as if we knew nothing of the
matter; there we saw that all the landraths, hofraths, commissioners and
all similar rubbish were bowing low to us; they all trembled and turned
pale, like those cockroaches we call Prussians, when one pours boiling
water on them. Laughing and rubbing our hands we asked humbly for news,
and inquired what they had heard from Jena. Thereupon terror seized them,
they were astonished that we already knew of that disaster. The Germans
cried, 'Ach Herri Gott! O Weh!' and, hanging their heads, they ran into
their houses, and then pell-mell out of their houses again. O that was a
scramble! All the roads in Great Poland were full of fugitives; the
Germans crawled along them like ants, dragging their carts, or rather
waggons and drays, as the people call them there; men and women, with
pipes and coffee-pots, were dragging boxes and feather beds; they scuttled
off as best they could. But we quietly took counsel together: 'To horse!
Let us harass the retreat of the Germans; now we will give it to the
landraths in the neck, cut chops from the hofraths, and catch the herr
officers by the cues.' And now General Dombrowski entered the district of
Posen and brought the orders of the Emperor to stir up an insurrection! In
one week our people so whipped and banished the Prussians that you
couldn't have found a German to make medicine of!128 What if we could turn
the trick just as briskly and smartly now, and here in Lithuania give the
Muscovites just such another sweating? Hey? What think you, Maciej? If
Moscow picks a bone with Bonaparte, then he will make a war that will be
no joke: he is the foremost hero in the world, and has armies unnumbered!
Hey, what think you, Maciej, our Father Bunny?"

He concluded. All awaited the verdict of Maciej. Maciej did not move his
head or raise his eyes, but only struck himself several times on the side,
as though he were feeling for his sabre. (Since the partition of the
country he had worn no sabre; however, from old habit, at the mention of a
Muscovite he always clapped his hand to his left side; he was evidently
groping for his switch; and hence everybody called him Hand-on-Hip.) Now
he raised his head, and they listened in deep silence. Maciej disappointed
the general expectation; he only frowned and again dropped his head on his
breast. Finally he spoke out, pronouncing every word slowly and with
emphasis, and nodding his head in time with them:--

"Silence! Whence