Boryna Loses the Manor Cow Lawsuit marks a defeat in court, but not a surrender. The loss leaves Boryna with costs to pay and no immediate remedy; on the journey home through a blizzard, he turns the setback into a vow to wait for another chance. The scene binds legal powerlessness to the harsh conditions of winter, while showing how he tries to meet both with endurance.

The return through the blizzard

The lawsuit’s outcome is disclosed during Boryna’s return from court, not in a courtroom scene. He is driving with Witek and Ambrozy through deep drifts, in weather so severe that the sled moves slowly and, in the worst places, they must lead the horses by their bridles. The men are bantering and joking, and Ambrozy hums despite the storm. Their noisy progress contrasts with Hanka’s difficult walk along the forest edge, where she and her companion hurry toward the road before nightfall.

When Hanka recognizes the white mark on the filly’s forehead, she realizes that Boryna is approaching. She steps aside and draws her shawl over her face. Boryna recognizes her as they pass and first urges the horses onward; then he turns the sled around, waits for her, and offers her a lift, telling her to put the firewood in the basket and get in. The brief change of course places the legal defeat within the ordinary demands of winter travel and household need: the court journey ends not in ceremony, but on a snowbound road where someone needs shelter and transport.

The judgment and its costs

Boryna’s conversation with Ambrozy establishes the result plainly. Despite the Voyt’s assurances, Boryna has lost his lawsuit against the manor and has also been forced to pay the costs. The defeat is therefore more than an adverse judgment: it carries a financial penalty, adding to the burden of a man whose dispute has already drawn him into conflict with a powerful institution.

The account offers no detailed explanation of the court’s reasoning or of the evidence presented. Instead, it emphasizes the unequal position Boryna believes he faces. Ambrozy observes that the manor has “long arms” and can win favour everywhere. The image makes the defeat seem bound up not only with the claim itself, but with the reach and influence of the opposing side.

Boryna’s answer to defeat

Boryna does not respond with an outburst. He says calmly, “I’ll get back what I lost, I will that …” His confidence is not supported by any new legal decision in the scene; it is a declaration of intent after an unfavorable result. The distinction matters: the lawsuit has ended against him, but in his mind the larger contest remains open.

When Ambrozy warns that success will be difficult, Boryna answers that “There’s a way to deal with favour too, there’s a way for everything. You need only patience and to wait for the right moment.” His reply shifts the emphasis from the court’s judgment to timing and persistence. He imagines recovery as something that can be pursued by waiting for circumstances to change, rather than as an immediate consequence of winning an argument.

Poverty, patience, and the limits of victory

Hanka’s changed appearance brings the cost of hardship into the conversation. When Boryna remarks on the change, she answers, “Poverty forges a person easier than the blacksmith’s iron.” Her response gives the scene a counterpoint to Boryna’s composed confidence: for her, poverty is already doing its work, and endurance has been imposed by necessity rather than chosen as a strategy.

The men then consider stopping at the inn to warm themselves. Boryna accepts, but continues his reflection through the language of a forge: “If a man wants to win anything, he must forge his fate cold and temper it with patience.” The lawsuit’s loss thus becomes a small but decisive test of his governing belief that patience can outlast disadvantage. Yet the scene also keeps that belief grounded in material realities—the costs of the case, the manor’s influence, Hanka’s poverty, and the storm that makes even the journey home arduous. His resolve offers no reversal of the judgment; it names how he intends to live with it and continue the struggle.