CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FROM THE BOOKS OF 
 
 GEORGE MORGAN WELCH '03 
 
 COLONEL 
 
 Judge Advocate General's Department 
 Army of the United States 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PG 3332.T3 1886 
 
 Taras Bulba 
 
 Ill mil iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 111! iMiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 3 1924 026 658 165 
 
T3 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240266581 65 
 
NIKOLAI V. GOGOL. 
 
TARAS BULBA 
 
 BY 
 
 NIKOLAI VASILIEVITCH GOGOL 
 
 'f 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY 
 
 ISABEL F. HAPGOOD 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO? 
 
 13 ASTOR PLACE I ' ' ' 
 
 ^ 
 
/9 ^(/lf2.% 
 
 Copyright, 1886, 
 By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 
 
 
 ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED 
 
 BY RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, 
 
 BOSTON. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 
 
 "Ah, turn round, son! How ridiculous you 
 are ! What sort of priest's cassock have you 
 got on ? Do all in the academy dress like 
 this?" 
 
 With such words did old Bulba greet his 
 two sons, who had been away for their educa- 
 tion to the Royal Seminary in Kief, and had 
 just returned home to their father. 
 
 His sons had but just dismounted from their 
 horses. They were a couple of stout lads 
 who still looked askance, like youths recently 
 released from the seminary. Their strong, 
 healthy faces were covered with the first down, 
 which had, as yet, never known a razor. They 
 
 5 
 
6 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 were very much disturbed by such a reception 
 from their father, and stood motionless with 
 their eyes fixed upon the earth. 
 
 " Stand stiir, stand still ! let me have a good 
 look at you," he continued, turning them 
 round. " How long your svitkas ' are ! What 
 svitkas ! There never were such svitkas in the 
 world before. Just run, one of you ! I will see 
 whether he will not get entangled in the skirts, 
 and fall to the ground." 
 
 " Don't laugh, don't laugh, father ! " said the 
 eldest of them at length. 
 
 " See how touchy they are ! Why shouldn't 
 I laugh .? " 
 
 " Because, although you are my father, if you 
 laugh, by heavens, I will beat you ! " 
 
 "Ah, what kind of a son are you? what, 
 your father ! " said Taras Bulba, retreating sev- 
 eral paces in amazement. 
 
 " Yes, even my father. I don't stop to con- 
 sider persons when an insult is in question." 
 
 ' Long garments of coarse cloth. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 7 
 
 " So you want to fight me ? with your fists ? " 
 
 "Any way." 
 
 " Well, let it be with fists," said Taras Bulba, 
 stripping up his sleeves : " I'll see what sort of 
 a man you are with your fists." 
 
 And the father and son, in place of a pleas- 
 ant meeting after long separation, began to 
 administer to each other heavy blows in the 
 ribs, on the back and chest, now retreating and 
 looking at each other, now attacking afresh. 
 
 " Look, good people ! the old man has gone 
 mad! he has lost his senses completely!" 
 screamed their pale, ugly, good mother, who 
 was standing on the threshold, and had not yet 
 succeeded in embracing her darling children. 
 "The children have come home, we have not 
 seen them for over a year ; and now he has 
 taken some strange freak, — he's pummelling 
 them." 
 
 "Yes, he fights well," said Bulba, pausing; 
 "well, by heavens! " he continued, rather as if 
 excusing himself, "yes, although he has never 
 
8 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 tried before. He will be a good Cossack ! 
 Now, welcome, son ! embrace me ; " and the 
 father and son began to kiss each other. 
 " Good little son ! see that you beat every one 
 as you pummelled me ; don't let any one es- 
 cape. Nevertheless, your garment is ridicu- 
 lous. What rope is this, hanging here.'' — And 
 you, lout, why are you standing there with 
 your hands hanging 1 " said he, turning to the 
 youngest. "Why don't you fight me? you son 
 of a dog!" 
 
 "What an idea!" said the mother, who had 
 managed in the mean time to embrace the 
 youngest. "Who ever heard of a man's own 
 children beating their father.' That's enough 
 for the present : the child is young, he has had 
 a long journey, he is tired." (The child was 
 over twenty, and about six feet high.) " He 
 ought to rest, and eat something ; and he sets 
 him to fighting!" 
 
 " Eh, I see you are a scribbler ! " said Bulba. 
 " Don't listen to your mother, little son ; she is 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 9 
 
 a woman, she knows nothing. What sort of 
 petting do you need ? Your petting is a clear 
 field and a good horse, that's your petting ! 
 And do you see this sword ? that's your 
 mother ! All the rest they stuff your heads 
 with is rubbish ; the academy, books, ABC 
 books, philosophy, and all that, I spit upon it 
 all ! " Here Bulba added a word which is not 
 used in print. "But I'll tell you what is best : 
 I'll take you to Zaporozhe' this very week. 
 There's science for you ! There's your school ; 
 there alone will you acquire sense." 
 
 "And are they only to remain at home a 
 week .' " said the thin old mother sadly, with 
 tears in her eyes. " The poor boys will have no 
 chance to go about, no chance to get acquainted 
 with the home where they were born ; there will 
 be no chance for me to get a look at them." 
 
 " Enough, you've howled enough, old woman ! 
 A Cossack is not born to run around after 
 women. You would like to hide them both 
 
 • The Cossack country beyond (za) the falls (Jiorozhe) of the 
 Dnlepr. 
 
10 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 under your petticoat, and sit upon them as a 
 hen sits on eggs. Go, go, and let us have every 
 thing there is on the table in a trice. We 
 don't want any pampushke,' honey-cakes, poppy- 
 cakes, or any other messes : bring us a whole 
 sheep, give us a goat, mead forty years old, 
 and as much gorilka'' as possible, not with rai- 
 sins and all sorts of stuff, but plain flaming 
 gorilka, which foams and hisses like mad." 
 
