ou will be left for
the rest of your life very solitary and old, a widower and without
children! Tell me how I may recompense you for this precious gift, and
with what I may sweeten your childless widowhood!"

"Am I Cybulski,"215 answered the Warden mournfully, "who gambled away his
wife, playing marriage with the Muscovites, as the song relates?--I am
quite content that my penknife will still gleam before the world in such a
hand. Only remember, General, to give it a long strap, well let out, for
the blade is long; and always hew from the left ear with both hands--then
you will cut through from head to belly."

The General took the penknife, but since it was very long and he could not
wear it, the servants put it away in an ammunition waggon. As to what
became of it there are various tales, but no one knew with certainty,
either then or later.

Dombrowski turned to Maciek:--

"What have you to say, comrade? Can it be that you are not glad at our
coming? Why are you silent and glum? How can your heart help leaping up
when you see the gold and silver eagles, and when the trumpeters trumpet
Kosciuszko's reveille close to your ear? Maciek, I thought that you were
more of a fighting man: if you do not seize your sabre and mount your
horse, at least you will gaily drink with your colleagues to the health of
Napoleon and the hopes of Poland!"

"Ha!" said Maciej, "I have heard and I see what is going on! But, sir, two
eagles never nest together! Lords' favour, hetman, rides a piebald
steed!216 The Emperor a great hero! On that subject we could expend much
talk! I remember that my friends the Pulawskis used to say, as they gazed
on Dumouriez,217 that Poland needed a Polish hero, no Frenchman or Italian
either, but a Piast,218 a Jan or a Jozef, or a Maciek--that's all. The
army! They say it is Polish! But these _fusileers, sappers, grenadiers_,
and _cannoneers!_ You hear, in that crowd, more German than native
titles!219 Who can understand them! And then you must certainly have with
you Turks or Tatars or Schismatics, or men of God knows what faith: I have
seen it myself; they are assaulting the peasant women in the villages,
plundering the passers-by, pillaging the churches! The Emperor is bound
for Moscow! That is a long road if he has set out without the blessing of
God. I have heard that he has already incurred the bishop's curse;220 all
this is----"

Here Maciej dipped some bread in his soup, munched it, and did not f