"Seventeen."
"A great joy has met me, and mercy is in me," said Pan Yan. "Let them be free!"
The Cossacks could not believe their ears. There was no such custom as that in the armies of Vishnyevetski.
The lieutenant frowned slightly. "Let them go free!" he repeated.
The Cossacks went away; but after a while the first essaul returned and said: "They do not believe as; they do not dare to go."
"Are their bonds loose?"
"Yes."
"Then leave them here, and to horse yourselves!"
Half an hour later the party was moving on again along the quiet, narrow road. The moon had risen, and sent long white streaks to the centre of the forest and lighted its dark depths. Zagloba and Skshetuski, riding ahead, conversed together.
"But tell me everything about her that you know," said the knight. "Then you rescued her from the hands of Bogun?"