 Bulba led his sons into the principal room of 
 the cabin ; and two handsome female servants 
 in coin necklaces, who were arranging the 
 apartment, ran out quickly. They were evi- 
 dently frightened at the arrival of the young 
 men, who did not care to be familiar with any 
 one ; or else they merely wanted to maintain 
 their female custom of screaming, and rushing 
 headlong at the sight of a man, and then screen- 
 ing their lively shame for a long time with 
 their sleeves. The cabin was furnished accord- 
 ing to the fashion of that period, — concerning 
 
 ' A boiled dish, made of dough. * Corn-brandy. 
 
TARAS BULBA. II 
 
 which vivid hints remain only in the songs and 
 lyrics, which are no longer sung in the Ukraine 
 by aged blind men, with gentle tinkle of the 
 bandoura, to the people thronging round them, 
 — according to the taste of that warlike and 
 troublous time, when the leagues and battles 
 began to occur in the Ukraine, after the union. 
 All was clean, smeared with colored clay. On 
 the walls hung sabres, nagaiki (hunting-whips), 
 nets for birds, fish-nets and guns, cleverly 
 carved powder-horns, gilded bits for horses, and 
 tether-ropes with silver plates. The window 
 was small, with round dull panes, through which 
 it was impossible to see except by raising the 
 one movable pane. Around the windows and 
 doors were red bands. On shelves in the corner 
 stood jugs, bottles, and flasks of green and blue 
 glass, carved silver cups, and gilded glasses of 
 various makes, — Venetian, Turkish, Tscherkes- 
 sian, which had arrived in Bulba's cabin by 
 various roads, at third and fourth hand, a thing 
 which was quite common in those bold days. 
 
12 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 There were birch benches all around the room, 
 a huge table under the images in the front 
 corner, and a wide oven, all covered with parti- 
 colored patterns, and projections, and depres- 
 sions, with spaces between it and the wall. All 
 this was very familiar to our two young men, 
 who came home every year during the dog- 
 days, because they had no horses, and because 
 it was not customary to permit the students to 
 ride on horseback. All they had was tchubui,^ 
 which every Cossack who bore weapons could 
 pull. It was only at the end of their course, 
 that Bulba sent them, from his stud, a couple 
 of young stallions. 
 
 Bulba, on the occasion of his sons' arrival, 
 ordered all the sotniks,^ and all the officers of 
 the band who were of any consequence, to be 
 summoned ; and when two of them arrived with 
 the Osaul' Dmitro Tovkatch, his old comrade, 
 he immediately presented his sons, saying, "See 
 
 • Long locks of hair on the temples. ^ Captains of hundreds. 
 
 3 Under hetman, or cliief, among the Cossacks. 
 
TARAS BULB A. 13 
 
 what fine young fellows they are ! I shall send 
 them to the Setch ' shortly." The guests con- 
 gratulated Bulba, and both the young men, and 
 told them they would do well, and that there 
 was no better knowledge for a young man than 
 a knowledge of that Zaporozhian Setch. 
 
 "Now, brothers, seat yourselves, each where 
 he likes best at the table ; now my sons. First 
 of all, let's drink gorilka:." so spoke Bulba. 
 " God bless you ! Welcome, sons ; you Ostap, 
 and you Andrii. God grant that you may 
 always be successful in war, that you may con- 
 quer the Mussulmans and the Turks and the 
 Tatars ; and when the Poles undertake any 
 expedition against our faith, then may you beat 
 the Poles. Now clink your glasses — how now.' 
 Is the gorilka good .? What's gorilka in Latin ? 
 Come, my son, the Latins were stupid : they 
 did not know there was such a thing in the 
 world as gorilka. What was the name of the 
 man who wrote Latin rhymes .-' I don't know 
 
 • The village of the Zaporozhian Cossaclcs. 
 
14 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 much about reading and writing, so I don't 
 know quite. Was it Horace ? " 
 
 " What a dad ! " thought the eldest son 
 Ostap. "The old dog knows every thing, but 
 he always pretends the contrary." 
 
 "I don't believe the archimandrite allowed 
 you so much as a smell of gorilka," continued 
 Taras. " Confess, my little sons, they beat you 
 well with fresh birch-twigs, on your backs, and 
 all over your Cossack bodies ; and perhaps, 
 when you became too sensible, they beat you 
 with whips. And not on Saturday only, I 
 fancy, but on Wednesday and Thursday." 
 
 " What is past, father, must not be recalled : 
 it is done with." 
 
 " Let them try it now," said Andrfi. " Let 
 anybody just touch me, let any Tatar expose 
 himself now, and he'll learn what a Cossack's 
 sword is like ! " 
 
 " Good, my son, by heavens, good ! And 
 when it comes to that, I'll go with you; by 
 heavens, I'll go ! What should I wait here for >. 
 
TARAS BULB A. 1 5 
 
 To become a buckwheat-reaper and house- 
 keeper, to look after the sheep and swine, and 
 go around with my wife ? Away with them ! 
 I am a Cossack ; I'll have none of them ! 
 yi What's left but war? I'll go with you to 
 Zaporozhe to carouse ; I'll go, by heavens ! " 
 And old Bulba grew warm by degrees ; and 
 finally, quite angry, rose from the table, and, 
 assuming a dignified attitude, stamped his foot. 
 " We will go to-morrow ! Why delay ? What 
 enemy can we besiege here ? What is this hut 
 to us ? What do we want of all this ? What 
 are pots to us ? " So saying, he began to 
 knock the pots and flasks, and to throw them 
 about. 
 
