"How was that? How?"
"I met some drunken soldiers, wild fellows, who heard how I called the princess, 'Your Ladyship,' for I was not so careful then, being near our own people. And they began: 'What sort of minstrel is that? What sort of a lad is it whom he calls "Your Ladyship"?' Then they looked at the princess, and saw she was as beautiful as a picture. 'Bring her nearer to us,' said they. I pushed her behind me into the corner, and to the sabre--"
"That is a wonder," said Volodyovski,--"that you, dressed as a minstrel, had a sabre at your side."
"That I had a sabre? And who told you that I had a sabre? I had not; but I grabbed a soldier's sabre that lay on the table,--for it was in a public house at Shipintsi, I stretched out two of my assailants in the twinkle of an eye. The others rushed on me. I cried, 'Stop, you dogs, for I am a noble!' Next moment they called out, 'Stop! stop! Scouts are coming!' It appeared that they were not scouts, but Pani Slavoshevska with an escort, whom her son was conducting, with fifty horsemen,--young fellows. These stopped my enemies. I went to the lady with my story, and roused her feelings so that she opened the floodgates of her eyes. She took the princess into her carriage, and we entered Bar. But do you think this is the end? No!"
Suddenly Sleshinski interrupted the narrative. "But, look! is that the dawn? What is it?"
"Oh, it cannot be the dawn," said Skshetuski. "Too early."
"It is toward Konstantinoff."
"Yes. Don't you see it is brighter?"
"As I live, a fire!"
At these words the faces of all became serious. They forgot the narrative and sprang to their feet.