Complete Works of Henryk Sienkiewicz

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

  But at that moment, he perceived in front of him the large, dark form of the animal, which was walking in the same direction from which the wind was blowing, and could not get the scent of him; its attention was also attracted by the smell of the honey on the trees.

  “Come, uncle!” exclaimed Zbyszko, coming out from beneath the pine tree.

  The bear roared shortly as if frightened by an unexpected apparition; but he was too near to seek safety in flight; therefore, in a moment he reared and separated his forelegs as if for a hug. This was exactly what Zbyszko was waiting for; he gathered himself together, jumped like lightning and with all the strength of his powerful arms and of his weight, he drove the fork into the animal’s chest.

  The whole forest resounded now with the fearful roaring. The bear seized the fork with his paws, and tried to pull it out, but the incisions made by the points were too deep; therefore, feeling the pain, he roared still more fearfully. Wishing to reach Zbyszko, he leaned on the fork and thus drove it into his body still further. Zbyszko, not knowing that the points had entered so deeply, held on to the handle. The man and the animal began to struggle. The forest again resounded with the roaring in which wrath and despair were mingled.

  Zbyszko could not use his axe until after he could drive the sharpened end of the fork into the ground. The bear having seized the handle, was shaking it as well as Zbyszko, and notwithstanding the pain caused by every movement of the points imbedded in his breast, he would not let it be “underpropped.” In this way the terrible struggle continued, and Zbyszko finally felt that his strength would soon be exhausted. If he fell, then he would be lost; therefore, he gathered all his strength, strained his arms to the utmost, set his feet firmly and bent his back like a bow, so as not to be thrown backward; and in his enthusiasm he repeated through set teeth:

  “You or I will die!”

  Such anger filled him that he really preferred at that moment to die, rather than to let the beast go. Finally his foot caught in the root of a tree; he tottered and would have fallen, if at that moment a dark figure had not appeared before him, and another fork “underpropped” the beast; and in the meanwhile, a voice shouted near his ear:

  “Use your axe!”

  Zbyszko, being excited by the fight, did not wonder even for a moment from whence came the unexpected help; but he seized the axe and cut with all his might. The fork cracked, broken by the weight and by the last convulsion of the beast, as it fell. There was a long silence broken only by Zbyszko’s loud respirations. But after a while, he lifted his head, looked at the form standing beside him and was afraid, thinking that it might not be a man.

  “Who are you?” asked he, with uneasiness.

  “Jagienka!” answered a thin, womanly voice.

  Zbyszko became dumb from astonishment; he could not believe his own eyes. But his doubts did not last long, because Jagienka’s voice again resounded:

  “I will build a fire.”

  Immediately the clatter of a fire steel against a flint sounded and the sparks began to fall; by their glittering light, Zbyszko beheld the white forehead, the dark eyebrows and the red lips of the girl who was blowing on the tinder which began to burn. Not until then did he realize that she had come to the forest to help him, and that without her aid, he would have perished. He felt such gratitude toward her, that he impulsively seized her around the waist and kissed her on both cheeks.

  The tinder and the steel fell to the ground.

  “Let me be!” she began to repeat in a muffled voice; but she allowed him to kiss her and even, as if by accident, touched Zbyszko’s lips with her mouth. He released her and said:

  “May God reward you. I do not know what would have happened without your help.”

  Then Jagienka, while searching for the tinder and fire steel, began to excuse herself:

  “I was worried about you, because Bezduch also went with a fork and an axe, but the bear tore him to pieces. If you met with such a misfortune, Macko would be very desolate, and he hardly breathes now. So I took a fork and came.”

  “Then it was you whom I heard there behind the pines?”

  “Yes.”

  “And I thought it was an evil spirit.”

  “I was very much frightened, because it is dangerous to be without fire here around the Radzikowski marshes.”

  “Then why did you not speak to me?”

  “Because I was afraid you would send me away.”

  Having said this, she again began to strike sparks from the steel, and put on the tinder a bundle of hemp which began to burn.

