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Over Soplicowo arose the sun, and it already fell on the thatched roofs, and through the chinks stole into the stable; and over the fresh, dark-green, fragrant hay of which the young men had made them a bed there streamed twinkling, golden bands from the openings of the black thatch, like ribbons from a braid of hair; and the sun teased the faces of the sleepers with its morning beams, like a village girl awakening her sweetheart with an ear of wheat.
In his descriptions of external nature—of the Lithuanian forests or of the scene around Soplicowo on the moonlight night just before the foray—Mickiewicz shows a genius for throwing a glamour of poetic beauty over the face of common things such as has never been surpassed.
For the rest, there was a great abundance of all the sorts of meats that could be gathered from the house and from the butchers’ shops, from the woods and from the neighbours, from near and from far: you would have said that the only thing lacking was bird’s milk. The two things that a generous man requires in order to give a feast were united at Soplicowo: plenty and art.
O spring, happy is he who beheld how thou didst bloom with corn and grass, but glittered with men; how thou wert rich in events and big with hope! I see thee still, fair phantom of my dream! Born in slavery and chained in my swaddling bands, I have had but one such spring in my whole life. Soplicowo lay close by the highway along which two generals were pressing forward from the Niemen.
Meanwhile the kneeling folk repeated the Angelus, praying for the eternal repose of the sinner; the Judge walked about among the guests and the throng of villagers and invited all to the banquet at Soplicowo. But on the bench of turf before the house two old men had taken their seats, each holding on his knees a tankard full of mead.
“The knave!” exclaimed Baptist; “I’ll just sprinkle him on my own account. My son used to be a clever lad; now he’s turned so stupid that they call him Buzzard,138 and he has become such a ninny all because of the Judge. I said to him once, ‘What do you run off to Soplicowo for?
There was a report that the Seneschal had raised that rabbit in the house and slyly let it out into the garden, in order to make the huntsmen friends by means of too easy a prey. The old man played his trick so mysteriously that he completely fooled all Soplicowo.
Uncle, do not question me further; I must depart from Soplicowo as quickly as may be.” “Oho!” said his uncle, “this is certainly some love tiff. I noticed yesterday that you bit your lips while you looked from under your eyebrows at a certain little girl; I saw that she too had a sour expression. I know all that nonsense; when a pair of children fall in love, then they have no end of misfortunes.
Thus clad he took his cane and set out on foot, for apparitors before a lawsuit, as spies before battle, must hide under various forms and costumes. Protazy did well in hastening to depart, for he would have had no long comfort from his summons. In Soplicowo they changed their plans of campaign. Robak, thoughtful and perplexed, suddenly broke in upon the Judge and said:—
The main staff of the Prince had halted in the town near by, but in Soplicowo was a camp of forty thousand men, and with them Generals Dombrowski,182 Kniaziewicz,183 Malachowski,184 Giedrojc,185 and Grabowski,186 with their staffs.
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