 The poor old woman, well used to such ca- 
 pers from her husband, looked sadly on from 
 her seat on the wall-bench. She did not dare 
 say any thing ; but when she heard the decis- 
 ion which was so terrible for her, she could 
 not refrain from tears. She looked at her chil- 
 dren, from whom so speedy a separation was 
 
1 6 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 threatened ; and it is impossible to describe the 
 full force of her speechless grief, which seemed 
 to quiver in her eyes, and on her lips convul- 
 sively pressed together. 
 
 Bulba was terribly headstrong. He was one 
 of the characters which could only exist in 
 that fierce fifteenth century, in that half- 
 nomadic corner of Europe, when the whole of 
 Southern, original Russia, deserted by its 
 princes, was laid waste, burned to the quick 
 by pitiless troops of Mongolian robbers ; when 
 men deprived of house and home were brave 
 here ; when, amid conflagrations, in sight of 
 threatening neighbors and eternal fear, they 
 settled down, and grew accustomed to looking 
 them straight in the face, and trained them- 
 selves not to know that there was such a thing 
 as fear in the world ; when the ancient, peace- 
 able Slav spirit was seized with warlike flame, 
 and the Cossack state was instituted, — ^a^free, 
 wild feast of Russian nature, — and when 
 all the river-banks, fords, and suitable places 
 
TARAS BULBA. 
 
 17 
 
 were populated by Cossacks, whose number no 
 man knew, and whose bold comrades had a 
 right to reply to the Sultan inquiring how 
 many they were, " Who knows ? We are scat- 
 tered all over the steppes : wherever there is a 
 hillock, there is a Cossack." It was, in fact, a 
 most remarkable exhibition of Russian strength; 
 dire necessity forced it from the bosom of the 
 people. In place of the original provinces, 
 petty towns filled with huntsmen and whip- 
 pers-in, in place of the warring and bartering 
 petty princes in cities, there arose great colo- 
 nies, kur^ns,' and districts, bound together by 
 a common danger, and hatred towards the 
 heathen robbers. The whole story is well 
 known, how their incessant fighting and rest- 
 less life saved Europe from the merciless 
 hordes which threatened to overwhelm her. 
 The Polish kings, finding themselves sove- 
 reigns in place of the provincial princes, over 
 these extensive lands, though they were dis- 
 
 ' Cossack villages. In the Setch, a large wooden barrack. 
 
1 8 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 tant and feeble, yet understood the significance 
 of the Cossacks; and the advantages of this 
 ^ warlike, untrammelled life. They encouraged 
 them, and flattered this disposition of mind. 
 Under their distant rule, the hetmans, chosen 
 from among the Cossacks themselves, re-dis- 
 tributed the districts and villages {kurens) 
 into regiments and uniform districts. It was 
 not a regularly recruited army, no one saw 
 it ; but in case of war and general uprising, 
 it required a week, and no more, for every 
 man to appear on horseback, fully armed, 
 receiving only one ducat from the king; and 
 in two weeks such an army had assembled 
 as no recruiting officers would ever have been 
 able 'to collect. When the expedition was 
 ended, the army dispersed among fields and 
 meadows, and the fords of the Dniepr; each 
 man fished, traded, brewed his beer, and was a 
 free Cossack. Their foreign contemporaries 
 rightly marvelled at their wonderful qualities. 
 There was no trade which the Cossack did not 
 
TARAS BULBA. 19 
 
 know : he could distil brandy, make a telega 
 (peasant's wagon), make powder, do black- 
 smith's and locksmith's work, in addition to 
 committing wild excesses, drinking and carous- ,'^,\,\. \^ 
 ing as only a Russian can, — all this he was 
 equal to. Besides the registered Cossacks, who 
 considered themselves bound to appear in time 
 of war, it was possible to collect at any time, in 
 case of dire need, a whole army of volunteers. 
 All that was required was for the osaul to trav- 
 erse all the market-places and squares of the 
 villages and hamlets, and shout at the top of 
 his voice, standing in his telega, "Hey, ye 
 distillers and beer-brewers ! ye have brewed 
 enough beer, and lolled on your ovens, and fed 
 your fat bodies with flour, long enough !* Rise, 
 win glory and knightly honor! Ye plough- 
 men, reapers of buckwheat, tenders of sheep, 
 danglers after women, enough of following the 
 plough, and dirtying your yellow shoes in the 
 earth, and courting women, and wasting your 
 knightly strength ! The hour has come to win 
 
20 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 glory for the Cossacks ! " and these words were 
 like sparks falling on dry wood. The husband- 
 man broke his plough; the brewers and dis- 
 tillers threw away their casks, and destroyed 
 their barrels ; the mechanic and merchant sent 
 their trade and their shop to the devil, broke 
 the pots and every thing else in their houses, 
 and mounted their horses. In^ort,_^the Rus- 
 sian character here received a broad, deep 
 development, and a powerful outward expres- 
 sion. 
 
