The soldiers now saw what had happened. An uproar rose among them. One crowded ahead of the other to the wagon, stared at their commandant, dressed in a camel's hair burka and lynx-skin cap, and sleeping soundly. The sergeant began to shake him without ceremony. "Commandant! commandant!" "I am Kovalski, and this is Pani Kovalski," muttered Roh. "Commandant, a prisoner has fled." Kovalski sat up in the wagon and opened his eyes. "What?" "A prisoner has fled,--that bulky noble who was talking with the commandant." The officer came to his senses. "Impossible!" cried he, with terrified voice. "How was it? What happened? How did he escape?" "In the helmet and cloak of the commandant; the soldiers did not know him, the night was dark." "Where is my horse?" cried Kovalski. "The horse is gone. The noble fled on him." "On my horse?" "Yes." Kovalski seized himself by the head. "Jesus of Nazareth! King of the Jews!" After a while he shouted, "Give here that dog-faith, that son of a such a one who gave him the horse!" "Pan Commandant, the soldier is not to blame. The night was dark, you might have struck a man in the face, and he took your helmet and cloak; rode near me, and I did not know him. If your grace had not sat in the wagon, he could not have done it." "Kill me, kill me!" cried the unfortunate officer. "What is to be done?" "Kill him, catch him!" "That cannot be done in any way. He is on your horse,--the best horse; ours are terribly road-weary. He fled at the first cock-crow; we cannot overtake him." "Hunt for a wind in the field!" said Stankyevich. Kovalski, in a rage, turned to the prisoners. "You helped him to escape! I will--" Here he balled his gigantic fist, and began to approach them. Then Mirski said threateningly, "Shout not, and remember that you are speaking to superiors." Kovalski quivered, and straightened himself involuntarily; for really his dignity in presence of such a Mirski was nothing, and all his prisoners were a head above him in rank and significance. Stankyevich added: "If you have been commanded to take us, take us; but raise no voice, for to-morrow you may be under the command of any one of us." Kovalski stared and was silent. "There is no doubt you have fooled away your head, Pan Roh," said Oskyerko. "To say, as you do, that we helped him is nonsense; for, to begin with, we were sleeping, just as you were, and secondly, each one would have helped himself rather than another. But you have fooled away your head. There is no one to blame here but you. I would be the first to order you shot, since being an officer you fell asleep like a badger, and allowed a prisoner to escape in your own helmet and cloak, nay, on your own horse,--an unheard of thing, such as has not happened since the beginning of the world." "An old fox has fooled the young man!" said Mirski. "Jesus, Mary! I have not even the sabre!" cried Kovalski.