صفحة 692 من 788

Only I warn you that we must not grant merely an empty liberty,

in words alone, like that under the Muscovites, when the late Pan

Karp freed his serfs and the Muscovite starved them to death with

a triple tax.224 So it is my advice that according to the ancient

custom we make the peasants nobles and proclaim that we bestow on

them our own coats of arms. You, my lady, will bestow on some

villages the Half-Goat; to others let Pan Soplica give his Star

and Crescent.225 Then will even Rembajlo recognize the peasant as

his equal, when he beholds him an honourable gentleman, with a

coat of arms. The Diet will confirm the act.