"Serene great mighty voevoda," said he, "this is the time for shearing sheep, and in Dantzig they will not pay for badly washed wool. Every noble is now at a pond washing or weighing, thinking correctly that the Swedes will not run away." "How is that?" asked the troubled voevoda; "is there no one here yet?" "Not a living soul, except the land infantry. And, besides, the harvest is near. A good manager will not leave home at such a season." "What do you tell me?" "But the Swedes will not run away, they will only come nearer," repeated the captain. The pock-pitted face of the voevoda grew suddenly purple. "What are the Swedes to me? But this will be a shame for me in the presence of the other lords if I am here alone like a finger." Pan Stanislav laughed again: "Your grace will permit me to remark," said he, "that the Swedes are the main thing here, and shame afterward. Besides, there will be no shame; for not only the nobles of Kalisk, but all other nobles, are absent." "They have run mad!" exclaimed Grudzinski. "No; but they are sure of this,--if they will not go to the Swedes, the Swedes will not fail to come to them." "Wait!" said the voevoda. And clapping his hands for an attendant, he gave command to bring ink, pen, and paper; then he sat down and began to write. In half an hour he had covered the paper; he struck it with his hand, and said,-- "I will send another call for them to be here at the latest _pro die 27 praesentis_ (on the 27th of the present month), and I think that surely they will wish at this last date _non deesse patriæ_ (not to fail the country). And now tell me have you any news of the enemy?" "We have. Wittemberg is mustering his troops on the fields at Dama." "Are there many?" "Some say seventeen thousand, others more." "H'm! then there will not be so many of ours. What is your opinion? Shall we be able to oppose them?" "If the nobles do not appear, there is nothing to talk about." "They will come; why should they not come? It is a known fact that the general militia always delay. But shall we be able to succeed with the aid of the nobles?" "No," replied Pan Stanislav, coolly. "Serene great mighty voevoda, we have no soldiers." "How no soldiers?" "Your grace knows as well as I that all the regular troops are in the Ukraine. Not even two squadrons were sent here, though at this moment God alone knows which storm is greater." "But the infantry, and the general militia?" "Of twenty peasants scarcely one has seen war; of ten, one knows how to hold a gun. After the first war they will be good soldiers, but they are not soldiers now. And as to the general militia let your grace ask any man who knows even a little about war whether the general militia can stand before regulars, and besides such soldiers as the Swedes, veterans of the whole Lutheran war, and accustomed to victory." "Do you exalt the Swedes, then, so highly above your own?"