Chapter 59: Families of Old I

There was in Jmud a powerful family, the Billevis, descended from Mendog, connected with many, and respected, beyond all, in the district of Eossyeni. The Billevis had never risen to great offices, the highest they had filled were provincial; but in war they had rendered the country unsurpassed services, for which they were richly rewarded at various times. Their native nest, existing to this day, was called Billevis; but they possessed many other estates, both in the neighborhood of Rossyeni and farther on toward Krakin, near Lauda, Shoi, Nyevyaja, and beyond Ponyevyej. In later times they branched out into a number of houses, the members of which lost sight of one another. They all assembled only when there was a census at Eossyeni of the general militia of Jmud on the plain of the invited Estates. They met also in part under the banners of the Lustirian cavalry and at provincial diets ; and because they were wealthy and  influential, even the Eadzivills, all powerful in Lust