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"Brother Poles, woe is me that I did not have even a single

cannon! Suvorov said well: 'Remember, comrade Rykov, never to

attack the Poles without cannon!' Well! The yagers were drunk,

the Major let them drink! Ah, Major Plut! He has played sad

tricks to-day. He will answer for them to the Tsar, for he was in

command. I will be your friend, Chamberlain. There is a Russian

proverb, Chamberlain, 'Who loves well, shoves well!' You are good

at a bottle and good at a battle-but stop playing your rough

jokes on my yagers."

Hearing this, the Chamberlain raised his sabre and, through the

Apparitor, proclaimed a general pardon; he gave orders to tend

the wounded, to clear the field of troops, and to disarm and

imprison the yagers. They searched long for Plut; he had buried

himself deep in a nettle bush and lay there as if dead; at last

he came out when he saw that the battle was over.

Thus ended the last foray in Lithuania.165

BOOK X-THE EMIGRATION. JACEK

ARGUMENT