“Permit me,” said Pan Adam again; “I will hurry on in advance. I am so long without seeing them that I yearn for them.”
When he had said this he began to nod his gigantic head toward both sides; then he pressed his horse with his heels, and moved on. Pan Mushalski, beckoning to a number of dragoons, followed him, so as to keep an eye on the madman. Basia hid her rosy face in her hands, and soon hot tears began to flow through her fingers.
“He was as good as gold, but such misfortunes surpass human power. Besides, the soul is not revived by mere vengeance.”
Kamenyets was seething with preparations for defence. On the walls, in the old castle and at the gates, especially at the Roman gates, “nations” inhabiting the town were laboring under their mayors, among whom the Pole Tomashevich took the first place, and that because of his great daring and his rare skill in handling cannon. At the same time Poles, Russians, Armenians, Jews, and Gypsies, working with spades and pickaxes, vied with one another. Officers of various regiments were overseers of the work; sergeants and soldiers assisted the citizens; even nobles went to work, forgetting that God had created their hands for the sabre alone, giving all other work to people of insignificant estate. Pan Humyetski, the banneret of Podolia, gave an example himself which roused tears, for he brought stones with his own hands in a wheelbarrow. The work was seething in the town and in the castle. Among the crowds the Dominicans, the Jesuits, the brethren of Saint Francis, and the Carmelites circled about among the crowds, blessing the efforts of people. Women brought food and drink to those laboring; beautiful Armenian women, the wives and daughters of rich merchants, and Jewesses from Karvaseri, Jvanyets, Zinkovtsi, Dunaigrod, attracted the eyes of the soldiers.
But the entrance of Basia arrested the attention of the throngs more than all. There were surely many women of more distinction in Kamenyets, but none whose husband was covered with more military glory. They had heard also in Kamenyets of Pani Volodyovski herself, as of a valiant lady who feared not to dwell on a watchtower in the Wilderness among wild people, who went on expeditions with her husband, and who, when carried away by a Tartar, had been able to overcome him and escape safely from his robber hands. Her fame, therefore, was immense. But those who did not know her, and had not seen her hitherto, imagined that she must be some giantess, breaking horseshoes and crushing armor. What was their astonishment when they saw a small, rosy, half childlike face!
“Is that Pani Volodyovski herself, or only her little daughter?” asked people in the crowds. “Herself,” answered those who knew her. Then admiration seized citizens, women, priests, the army. They looked with no less wonder on the invincible garrison of Hreptyoff, on the dragoons, among whom Pan Adam rode calmly, smiling with wandering eyes, and on the terrible faces of the bandits turned into Hungarian infantry. But there marched with Basia a few hundred men who were worthy of praise, soldiers by trade; courage came therefore to the townspeople. “That is no common power; they will look boldly into the eyes of the Turks,” cried the people in the crowd. Some of the citizens, and even of the soldiers, especially in the regiment of Bishop Trebitski, which regiment had come recently to Kamenyets, thought that Pan Michael himself was in the retinue, therefore they raised cries,—
“Long live Pan Volodyovski!”
“Long live our defender! The most famous cavalier!”
“Vivat Volodyovski! vivat!”
Basia listened, and her heart rose; for nothing can be dearer to a woman than the fame of her husband, especially when it is sounding in the mouths of people in a great city. “There are so many knights here,” thought Basia, “and still they do not shout to any but my Michael.” And she wanted to shout herself in the chorus, “Vivat Volodyovski!” but Zagloba told her that she should bear herself like a person of distinction, and bow on both sides, as queens do when they are entering a capital. And he, too, saluted, now with his cap, now with his hand; and when acquaintances began to cry “vivat” in his honor, he answered to the crowds,—