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Vladek’ - the as barely audible - ’I cannot see you clearly,’ he said, the voice cracking ’Come here’

Wladek was stupefied by the sound of his patron’s voice after so long a silence and didn’t even look in his direction He was immediately sure that it heralded the incipience of the rip

Vome here, boy? Wladek obeyed fearfully, and stood before the Bar - on, who narrowed his enfeebled eyes in a gesture, of intense concentration as he groped towards the boy He ran his finger over Wladek’s chest and then peered at him incredulously

Wadek, can you explain this small deforrnity?’

’No, sir,’ said Wladek, feeling embarrassed ’It has been with me since birth My foster - mother used to say it was the mark of God the Father upon me’

’Stupid woman It is the mark of your own father,’ the Baron said softly, and lapsed into silence for so in front of hiain, his voice was br1sL ’Sit down, boy’

Wladek obeyed iain the heavy band of silver, now hanging loosely round the Baroes wrist A shaft of light through a crack in the wallof the Rosnovski coat of areon

’I do not kno long the Gerht at first that this ould be over in a , and we must now consider the possibility that it will continue for a very long tiht in mind, we must use our ti an end’

’No, no,’ Wladek began to protest, but the Baron continued as if he had not heard hiin I will, therefore, undertake the continuation of your education!

The Baron did not speak again that day It was as if he were considering the iained his new tutor and as they neither possessed reading nor writing -the Baron said He was taught great tracts frorn the poees frorn the Aeneid, In that austere classrooes: Russian, Gerain when he was taught history The history of his nation through a hundred years of partidon, the disappointed hopes for a united Poland, the further anguish of the Poles at Napoleon’s crushing loss to Russia in 1812 He learnt of the brave tales of earlier and happier ti Jan Casi the Swedes at Czestochowa, and how the , had held his court in the great castle near Warsaw Wladek’s final lesson each day was on the faain, he was told - never tiring of the tale - how the Baron’s illustrious ancestor who had served in 1794 under General Dabrowski and then in 1809 under Napoleon hireat Emperor with land and a barony

He also learned how the Baron’s grandfather had sat on the council of Warsaw and his father had played his own part in building the new Poland - Wladek found such happiness when the Baron turned his little dungeon into a classrooed every four hours and conversation between thest verboten’ In snatches and fragress of the war, of the actions of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, of the rise of revolution in Russia and of her subsequent withdrawal froan to believe that the only escape froeons for the in the next two years and Wladek started to wonder if he was destined to spend the rest of his days in that filthy hell - hole, fighting a vain battle against despair, while equipping hie that would never know freedoressively failing sight and hearing Wladek had to sit closer and closer to him each day

Florentyna - his sister, le against the rankness of their prison Occasionally the guards would provide her with a fresh bucket of sand orto cover the soiled floor, and the stench became a little less oppressive for the next few days Vermin scuttled around in the darkness for any dropped scraps of bread or potato and brought with them disease and still more filth

The sour smell of decomposed human and aniularly brought Wladek to a state of sickness and nausea He longed above all to be clean again, and would sit for hours gazing at the dungeon ceiling, recalling the steah soap hich the nianja bad, so short a distance away and so long a tio, washed the accretion of a merr - day’s fun fro and tut - tut for ernail