without waiting the end, inquired, further: "Did you say
well?"

"What a question!" answered Zagloba; "everything is
well in a dry throat."

"But I was inquiring about the princess."

"Oh, the princess! She is as well as a deer."

"Praise be to God on high! And she is comfortable in
Bar?"

"As comfortable as in heaven, -- couldn't be more so.
Every one cleaves to her for her beauty. Pani Slavoshevska
loves her as her own daughter. And how many men are in
love with her! You couldn't count them on a rosary. But
she, in constant love for you, thinks as much of them as I
do now of this empty flask of yours."

"May God give health to her, the dearest!" said Skshe-
tuski, joyfully. "Then she remembers me with pleasure?"

"Remembers you? I tell you that I myself couldn't
understand where she got breath for so many sighs; these
sighs made every one pity her, and most of all the little nuns,
for she brought them to her side through her sweetness.
Then she sent me too into these dangers, in which I have
almost lost my life, to find you without fail and see if you
were alive and well. She tried several times to send mes-
sengers, but no one would go. At last I took pity on her,
and set out for your camp. If it hadn't been for the dis-
guise, I should have laid down my head surely. But the
peasants took me for a minstrel everywhere, as I sing very
beautifully."

Skshetuski became silent from joy. A thousand thoughts
and reminiscences thronged into his head. Helena stood as
if living before him, as he had seen her the last time in
Rozlogi, just before leaving for the Saitch, -- charming,
beautiful, graceful, and with those eyes black as velvet, full
of unspeakable allurement. It seemed to him that he saw
her, felt the warmth beating from her cheeks, heard her
sweet voice. He recalled that walk in the cherry-garden and
the cuckoo, and those questions which he gave the bird, and
the bashfulness of Helena. Indeed the soul went out of
him; his heart grew weak from love and joy, in presence of
which all his past sufferings were like a drop in the sea.
He did not know himself what was happening to him. He
wanted to shout, fall on his knees and thank God again,
then inquire without end. At last be began to repeat:--
"She is alive, well?"