صفحة 376 من 788

The hamlet of Dobrzyn has a wide reputation in Lithuania for the

bravery of its gentlemen and the beauty of its gentlewomen. It

was once powerful and populous, for when King Jan III. Sobieski

had summoned the general militia by the "twigs,"113 the ensign of

the wojewodeship had led to him from Dobrzyn alone six hundred

armed gentry. The family had now grown small and poor; formerly

at the courts of the magnates or in their troops, at forays, and

at the district assemblies the Dobrzynskis used to find an easy

living. Now they were forced to work for themselves, like mere

serfs, except that they did not wear peasants' russet doublets,

but long white coats with black stripes, and on Sunday kontuszes.

Also the dress of even the poorest of their women was different

from the jackets of the peasants; they usually wore drilling or

percale, herded their cattle in shoes not of bark but of leather,

and reaped and even spun with gloves on.