'It is not the gratitude of a guest which persuades me to lift this goblet, nor even the courtesy of a Pole. No; I lift it in honour of our well-beloved host, because by his virtues Pan Joseph Podliásski is an ornament to the ranks of the Polish nobility. Courageous in war, generous and hospitable in time of peace, he is incapable of any action unworthy of his noble standing.'
Every one listened to the orator with evident pleasure. Pausing a moment for breath he would have continued, when suddenly an ugly little cock appeared at one of the open windows of the banqueting-hall, and cried aloud:
'Pan, give back the peasant's grindstone!'
The guests, startled and confused, sat whispering to one another. The young orator hesitated whether to continue his speech or not. The host grew first white, then red, and turned to his servants.
'Why do you stand staring?' he cried. 'Do you suppose that is what I maintain you for, that village fowls or cattle should disturb the pleasure of my guests?'
Then, turning back, Pan Podliásski tried to put on an airy manner.
'Excuse us, dear guests,' he said; 'the country is the country after all. We are not in Cracow, where fowls appear at noble banquets only on silver dishes or in the soup. Still, one can be as merry in the country as in Cracow, and I hope we shall prove it to be so.'
For all that, the magnate did not really feel at all so merry as he tried to appear; the guests, too, were no longer quite at ease.
'What's that about a grindstone?' many of them asked their neighbours; and those who had already heard from their servants about the persistent fowl related the history of the grindstone in a few words. A contemptuous expression appeared on many of the faces; and those magnates who disliked Podliásski went so far as to remark that it was unworthy of a great lord to soil his hands for a miserable grindstone.
All this did not escape the eyes of Pan Podliásski, and his blood boiled. Seizing a favourable moment, he beckoned to his most trustworthy servant, and, in a whisper, ordered him to find the cock, alive or dead. For that matter the servants had already been hunting the whole court and garden, but nothing came of it; the cock had long ago made his escape; and, hiding in the foliage of the highest tree in the neighbouring forest, waited till the danger was over.