“Pan Pelka?“ asked Pan Yan, holding his breath.
“Yes, my master. A splendid partisan,--Pan Pelka, who was killed the other day. May the Lord light his soul! I don't know whether there is any one who could lead a detachment better and creep up to the enemy better than he, unless Volodyovski alone. Pan Pelka came then, and cut up the detachment of Donyéts so that not a foot got away. They took Donyéts himself prisoner. They drew him on a stake with oxen a couple of weeks ago,--served him right! But with Pan Pelka I had trouble not a little, for he was a man desperately intent on the virtue of women,--God light his soul! I was afraid that the princess, who had escaped harm from the Cossacks, would be worse treated by her own. But I told Pan Pelka that the lady was a relative of our prince. A
