nd decayed; the house roofs shone as if made of
green tin, because of the moss and grass, which grew as luxuriantly as on
a prairie. The thatches of the barns were like hanging gardens of various
plants, the nettle and the crimson crocus, the yellow mullen and the
bright-coloured tassels of mercury. In them too were nests of various
birds; in the lofts were dove-cotes, nests of swallows in the windows;
white rabbits hopped about at the threshold and burrowed in the untrodden
turf. In a word the place was like a birdcage or a warren.

But of old it had been fortified! Everywhere there were plenty of traces
that it had undergone great and frequent attacks. Near the gateway there
still lay in the grass a relic of the Swedish invasion, an iron cannon
ball, as large as a child's head; once the open gate had rested on that
ball as on a stone. In the yard, among the weeds and the wormwood, rose
the old stumps of some dozen crosses, on unconsecrated ground, a sign that
here lay buried men who had perished by a sudden and unexpected death.
When one eyed from close by the storehouse, granary, and cottage, he saw
that the walls were peppered from ground to summit as with a swarm of
black insects; in the centre of each spot sat a bullet, like a bumble-bee
in its earthy burrow.

On the doors of the establishment all the latches, nails, and hooks were
either cut off or bore the marks of sabres; evidently here they had tested
the temper of those swords of the time of the Sigismunds, with which one
might boldly cut off the heads of nails or cleave hooks in two without
making a notch in the blade. Over the doors could be seen coats of arms of
the Dobrzynskis, but shelves of cheeses veiled the bearings, and swallows
had walled them in thickly with their nests.

The interior of the house itself and of the stable and carriage-house you
would find as full of accoutrements as an old armoury. Under the roof hung
four immense helmets, the ornaments of martial brows; to-day the birds of
Venus, the doves, cooing, fed their young in them. In the stable a great
cuirass extended over the manger and a corselet of ring mail served as a
chute through which the boy threw down clover to the colts. In the kitchen
the godless cook had spoiled the temper of several swords by sticking them
into the oven instead of spits; with a Turkish horsetail, captured at
Vienna, she dusted her handmill. In a word, housewifely Ceres had banished
Mars and ruled along wit