rvants had
not come out to welcome the traveller, but do not think that in the
Judge's mansion service was careless; the servants were waiting until the
Seneschal10 should attire him, who now behind the mansion was arranging
for the supper. He took the place of the master, and in his absence was
wont himself to welcome and entertain guests, being a distant relative of
the master and a friend of the house. Seeing the guest, he stealthily made
his way to the farmhouse, for he could not come out to greet the stranger
in a homespun dressing-gown; there he put on as quickly as he might his
Sunday garment, made ready since early morning, for since morning he had
known that at supper he should sit with a multitude of guests.

The Seneschal recognised the traveller from afar, spread out his arms, and
with a cry embraced and kissed him. Then began a hurried, confused
discourse, in which they were eager to tell the events of many years in a
few brief words, mingled, as the tale went forward, with queries,
exclamations, and new greetings. When the Seneschal had asked his fill of
questions, at the very last he told the story of that day.

"It is good, my Thaddeus,"--for so they called the young man, whose first
name had been given him in honour of Kosciuszko, as a token that he was
born at the time of the war11--"it is good, my Thaddeus, that you have
returned home this day, just when we have with us so many fair young
ladies. Your uncle is thinking of soon celebrating your marriage. You have
a wide choice: at our house a numerous company has for days been gathering
for the session of the territorial court, to conclude our ancient quarrel
with the Count. The Count himself is to arrive to-morrow; the
Chamberlain12 is already here with his wife and daughters. The young men
have gone to the wood to amuse themselves shooting, and the old men and
the women are looking at the harvest near the wood, where they are
doubtless awaiting the young men. Come on, if you wish, and soon we shall
meet your dear uncle, the Chamberlain, and the honoured ladies."

The Seneschal and Thaddeus walked along the road towards the wood and
could not say enough to each other. The sun was approaching the end of his
course in the sky and shone less strongly but more broadly than by day,
all reddened, as the healthy face of a husbandman, when, after finishing
his work in the fields, he returns to rest: already the gleaming circle
was descending on the summit of