m the chase
only wrangling and quarrels. Have also due regard for my grey hairs, for I
have known greater sportsmen than you, and I have often judged between
them as an arbitrator. In the Lithuanian forests who has been equal to
Rejtan, either in stationing a line of beaters, or in himself encountering
the beast? Who can compare himself with Jerzy Bialopiotrowicz? Where is
there such a marksman to-day as Zegota, who with a pistol shot could hit a
rabbit on the run? I knew Terajewicz, who, when he went out for wild
boars, took no other arms than a pike, and Budrewicz, who used to fight
singly against a bear! Such men did our forests once behold! If it came to
a dispute, how did they settle the dispute. Why, they chose judges and set
up stakes. Oginski lost three thousand acres of woodland over a wolf, and
a badger cost Niesiolowski several villages! Now do you gentlemen follow
the example of your elders, and settle your dispute in this way, even
though you may set up a smaller stake. Words are wind; to wordy disputes
there is no end; it is a shame to tire our ears longer with a brawl over a
rabbit: so do you first choose arbitrators; and, whatever their verdict
may be, conscientiously abide by it. I will beg the Judge not to forbid
the master of the hounds to lead the chase even across the wheat, and I
hope that I shall obtain this favour from my lord."

So saying, he embraced the knees of the Judge.

"A horse!" shouted the Notary, "I will stake a horse with his caparison;
and I will further covenant before the local court, that I deposit this
ring as a reward for our arbitrator, the Judge."

"I," said the Assessor, "will stake my golden dog-collars, covered with
lizard-skin, with rings of gold, and my leash of woven silk, the
workmanship of which is as marvellous as the jewel that glitters upon it.
That outfit I wished to leave as an inheritance to my children, if I
should marry; that outfit was given me by Prince Dominik Radziwill,47 when
once I hunted with him and with Prince Marshal Sanguszko and General
Mejen,48 and when I challenged them all to course their hounds with me.
There--something unexampled in the history of the chase--I captured six
hares with a single bitch. We were then hunting on the meadow of Kupisko;
Prince Radziwill could not keep his seat upon his horse, but, dismounting,
embraced my famous hound Kania,49 and thrice kissed her on the head. And
then, thrice patting her on the muzzle, he said, 'I d