Sometimes he also adds:
“Once upon a time I went out to demolish and uproot; now I plant and build. I will teach you royal customs because your heads were made for crowns.”
Dozens of pilgrims are received at the court every month. Some come to visit the Lord, and some, usually the younger ones, stay on. For maidens and unmarried men it is a great honor to spend a year in the service of the Lord. They all bring money with them, which they immediately deposit with the steward.
The palace on Petersburger Gasse is sturdily built, with three stories. A heavy wooden gate guards the entrance to the outside courtyard, where the stable, the carriage house, the storehouses for wood, and the kitchen are located. On the Petersburger Gasse side, which leads straight to the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, are the most beautiful rooms, albeit all in the shadow of the enormous structure of the church. The rooms on the second floor are occupied by the Lord and Her Ladyship Eva, as well as Roch and Joseph, whenever they come here from Warsaw. Here are also rooms for the more important guests, for the closest brothers and sisters of the true faith. When the elders stay in Brünn—the Wo?owskis, the Jakubowskis, the Dembowskis, or the ?ab?ckis—this is where they stay. At the end of the left wing the Lord has his office, where he receives his guests. Strangers are received downstairs, right next to the courtyard. There is also a huge hall where the previous occupant used to hold balls—now it is a place for meetings and study. At the back is the kindergarten, where the youngest children are taught. The Lord does not care to have infants around him, which is why expectant women are sent away from the court, back to their families in Poland, unless the Lord, who sometimes likes to suck their milk, determines otherwise.
On the third floor, both sides of the palace have rooms for the men and the women as well as guest rooms. Many have been furnished and arranged, yet there are still not enough to accommodate all the visitors they receive. The Lord does not permit spouses to live together. He is the one who determines who will be with whom, and the truth is there have never been any disagreements on this score.
In such an atmosphere, romances and affairs have been known to blossom. Sometimes someone who is already in the Lord’s good graces requests the opportunity to get closer to this woman or that man. Then the Lord either permits it or doesn’t. So it went recently with Jezierzański’s daughter, Magda Golińska, who, although somewhat ashamed, begged the Lord to allow her to have intercourse with Jacob Szymanowski from the Lord’s personal guard, despite the fact that she was already married to Jacob Goliński, who had stayed behind in Poland to run his business. For a long time, the Lord refused consent, but eventually he relented, moved by the grace and beauty of Szymanowski. It turned out to be a bad decision.
Behind the palace and the stables, on the slope, there grows a small garden mostly planted with herbs and parsley. It includes a pear tree that bears very sweet fruit, drawing wasps from all over Brünn. On warm evenings, the young people from the palace and those who are living in quarters around town all come together under that pear tree, and this is where real life occurs. The youth sometimes bring instruments and play and sing; languages join together, and melodies overlap. They sing until one of the older people chases them away; then—with permission—they go out onto the square at the base of the cathedral.
The horses are not kept in the stable all the time, except for maybe the pair needed for the small, everyday carriage. The rest are kept in stables outside the city—beautiful coursers, each pair different. When the Lord needs to leave, he sends someone to Obrowitz on horseback, to bring back horses with a cart.
The Lord does not need horses, however, to go to church. The cathedral is right on his doorstep, its massive stone walls visible from his window, its tower looming over all of Brünn. When its bells ring, everyone gathers in the inner courtyard, wearing their most elegant clothing, forming a retinue. First the Lord goes with Eva, followed by the elders, and behind them the young people led by Jacob’s sons, who have recently come to join their father and sister. The gate is opened, and they slowly make their way to the cathedral. The shortness of the distance they must cross gives them the opportunity to mark each step with great solemnity, giving onlookers time to get a good look at them. The denizens of Brünn gather beforehand to witness this parade. The Lord always makes the biggest impression. He was born a king—tall and broad-shouldered, with additional height provided by his high Turkish fez, which he almost never takes off, and his broad coat with its royal ermine collar. People also look at his Turkish shoes, with their upturned toes. Plus Eva is an attraction in her own right, the most fashionably dressed, head held high, dressed in celadons or pinks. She glides along beside her father like a cloud, and the eyes of the crowd slide right over her, as if she were a particular kind of being made of precious matter, untouchable.