 Taras was one of the band of old, primitive 
 colonels ; he was born for warlike emotions, 
 and was distinguished for his uprightness of 
 character. Then the influence of Poland had 
 already begun to make itself felt upon the Rus- 
 sian nobility. Many adopted Polish customs, 
 began to display luxury, splendid staffs of ser- 
 vants, hawks, huntsmen, dinners, and palaces. 
 This was not to Taras' taste. He liked the 
 simple life of the Cossacks, and quarrelled with 
 those of his comrades who were inclined to the 
 
TARAS BULB A. 21 
 
 Warsaw party, calling them serfs of the Polish 
 nobles. Ever restless, he regarded himself as 
 the legal protector of the faith. He entered 
 despotically into a village where there was 
 universal complaint of the oppression of the 
 revenue farmers and the addition of fresh taxes 
 on necessaries. He and his Cossacks executed 
 justice, and made it a rule, that in three cases 
 it was absolutely necessary to resort to the 
 sword : namely, when the commissioners did 
 not respect the superior officers, and stood 
 before them in their caps ; when any one made 
 light of the faith, and did not observe the cus- 
 toms of his ancestors ; and, finally, when the 
 enemy were Mussulmans or Turks, against 
 whom he considered it permissible, in every 
 case, to raise the sword for the glory of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 Now he rejoiced beforehand at the thought 
 of how he would present himself with his two 
 sons in the Setch, and say, "See what fine 
 young fellows I have brought you ! " how he 
 
22 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 would introduce them to all his old comrades, 
 steeled in war; how he would observe their 
 first exploits in the sciences of war and of 
 carousing, which was also regarded as one 
 of the principal knightly qualities. At first he 
 had intended to send them forth alone; but 
 at the sight of their freshness, stature, and 
 vigorous personal beauty, his martial spirit 
 flashed up, and he resolved to go with them 
 himself the very next day, although there was 
 no necessity for this except his obstinate self- 
 will. He began at once to hurry about and 
 give orders ; he selected horses and trappings 
 for his young sons, looked through the stables 
 and storehouses, and chose servants to accom- 
 pany them on the morrow. He delegated his 
 power to Osaul Tovkatch, and gave with it a 
 strict command to appear with his whole troop 
 the very instant he should receive a message 
 from him at Setch. Although he was jolly, and 
 the effects of his drinking bout still lingered 
 in his brain, he forgot nothing ; he even gave 
 
TARAS BULBA. 23 
 
 orders that the horses should be watered, their 
 cribs filled, and that they should be fed with 
 the best wheat ; and then he retired, fatigued 
 with all his labors. 
 
 " Now, children, we must sleep, but to- 
 morrow we shall do what God appoints. Don't 
 prepare us a bed : we need no bed ; we will 
 sleep in the courtyard." 
 
 Night had but just covered the heavens, but 
 Bulba always went to bed early. He lay 
 down on a rug, and covered himself with a 
 sheepskin jacket; for the night air was quite 
 sharp, and Bulba liked to be warmly covered 
 when he was at home. He was soon snoring, 
 and the whole household speedily followed his 
 example. All snored and groaned as they lay 
 in the different corners. The watchman went 
 to sleep the first of all, because he had drunk 
 so much in honor of his young masters' home- 
 coming. 
 
 The mother alone slept not. She bent over 
 the pillow of her dear sons, as they lay side 
 
24 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 by side ; she smoothed with a comb their care- 
 lessly tangled young curls, and moistened them 
 with her tears. She gazed at them with her 
 whole being, with every sense ; she was wholly 
 merged in the gaze, and yet she could not 
 gaze enough. She had nourished them at her 
 own breast, she had tended them and brought 
 them up ; and now to see them only for an 
 instant! "My sons, my darling sons! what 
 will become of you } what awaits you .' " she 
 said, and her tears stood in the wrinkles which 
 disiigured her formerly beautiful face. In 
 truth she was to be pitied, as was every woman 
 of that long-past period. She lived only for a 
 moment in love, only during the first ardor of 
 passion, only during the first flush of youth; 
 and then her grim betrayer deserted her for 
 the sword, for his comrades and his carouses. 
 She saw her husband two or three days in a 
 year, and then, for several years, heard nothing 
 of him. And when she did see him, when they 
 did live together, what life was hers .' She 
 
TARAS BULBA. 2$ 
 
 endured insult, even blows; she saw caresses 
 bestowed only in pity ; she was a strange 
 object in that community of unmarried cava- 
 liers, upon which wandering Zaporozhe cast a 
 coloring of its own. Her pleasureless youth 
 flitted by ; and her splendidly beautiful cheeks 
 and bosom withered away unkissed, and became 
 covered with premature wrinkles. All her 
 love, all her feeling, every thing that is tender 
 and passionate in a woman, was converted in 
 her into maternal love. She hovered around 
 her children with anxiety, passion, tears, like 
 the gull of the steppes. They were taking her 
 sons, her darling sons, from her, — taking them 
 from her, so that she should never see them 
 again ! Who knows .■' Perhaps a Tatar will 
 cut off their heads in the very first skirmish, 
 and she will never know where their deserted 
 bodies lie, torn by birds of prey ; and yet for 
 each drop of their blood she would have given 
 all of hers. Sobbing, she gazed into their eyes, 
 even when all-powerful sleep began to close 
 
26 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 them, and thought, " Perhaps Bulba, when he 
 wakes, will put off their departure for a little 
 day or two ; perhaps it occurred to him to go 
 so soon, because he had been drinking." 
 
 The moon from the height of heaven had 
 long since illuminated the whole courtyard 
 filled with sleepers, the thick- clump of willows, 
 and the tall steppe-grass which hid the pali- 
 sade surrounding the court. She still sat at 
 her dear sons' pillow, never removing her eyes 
 from them for a moment, or thinking of sleep. 
 Already the horses, divining the approach of 
 dawn, had all ceased eating, and lain down upon 
 the grass ; the topmost leaves of the willows 
 began to rustle softly, and little by little the 
 rippling rustle descended to their bases. She 
 sat there until daylight, unwearied, and wished 
 in her heart that the night might prolong 
 itself indefinitely. From the steppes came the 
 ringing neigh of the horses, and red tongues 
 shone brightly in the sky. Bulba suddenly 
 awoke, and sprang to his feet. He remembered 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 27 
 
 quite well what he had ordered the night 
 before. " Now, people, you've slept enough ! 
 'tis time, 'tis time! Water the horses! And 
 where is the old woman?" (he generally 
 called his wife so.) "Be quick, old woman, get 
 us something to eat: the way is long." 
 
