第347页 / 共788页

"Lackeys? God forbid!" interrupted Gerwazy. "Is a foray a drunk

and disorderly affair? Who ever heard of making a foray with

boors and lackeys? Sir, you know nothing at all about forays!

Vassals, that is, mustachioed champions,98 are something quite

different; vassals of that sort can be found. But we must not

look for them in the peasant villages, but through the hamlets of

the gentry, in Dobrzyn, in Rzezikow, in Cientycze, in Rombanki;99

the gentry of ancient lineage, in whom flows knightly blood, are

all well disposed to the family of the Horeszkos, and are all

mortal enemies of the Soplicas! Thence I will collect some three

hundred mustachioed gentlemen; that is my affair. Do you return

to your mansion and sleep your fill, for to-morrow there will be

hard work; you are fond of sleeping, it is already late, the

second cock is already crowing. I will guard the castle here

until day breaks, and at sunrise I shall be in the hamlet of

Dobrzyn."