DESTINY

They threw themselves like wolves on top of him. They knocked him down and dragged him to Rustem Bey to kiss his hand. But instead of kissing his right hand, priest Stoy slowly stood up. The wind was blowing his gray hair. His cassock was torn, and the priest’s hat was wallowing in the mud. Blood was running down his face. He looked at the Bey and repeated again:

„Neither I kneel, nor I kiss a hand”

Rustem Bey was furious. Sparks were coming out from his eyes. He couldn’t let the priest humiliate him in front of the whole village!

„If you do not kneel, you will lie down on your knees all your life!“

The Bey looked at the guards, who were waiting for his orders. He cried out angrily:

„What are you waiting for? Cut the tendons on this fool’s legs!”

They cut the tendons on his knees. Priest Stoyo started turning over, pain-stricken. The villagers understood what was waiting for them, but they did not step ahead to kiss the Bey’s hand.

Rustem Bey turned red from anger. He left the bloody priest and the silent men. He jumped on the horse and warned them,

„When I get back – I won’t leave a stone over a stone!”

The Bey swished his horse. His retinue led the loaded mules after him. The Russians were already nearby, and haidouks were stalking in the forests.

The tough Priest Stoyo stayed alive, but all his life he lived on his knees. Today, only the inscription of the old priest fountain in Petlare reminds of him and of those troubled times.

A tired traveller, as he passes through the village, stops at the water fountain. After slaking his thirst, he looks involuntarily at the concave marble slab above the spout. There an unknown hand has written on the stone: „This water fountain was built by Priest Stoyo in the year of 1850, the month of July".

The priest’s fountain, built in the courtyard wall with a greenish-muddy wooden trough, id still monotonously murmuring in the same way and reminds that life is running like water and there is no way back.