"Are you not hungry? Oh, what a condition! It is as if I had four men risen from the dead now before me."
"We are not hungry, for entertainment is ready at the house of every noble--but we are unfortunate."
"Sit down. Drink something warm, but while the servants are heating it tell me what happened. Where have you been?"
"In Warsaw," said Mateush, "but that is a vile city."
"Why so?"
"It is swarming with gamblers and drunkards, and on Long Street and in the Old City at every step there is a tavern."
"Well, what?"
"One son of a such a one persuaded Lukash to play dice with him. Would to God that the pagans had impaled the wicked scoundrel on a stake ere that happened."
"And he cheated?"
"He won all that Lukash had, and then all that we had. Desperation took hold of us, and we wanted to win the coin back, but he won further our horse with a saddle and with pistols in the holsters. Then, I say to your grace, that Lukash wished to stab himself. What was to be done? How were we to help comforting a brother? We sold the second horse, so that Lukash might have a companion to walk with him."