"Where?" "Over there!" "It is true that two horsemen are visible, but Pan Kharlamp remained with the prince voevoda of Vilna. How dost thou know him so far away?" "By his cream-colored horse. The whole array knows that horse anywhere." "As true as I live, there is a cream-colored horse in view, but it may be some other man's horse." "When I recognize the gait, it is surely Pan Kharlamp." They spurred on; the other horsemen did the same, and soon Volodyovski saw that Pan Kharlamp was in fact approaching. Pan Kharlamp was the lieutenant of a light-horse squadron in the Lithuanian quota. Pan Volodyovski's acquaintance of long standing, an old soldier and a good one. Once he and the little knight had quarrelled fiercely, but afterward while serving together and campaigning they acquired a love for each other. Volodyovski sprang forward quickly, and opening his arms cried,-- "How do you prosper, O Great-nose? Whence do you come?" The officer--who in truth deserved the nickname of Great-nose, for he had a mighty nose--fell into the embraces of the colonel, and greeted him joyously; then after he had recovered his breath, he said, "I have come to you with a commission and money." "But from whom?" "From the prince voevoda of Vilna, our hetman. He sends you a commission to begin a levy at once, and another commission to Pan Kmita, who must be in this neighborhood." "To Pan Kmita also? How shall we both make a levy in one neighborhood?" "He is to go to Troki, and you to remain in these parts." "How did you know where to look for me?" "The hetman himself inquired carefully till the people from this place who have remained near him told where to find you. I came with sure information. You are in great and continual favor there. I have heard the prince himself say that he had not hoped to inherit anything from Prince Yeremi, but still he did inherit the greatest of knights." "May God grant him to inherit the military success of Yeremi! It is a great honor for me to conduct a levy. I will set about it at once. There is no lack of warlike people here, if there was only something with which to give them an outfit. Have you brought much money?" "You will count it at Patsuneli." "So you have been there already? But be careful; for there are shapely girls in Patsuneli, like poppies in a garden." "Ah, that is why stopping there pleased you! But wait, I have a private letter from the hetman to you." "Then give it." Kharlamp drew forth a letter with the small seal of the Radzivills. Volodyovski opened it and began to read:--