CHAPTER IV.

THE Kurtsevichi Bulygi were of an ancient princely
stock which used the escutcheon of Kurts, claimed to be
from Koryat, but was really from Burik. Of the two main
lines, one lived in Lithuania, the other in Volynia, till
Prince Vassily, one of the numerous descendants of the
Volynian line, settled beyond the Dnieper. Being poor,
he did not wish to remain among his powerful relatives,
and entered the service of Prince Michael Vishnyevetski,
father of the renowned "Yarema." [1]

Having covered himself with glory in that service, he
received from the latter, as a permanent possession, Krasnie,
Rozlogi, which subsequently, by reason of its vast number
of wolves, was called Volchie Rozlogi and there he settled
for good. He went over to the Latin rite in 1629, and
married a lady of a distinguished Austrian family of Italian
descent. From that marriage a daughter, Helena, came
into the world a year later, her mother dying at her birth.
Prince Vassily, without thinking of a second marriage,
gave himself up altogether to the management of his land
and the rearing of his only daughter. He was a man of
great character and uncommon virtue. Having acquired a
moderate fortune rather rapidly, he remembered at once
his eldest brother Constantine, who, rejected by his power-
ful family, remained in Volynia, and was obliged to live on
rented land. He brought him, with his wife and five sons,
to Rozlogi, and shared every bit of bread with him.
The two Kurtsevichi lived in this way quietly till the
end of 1634, when Vassily went with King Vladislav to the
siege of Smolensk, where that unfortunate event took place
which caused his ruin. In the royal camp was intercepted
a letter written to Sheyin (the Russian commander), signed
with the name of the prince, with the seal of Kurts added.
Such a clear proof of treason on the part of a knight who
till then had enjoyed an unspotted fame, astonished and
confounded every one. It was in vain that Vassily called
God to witness that neither the hand nor the signature on
the paper was his; the arms of Kurts on the seal removed

1 This is the popular form in Little Russian; therefore it is quoted.