"Listen!" said Zagloba, turning to the herdsman. "If
the vanguard comes up, say that I went to the road along
the river."

"I will."

A quarter of an hour later Zagloba was riding again by
the side of Helena.

"I invented the prince for them in season," said he,
blinking with his cataract-covered eye. "Now they will
stay all day waiting for the vanguard. They shuddered at
the mere name of the prince."

"I see you have such ready wit that you will save us
from every trouble," said Helena, "and I thank God for
sending me such a guardian."

These words went to the heart of the noble. He smiled,
stroked his beard, and said,--

"Well, hasn't Zagloba a head on his shoulders? Cun-
ning as Ulysses! and I must tell you, had it not been for
that cunning, the crows would have eaten me long ago.
Can't help it, I must save myself. They believed easily
that the prince was coming, for it is probable that he will
appear to-morrow or next day in this neighborhood with a
fiery sword like an archangel. And if he should only strike
Bogun somewhere on the road, I would make a vow to walk
barefoot to Chenstokhova. Even if those herdsmen did not
believe, the very mention of the power of the prince was
enough to restrain them from attacks on our lives. Still I
tell you that their impudence is no good sign to us, for it
means that the peasants here have heard of the victories of
Hmelnitski, and will become more and more insolent every
moment. We must keep therefore to the waste places and
visit few villages, for they are dangerous. We have got into
such a snare that, as I live, it would be hard to invent a
worse one."

Alarm again seized Helena. Wishing to get some word
of hope from Zagloba, she said: "But you will save me and
yourself this time?"

"Of course," said the old fox; "the head is given to think
about the body. I have become so attached to you that
I will struggle for you as for my own daughter. But, to
tell the truth, the worst is that we don't know where to
take refuge, for Zolotonosha is no safe asylum."

"I know surely that my cousins are there."

"They are, or they are not; they may have left there and
returned to Rozlogi by a different road from the one we are