; I have seen him but once,
but as soon as I set eyes on him I noticed what sort of bird he was; the
Monk turned away his eyes, fearing that I might summon him to confession.
But that is not my affair--of that there would be much to say! He will not
come here; it would be vain to summon the Bernardine. If all this news
came from him, then who knows what was his object, for he is the devil of
a priest! If you know nothing more than this news, then why did you come
here, and what do you want?"

"War!" they cried. "What war?" he asked. "War with the Muscovites!" they
shouted, "to fight! Down with the Muscovites!"

The Prussian kept shouting and raising his voice higher and higher, until
he finally obtained a hearing, which he owed partly to his polite bows,
and partly to his shrill and piercing tones.

"I too want to fight," he shouted, pounding his breast with his fist;
"though I don't carry a sprinkling-brush, yet with a pole from a river
barge I once gave a good christening to four Prussians who tried to drown
me in the Pregel when I was drunk."

"Good for you, Bartek," said Sprinkler, "good for you; sprinkle,
sprinkle!"

"But in the name of the most dear Jesus, we must first know with whom the
war is and about what; we must proclaim that to the world," shouted the
Prussian, "for what is going to make the people follow us? Where they are
to go, and when, and how, we do not know ourselves. Brother gentlemen, we
need discretion! My friends, we need order and method! If you wish war,
let us make a confederacy,131 and discuss where to form it and under whose
leadership. That was the way in Great Poland--we saw the retreat of the
Germans, and what did we do? We consulted secretly together; we armed both
the gentry and a company of peasants; and, when we were ready, we waited
Dombrowski's orders; at last, to horse! We rose as one man!"

"I beg the floor," called out the manager of Kleck, a spruce young man,
dressed in German costume. His name was Buchmann, but he was a Pole, born
in Poland; it was not quite certain that he was of gentle birth, but of
that they asked no questions, and everybody respected Buchmann, because he
was in service with a great magnate, was a good patriot, and full of
learning. From foreign books he had learned the art of farming, and
conducted well the administration of his estate; on politics he had also
formed wise opinions; he knew how to write beautifully and how to express
himself with ele