 The poor old woman, deprived of her last 
 hope, slipped sadly into the cottage. 
 
 While she, with tears, prepared what was 
 needed for breakfast, Bulba distributed his 
 orders, went to the stable, and selected his 
 best trappings for his children with his own 
 hand. 
 
 The collegians were suddenly transformed. 
 Red morocco boots with silver heels took the 
 place of their dirty old ones ; trousers wide as 
 the Black Sea, with thousands of folds and 
 plaits, were supported by golden girdles ; from 
 the girdle hung a long, slender thong, with tas- 
 sels and other tinkling things, for pipes. The 
 jacket of fiery red cloth was confined by a 
 flowered belt; engraved Turkish pistols were 
 
28 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 thrust through the belt; their swords clanged 
 at their heels. Their faces, already a little sun- 
 burnt, seemed to have grown handsomer and 
 whiter; the little black mustaches now cast a 
 more distinct shadow on this pallor and their 
 strong, healthy, youthful complexions. They 
 were very handsome in their black sheepskin 
 caps, with gold crowns. 
 
 When their poor mother saw them, she could 
 not utter a word, and tears stood in her eyes. 
 
 " Now, sons, all is ready ; no delay ! " said 
 Bulba at last. "Now we must all sit down 
 together, in accordance with our Christian 
 custom before a journey." 
 
 All sat down, not excepting the servants, who 
 had been standing respectfully at the door. 
 
 "Now, mother, bless your children," said 
 Bulba. " Pray God that they may fight brave- 
 ly, always defend their knightly honor, always 
 defend the faith of Christ; and, if not, that 
 they may die, so that their breath may not be 
 longer in the world. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 29 
 
 " Come to your mother, children ; a mother's 
 prayer saves on land and sea." 
 
 The mother, weak as mothers are, embraced 
 them, drew out two small images, and placed 
 them, sobbing, on their necks. "May God's 
 mother — keep you! Little sons, forget not 
 your mother — send some little word of your- 
 selves " — She could say no more. 
 
 " Now, children, let us go," said Bulba. 
 
 At the door stood the horses, ready saddled. 
 Bulba sprang upon his " Devil," which jumped 
 madly back, feeling on his back a load of twelve 
 poods,' for Taras was extremely stout and 
 heavy. 
 
 When the mother saw that her sons were 
 also mounted on their horses, she flung her- 
 self towards the younger, whose features ex- 
 pressed somewhat more gentleness than those 
 of the other. She grasped his stirrup, clung to 
 his saddle, and, with despair in her eyes, would 
 not loose him from her hands. Two stout Cos- 
 
 • A pood is about forty pounds. 
 
30 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 sacks seized her carefully, and carried her into 
 the cottage. But before they had passed 
 through the gate, with the speed of a wild 
 goat, quite disproportioned to her years, she 
 rushed to the gate, with irresistible strength 
 stopped a horse, and embraced one of her sons 
 with mad, unconscious violence. Then they 
 led her away again. 
 
 The young Cossacks rode on sadly, and re- 
 pressed their tears out of fear of their father, 
 who, on his side, was somewhat moved, although 
 he strove not to show it. The day was gray, 
 the green shone brightly, the birds twittered 
 rather discordantly. They glanced back as 
 they rode. Their farm seemed to have sunk 
 into the earth. All that was visible above the 
 surface were the two chimneys of their modest 
 cottage, and the crests of the trees up whose 
 trunks they had been used to climb like squir- 
 rels ; before them still stretched the field by 
 which they could recall the whole story of their 
 lives, from the years when they rolled in its 
 
TARAS BULB A. 31 . 
 
 dewy grass, up to the years when they awaited 
 in it a black-browed Cossack maiden, who ran 
 timidly across it with her quick young feet. 
 There is the pole above the well, with the 
 telega wheel fastened on top, rising solitary 
 against the sky ; already the level which they 
 have traversed appears a hill in the distance, 
 and all has disappeared. Farewell, childhood, 
 games, all, all, farewell ! 
 
32 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 II. 
 
 All three horsemen rode in silence. Old 
 Taras's thoughts were far away: before him 
 passed his youth, his years, — his swift-flying 
 years, over which the Cossack always weeps, 
 wishing that his life might be all youth. He 
 wondered whom of his former comrades he 
 should meet in the Setch. He reckoned up 
 how many had already died, how many were 
 still alive. Tears formed slowly in his eyes, 
 and his gray head bowed sadly. 
 
 His sons were occupied with other thoughts. 
 But we must speak further of his sons. They 
 had been sent, when twelve years old, to the 
 academy at Kief, because all respectable offi- 
 cials of that day considered it indispensable to 
 give their children an education, although it 
 was afterwards utterly forgotten. Like all who 
 
TARAS BULBA. 33 
 
 entered the academy, they were wild, brought 
 up in unrestrained freedom ; and there they 
 generally acquired some polish, and learned 
 some common branches which gave them a 
 certain resemblance to each other. 
 
