lishment of the Count in the castle, in the estate of
the Soplicas, the village, the sown fields, the fallow land, in a word,
_cum grovibus, forestis et borderibus; peasantibus, bailiffis, et omnibus
rebus et quibusdam aliis_. You know the formula; so bark it out: don't
leave out anything."

"Mr. Warden, wait awhile," said Protazy boldly, thrusting his hands into
his belt. "I am ready to carry out all the orders of the contending
parties, but I warn you that the act will not be valid, being extorted by
violence and proclaimed by night."

"What violence?" said the Warden. "There is no assault here. Why, I am
asking you politely; if it is too dark for you, then I will kindle a fire
with my penknife so that it will be as bright in your peepers as in seven
churches."

"My dear Gerwazy," said the Apparitor, "why be so huffy? I am an
apparitor; it is not my business to discuss the case. Everybody knows that
a party to a suit summons an apparitor and dictates to him whatever he
chooses, and the apparitor proclaims it. The apparitor is the ambassador
of the law, and ambassadors are not subject to punishment, so that I do
not know why you keep me under guard. I will immediately write an act if
some one will only bring me a lantern, but meanwhile I proclaim: Brothers,
come to order!"

And in order to make his voice carry better, he stepped up on a great heap
of beams (near the garden fence beams were drying); he climbed on them,
and at once, as if the wind had blown him away, he vanished from sight;
they heard how he plumped into the cabbage patch, they saw how his white
hat flitted like a dove over the dark hemp. Bucket shot at the hat, but
missed his aim; then there was a crackling of poles--Protazy was already in
the hop patch. "I protest," he shouted; he was sure of escape, for behind
him he had swamps and the bed of the stream.

After this protest, which resounded like the last cannon shot on conquered
ramparts, all resistance subsided in the mansion of the Soplicas. The
hungry gentry pillaged and seized upon whatever they could find.
Sprinkler, taking his stand in the cow-shed, sprinkled an ox and two
calves on the brows, and Razor plunged his sabre in their throats. Awl
with equal diligence employed his sword, sticking hogs and sucking pigs
beneath the shoulder blades. And now slaughter threatened the poultry--a
watchful flock of those geese that once saved Rome from the treachery of
the Gauls, in vain cackled for ai