lack of trust and will, he too would perish. Abandoned by all—"Pylaszczkiewicz!"— exclaimed the hermit in despair, "You, Syphon Pylaszczkiewicz, recapitulate at once the gains we've made in the last three months by revealing to us the full depth of thought and the delights of style, and—yes, I do trust, I do, Jesus, Mary, I do trust!"
Syphon, always ready—as mentioned before—and able on demand, stood up, and with great ease and fluency began:
The following day, having gathered his troops, Caesar chastised them for their hot-headedness and greed, and, surmising that they had used their own judgment, their own preconception as to where they should go and what they should do, and that they had decided, after the orders to retreat were given, that they would not he held hack by any military tribunes or envoys, he explained to them the significance of an unfavorable site, such as Avaricum, where an otherwise assured victory eluded him even though he had seized the enemy without their leader and without their cavalry, and that they had, nonetheless, sustained major losses because the site was unfavorable. The spirit of those who will not be deterred by the fortifications of a camp, the height of mountains, or the walls of a city is to be much admired, but by the same token one has to condemn the undue willfulness and audacity of those who think they know more about victory and the outcome of things than their leader does, and in a soldier one wishes for modesty and restraint no less than for bravery and nobility of mind. Then, as he kept advancing, he made the decision and ordered the bugles to sound retreat so that ten legions would at once desist from battle, and this was carried out, but the soldiers in the remaining legions did not hear the sound of the bugles because they were separated from the rest by a wide valley. Therefore military tribunes and envoys tried to call them back, as had been ordered by Caesar, but the soldiers were so excited by the prospect of victory, of overpowering their enemy in his flight in the course of a propitious battle, all of which they could achieve through bravery and without resorting to flight, that they did not stop till they were at the walls and the gates of the city, then shouts were heard in all parts of the city, whereupon those terrified by the sudden uproar thought that the enemy was within the gates, and started running out of the city.
"Collandus sim, gentlemen! Collandus sim! What clarity, what language! What depth, what thought! Collandus sim, what a repository of wisdom! Oh, I can breathe again, I can breathe! Collandus sim forever and ever, to the very end collandus sim, collandus sim, collandus sim, collandus sim, collandus sim— suddenly the bell rang, and the students screamed wildly, the little old man gave a look of surprise and walked out.
At the same moment, abandoning these officially sanctioned musings, they all bashed full-face into their own private musings about the lad, the guy, discussions flared up again, and, what had been real slowly turned into a world of ideals, oh, let me dream now, let me! Kneadus had deliberately summoned me to be the umpire! He did it deliberately! So that I would have to watch, so that I would have to see it. His mind was set—by befouling himself he wanted to befoul me too, he could not bear the fact that I had been instrumental in revealing his momentary weakness for the farmhand. But how could I risk exposing my own face? I knew that if I became part of this aping, my own face would never return to normal, my chance of escape would be lost forever, no, no, let them carry on however they want, but without me, without me! Nervously wiggling my toe in my shoe I caught his sleeve, I looked at him imploringly and whispered:
"Kneadus..."
He pushed me away.
"Oh no, kiddo! That won't do! You are the umpire, and that's that!"
He called me "kiddo"! What a disgusting word! It was sheer cruelty on his part, I realized that
Syphon, always ready—as mentioned before—and able on demand, stood up, and with great ease and fluency began:
The following day, having gathered his troops, Caesar chastised them for their hot-headedness and greed, and, surmising that they had used their own judgment, their own preconception as to where they should go and what they should do, and that they had decided, after the orders to retreat were given, that they would not he held hack by any military tribunes or envoys, he explained to them the significance of an unfavorable site, such as Avaricum, where an otherwise assured victory eluded him even though he had seized the enemy without their leader and without their cavalry, and that they had, nonetheless, sustained major losses because the site was unfavorable. The spirit of those who will not be deterred by the fortifications of a camp, the height of mountains, or the walls of a city is to be much admired, but by the same token one has to condemn the undue willfulness and audacity of those who think they know more about victory and the outcome of things than their leader does, and in a soldier one wishes for modesty and restraint no less than for bravery and nobility of mind. Then, as he kept advancing, he made the decision and ordered the bugles to sound retreat so that ten legions would at once desist from battle, and this was carried out, but the soldiers in the remaining legions did not hear the sound of the bugles because they were separated from the rest by a wide valley. Therefore military tribunes and envoys tried to call them back, as had been ordered by Caesar, but the soldiers were so excited by the prospect of victory, of overpowering their enemy in his flight in the course of a propitious battle, all of which they could achieve through bravery and without resorting to flight, that they did not stop till they were at the walls and the gates of the city, then shouts were heard in all parts of the city, whereupon those terrified by the sudden uproar thought that the enemy was within the gates, and started running out of the city.
"Collandus sim, gentlemen! Collandus sim! What clarity, what language! What depth, what thought! Collandus sim, what a repository of wisdom! Oh, I can breathe again, I can breathe! Collandus sim forever and ever, to the very end collandus sim, collandus sim, collandus sim, collandus sim, collandus sim— suddenly the bell rang, and the students screamed wildly, the little old man gave a look of surprise and walked out.
At the same moment, abandoning these officially sanctioned musings, they all bashed full-face into their own private musings about the lad, the guy, discussions flared up again, and, what had been real slowly turned into a world of ideals, oh, let me dream now, let me! Kneadus had deliberately summoned me to be the umpire! He did it deliberately! So that I would have to watch, so that I would have to see it. His mind was set—by befouling himself he wanted to befoul me too, he could not bear the fact that I had been instrumental in revealing his momentary weakness for the farmhand. But how could I risk exposing my own face? I knew that if I became part of this aping, my own face would never return to normal, my chance of escape would be lost forever, no, no, let them carry on however they want, but without me, without me! Nervously wiggling my toe in my shoe I caught his sleeve, I looked at him imploringly and whispered:
"Kneadus..."
He pushed me away.
"Oh no, kiddo! That won't do! You are the umpire, and that's that!"
He called me "kiddo"! What a disgusting word! It was sheer cruelty on his part, I realized that
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