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By morn, before the house, wringing his hands,
He looked upon the smoke of towns and hamlets,
Burning far off; there gazed he with wild eyes.
By night he started out of sleep, and looked
Forth from the window on the blood-red blaze.
"Husband, what ails thee?" asks with tears Aldona,
"What ails me? Shall I peaceful sleep till Germans
Shall give me sleeping, bound, to hangman's
hands?"
"O husband! Heaven forbid! The sentries guard
Full well the trenches." "True the sentries guard
them.
I watch and grasp the sabre in my hand.
But when the sentries die the sword is broken.
List, if I live to old age, wretched age―"
"But Heaven will give us comfort in our children."
"The Germans will fall on us, slay the wife,
The children tear away, and lead them far,
Teach them to loose the arrow on their father.
Myself my father, brothers, might have slain.
Unless the Wajdelote―" "Dear Walter! go we
Farther in Litwa; hide we from the Germans
In mountains and in forests." "Aye, we go,
And other mothers, children leave behind.
Thus fled the Prussians; Germans overtook them