarrel and would have found it; but why did he seek it,--whence this unexpected attack? The thought flashed through the lieutenant"s mind that Princess Helena had something to do with this; and he was confirmed in the thought, for, looking at her face, he saw, in spite of the darkness, that it was pale, and evident terror was on it.
Bogun spurred forward immediately in obedience to the command of the princess, who, looking after him, said half to herself and half to Pan Yan,--