“So are Poturzynski, Tvorovski, and Adurovich,” added Pan Snitko. “Gentlemen, what do you say of this letter?”
“Open treason! there is nothing here upon which to deliberate,” said Pan Mushalski. “He is simply conspiring with Mellehovich to take our Tartars over to their side.”
“For God’s sake! what a danger to our command!” cried a number of voices. “Our Tartars too would give their souls for Mellehovich; and if he orders them, they will attack us in the night.”
“The blackest treason under the sun!” cried Pan Deyma.
“And the hetman himself made that Mellehovich a captain!” said Pan Mushalski.
“Pan Snitko,” said Zagloba, “what did I say when I looked at Mellehovich? Did I not tell you that a renegade and a traitor were looking with the eyes of that man? Ha! it was enough for me to glance at him. He might deceive all others, but not me. Repeat my words, Pan Snitko, but do not change them. Did I not say that he was a traitor?”
Pan Snitko thrust his feet back under the bench and bent his head forward, “In truth, the penetration of your grace is to be wondered at; but what is true, is true. I do not remember that your grace called him a traitor. Your grace said only that he looked out of his eyes like a wolf.”
“Ha! then you maintain that a dog is a traitor, and a wolf is not a traitor; that a wolf does not bite the hand which fondles him and gives him to eat? Then a dog is a traitor? Perhaps you will defend Mellehovich yet, and make traitors of all the rest of us?”
Confused in this manner, Pan Snitko opened his eyes and mouth widely, and was so astonished that he could not utter a word for some time.
Meanwhile Pan Mushalski, who formed opinions quickly, said at once, “First of all, we should thank the Lord God for discovering such infamous intrigues, and then send six dragoons with Mellehovich to put a bullet in his head.”