inn, which, poor and despicable as was its accom- and properties? To fall back to the Poles were modation, was full to overflowing. Soon the matter began to clear up. 66 "You ought to come to the public house sometimes," said a neighbor to Pavel one afternoon; queer things are going on, I promise you. There have been men there lately making a great talk about Poland being itself again, and turning away oppressors—that is, the Russians and the Germans. You, who can read and write, might help us to understand these questions, which I am sure one good half of us don't. They say that if we were again Poles, with a king of our own, we should be happier." 66 Happier, and retain our lords!-how is that possible?" said Pavel. thrusting your necks again into the old yoke." "You would not lack leaders," insinuated the pedler. "On the other side the frontier, organization is complete; at Cracow, too, all is ready, and I have no doubt, if the peasantry hereabout were to rise, their nobles would put themselves at their head. Nay, I should n't wonder if they were already preparing to do so there's a great stir this autumn in the castles." "Why would you be Polish slaves?" interrupted the organ-grinder. "If the emperor had his own way, you would have had proper schools in every village long since; but your nobles won't hear of it. What does the emperor want of you but slight taxes, and military duty, which, at least, "That's what many say-but come and lis- gives you bread, a home, and raiment? True, if ten." "I will," answered Pavel; and that evening he went to the tap-room, which was full of a heterogeneous assembly of strange beings. There were the servants of the guests at the castle, some of the count's servants too, a wandering pedler, an organ-grinder, and a mercantile agent in a small way, from one of the Sclavonic provinces. In opposite corners sat two wandering tinkers, so like in form, features, general color, and aspect, that they might have been thought, but for their costume, offshoots of the same root; but the tight hose, short cloak, and large sombrero of the one, pointed him out as clearly to be a Croat, as the matted locks and ragged habiliments, the cloak that seemed but the shred of a blanket, marked the other as a gypsy. At a table sat an Arminian, with flowing white beard and peaked bonnet; and, not far from him, two Russians, with their broad, low-crowned hats, coal-black beards, and that sly, roaming glance, cunning smile, and ready cringe, that belong to the enslaved. There, too, was the Heiduck, in full costume, who, speaking nothing but Magyar, a dead-letter to the rest, understood nothing that passed about him, and, consequently, wholly devoted himself to the corn brandy. The peasants of the estate, in their sheep-skin coats, crowded the room to suffocation. But diverse as was the outward appearance of the motley group, one general feature ran through the assembly-a certain look of wildness, which proclaimed beings belonging to a less civilized state of society than is met with further west. "It is a shame," the pedler was saying, as Pavel entered the room, addressing himself to the peasants generally-" it's a shame that we Poles should be judged by German courts, in the German tongue. The Germans are foreigners; and it's our own fault if they be our masters much longer." the soldier fails in his duty he is punished; but when he is sick he is tended-when he is aggrieved, he is righted-when he is old and battered, he is looked after. Then the emperor is your father and friend-he never interferes with your private affairs. Believe me, he stands between you and the rod." "A tyrant!" exclaimed the packman, with violence, "who will allow no education but in German." "What does it signify whether it be in German or Polish, if you are not suffered to profit by it?" said the organ-grinder. "When the Poles are restored to themselves, and are no longer slaves to the foreigner, the lords will soften the condition of their peasants," urged the Pole. ber. One yell of derision ran through the low cham "But Austria keeps her promises, and you know it," persisted the organ-grinder. If a struggle begin, and you stand by the emperor, you will have money, recompenses, indulgences; but if the Poles gain the day, the white and red plumes will be all for your lords, and the gray serge will still be yours. No soft down from that quarter will ever line your nest-don't let yourselves be deceived." "If Poland were once more Poland," vociferated the Polish agent-for such the pedler evidently was-" your tenures would, most probably, be converted into freeholds, in gratitude for your exertions in bringing about so happy a result." "That song would be worth listening to," said one of the peasants, a dense group forming around the disputants. "He who believes that deserves the chains he wears!" cried Pavel, stepping out from among them. "Recollect yourselves, my friends. Were our horses spared last spring, in making the road to the new quarry-those horses which we bred at our own risk and cost, fed whilst they were colts, and could be of no earthly use to us, and which, the moment we could reap benefit from them, were overburthened, exposed to the worst weather, fell ill, and died on our hands? Remember, too, how our petition this autumn, about the to excite us against him-say, my friends, what do they deserve?"