The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Vol. 2Sienkiewicz, Henryk
History
The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Vol. 2
Sienkiewicz, Henryk
Historical fiction; Poland -- History -- John II Casimir, 1648-1668 -- Fiction
And as he came near Kmita’s heart, so did Kmita please him; therefore
he invited Pan Andrei to the chambers of the castle and entertained
him, for he loved this also, that men should exalt his hospitality.
Pan Andrei came to know in the castle many noted persons; above all,
Princess Griselda Vishnyevetski, sister of Pan Zamoyski and widow of
the great Yeremi,—a man who in his time was well-nigh the greatest in
the Commonwealth, who nevertheless had lost his whole immense fortune
in the time of the Cossack incursion, so that the princess was now
living at Zamost, on the bounty of her brother Yan.
But that lady was so full of grandeur, of majesty and virtue, that her
brother was the first to blow away the dust from before her; and
moreover he feared her like fire. There was no case in which he did not
gratify her wishes, nor an affair the most important concerning which
he did not advise with her. The people of the castle said that the
princess ruled Zamost, the army, the treasury, and her brother; but she
did not wish to take advantage of her preponderance, being given with
her whole soul to grief for her husband and to the education of her
son.
That son had recently returned for a short time from the court of
Vienna and was living with her. He was a youth in the springtime of
life; but in vain did Kmita seek in him those marks which the son of
the great Yeremi should bear in his features.
The figure of the young prince was graceful; but he had a large, full
face, and protruding eyes with a timid look; he had coarse lips, moist,
as with people inclined to pleasures of the table; an immense growth of
hair, black as a raven’s wing, fell to his shoulders. He inherited from
his father only that raven hair and dark complexion.
Pan Andrei was assured by those who were more intimate with the prince
that he had a noble soul, unusual understanding, and a remarkable
memory, thanks to which he was able to speak almost all languages; and
that a certain heaviness of body and temperament with a native greed
for food were the only defects of that otherwise remarkable young man.
In fact, after he had entered into conversation with him Pan Andrei
became convinced that the prince not only had an understanding mind and
a striking judgment touching everything, but the gift of attracting
people. Kmita loved him after the first conversation with that feeling
in which compassion is the greatest element. He felt that he would give
much to bring back to that orphan the brilliant future which belonged
to him by right of birth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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