Pagina 242 de 788

"You stupid son of Ham!"78 cried Skoluba, "it is easier for you;

you peasants are as used to skinning as eels; but for us men of

birth, us gentlemen accustomed to golden liberty! Ah, brothers!

Why, in old times a gentleman on his garden patch--"

"Yes, yes," they all cried, "was a wojewoda's match."79

"To-day they even deny our gentle birth; they bid us hunt up

papers and prove it by documents."

"That's nothing for such as you!" shouted Juraha. "Your precious

ancestors were peasants who obtained nobility, but I am of

princes' blood! To ask me for a patent, showing when I became a

nobleman! Only God remembers that! Let the Muscovite go to the

forest and ask the oak grove who gave it a patent to grow above

all the shrubs!"

"Prince!" said Zagiel. "Go tell that to some one else! You will

find no end of princes' coronets in this district."

"You have a cross in your coat of arms," shouted Podhajski; "that

is a covert allusion to the fact that a baptised Jew was a member

of your line."