“Did he approve it?”
“He seized himself by the head, and almost beat with the forehead; next day he galloped off to the hetman with the happy news.”
“Effendi,” said Halim, timidly, “but if the Great Lion should not approve it?”
“Sobieski?”
“Yes.”
A ruddy light began to gleam again in Azya’s eyes; but it remained only during one twinkle. His face grew calm immediately; then he sat on a bench, and resting his head on his hands, fell into deep thought.
“I have weighed in my mind,” said he, at last, “what the grand hetman may answer when Bogush gives him the happy news. The hetman is wise, and will consent. The hetman knows that in spring there will be war with the Sultan, for which there are neither men nor money in the Commonwealth; and when Doroshenko and the Cossacks are on the side of the Sultan, final destruction may come on Lehistan,—and all the more that neither the king nor the estates believe that there will be war, and are not hurrying to prepare for it. I have an attentive ear here on everything; I know all, and Bogush makes no secret before me of what they say at the hetman’s headquarters. Pan Sobieski is a great man; he will consent, for he knows that if the Tartars come here for freedom and land, a civil war may spring up in the Crimea and the steppes of the Dobrudja, that the strength of the horde will decrease, and that the Sultan himself must see to quieting those outbreaks. Meanwhile, the hetman will have time to prepare himself better; the Cossacks and Doroshenko will waver in loyalty to the Sultan. This is the only salvation for the Commonwealth, which is so weak that even the return of a few thousand Lithuanian Tartars means much for it. The hetman knows this; he is wise, he will consent.”
“I bow before your reason,” answered Halim; “but what will happen if Allah takes from the Great Lion his light, or if Satan so blinds him with pride that he will reject your plans?”
Azya pushed his wild face up to Halim’s ear, and whispered, “You remain here now until the answer comes from the hetman; and till then I will not go to Rashkoff. If they reject my plans, I will send you to Krychinski and the others. You will give them the order to advance to this side of the river almost up to Hreptyoff, and to be in readiness; and I with my men here will fall on the command the first night I choose, and do this for them—” Here Azya drew his finger across his neck, and after a while added, “Fate, fate, fate!”
Halim thrust his head down between his shoulders, and on his beast-like face an ominous smile appeared. “Allah! And that to the Little Falcon?”