  “I have two resinous pieces of wood,” said she; “you bring some dried branches quickly, and we will soon have a fire.”

  In fact, after a while a bright fire was burning, and lighted the enormous, brown body of the bear which was lying in a pool of blood.

  “Hej, a dreadful beast!” said Zbyszko, boastfully.

  “You split his head entirely open! O, Jesus!”

  Then she leaned over and felt of the bear’s body, to ascertain whether the beast was fat; then she arose with a bright face, and said:

  “There will be plenty of grease for two years.”

  “But the fork is broken, look!”

  “That is too bad; what shall I tell them at home?”

  “About what?”

  “Tatus would not let me come into the forest, therefore I was obliged to wait until everybody had retired.”

  After a moment she added:

  “You must not tell that I was here, because they will laugh at me.”

  “But I will go with you to your house, because I am afraid the wolves will attack you, and you have no fork.”

  “Very well!”

  Thus they sat talking for a while beside the bright fire, looking like two young forest creatures.

  Zbyszko looked at the girl’s pretty face, lighted by the flames, and said with involuntary admiration:

  “There is not another girl in this world as brave as you are. You ought to go to the war!”

  She looked into his face and then she answered, almost sadly:

  “I know; but you must not laugh at me.”

  CHAPTER VI.

  Jagienka herself melted a large pot of bear’s grease. Macko drank the first quart willingly, because it was fresh, and smelt good. Jagienka put the rest of it in a pot. Macko’s hope increased; he was sure he would be cured.

  “That is what I needed,” said he. “When all parts inside of me become greasy, then that dog’s splinter will slip out.”

  But the next quarts did not taste as well as the first; but he continued to drink it and Jagienka encouraged him, saying:

  “You will get well. Zbilud of Ostrog had the links of a coat of mail driven into his neck; but they slipped out because he drank grease. But when your wound opens, you must put some grease of a beaver on it.”

  “Have you some?”

  “Yes, we have. But if it be necessary to have it fresh, we will go with Zbyszko and get a beaver. Meanwhile it would not do any harm, if you promised something to some saint, who is the patron for wounds.”

  “I was thinking about that, but I do not know to whom I should make the promise. Saint George is the patron of knights; he protects the warrior from any accident and always gives him victory, and it is said that sometimes he fights personally for the one who is right. But a saint who fights willingly, does not heal willingly; and for that, there must be another saint with whom he would not want to interfere. It is known that every saint has his specialty. But they will not interfere with one another; because that would cause quarrels, and it is not proper to fight in heaven. There are Kosma and Damian to whom all doctors pray, that illness may exist; otherwise the doctors would not have anything to eat. There is Saint Apolonia for the teeth and Saint Liborius for stone; but they will not do for me. The abbot, when he comes, will tell me whom I must ask. Every clericus does not know all celestial secrets and everyone of them is not familiar with such things, but the abbot is.”
/>   “Suppose you make a vow to the Lord Jesus himself?”

  “Of course he is over all of them. But suppose your father had injured my servant, and I went to Krakow to complain to the king; what would the king tell me? He would say thus: ‘I am monarch over all the country, and you complain to me about one of your peasants! Do you not have my officials in your part of the country; why did you not go to the castellan?’ So the Lord Jesus is the ruler over the whole universe; but for smaller affairs, he employs the saints.”

  “Then I will tell you what to do,” said Zbyszko, who entered just now; “make a vow to our late queen, that if she intercede for you, you will make a pilgrimage to Krakow. Why should you search after strange saints, when we have our own lady, who is better than they?”

  “Bah! if I only knew that she would intercede for wounds!”

  “No matter! There is no saint who would dare to show her an angry face; or if he dared, Lord God would punish him for it, because she was not an ordinary woman, but a Polish queen.”

  “Who converted the last heathen country to the Christian faith! That is right,” said Macko. “She must have a high place in God’s council and surely none would dare to oppose her. Therefore I will do as you say.”

