“Do you want a ransom?”
“I do not.”
“What the devil, then, did you carry me off for? I cannot understand it.”
“It would take a long time to tell. I will tell your highness later.”
“But what have we to do on the road unless to talk? Acknowledge, Cavalier, one thing: you carried me off in a moment of anger and desperation, and now you don’t know well what to do with me.”
“That is my affair!” answered Kmita; “and if I do not know what to do, it will soon be seen.”
Impatience was depicted on Prince Boguslav’s face.
“You are not over-communicative, Pan Banneret of Orsha; but answer me one question at least sincerely: Did you come to me, to Podlyasye, with a plan already formed of attacking my person, or did it enter your head in the last moment?”
“To that I can answer your highness sincerely, for my lips are burning to tell you why I left your cause; and while I am alive, while there is breath in my body, I shall not return to it. The prince voevoda of Vilna deceived me, and in advance brought me to swear on the crucifix that I would not leave him till death.”
“And you are keeping the oath well. There is nothing to be said on that point.”