upon it, it was a sign that he wished to have the floor for a
speech. All became silent, no one dared open his lips. He spoke:--

"Honoured gentlemen, my beloved brothers, the woods and meadows alone are
the hunter's forum, therefore such matters I will not pass upon within
doors, but I will dissolve our sitting until to-morrow, and will not
permit further argument from either faction to-day. Apparitor, call the
case for to-morrow in the field! To-morrow the Count too will be here with
all his hunting train, and you, my neighbour Judge, will ride out with us,
and Pani Telimena, and the young ladies and gentlemen; in a word we will
form a great official hunting party, and the Seneschal, too, will not deny
us his companionship."

So saying he offered his snuffbox to the old man.

The Seneschal had been sitting at the corner among the hunters; he had
been listening with closed eyes, but had said not a word, although the
young men had often inquired his opinion, for no one understood hunting
better than he. He kept silent, weighed in his fingers the pinch of snuff
that he had taken from the box, and meditated long before he finally used
it; he sneezed until the whole room echoed, and shaking his head, he said
with a bitter smile:--

"O how this saddens and amazes me in my old age! What would the hunters of
old times say of this, if they should see that amid so many gentlemen, in
so large a gathering, disputes over a hound's tail had to be debated? What
would old Rejtan say of this were he to come to life again? He would go
back to Lachowicze and lay himself in his grave. What would the old
wojewoda Niesiolowski26 say, a man who still has the finest kennel in the
world, and maintains in lordly wise two hundred hunters, and who has a
hundred waggon-loads of nets in his castle of Woroncza, and yet for so
many years has been abiding like a monk within his house? No one can
persuade him to accept an invitation to hunt; he refused even
Bialopiotrowicz27 himself! For what would he capture at your hunts? It
would be fine glory, if such a gentleman, in accordance with the present
fashion, should ride out against rabbits! In my time, sir, in hunter's
language, the boar, the bear, the elk, the wolf were known as noble
beasts, but beasts without tusks, horns, or claws were left for hired
servants or farm labourers. No gentleman would ever consent to take in
hand a musket that had been put to shame by having small shot sprinkled in
i