  This advice pleased Jagienka, who admired Zbyszko’s common sense very much. That same evening, Macko made a vow and drank with still greater hope, the bear’s grease. But after a week, he began to lose hope. He said that the grease was fermenting in his stomach, and that a lump was growing on his side near the last rib. At the end of ten days Macko was worse, and the lump grew larger and became inflamed. The sick man again had fever and began to make preparations for death.

  But one night he awakened Zbyszko, and said:

  “Light a piece of resinous wood; there is something the matter with me, but I do not know what.”

  Zbyszko jumped up and lighted a piece of pine wood.

  “What is it?”

  “What is it! Something has pierced the lump on my side. It must be the head of the spear! I had hold of it, but I cannot pull it out.”

  “It must be the spearhead! Nothing else. Grasp it well and pull.”

  Macko began to turn and to twist with pain; but he pushed his fingers deeper and deeper, until he seized a hard substance which finally he pulled out.

  “O, Jesus!”

  “Have you pulled it out?” asked Zbyszko.

  “Yes. I am in a cold perspiration all over; but I have it; look!”

  Having said this, he showed to Zbyszko a long splinter, which had separated from the spear and remained in his body for several months.

  “Glory be to God and to Queen Jadwiga! Now you will get well.”

  “Perhaps; I am better, but it pains me greatly,” said Macko, pressing the wound from which blood and pus began to flow. “Jagienka said that now I ought to dress the wound with the grease of a beaver.”

  “We will go to-morrow and get a beaver.”

  Macko felt considerably better the next day. He slept till morning, and when he awoke, immediately asked for something to eat. He would not even look at the bear’s grease; but they cooked twenty eggs for him. He ate them voraciously, also a big loaf of bread, and drank about four quarts of beer; then he demanded that they call Zych, because he felt jovial.

  Zbyszko sent one of the Turks, given to him by Zawisza, after Zych who mounted a horse and came in the afternoon when the young people were ready to go to the Odstajny lake to catch a beaver. At first there was plenty of laughter and singing, while they drank mead; but afterward the old wlodykas began to talk about the children, each praising his own.

  “What a man Zbyszko is!” said Macko; “there is no other like him in the world. He is brave and as agile as a wild-cat. Do you know that when they conducted him to the scaffold in Krakow, all the girls standing at the windows were crying, and such girls; — daughters of knights and of castellans, and also the beautiful townswomen.”

  “They may be beautiful and the daughters of castellans, but they are not better than my Jagienka!” answered Zych of Zgorzelice.

  “Did I say they were better? It will be difficult to find a better girl than Jagienka.”

  “I do not say anything against Zbyszko either; he can stretch a crossbow without a crank.”

  “He can underprop a bear also. Did you see how he cut the bear? He cut the head and one paw off.”

  “He cut the head off, but he did not underprop it alone. Jagienka helped him.”

  “Did she? He did not tell me about that.”

  “Because he promised her not to tell anyone. The girl was ashamed because she went into the forest alone at night. She told me all about it; she never hides the truth. Frankly speaking, I was not pleased because who knows what might have happened. I wanted to scold her, but she said, ‘If I be not able to preserve my wreath myself, how can you preserve it, you tatulu; but do not fear, Zbyszko knows what knightly honor is.’”

  “That is true. They have gone alone to-day also.”

  “They will be back in the evening. But during the night, the devil is worse and the girl does not feel ashamed because of the darkness.”

  Macko thought for a while; then he said as if to himself:

  “But they are fond of each other.”

  “Bah! it is a pity he made a vow to another!”

  “That is, as you know, a knightly custom. They consider the one who has no lady, a churl. He also made a vow to capture some peacocks’ tufts, and those he must get because he swore by his knightly honor; he must also challenge Lichtenstein; but from the other vows, the abbot can release him.”

  “The abbot is coming soon.”

  “Do you expect him?” asked Macko; then he said again: “And what does such a vow amount to; Jurand told him positively that he could not give the girl to him! I do not know whether he had promised her to some one else, or whether he had destined her for God.”