-and he pointed, with a threatening look, to the unfortunate Polish agent. extra days of labor, was received by the count. | wronged us in any way-the Emperor of Austria. Will he compound for tithe? Remember what To him we owe allegiance; and those who seek success has crowned your efforts to obtain that concession, and then trust to his gratitude if you will. Think you that, when you have thrown down the authority now standing between him and you, he will become as meek as a lamb? Why, to believe that, a man must lose all sense of what happened but yesterday." "What difference can it make to your lord," said the pedler," whether you pay rent in money or in feudal services?" "That is not for us to decide," said Pavel; "but we know the difference it would make to us. If he is willing to oblige us, nothing were more easy. It could have been done years ago. Don't you see, my friends, the folly of such expectations? If it were as he says, would the lords have been so obstinate in refusing us the privilege we are so eager to claim? No! Unless the nobles consent to our terms, accept a stipulated ground-rent in money, and leave us free to manage our cattle and our produce in our own way-unless they secure to us our liberty, we will have nothing to say to them or their plans. Slaves have no nation-no country—no religion-no hearths to defend. The slave is not a man, for the first effort of a man is to shake off slavery!" The pedler made an attempt to recover his lost ground, but he was not heeded. Pavel's speech had found an echo in every breast; and the silent, gloomy man, hitherto overlooked, suddenly became an object of interest. It required no little boldness to speak as Pavel had spoken, in so public a place, when every word he uttered would, most probably, be reported at the castle; and that quality commands the respect of the masses, who naturally feel that men possessed of it are alone fit to be leaders. And leaders are necessary to them, to bear the blame of all that happens, to pay for failures, and become the scapegoats of the many. Pavel that evening took his place in the hearts of those whose cause he advocated. No sooner was the hint given than the peasantry fell upon the pedler, and, tearing from him his wares, strewed them on the floor, which was soon littered with pamphlets of the most inflammatory nature, originally destined, doubtless, to the enlightenment and warming up of such persons on the different estates, as shared not the ignorance of the peasantry-apothecaries, stewards, the larger farmers, and persons belonging to the courts of justiciary, overseers of mines, and so forth. Whilst some busied themselves in tearing the pamphlets to shreds, others proceeded to give the unfortunate man a drubbing, in which hands and feet were liberally employed; the Hungarian, Croat, and Gypsy, strange to say, leading the furious onslaught, though they did not comprehend its meaning. The Jews, in the mean while, availed themselves of the general confusion to pocket, with inconceivable rapidity, whatever they could pick up from the floor, their eyes glistening with as much greediness as though the scattered, worthless tracts, were so much pure gold, or as many diamonds. Whilst the host was endeavoring to save the unlucky packman from further injury, the Gypsy, who was in the act of belaboring him, adroitly extracted his silver watch; and the Croat, having given vent to his spleen, beat a hasty retreat, before order was restored, with a pewter tankard belonging to mine host secreted under his cloak. The organ-grinder was then treated, with great generosity, to an extra dram of brandy, at the cost of his enthusiastic audience. Pavel might have drenched himself in the liquid, if he had been disposed to profit by generous offers; but he had remained true to Noah's precepts of sobriety, and, wishing to ponder over what he had that evening seen and heard, he left the ale-house early. The following morning, as he was about to leave "You peasants would certainly gain nothing by his cottage, the latch of the door was raised from the change," put in the organ-grinder, taking ad- without, and a stranger entered. He was fashionvantage of the revulsion Pavel had effected in favorably dressed, but his general appearance was not of his argument. "You would be led, as of yore, to fight out your lords' quarrels; and when you would be absent, struggling for a crown, battling for a question not your own, the opponents of your lords would fall upon your lands, and sack, burn, destroy, as they used to do in the good old times, when glorious Poland was ever shedding its best blood on the fields of election." "My father would have died willingly for his lord," said an aged peasant, shaking his head reprovingly at young rebel Sclavonia rising around him. above that of a menial of some good house. Both stared for some time, as if endeavoring to account for what seemed familiar in the features he gazed on; each asked himself when, where, under what circumstances, he could have seen the other. Pavel's memory served him first. Though the face had grown worn and haggard, the features were still those of the man he had once met at Noah's; and, extending his hand, he greeted him by name. "I was not mistaken, then? We have met before," said the stranger. "Do you remember this direction you once gave me?" said Pavel, handing him a crumpled paper. "Your father was of the date," said Pavel, "when men were content to lick the hand that struck them! Thank God! we are not of that generation. Had we seen that fidelity better re- Loeb Hertz, having looked at it, smiled, and paid, perhaps we might have known it too. How-shaking Pavel cordially by the hand, exclaimed― ever, we have a master who has never struck, nor "Yes, here I am, as active as ever, though not quite so young as when we last met, and with a heavier burden on my shoulders of what is called knowledge of the world: but I am on the wrong side of life, you on the right. You've grown into a proper man, more like a Calabrese than a Pole; however, I suppose the heart is in the right place, still all for the dear, torn country." "I see what you will be at," said Pavel; "but in this miserable hut we cannot talk over such matters. Let us walk into the open air, and I will freely tell my mind." Loeb Hertz consenting, they soon stood on the bank of the river. "Come, be frank with me," said Pavel. "What is your mission ?