cles, tied their nags to the birches, and, curious as to
the outcome of the deliberations, they formed a circle about the house:
they soon filled the room and thronged the vestibule; others listened with
their heads crowded into the windows.

BOOK VII.--THE CONSULTATION

ARGUMENT

Salutary counsels of Bartek, called the Prussian--Martial argument
of Maciek the Sprinkler--Political argument of Pan Buchmann--Jankiel
advises harmony, which is cut off abruptly by the penknife--Speech
of Gerwazy, which makes apparent the great potency of
parliamentary eloquence--Protest of old Maciek--The sudden arrival
of reinforcements interrupts the consultation--Down with the
Soplica!

IT came the turn of the deputy Bartek to state his case. He was a man who
often travelled with rafts to Koenigsberg; he was called the Prussian by
the members of his family, in jest, for he hated the Prussians horribly,
although he loved to talk of them. He was a man well advanced in years,
who on his distant travels had learned much of the world; a diligent
reader of gazettes, well versed in politics, he could cast no little light
on the subject under discussion. Thus he concluded his speech:--

"This is not, Pan Maciej, my brother, and revered father of us all--this is
not aid to be despised. I should rely on the French in time of war as on
four aces; they are a warlike people, and since the times of Thaddeus
Kosciuszko the world has not had such a military genius as the great
Emperor Bonaparte. I remember when the French crossed the Warta; I was on
a trip abroad at the time, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and six; I was just then doing some trading with Dantzic, and,
since I have many kinsmen in the district of Posen, I had gone to visit
them. So it happened that Pan Joseph Grabowski125 and I--he is now colonel
of a regiment, but at that time he was living in the country near
Obiezierz--were out hunting small game together.

"In Great Poland126 there was then peace, as there is now in Lithuania;
suddenly the tidings spread abroad of a fearful battle; a messenger from
Pan Todwen rushed up to us. Grabowski read the letter and cried: 'Jena!
Jena!127 The Prussians are smitten hip and thigh; victory!' Dismounting
from my horse, I immediately fell on my knees to thank the Lord God. We
rode back to the city as if on business,