inheritance for
my children; I shall surely have children, for you know that I am to be
married to-day. But, my dear Notary, I beg you humbly that you will deign
to accept that outfit in exchange for your rich caparison, and as a
reminder of the quarrel that was prolonged for so many years and has
finally been concluded in a manner honourable to us both.--May harmony
flourish between us!"

So they returned home, to proclaim at table that the quarrel between
Bobtail and Falcon had been concluded.

There was a report that the Seneschal had raised that rabbit in the house
and slyly let it out into the garden, in order to make the huntsmen
friends by means of too easy a prey. The old man played his trick so
mysteriously that he completely fooled all Soplicowo. A scullion, some
years later, whispered a word of this, wishing to embroil once more the
Assessor and the Notary; but in vain did he spread abroad reports
slanderous to the hounds--the Seneschal denied the story, and nobody
believed the scullion.

The guests were already assembled in the great hall of the castle, and
were conversing around the table as they awaited the banquet, when the
Judge entered in the uniform of a wojewoda, escorting Thaddeus and Sophia.
Thaddeus, raising his left hand to his forehead, saluted his superior
officers with a military bow. Sophia, lowering her eyes and blushing,
greeted the guests with a curtsy (she had been taught by Telimena how to
curtsy gracefully). On her head she wore a wreath, as a betrothed maiden;
for the rest, her costume was the same that she had worn that morning in
the chapel, when she brought in her spring sheaf for the Virgin Mary. She
had reaped once more, for the guests, a fresh sheaf of greenery, and with
one hand she distributed flowers and grasses from it; with the other she
adjusted on her head her glittering sickle. The leaders, kissing her
hands, took the posies; Zosia curtsied once more to all in turn, her
cheeks glowing.

Then General Kniaziewicz took her by the shoulders, and, imprinting a
fatherly kiss on her brow, lifted the girl aloft and set her on the table;
all clapped their hands and shouted "Bravo!" being charmed by the girl's
figure and bearing, and more particularly by her Lithuanian village
attire; since for these famous captains, who in their roving life had
wandered so long in foreign lands, there was a marvellous charm in the
national costume, which reminded them both of the years of thei