—who sent you to me?" "Why, for that matter, I heard at the village inn, indeed the steward himself told me, that you were a man likely to have influence with the peasantry, and might prove useful in a rising." 66 They judge me so at the castle, do they?" said Pavel, with a sneer. "It would be a pity to disappoint them. And so you are for the castle?" "Why, yes, and no. There is a grand movement in contemplation, organized by the Polish refugees in Paris, which is to act at the same moment at least such is the hope and plan-upon all the fragments of Poland at one and the same time; thus effecting union by a violent irruption. In Cracow everything is ripe. It is more difficult to move Russian Poland, since its last severe lesson, but still we have good hope. And now the nobility of Gallicia are about to pave the way a little with their peasantry, before bringing them to the field." "It's very kind of them," said Pavel, with enforced composure; "they are not usually so anxious to consult our convenience." you, and tell them that there is one Pole who loves freedom better than Poland." "After helping your lords to shake off the yokes of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, you could easily, being thousands to one, be more than a match for them, and make your own terms." 66 Think you so?" said Pavel, incredulously— "I do not. But were it true," he added, passionately," rather than they should have that one hour of triumph, I would shed every drop of my blood! It is natural that you, who move about at your pleasure, and do with your existence what you please it is natural that you, I say, should feel none of the anger that I feel; but I—you do not know -you cannot guess what I have suffered. I speak not of the early part of my life-over that a dark shadow fell-let it pass; but throughout, I have been a butt to persecution. When I first came to this wretched place, a petition of mine was presented to the count-it contained but the simple desire to be allowed to depart. I hoped then to begin a new existence. The boon was not only refused, but every possible hardship was added to the refusal. Still I dreamed but of departure; but how could I go when all the necessary papers, power, and what not, must be got from the authorities of my parish, who know better than to legalize my absence in the teeth of their master!" "It is a hard law," said Loeb Hertz, "that binds a man to the spot of earth on which he may happen to be born, there to rot in poverty; when, perhaps, beyond the ridge of his native mountains, or the sands of his native shore, wealth, hope, and joy, might be his. It is a pity that a law so oppressive cannot be evaded." "I thought so, too," resumed Pavel; "but a short time after my petition was rejected, an in "Do you mean to say, Jakubski, that you have cident occurred in our village, which showed me no heart in the Polish cause?" “Do you mean to say, Loeb Hertz, that you think it likely I should advocate it? Am I not a serf?" "Do you think remaining faithful to Austria will shake off the fetters?—look at Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, have they not the same oppressive game-laws, private courts of justiciary, feudal tenure? A few shades more or less, it is the same all over the Austrian dominions." "And whose fault is it?" said Pavel, warming up. "I have often heard that the emperor would willingly do away with the robot, if one but let him. You who have travelled much must know the truth. Come, make a clean breast of it." the futility of the attempt. A young man, determined to quit the estate, took it into his head that he would do so without leave, and one day he made off with himself. It appears he managed to procure himself a false wanderbuch, and got on tolerably well for a time; but at last the fraud was detected-he was severely chastised, and sent hither with a gendarme at his back, whose gun was ready charged, to clip his wing in case he should think of flying. Three times did he go, and three times was he brought back in the same manner, each time being punished more severely than the preceding one. "Unnatural tyranny!" exclaimed Loeb Hertz. "Well," continued Pavel," here I remained, desirous of being a soldier, but the lucky number "Why, I am bound to say," answered his never fell to my lot. Year after year, summer companion, "that I have often heard this as- and winter, have I been exposed to all the petty serted. Even in Russia, it is firmly believed annoyances of that Duski! My team was always that the emperor would long since have abolished chosen for the hardest, heaviest labor. I lost slavery altogether, if it were not for his nobles." horse after horse-and I loved my horses. Every "Then, should n't we be fools," said Pavel, blow I struck by order cut to my very soul-and with a bitter laugh, "to shed our hearts' blood yet I must keep, and rear them, to be overtoiled merely to increase the strength of our oppressors? from sheer malice to myself. I once had a favorIf that be your mission, go back to those who sentite dog. One day I was crossing a forest; he you." It's a "And have you been living all this time upon that—that sort of trade?" said Pavel. was with me he was no hunting dog-he could | lage, and, for that matter, on this estate. do no harm. I was myself unarmed-I had not fair warning, and war between us, I suppose." even a stick in my hand. He was shot dead "No," said Loeb Hertz, after a moment's at my feet. And here, on this barren spot consideration, "no! there are other and more where we now stand, I had grown some fruit important places to be influenced, and there is trees. I thought I hoped they would escape the more underhand work to be done. I leave this observation of my tormentors. See now-where place-I would not have to fight it out with are my trecs!" He pointed to a few shapeless stumps. "But even the worm will turn when trod upon. I have resisted long-endured much -struggled hard with myself. I have spent sleepless nights, feverish with the hot desire of revenge! When such thoughts came too strong upon me, I entreated to be allowed to depart. I have combated my evil passions like a man; but rather than fight side by side with them, and for them, I However, it boots not talking," he continued, with increased energy-"I hate them with the hate of years-with a hate that has grown with my growth-that has been the only feeling of my desolate existence-and you think I would now assist them! Let them not wish me among their ranks-let them not seek to compound with their natural foes. Pshaw, they are mad with power! they think to command the heart as they crush the will." "Poland," said Loeb Hertz, losing his usual frivolity of manner, and for once looking very grave "Poland has lost a son in you, but liberty has gained one. I, too, cherish the idea of a Polish republic-our nobles might help us to regain our country-" "Never!" interrupted Pavel. "Let us not trust to so great a chance. If they attempt to rise, let them fight it out with Austria, and," he added, triumphantly," be crushed!” 66 "And you thus put yourself in the hands of a stranger-one whom you know to be an agent?" Well," said Pavel," go and betray me if you will-I am sick of life! But you will not betray me," he added, with a smile-"I read through you years ago." The men exchanged glances they understood each other. "You must not, however," said Loeb Hertz, “be as open with all emissaries that will come to you, as you are with me. Yes, and well, too; and, depend upon it, my children, should they wish to embrace it, will find a very safe inheritance. So long as there are Jews that want emancipation, and Poles that want Poland, Europe will not know one hour's repose." "And you may be sure," said Pavel, "that if the nobles now-a-days do not yield their power with a good grace, harm will come of that, too." From that day forth, Pavel was an altered man. He no longer avoided, but, on the contrary, courted the society of his fellows. He was the chief orator in the field and in the public-house; and between him and the more resolute characters of the village sprung up a closer intimacy than had previously existed. He devoted those days which he was free to call his own to the mines, which now, like every other part of the estate, became an arena of discussion. In the mean while, emissaries and agents of every kind succeeded each other; some of the French propagandi who, like Loeb Hertz, under pretence of preaching the restoration of Poland, secretly paved the way for other and newer principles; some on the part of Austria, to keep alive Austrian predilections in the peasantry; others purely in the Polish interest. The clergy began to agitate in favor of the rising, and seldom a day passed without their reporting progress to the nobles, who kept up a lively intercourse with each other. Now, this point of union existed in the count's family; they were thoroughly patriotic, hence the reason why neither the countess nor her son quarrelled with the notion of spending the winter at Stanoiki, where plotting might be carried on more safely and conveniently than in the capital. They "There are plenty of them about," observed Pa- felt less than usual the weight of each other's vel; "there was an organ-grinder at the public-society-for one great plan occupied them all, one house last night, who may not be what he seems hope fired their imagination-they thought and -he was for Austria. A pedler, too-a consort dreamed of but one object-the liberation of Poof yours-" land. Their self-love, too, was flattered; for the general, in consequence of his knowledge of military tactics and habit of command, no less than in consideration of the weight which his name and fortune threw into the balance, was a prize of first magnitude, and esteemed accordingly. "Of course," interrupted the other, quickly, "Austria will try to keep the minds of the people steady, which it is our obvious mission to prevent -we have the clergy with us." "Ay, but there's the robot against you," said Pavel-" you'll never be able to effect a rising." The rainy season set in, but it did not drive away the guests; and they endured the monotony of in-door life with a patience that did their