Charnyetski was so rejoiced that he was not only not angry, but he answered in jest,—
“You are more like the belfry than the weathercock, since, as I see, you have sparrows in your head. But as to eating and rest it belongs to all.”
To which Zagloba said, but in an undertone. “Whoso has a beak on his face has a sparrow on his mind.”
CHAPTER XXXVI.
After that victory Charnyetski permitted at last the army to take breath and feed the wearied horses; then he was to return to Sandomir by forced marches, and bend the King of Sweden to his fall.
Meanwhile Kharlamp came to the camp one evening with news from Sapyeha. Charnyetski was at Chersk, whither he had gone to review the general militia assembled at that town. Kharlamp, not finding the chief, betook himself at once to Pan Michael, so as to rest at his quarters after the long journey.
His friends greeted him joyously; but he, at the very beginning, showed them a gloomy face and said,—
“I have heard of your victory. Fortune smiled here, but bore down on us in Sandomir. Karl Gustav is no longer in the sack, for he got out, and, besides, with great confusion to the Lithuanian troops.”
“Can that be?” cried Pan Michael, seizing his head.
Pan Yan, Pan Stanislav, and Zagloba were as if fixed to the earth.