 The eldest, Ostap, began his career by run- 
 ning away in the course of the first year. They 
 brought him back, whipped him well, and set 
 him down to his books. Four times did he 
 bury his ABC book in the earth ; and four 
 times, after bestowing upon him a sound thrash- 
 ing, did they buy him a new one. But he 
 would have repeated it for the fifth time, doubt- 
 less, had not his father given him a solemn 
 assurance that he would keep him at monastic 
 employments for twenty years, and had he not 
 sworn in advance that he should never behold 
 Zaporozhe all his life long, unless he learned all 
 sciences in the academy. It was odd, that he 
 who said this was that very Taras Bulba who 
 condemned all learning, and counselled his 
 children, as we have seen, not to trouble them- 
 
34 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 selves about it at all. From that moment, 
 Ostap began to sit over his tiresome books with 
 exemplary diligence, and quickly stood on a 
 level with the best. The style of education in 
 that age differed widely from the manner of 
 life. These scholastic, grammatical, rhetorical, 
 and logical subtilties were decidedly out of con- 
 sonance with the times, never had any connec- 
 tion with and never were encountered in actual 
 life. Those who studied them could not apply 
 their knowledge to any thing whatever, not 
 even the least scholastic of them. The learned 
 men of those days were even more incapable 
 than the rest, because farther removed from all 
 experience. Moreover, the fearfully republican 
 constitution of the academy, the fearful multi- 
 tude of young, healthy, strong fellows, — all this 
 must have inspired them with an activity quite 
 outside the limits of their learning. Sometimes 
 poor fare, or frequent punishments of fastino- 
 the numerous requirements arising in fresh 
 strong, healthy youth, — all these things com- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 35 
 
 bined to arouse in them that spirit of enterprise 
 which was afterwards further developed among 
 the Zaporozhians. The hungry student ran 
 about the streets of Kief, and forced every one 
 to be on his guard. Merchants sitting in the 
 bazaar always covered their pies, their bubliki,"^ 
 and pumpkin-rolls with their hands, like eagles 
 protecting their young, if they but caught sight 
 of a passing student. The consul, who was 
 bound by his duty to oversee his comrades 
 intrusted to his care, had such frightfully wide 
 pockets to his trousers, that he could stow away 
 the whole contents of the gaping merchant's 
 stall. These students constituted an entirely 
 separate world : they were not admitted to the 
 highest circles, composed of Polish and Russian 
 nobles. Even the Voevod, Adam Kisel, in 
 spite of the patronage he bestowed upon the 
 academy, did not introduce them into society, 
 and ordered them to be kept more strictly. 
 This command was quite superfluous, for 
 
 ' A kind of greasy cracknel. 
 
36 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 neither the rector nor the professor-monks 
 spared rod or whip ; and the lictors sometimes, 
 by their orders, whipped their consuls so 
 severely, that the latter rubbed their trousers 
 for weeks afterwards. This was nothing to 
 many of them, and seemed only a little stronger 
 than good vodka with pepper : others at last 
 grew tired of such constant blisters, and ran 
 away to Zaporozhe if they could find the 
 road, and if they were not caught on the way. 
 Ostap Bulba, although he began logic, and even 
 theology, with much zeal, did not escape the 
 merciless rod. Naturally, all this must have 
 tended to harden his character, and give him 
 that firmness which distinguishes the Cossacks. 
 Ostap always held himself aloof from his 
 comrades. 
 
 He rarely led the others into hazardous 
 enterprises, — robbing a strange garden or 
 orchard ; but, on the other hand, he was 
 always among the first to join the standard 
 of an adventurous student. And never, under 
 
TARAS BULBA. 37 
 
 any circumstances, did he betray his comrades :4- 
 neither imprisonment nor beatings could make 
 him do it. He was unassailable by any temp- 
 tations except those of war and wild carouse : 
 at least, he almost never dreamt of any others. 
 He was upright with his equals. He was kind- 
 hearted, in the only way that kind-heartedness 
 could exist in such a character and at such a 
 time. He was moved from his very heart by his 
 poor mother's tears ; but it only troubled him, 
 and caused him to hang his head in thought. 
 
 His younger brother, Andn'i, had rather live- 
 lier and more developed feelings. He learned 
 more willingly, and without the effort with 
 which strong and heavy characters generally 
 apply themselves. He was more inventive 
 than his brother, and frequently appeared as 
 the leader of very dangerous expeditions; and 
 sometimes, thanks to the quickness of his 
 mind, contrived to escape punishment, while 
 his brother Ostap, abandoning all efforts, 
 stripped off his svitka, and lay down upon 
 
38 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 the floor without a thought of begging for 
 mercy. He also thirsted for action ; but, at 
 the same time, his spirit was accessiWe to 
 other sentiments.>The need of love flamed 
 ardently within him. When he had passed his 
 eighteenth year, woman began to present her- 
 self more frequently in his burning dreams : 
 listening to philosophical discussions, he be- 
 held her each moment, fresh, black-eyed, ten- 
 der ; before him flitted constantly her bright, 
 elastic bosom, her soft, beautiful bare arms ; the 
 very gown which clung about her childish yet 
 vigorous limbs breathed into his visions a cer- 
 tain inexpressible sensuousness. He carefully 
 concealed from his comrades this movement 
 of his passionate young soul, because, in that 
 age, it was shameful and dishonorable for a 
 Cossack to think of love and a wife before he 
 had tasted battle. On the whole, during the 
 last year, he had served more rarely as leader 
 of bands of students ; but he roamed about 
 more frequently alone, in the remote corners of 
 
TARAS BULBA. 39 
 
 Kief, buried in cherry-orcliards, among low- 
 roofed houses peeping alluringly at the street. 
 Sometimes he betook himself to the streets 
 of the aristocrats, in the old Kief of to-day, 
 where dwelt little Russian and Pplish nobles, 
 and where the houses were built in more fan- 
 ciful style. Once, as he was gaping along, an 
 old-fashioned carriage belonging to some Polish 
 Pan (gentleman) almost drove over him ; and 
 the coachman with very terrible mustaches, 
 who sat on the box, gave him quite a smart 
 cut with his whip. The young student fired 
 up ; with thoughtless daring, he seized the 
 hind - wheel with his powerful hands, and 7 
 stopped the carriage. But the coachman, 
 fearing a reckoning, lashed his horses ; they 
 sprang forward, and Andn'i, succeeding hap- 
 pily in freeing his hands, was flung full length 
 on the ground, with his face flat in the mud. 
 The most ringing and harmonious of laughs 
 resounded above him. He raised his eyes, and 
 saw, standing at a window, a beauty such as he 
 
