since he's been on
horseback and he can't walk much either now."

The officer sat there swinging his leg, very quiet and indifferent. By
that time the peasants who had been talking with the Cossack troopers at
the door had been permitted to get into the hall. One or two more left
the crowd and followed them in. They were seven in all and amongst them
the blacksmith, an ex-soldier. The servant appealed deferentially to the
officer.

"Won't your honour be pleased to tell the people to go back to their
homes? What do they want to push themselves into the house like this
for? It's not proper for them to behave like this while our master's
away and I am responsible for everything here."

The officer only laughed a little, and after a while inquired:

"Have you any arms in the house?"

"Yes. We have. Some old things."

"Bring them all, here, on to this table."

The servant made another attempt to obtain protection.

"Won't your honour tell these chaps? . . ."

But the officer looked at him in silence in such a way that he gave it
up at once and hurried off to call the pantry-boy to help him collect
the arms. Meantime the officer walked slowly through all the rooms in
the house, examining them attentively but touching nothing. The peasants
in the hall fell back and took off their caps when he passed through.
He said nothing whatever to them. When he came back to the study all the
arms to be found in the house were lying on the table. There was a pair
of big flint-lock holster pistols from Napoleonic times, two cavalry
swords, one of the French the other of the Polish Army pattern, with a
fowling-piece or two.

The officer, opening the window, flung out pistols, swords and guns, one
after another, and his troopers ran to pick them up. The peasants in the
hall, encouraged by his manner, had stolen after him into the study. He
gave not the slightest sign of being conscious of their existence and,
his business being apparently concluded, strode out of the house without
a word. Directly he left, the peasants in the study put on their caps
and began to smile at each other.

The Cossacks rode away, passing through the yards of the home farm
straight into the fields. The priest, still arguing with the peasants,
moved gradually down the drive and his earnest eloquence was drawing the
silent mob after him, away from the house. This justice must be rendered
to the parish priests of the Greek Church that, strangers to the cou