patriotism much credit. The ladies spent their mornings working white and red flags and scarfs for the future battalion of heroes; whilst the gentlemen computed, by every rule of arithmetic, but chiefly by fancy's amplification, the funds they could "When one has seven daughters and three unprovided nieces to dispose of," replied the lady, somewhat embarrassed, "one cannot be patriotic to the degree of refusing any husband whatever." "God prosper you! good aunt, and send you wooers in plenty," said the Countess Sophie, laughing. "But hark! the gentlemen are again discussing the robot. It's your husband, as usual; he is riding his favorite hobby. He, too, like you, is but half a Pole.” collect, the cost of equipment and ammunition, the | ject. I verily believe you would give one of my number of their adherents-in short, all their fair cousins to a German, if you found one that available resources. The younger members of the suited." society, friends of Casimir, practised rifle-shooting and the use of the broadsword, sang patriotic songs, dreamed themselves Kosciuskos, every man of them; and not less resolved than their seniors were, yet a great deal more blind to the difficulties and perils of the enterprise. Billiards and smoking filled up what time the discussion of the all-engrossing theme left unemployed; and in the afternoon, cards for the ladies-dice, and again smoking, for the youths-occupied pretty nearly the interval till bed-time. The young people would sometimes attempt a charade among themselves; but none possessed the freedom of mind necessary to give zest to the amusement. One day, the dinner being over, the party assembled in the large, but somewhat desolate, saloon of the castle. Near the countess were grouped several ladies, mostly like herself, past the prime of life, engaged in low, murmuring converse, that did not preclude their catching up such phrases as, being pronounced in a louder key than the rest, escaped from the circle of men that surrounded the master of the house; whilst a few of the younger dames, reclining in attitudes of Oriental ease, in deep fauteuils, were enjoying their cigarettos with creole indolence- —a fashion but lately imported from Paris, and viewed with virtuous indignation by the Countess Stanoiki. "You have had lawyers, notaries, and what not, with you this morning. I hope, my dear Sophie, you are not thinking of making your will?" said an elderly lady, whose consanguinity gave her the privilege of familiarity. "Oh, dear, no! How could you think of such a thing, dear aunt? The general has only been signing over to me all his property. You understand," she added, in a lower voice, "if Austria gain the day, this puts confiscation out of the question.” Why," said the lady, timidly, "I think we have shown some boldness in coming here at all.” "If you repent it, as yet no harm is done.” "Hem!" answered the lady in a tone which seemed to imply that in her mind the matter deserved some consideration. "I tell you," said Count Soboski-the nobleman whose wife was conversing with the Countess Sophie-"I tell you, Stanoiki, you cannot reckon on your peasantry." "Oh, that old story of the robot," said Count Leninski, a gentleman of tiger-like aspect, despite his spare person and sharp features. "Soboski can never hold his peace on that subject." "Because I view it in another light than you do." "What would you have us to do, then?” said a powerful man, of an unhealthy white complexion, with pale eyes, thick lips, and reddish hair, on whose every lineament brutality was impressed. "Would you have us give our lands to the peasantry as a bribe for their rising ?-for, after all, these lands are ours. I don't know what you mean by the peasants not liking the robot. As well might the English tenant say he does not like to pay rent." "True," said the general," it is our right; and for that reason alone I have always exacted my dues with unflinching rigor. Leniency would encourage a false notion in the serfs; and what might have been intended merely as a charitable exception, would have been converted into a pre "What if it be? It will be difficult to defeat cedent." it." "But their very unwillingness to pay the "Some sums of money, at least, I should place tribute," persisted Soboski, " ought to make it abroad," said the aunt. "And so we have." "I wonder at your letting Casimir-whom you were always so timid about-take so prominent a share in so great a peril." "I was chary of him for that very reason, my dear aunt; I was bringing up a hero for Poland." "And if he fall?" painful to receive." "As well might you say, my dear friend," retorted Stanoiki, "that an English landlord should feel reluctant to receive his rents. These are our rents. Never lose sight of the historical fact in the vagaries of modern liberalism. Our ancestors, having more land than they could possibly cultivate, parcelled it out in larger and lesser frag "I shall not mourn for him more than for my ments, under certain obligations. Very well. lost country." The land is as much ours as it was theirs; its "Sophie, you are a heroine, and deserve to be nominal proprietors must, of course, continue to the mother of heroes." "You flatter me, dear aunt. I am but a true Pole-as e-as I feel we all feel. Your living so long perform the same services as those by which their ancestors held it of ours." "Unless," said the stout man," you start from among the Germans has cooled you on that sub-the somewhat primitive principle that no man has |