oach to
Jassy,148 and after that dishonourable coach streamed a train of Targowica
confederates, as the tail follows that comet. The plain people, though
they did not meddle in public deliberations, guessed at once that that
train was an omen of treason. The report is that the folk has given the
name of broom to this comet, and says that it will sweep away a million
men." And in reply the Seneschal said with a bow:--

"That is true, Your Excellency the Chamberlain. I remember myself what was
once told me when I was a little child; I remember, though I was not ten
years old at the time, how I saw at our house the late Sapieha, lieutenant
of a regiment of cuirassiers, who later was Court Marshal of the Kingdom,
and finally died as Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, at the age of one
hundred and ten years; when Jan III. Sobieski was king, he had served in
the Vienna campaign under the command of the hetman Jablonowski. So this
Chancellor related that just at the moment when King Jan III. was mounting
his horse, when the papal nuncio had blest him for the journey, and the
Austrian ambassador was kissing his foot as he handed him the stirrup (the
ambassador was named Count Wilczek), the King cried: 'See what is going on
in Heaven!' They beheld that over their heads was advancing a comet by the
same path that the armies of Mahomet had taken, from the east to the west.
Later Father Bartochowski, who composed a panegyric for the triumph at
Cracow, under the title _Orientis Fulmen_,149 discoursed much about that
comet; I have also read of it in a work called _Janina_,150 in which the
entire expedition of the late King Jan is described, and where there is
engraved the great standard of Mahomet, and just such a comet as we see
to-day."

"Amen," said the Judge in reply, "I accept your augury that a Jan III. may
appear along with the star! To-day there is a great hero in the west;
perhaps the comet will bring him to us: which may God grant!"

Sorrowfully drooping his head, the Seneschal replied:--

"A comet sometimes forebodes wars, and sometimes mere brawls! It is not
good that it has appeared here over Soplicowo; perhaps it threatens us
with some household misfortune. Yesterday we had wrangling and disputes
enough, both at the time of the hunt and during the banquet. In the
morning the Notary quarrelled with the Assessor, and Thaddeus challenged
the Count in the evening. The disagreement seems to have arisen from the
bear's hide,