f thought had fused with
thought and word with word, all cried with one voice, as if a signal had
been given: "Dombrowski!" All shouted together, all embraced one another;
the peasant and the Tatar count, the prince's hat and the cross, the white
rose, the griffin, and the ship; they forgot everything, even the
Bernardine; they only sang and shouted: "Brandy, mead, wine!"

Father Robak listened to the song for a long time; finally he wanted to
cut it short. So he took in both hands his snuffbox, broke up the melody
with a sneeze; and, before they got together again, he hastened to speak
thus:--

"You praise my tobacco, my good friends; now see what is going on inside
the snuffbox."

Here, wiping with his handkerchief the soiled base of the box, he showed
them a little painted army, like a swarm of flies: in the middle sat a man
on a charger, the size of a beetle, evidently the leader of the troop; he
had made his horse rear, as though he wanted to leap into the skies; one
hand he held on the bridle, the other up to his nose.

"Gaze," said Robak, "at that threatening form, and guess whose it is."

All looked with curiosity.

"That is a great man, an emperor, but not of the Muscovites; their tsars
have never used tobacco."

"A great man," cried Cydzik, "and in a long grey coat? I thought that
great men wore gold, for among the Muscovites any sort of a general, sir,
fairly shines with gold, like a pike in saffron."

"Bah!" interrupted Rymsza; "why, in my youth I saw Kosciuszko, the chief
of our nation: he was a great man, but he wore a Cracow peasant's coat,
that is to say, a _czamara_."

"Much he wore a _czamara_!" retorted Wilbik. "They used to call it a
_taratatka_."82

"But the _taratatka_ has fringe," shouted Mickiewicz, "and the other is
entirely plain."

Thereupon there arose disputes over the various forms of the _taratatka_
and the _czamara_.

The ingenious Robak, seeing that the conversation was thus becoming
scattered, undertook again to gather it to a focus--to his snuffbox: he
treated them, they sneezed and wished one another good health; he
continued his speech:-- "When the Emperor Napoleon in an engagement takes
snuff time after time, it is a sure sign that he is winning the battle.
For example, at Austerlitz: the French just stood beside their cannon, and
on them charged a host of Muscovites. The Emperor gazed and held his
peace; whenever the French shot, the Muscovites were simply mowed do