Peter the Voyt

Peter the Voyt holds the unenviable post of village administrator, a man caught between the peasants who laugh at his paunch and the officials whose orders he must carry out. When the school vote splits Lipka, he is the one expected to bend the commune toward the Government's will, even as the smith and the miller warn that refusal means soldiers, seizures, and prison. His shuffling errands for Madam Scrivener and his quiet trips to the Manor mark him as the gentry's instrument — a role that makes him useful, pitiable, and quietly despised.