“If it were only in Paris, or even in Germany, I could find a hundred volunteers in one day, but in this country such wares are not found.”
“And one of our own people is needed, for he would be on his guard against a stranger.”
“It seems to me that I can find some one in Prussia.”
“Oh, if he could be taken alive and brought to my hands, I would pay him once for all. I say that the insolence of that man passes every measure. I sent him away because he enraged me, for he would spring at my throat for any reason, just like a cat; he hurled at me his own wishes in everything. A hundred times lacking little had I the order just—just in my mouth to shoot him; but I could not, I could not.”
“Tell me, is he really a relative of ours?”
“He is a relative of the Kishkis, and through the Kishkis of us.”
“In his fashion he is a devil, and an opponent dangerous in the highest degree.”
“He? You might command him to go to Tsargrad[[27]] and pull the Sultan from his throne, or tear out the beard of the King of Sweden and bring it to Kyedani. But what did he not do here in time of war?”
“He has that look, but he has promised us vengeance to the last breath. Luckily he has a lesson from me that ’tis not easy to encounter us. Acknowledge that I treated him in Radzivill fashion; if a French cavalier had done a deed like mine, he would boast of it whole days, excepting the hours of sleeping, eating, and kissing; for they, when they meet, emulate one another in lying, so that the sun is ashamed to shine.”
“It is true that you squeezed him, but I would that it had not happened.”