"He is as cunning as Ulysses! But where did you meet him?"
"On the Omelnik, on the right bank of the Dnieper. It is evident that he was on his way to the Saitch."
"He wanted to avoid Kudák. I understand now. Had he many men?"
"About forty. But they came to meet him too late. Had it not been for me, the servants of the starosta would have strangled him."
"But stop a moment! That is an important affair. The servants of the starosta, you say?"
"That is what he told me."
"How could the starosta know where to look for him, when here in this place all were splitting their heads to know what he had done with himself?"
"I can't tell that. It may be, too, that Hmelnitski lied, and represented common robbers as servants of the starosta, in order to call more attention to his wrongs."
"Impossible! But it is a strange affair. Do you know that there is a circular from the hetman, ordering the arrest and detention of Hmelnitski?"
The lieutenant gave no answer, for at that moment some nobleman entered the room with a tremendous uproar. He made the doors rattle a couple of times, and looking insolently through the room cried out,--