y, gathered in hundreds of stars as with a net, and drew them after
it; but it aimed its own head higher, towards the north, straight for the
polar star.

With inexpressible apprehension all the Lithuanian folk gazed each night
at this heavenly marvel, foreboding ill from it, and likewise from other
signs: for too often they heard the cries of ill-omened birds, which,
gathering in throngs on empty fields, sharpened their beaks as if awaiting
corpses. Too often they noticed that the dogs rooted up the earth, and, as
if scenting death, howled piercingly, which was an omen of famine or of
war. But the forest guards beheld how through the graveyard walked the
Maid of Pestilence, whose brow rises above the highest trees, and who
waves in her left hand a bloody kerchief.145

From all this the Overseer drew various conclusions, as he stood by the
fence after coming to report on the work; so likewise did the Bookkeeper,
who was whispering with the Steward.

But the Chamberlain was seated on the bench of turf before the house. He
interrupted the conversation of the guests, a sign that he was preparing
to speak; in the moonlight shone his great snuffbox (all of pure gold, set
with diamonds; in the middle of it was a portrait of King Stanislaw, under
glass); he tapped on it with his fingers, took a pinch, and said:--

"Thaddeus, your talk about the stars is only an echo of what you have
heard in school; as to marvels I prefer to take the advice of simple
people. I too studied astronomy for two years at Wilno, where Pani
Puzynin, a wise and a rich woman, had given the income of a village of two
hundred peasants for the purchase of various glasses and telescopes.
Father Poczobut,146 a famous man, was in charge of the observatory, and at
that time rector of the whole university; however he finally abandoned his
professor's chair and his telescope and returned to his monastery, to his
quiet cell, and there he died as a good Christian should. I am also
acquainted with Sniadecki,147 who is a very wise man, though a layman. Now
the astronomers regard planets and comets just as plain citizens do a
coach; they know whether it is drawing up before the king's palace, or
whether it is starting abroad from the city gates; but who was riding in
it, and why, of what he talked with the king, and whether the king
dismissed the ambassador with peace or war--of all that they do not even
inquire. I remember in my time when Branicki started in his c