. He seemed a dark-hued fellow, of a formidable aspect,
enhanced by a long black mustache falling down on each side of his
mouth. As soon as he came near, the merchant addressed him in a loud
voice, and rather imperfect Polish. "We are strangers. I am the owner of
that wagon yonder, and am come to fetch it; tell your people to help me,
and I will give them a good gratuity." At which word all the weapons
were reverentially lowered. The chief of the krakuse, or irregulars, now
placed himself pathetically in the middle of the highway, and began a
long oration, accompanied by much action, of which Anton understood very
little, and his principal not all, but which, being interpreted by one
of the wagoners, was found to signify that the leader much regretted his
inability to serve the gentlemen, as he had received orders from the
corps stationed behind him to keep watch over the wagon till the horses
should arrive which were to take it to the nearest town.

The merchant merely shook his head, and replied, in a tone of quiet
command, "That won't do. The wagon is mine, and I must carry it off. I
can not wait the permission of your expected wagoners;" and, putting his
hand into his pocket, he displayed to the owner of the blue coat half a
dozen shining dollars, unseen by the rest. "So much for you, and as much
for your people." The leader looked at the dollars, scratched his head
vehemently, and turned his cap round and round; the result of which was,
that he at last arrived at the conclusion that, since things stood thus,
the worthy gentleman might drive off his wagon.

The procession now triumphantly proceeded; the drivers seized the
levers, and, by their united efforts, raised the fallen side, detached
the fragments of the broken wheel, put on the new one, and harnessed the
horses; and all this with the active assistance of some of the peasants,
and the brotherly support of their commandant, who himself wielded a
lever. Then the horses were set off with a good will, and the wagon
rolled on toward the bridge amid the loud acclamations of the krakuse,
which were perhaps intended to drown a dissentient voice in his
innermost breast.

"Go on with the wagon," said the merchant to Anton; and when the latter
hesitated to leave his principal alone with the boors, the command was
still more peremptorily repeated. And so the wagon slowly progressed
toward the frontier; and Anton already heard from a distance the
laughing greetings of