40 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 had never beheld in all his life, black-eyed, and 
 white as snow illumined by the dawning flush 
 of the sun. She was laughing heartily, and 
 her laugh lent brilliant power to her dazzling 
 loveliness. He was taken aback : he gazed at 
 her, all confused, abstractedly wiping the mud 
 from his face, by which means it became still 
 further smeared. Who could this beauty be.' 
 He would have liked to find out from the 
 servants, who, in rich liveries, stood beside the 
 gate in a crowd surrounding a young bandoura- 
 player; but the servants raised a laugh when 
 they saw his besmeared face, and deigned him 
 no reply. At length he learned that she was 
 the daughter of the Voevod of Koven, who 
 had come thither for a time. The following- 
 night, with the daring characteristic of the 
 student, alone, he crept through the palings 
 into the garden, and climbed a tree which 
 spread its branches upon the very roof of the 
 house ; from the tree he crawled upon the 
 roof, and made his way through the chimney 
 
TARAS BULBA. 41 
 
 straight into the bedroom of the beauty, who 
 at that moment was seated before a light, en- 
 gaged in removing the costly earrings from her 
 ears. The beautiful Pole was so alarmed on 
 suddenly beholding an unknown man before 
 her, that she could not utter a single word ; 
 but when she perceived that the student stood 
 before her with downcast eyes, not daring to 
 move a hand through timidity, when she recog- 
 nized in him the one. who had fallen in the 
 street before her, laughter again overpowered 
 her. 
 
 Moreover, there was nothing terrible in 
 Andn'i's features ; he was very handsome. 
 She laughed heartily, and amused herself over 
 him for a long time. Our beauty was giddy, 
 like all Poles; but her eyes, her wondrous clear, 
 piercing eyes, threw a glance, a long glance. 
 The student could not move a hand, but stood 
 bound as in a sack, when the Voevod's daughter 
 approached him boldly, placed upon his head 
 her glittering diadem, hung her earrings on his 
 
42 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 lips, and flung over him a transparent muslin 
 chemisette with gold - embroidered garlands. 
 She adorned him, and played a thousand foolish 
 pranks, with the abandon of a child, which dis- 
 tinguishes the giddy Poles, and which threw 
 the poor student into still greater confusion. 
 
 He presented a ridiculous figure, gazing im- 
 movably, with open mouth, into her dazzling 
 eyes. A knock at the door startled her. She 
 ordered him to conceal .himself under the bed, 
 and, as soon as the disturbance was past, called 
 her maid, a Tatar prisoner, and gave her 
 orders to conduct him to the garden with 
 caution, and thence show him through the 
 fence. But our student this time did not pass 
 the fence so successfully. The watchman 
 awoke, and caught him firmly by the foot; 
 and the servants, assembling, beat him lono", 
 even in the street, until his swift legs rescued 
 him. After that it was very dangerous to 
 pass the house, because the Voevod's domes- 
 tics were numerous. He met her once again 
 
TARAS BULB A. 43 
 
 at church. She saw him, and smiled very 
 pleasantly, as at an old acquaintance. He 
 saw her once more, by chance ; and shortly 
 afterwards the Voevod departed, and, instead 
 of the beautiful black-eyed Pole, some fat face 
 or other gazed from the window. That was 
 what Andri'i was thinking about, as he hung 
 his head, and dropped his eyes on his horse's 
 mane. 
 
 In the mean time the steppe had long since 
 received them all into its green embrace ; and 
 the high grass, closing round, concealed them, 
 and only their black Cossack caps appeared 
 among its heads. 
 
 " Eh, eh, why are you so quiet, lads .'' " said 
 Bulba at length, waking from his own revery. 
 "You're like monks. Now, all thinking to-.y 
 the Evil One, once lor all ! Take your pipes 
 in your lips, and let us smoke, and spur on 
 our horses, and fly so swiftly that no bird 
 can overtake us." 
 
 And the Cossacks, bending low on their 
 
44 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 horses, disappeared in the grass. Their black 
 caps were no longer to be seen ; a streak of 
 trodden grass alone showed a trace of their 
 swift flight. 
 
 The sun had long looked forth from the 
 clear heavens, and inundated the steppe with 
 his quickening, warming light. All that was 
 dim and sleepy in the Cossacks' minds flew 
 away in a twinkling : their hearts fluttered 
 like birds. 
 
 The farther they penetrated the steppe, the 
 more beautiful it became. Then all the South, 
 all that region which now constitutes New 
 Russia, even to the Black Sea, was a green, 
 virgin wilderness. No plough had ever passed 
 over the immeasurable waves of wild growth ; 
 the horses alone, hiding themselves in it as 
 in a forest, trod it down. Nothing in nature 
 could be finer. The whole surface of the 
 earth presented itself as a green-gold ocean, 
 upon which were sprinkled millions of differ- 
 ent flowers. Through the tall, slender stems 
 
TARAS BULBA. 45 
 
 of the grass peeped light-blue, dark-blue, and 
 lilac star-thistles ; the yellow broom thrust 
 up its pyramidal head ; the parasol-shaped 
 white flower of the false flax shimmered' on 
 high. A wheat -ear, brought God knows 
 whence, was filling out to ripening. About 
 their slender roots ran partridges with out- 
 stretched necks. The air was filled with the 
 notes of a thousand different birds. In the 
 sky, immovable, hung the hawks, their wings 
 outspread, and their eyes fixed intently on the 
 grass. The cries of a cloud of wild ducks, 
 moving up from one side, were echoed from 
 God knows what distant lake. From the 
 grass arose, with measured sweep, a gull, and 
 bathed luxuriously in blue waves of air. 
 And now she has vanished on high, and ap- 
 pears only as a black dot : now she has 
 turned her wings, and shines in the sun- 
 light. Deuce take you, steppes, how beautiful 
 you are ! . . . 
 
