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"No, it is not true," said the Bernardine. "His Majesty the

Emperor Napoleon is a most exemplary Catholic; the Pope himself

anointed him, and they live in harmony, and spread the faith

among the French people, which has become a trifle corrupted. To

be sure they have contributed much silver from Czenstochowa to

the national treasury, for the Fatherland, for Poland, as the

Lord God himself bids; his altars are always the treasury of the

Fatherland. Why, in the Duchy of Warsaw we have a Polish army of

a hundred thousand, perhaps soon there will be more. And who will

pay that army? Will it be you Lithuanians? You are now giving

your pennies only for the Muscovite coffers."

"The devil we are!" cried Wilbik; "they take them from us by

force."

"O, my dear sir," a peasant spoke up humbly, bowing to the Monk

and scratching his head, "for the gentry it is only half bad, but

they skin us like linden bark."