"True! _Consuetudo altera natura_ (custom is a second nature). Well, the last time, during the election of Yan Kazimir, our ex-king and Grand Duke of Lithuania, I fell terribly in love with one lady, an attendant of the Princess Vishnyevetski. Oh, she was an attractive little beast! But when I wanted to look more nearly into her eyes, Pan Volodyovski thrust up his sabre. I was to fight with him; then Bogun came between us,--Bogun, whom Volodyovski cut up like a hare. If it had not been for that, you would not see me alive. But at that time I was ready to fight, even with the devil. Volodyovski stood up for her only through friendship, for she was betrothed to another, a still greater swordsman. Oh, I tell you, gentlemen, that I thought I should wither away--I could not think of eating or drinking. When our prince sent me from Warsaw to Smolensk, only then did I shake off my love on the road. There is nothing like a journey for such griefs. At the first mile I was easier, before I had reached Vilna my head was clear, and to this day I remain single. That is the whole story. There is nothing for unhappy love like a journey." "Is that your opinion?" asked Kmita. "As I live, it is! Let the black ones take all the pretty girls in Lithuania and the kingdom, I do not need them." "But did you go away without farewell?" "Without farewell; but I threw a red ribbon behind me, which one old woman, very deeply versed in love matters, advised me to do." "Good health!" interrupted Ganhoff, turning again to Pan Andrei. "Good health!" answered Kmita, "I give thanks from my heart." "To the bottom, to the bottom! It is time for you to mount, and service calls us. May God lead you forth and bring you home." "Farewell!" "Throw the red ribbon behind," said Kharlamp, "or at the first resting-place put out the fire yourself with a bucket of water; that is, if you wish to forget." "Be with God!" "We shall not soon see one another." "Perhaps somewhere on the battlefield," added Ganhoff. "God grant side by side, not opposed." "Of course not opposed," said Kmita. And the officers went out. The clock on the tower struck seven. In the yard the horses were pawing the stone pavement with their hoofs, and through the window were to be seen the men waiting. A wonderful disquiet seized Pan Andrei. He was repeating to himself, "I go, I go!" Imagination placed before his eyes unknown regions, and a throng of strange faces which he was to see, and at the same time wonder seized him at the thought of the journey, as if hitherto it had never been in his mind. He must mount and move on. "What happens, will happen. What will be, will be!" thought he to himself.