Pagina 681 di 788

"Ha!" said Maciej, "I have heard and I see what is going on! But,

sir, two eagles never nest together! Lords' favour, hetman, rides

a piebald steed!216 The Emperor a great hero! On that subject we

could expend much talk! I remember that my friends the Pulawskis

used to say, as they gazed on Dumouriez,217 that Poland needed a

Polish hero, no Frenchman or Italian either, but a Piast,218 a

Jan or a Jozef, or a Maciek-that's all. The army! They say it is

Polish! But these fusileers, sappers, grenadiers, and cannoneers!

You hear, in that crowd, more German than native titles!219 Who

can understand them! And then you must certainly have with you

Turks or Tatars or Schismatics, or men of God knows what faith: I

have seen it myself; they are assaulting the peasant women in the

villages, plundering the passers-by, pillaging the churches! The

Emperor is bound for Moscow! That is a long road if he has set

out without the blessing of God.