Matthias was pale, stern and cold outwardly; but his eyes had the glint of a wolf’s. He walked erect, sombre but decided, nodding to his acquaintances, and looking round upon the people. They made way for him, and he stepped on to the pile of logs in front of the tavern. But, before he spoke, voices in the crowd were raised: “Lead us on, Matthias! lead us on!” “On! on to the forest!” When these cries had ceased, he bowed and, stretching forth his arms, spoke with a mighty voice: “Ye Christian people, Poles, lovers of justice, whether husbandmen or _Komorniki_!—We have all been injured, and in such fashion as we can neither support nor forgive! The manor-folk are cutting down our forest ... yes, those same manor-folk who will give no work to any man amongst us ... those manor-folk who do all they can to harry us and drive us to ruin! Who can remember all the injuries and grievances and ill treatment our folk have suffered from them? We have appealed to justice: to what purpose? We have brought complaints: how have they been dealt with?—Well, the measure is filled: they are hewing down our forest. Men, shall we permit that too?” “Never, never! Let us drive them off, let us slay them!” they answered him. Their faces were livid, but gleamed darkly, as a thunder-cloud with lightning-flashes: a hundred fists were shaken in the air, and a hundred indignant throats were clamorous. “We have,” Boryna went on to say, “we have our rights, and no one respects them: the forest is ours, and they cut it down! What, then, are we to do, we who are bereft of all help? For none in the world will do us justice. None!—Dear people, Christians, Poles, I tell you that there is now naught to be done save this one thing: defend by ourselves that which is our own property; go in a body, and forbid them to hew our forest down.—All! One and all! let us go, we, the inhabitants of Lipka—all save the cripples!—And, good friends, fear ye nothing: we have for us our rights, our will to assert them, and the justice of our cause. And, moreover, they cannot send a whole village to prison.—So come with me, men; be strong and courageous; come with me—to the forest!” he shouted in a voice of thunder. “To the forest!” they all roared in reply. The crowd broke up, and every man ran home shouting. There was an interval of confused preparation, while they made ready: horses neighed, children screamed, men swore, women bewailed themselves; but in a very short time, all were on their way to the poplar road, where Boryna, in his sledge, was waiting, together with Ploshka, Klemba and the other foremost men in Lipka.