* * * * * * * *

"The Pantler's daughter and her husband the Wojewoda had been transported
to some place in Siberia; there she died young, leaving here behind her a
daughter, little Zosia. I had her brought up.

* * * * * * * *

"Perchance I slew him more through stupid arrogance than through
disappointed love; so I humbly became a monk. I, once proud of my birth, I
who was once a warlike hero, I bowed my head, I became a gatherer of alms,
and took the name of Robak, the Worm, since like a worm in the dust----

"The evil example that I had set my countrymen, that invitation to
treason, I must redeem by setting a good example, by blood and by
self-sacrifice.

"I have fought for my country: where? how? I shall never tell; not for
earthly glory have I run so often upon shot and steel. I like better to
remember, instead of my famous, warlike exploits, my quiet, useful acts,
and my sufferings, which no one----

"Often have I succeeded in penetrating into this land, bearing orders from
the generals, or collecting information, or concluding agreements--the men
of Galicia know this monkish cowl--and in Great Poland they know it too!
For a year I toiled in a Prussian fortress, chained to a wheelbarrow;
thrice the Muscovites have cut up my back with stripes, and once they had
me on the road to Siberia; later the Austrians buried me in the dungeons
of Spielberg, at hard labour, in _carcer durum_--but by a miracle the Lord
God delivered me and granted that I should die among my own people, with
the sacraments.

"Perchance even now, who knows? Perchance I have sinned anew! Perchance I
have hastened too much the insurrection, exceeding the commands of my
generals. The thought that the house of the Soplicas should be the first
to take up arms, and that my kindred should raise the first banner of the
Warhorse in Lithuania!--That thought {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} seems pure.----

"You have longed for vengeance? You have it now, for you have been the
instrument of God's punishment! With your sword God cut short my plans.
You have tangled the thread of the plot that had been spun for so many
years! The great aim that absorbed my whole life, my last worldly feeling
upon earth, which I fondled and cherished like my dearest child--that you
have slain before the father's eyes, and I have forgiven you I You!----"

"Even so may God forgive you too!" interrupted the Warden. "Father Jacek,
if you are now abo