get a good
hold on you too. Jankiel, a spy whom the government has long been
tracking, is a frequenter of your house and the tenant of your tavern. I
may now put every one of you under arrest at once."

"Arrest me?" said the Judge. "How do you dare without orders?"

And the dispute was becoming more and more lively, when a new guest rode
into the farmyard.

A strange throng was coming in. In front, like a courier, ran an immense
black ram, whose brow bristled with four horns, two of which were decked
with bells and curled about his ears, and two jutted out sidewise from his
forehead and were hung with small, round, tinkling brass balls. After the
ram came oxen and a flock of sheep and goats; behind the cattle were four
heavily loaded waggons.

All divined that Father Robak, the Alms-Gatherer, had arrived. So the
Judge, knowing his duty as host, took his stand on the threshold, to
welcome the guest. The Monk rode on the first wain, his face half hidden
by his cowl; but they immediately recognised him, for, when he passed the
prisoners, he turned his countenance towards them and made a sign to them
with his finger. And the driver of the second wain was equally well known,
old Maciek, the Switch, disguised as a peasant. The gentry began to shout
as soon as he appeared; he said only "Idiots!" and imposed silence by a
gesture. On the third waggon was the Prussian, in a torn overcoat; and Zan
and Mickiewicz rode on the fourth.

Meanwhile the Podhajskis and the Isajewiczes, the Birbaszes, Wilbiks,
Biergels, and Kotwiczes, seeing the Dobrzynskis under so severe
constraint, began slowly to cool down from their former wrath; for the
Polish gentry, though beyond measure quarrelsome and eager for fighting,
are nevertheless not vindictive. So they ran to old Maciej for counsel. He
stationed the whole crowd about the waggons and told them to wait.

The Bernardine entered the room. They hardly recognised him, though he had
not changed his clothes--his bearing was so different. He was ordinarily
gloomy and thoughtful, but now he held his head high, and with a radiant
mien, like a jolly monk, he laughed long before he began to talk:--

"Ha! ha! ha! ha! My respects, my respects! Ha! ha! ha! Excellent,
first-class! Officers, some people hunt by day, but you by night! The
hunting was good; I have seen the game. Pluck, pluck the gentry, peel them
well; bridle them, for the gentry sometimes kick! I congratulate you,
Major, that you h