“Enough!”
“At the service of your highness!”
“It would be well to shoot some of the noisiest of those horsemen, and introduce order.”
“I commanded this morning to hang six of them. They are cold now, and are dancing stubbornly on the ropes, for the wind is fierce.”
“You have done well. But listen! Do you wish to remain in the garrison at Taurogi, for I must leave some one here?”
“I do, and I ask for that office. No one can manage better. The soldiers fear me more than others, for they know that with me there is no trifling. With respect to Löwenhaupt, it is necessary that some one be here more important than Patterson.”
“Can you manage the rebels?”
“I assure your highness that the pine-trees of Jmud will bear weightier fruit than the cones of last year. I will form about two regiments of infantry out of the peasants, and train them in my fashion. I will have my eyes on the estates; and if the rebels attack one of them, I will throw suspicion immediately on some rich noble and squeeze him like cheese in a bag. At first I shall need merely money to pay wages and equip the infantry.”
“I will leave what I can.”
“From the dowry money?”