  “Have I told you that the abbot loves Jagienka as much as if she were his own? The last time I saw him he said: ‘I have no relations except those from my mother’s side; and they will receive nothing from me.’”

  Here Macko looked at Zych suspiciously and after awhile he answered:

  “Would you wrong us?”

  “Jagienka will get Moczydoly,” said Zych evasively.

  “Immediately?”

  “Immediately. I would not give it to another; but I will do it for her.”

  “Half of Bogdaniec belongs to Zbyszko, and if God restore my health, I will improve the estate. Do you love Zbyszko?”

  Zych began to wink and said:

  “When anybody mentions Zbyszko’s name in the presence of Jagienka, she immediately turns away.”

  “And when you mention another?”

  “When I mention another, she only laughs and says: ‘What then?’”

  “Well, do you not see. God will help us and Zbyszko will forget about the other girl. I am old and I will forget also. Will you have some more mead?”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “Well, the abbot is a wise man! You know that some of the abbots are laymen; but this abbot, although he does not sit among the friars, is a priest just the same; and a priest can always give better advice than an ordinary man, because he knows how to read, and he communes with the Holy Ghost. I am glad that Jagienka is going to have the estate of Moczydoly. As for me, as soon as the Lord Jesus restores my health, I will try to induce some of the peasants living on the estate of Wilk of Brzozowa, to settle on my land. I will offer them more land, I have plenty of it in Bogdaniec. They can come if they wish to, for they are free. In time, I will build a grodek in Bogdaniec, a worthy castle of oaks with a ditch around it. Let Zbyszko and Jagienka hunt together. I think we shall soon have snow. They will become accustomed to each other, and the boy will forget that other girl. Let them be together. Speak frankly; would you give Jagienka to him or not?”

  “I would. Did we not decide a long time ago that they should marry, and that Moczydoly and Bogdaniec woul
d be our grandchildren’s?”

  “Grady!” exclaimed Macko, joyfully. “God will bless us and their children will be as numerous as hail. The abbot shall baptize them.”

  “If he will only be quick enough!” exclaimed Zych. “I have not seen you so jolly as you are to-day for a long time.”

  “Because I am glad in my heart. Do not fear about Zbyszko. Yesterday when Jagienka mounted her horse, the wind blew. I asked Zbyszko then: ‘Did you see?’ and his eyes shone. I have also noticed that although at first they did not speak much to each other, now when they go together, they are continually turning their heads toward each other, and they talk — talk! Have some more mead?”

  “Yes, I will.”

  “To Zbyszko and Jagienka’s health!”

  CHAPTER VII.

  The old wlodyka was not mistaken when he said that Zbyszko and Jagienka were fond of each other, and even that they longed for each other. Jagienka pretending that she wanted to visit the sick Macko, went very often to Bogdaniec, either alone or with her father. Zbyszko also went often to Zgorzelice. In that way, after a few days a familiarity and friendship originated between them. They grew fond of each other and talked about everything that interested them. There was much mutual admiration in that friendship also. The young and handsome Zbyszko, who had already distinguished himself in the war, had participated in tournaments and had been in the presence of kings, was considered by the girl, when she compared him with Cztan of Rogow or Wilk of Brzozowa, a true courtly knight and almost a prince; as for him, he was astonished at the great beauty of the girl. He was loyal to Danusia; but very often when he looked suddenly at Jagienka, either in the forest or at home, he said involuntarily to himself: “Hej! what a girl!” When, helping her to mount her horse, he felt her elastic flesh under his hands, disquietude filled him and he shivered, and a torpor began to steal over him.

  Jagienka, although naturally proud, inclined to raillery, and even aggressive, grew more and more gentle with him, often looking in his eyes to discover how she could please him; he understood her affection; he was grateful for it and he liked to be with her more and more. Finally, especially after Macko began to drink the bear’s grease, they saw each other almost every day; when the splinter came out of the wound, they went together to get some fresh beaver’s grease, necessary for the healing of the wound.