his coat, as if he could not wipe them
sufficiently.

"He will do very well as food for their guns," whispered Ivan. "If the
people in the castle hear a noise, and guess our subterfuge, they will
shoot Mekipiros, for we will send him on in front. Why, even with a
couple of bullets in his body the fellow will be able to scramble up the
wall. He's like a toad."

Meanwhile the Leather-bell returned and announced that the dogs had
gobbled up all the meat thrown to them.

"Oh, they made no bones about it," cried he.

"Then we can go," said Ivan, thrusting a rusty military pistol into his
breast-pocket.

Dame Zudar hastened towards her matted waggon and leaped upon the
box-seat. For a moment a long, sharp knife flashed betwixt her hands,
and she peered at it closely to make sure that its edge was all right,
immediately afterwards it vanished again nobody knew whither. Then she
laid hold of her whip and lashed up the horses.

The road they followed passed by the hut of the Death-Bird. The old
witch was huddled up in her doorway, and began counting those who
passed, marking them off one by one, with her crutch: "One, two,
three--One, two, three."

She never went beyond three, therefore every third was a marked man.

When her daughter passed by with the rector and Ivan she laughed aloud.

"Ha, ha, ha! A splendid company truly! A schoolmaster, a headsman's
apprentice, and a nice young bride! Whither are you going such a dark
night? A splendidly dark night! Just the night for thieves and
murderers; just the night for those intent on rapine and burning! On you
go! On you go! Worry the great gentry, root out your landlords, and
after that fall yourselves into the hands of the headsman! The less
people there are in the world the nicer it will be."

None of the rioters durst molest her though she stood right in their
way, and spoke so that everyone could hear her. They all took care to
give her a wide berth.

Thomas Bodza distributed his people along the road, and occupied every
exit from the castle. One detachment he hid behind a haystack, with
another he seized the beehives, and with a third the distillery. The
servants who lived outside he overcame after a short resistance, and
then bound them tightly and locked them up.

Inside the castle nobody was yet aware of what was going on outside. Not
a single servant slept there. The young squire, in his terror of the
epidemic, would not suffer one of them to sleep in the c