“Why the devil do you wriggle like a mudfish going to the pot,” howled Zagloba, “and speak of a misfortune as if you were glad of it?”
Harasimovich pretended not to hear, and raising his eyes to heaven he repeated yet a number of times: “All is lost, lost for the ages! The Commonwealth cannot stand against three wars. Lost! The will of God, the will of God! Our prince alone can save Lithuania.”
The ill-omened words had not yet ceased to sound when Harasimovich vanished behind the door as quickly as if he had sunk through the earth, and the knights sat in gloom bent by the weight of terrible thoughts.
“We shall go mad!” cried Volodyovski at last.
“You are right,” said Stanislav. “God give war, war at the earliest,—war in which a man does not ruin himself in thinking, nor yield his soul to despair, but fights.”
“We shall regret the first period of Hmelnitski’s war,” said Zagloba; “for though there were defeats then, there were no traitors.”
“Three such terrible wars, when in fact there is a lack of forces for one,” said Stanislav.
“Not a lack of forces, but of spirit. The country is perishing through viciousness. God grant us to live to something better!” said Pan Yan, gloomily.
“We shall not rest till we are in the field,” said Stanislav.
“If we can only see this prince soon!” cried Zagloba.