To this Skshetiiski answered: "He is a fox, and has
tricked me. He--told me he was a Cossack colonel of
Prince Dominik Zaslavski. I met him last night in the
steppe, and freed him from a lariat."

Zatsvilikhovski seized himself by the head.

"In God's name, what do you tell me? It cannot have
been."

"It can, since it has been. He told me he was a colonel
in the service of Prince Dominik Zaslavski, on a mission
from the Grand Hetman to Pan Grodzitski at Kudak. I
did not believe this, since he was not travelling by water,
but stealing along over the steppe."

"He is as cunning as Ulysses! But where did you meet
him?"

"On the Omelnik, on the right bank of the Dnieper. It is
evident that he was on his way to the Saitch."

"He wanted to avoid Kudak. I understand now. Had
he many men?"

"About forty. But they came to meet him too late.
Had it not been for me, the servants of the starosta would
have strangled him."

"But stop a moment! That is an important affair. The
servants of the starosta, you say?"

"That is what he told me."

"How could the starosta know where to look for him,
when here in this place all were splitting their heads to
know what he had done with himself?"

"I can't tell that. It may be, too, that Hmelnitski lied,
and represented common robbers as servants of the starosta,
in order to call more attention to his wrongs."

"Impossible! But it is a strange affair. Do you know
that there is a circular from the hetman, ordering the arrest
and detention of Hmelnitski?"

The lieutenant gave no answer, for at that moment some
nobleman entered the room with a tremendous uproar. He
made the doors rattle a couple of times, and looking inso-
lently through the room cried out,--

"My respects, gentlemen!"

He was a man of forty years of age, of low stature, with
peevish face, the irritable appearance of which was increased
by quick eyes, protruding from his face like plums,--evi-
dently a man very rash, stormy, quick to anger.

"My respects, gentlemen!" repeated he more loudly and
sharply, since he was not answered at once.