The King looked into the crystal fixedly, and then suddenly shuddered as if he saw something fearful there.
“I shall be before many years an old man,” went on Pan Andrew, in a pleading tone. “My home in the Ukraine exists no more. My house is burnt, my fields are laid waste, and all because I had this jewel in my possession and men envied me.”
He then went on to tell the story of the escape from the Ukraine, the pursuit, the attempted robbery of his house, the attack on the tower, and the persistency and repeated appearances of Peter of the Button Face whom he had heard of in the Ukraine as Bogdan the Terrible.
“I do not know,” he said, “who it might be that sent this man to dog my steps, but my son Joseph has told me that your guards have taken this same Peter a prisoner in the streets, and that he is a captive of your men. Let me confront him here and perhaps I may learn who it was that drove me from the Ukraine.”
While he was speaking the King gradually took his thoughts from off the crystal, and when he mentioned the name Peter, the King grew restless with excitement.
“I have the man,” he exclaimed, “and he shall be brought here. My spies in the Ukraine reported recently that a great treachery was afoot and that this man Peter or Bogdan was in Poland for the purpose of consummating it. His description was given to my guards and a reward was offered. Last night he was seen in the district where the fire was raging and my guards brought him in. I shall have him here directly.”
Two spearmen brought him in; as he walked, the chains which hung from his arms and legs clanked on the floor. He did not deign at first to glance at Pan Andrew or any of his party, but simply looked at the King and folded his arms defiantly and with spirit. Whereat the two guards forced him to his knees.
His air of indifference disappeared, however, when his eyes fell upon the Tarnov Crystal which the King had set down upon the floor before him. He glanced left and right and favored the trumpeter and the alchemist with a look of bitter hatred.
“You are accused of treason against the Commonwealth of Poland,” said the King immediately. “Have you any plea to make?”
“Who accuses me?”