 Our travellers halted only a few minutes 
 
46 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 for dinner : their escort of ten Cossacks sprang 
 from their horses, unbound the wooden casks 
 of brandy, and the gourds which were used 
 instead of drinking-vessels. They ate only 
 cakes of bread and tallow (horzh) ; they drank 
 but one cup apiece to strengthen them (for 
 Taras Bulba never permitted intoxication upon 
 the road), and then continued their journey 
 until evening. 
 
 In the evening the whole steppe changed 
 its aspect. All its varied expanse was bathed 
 in the last bright glow of the sun ; and it 
 grew dark gradually, so that it could be seen 
 how the shadow flitted across it, and it became 
 dark green. The mist rose more densely ; 
 each flower, each blade of grass, emitted a 
 fragrance as of amber, and the whole steppe 
 distilled perfume. Wide bands of rosy gold 
 were dashed across the dark blue heaven, as 
 with a gigantic brush ; here and there gleamed, 
 in white tufts, light and transparent clouds ; and 
 the freshest, most bewitching of little breezes 
 
TARAS BULBA. 47 
 
 barely rocked the tops - of the grass-blades, 
 as on the sea-waves, and almost stroked the 
 cheek. All the music which had resounded 
 through the day had died away, and given 
 place to another. The striped marmots crept 
 out of their holes, stood erect on their hind- 
 legs, and filled the steppe with their whistle. 
 The whirr of the grasshoppers had become 
 more distinctly audible. Sometimes the cry of 
 the swan was heard from some distant lake, 
 and rang through the air like silver. The 
 travellers halted in the midst of the plain, se- 
 
 m 
 
 lected a spot for their night encampment, made 
 a fire, and hung their kettle over it, in which 
 they cooked their oatmeal ; the steam rose and 
 floated aslant in the air. Having supped, the 
 Cossacks lay down to sleep, after hobbling 
 their horses, and turning them out to graze. 
 They lay down in their svitkas. The stars of 
 night gazed directly down upon them. They 
 heard the countless myriads of insects which 
 filled the grass ; all their rasping, whistling, 
 
48 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 and chirping resounded clearly through the 
 night, softened by the fresh air, and lulled the 
 drowsy ear. If one of them rose and stood for 
 a time, the steppe presented itself to him 
 strewn with the sparks of the glow-worms. 
 At times the night sky was illumined in 
 spots by the glare of burning dry reeds, along 
 pools or river-bank ; and dark flights of swans 
 flying to the north were suddenly lighted up 
 by the silvery, rose-colored gleam, and then 
 it seemed as though red kerchiefs were float- 
 ing in the dark heavens. 
 
 The travellers proceeded without any adven- 
 ture. They came across no villages. 'Twas 
 ever the same boundless, waving, beautiful 
 steppe. Only at intervals the crests of dis- 
 tant forests shone blue, on one hand, as they 
 stretched along the banks of the Dniepr. 
 Only once did Taras point out to his sons 
 a small black speck far away on the grass, 
 saying, " Look, children ! yonder gallops a 
 Tatar. " The little head with mustaches fixed 
 
TARAS BULBA. 49 
 
 its narrow eyes straight upon them from the 
 distance, snuffing the air like a greyhound, and 
 disappeared like an antelope on perceiving 
 that the Cossacks were thirty strong. "And 
 now, children, try to overtake the Tatar ! And 
 don't try: you would never catch him to all 
 eternity; he has a horse swifter than my 
 Devil. " But Bulba took precautions, fearing 
 hidden ambushes. They galloped along the 
 course of a small stream, called the Tatarka, 
 falling into the Dniepr ; rode into the water 
 with their horses, and swam long to conceal 
 their trail; and then, climbing out on the 
 shore, continued on their road. 
 
 Three days later, they were not far from 
 the place which formed the goal of their 
 journey. The air suddenly grew colder : they 
 could feel the vicinity of the Dniepr. And 
 there it gleams afar, and is distinguishable from 
 the horizon as a dark band. It sent forth cold 
 waves, and spread nearer, nearer, and finally 
 embraced half the entire surface of the earth. 
 
50 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 This was that part of the Dniepr where the 
 river, hitherto confined by the rapids, finally 
 makes its own way, and roars like the sea, 
 pouring forth at will where the islands, flung 
 into its midst, have pressed it farther from 
 the shores, and its waves have spread widely 
 over the earth, encountering neither cliffs nor 
 hills. The Cossacks alighted from their 
 horses, entered the ferry-boat, and after three 
 hours of sailing arrived at the shores of the 
 island of Khortitz, where at that time stood the 
 Setch, which so often changed its situation. 
 
 A throng of people hastened to the shore 
 with boats. The Cossacks arranged the 
 horses. Taras assumed a stately air, pulled 
 his belt tighter, and drew his hand proudly 
 over his mustache. His young sons also 
 inspected themselves from head to foot, with 
 some apprehensioh and an undefined feeling of 
 satisfaction ; and' all set out together for the 
 suburb, which was half a verst from the 
 Setch. On their arrival, they were deafened 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 51 
 
 by fifty blacksmiths' hammers beating upon 
 twenty- five anvils sunk in the earth and 
 concealed with turf. Stout tanners sat on the 
 street, beneath awnings, scraping ox-hides with 
 their strong hands ; shop-keepers sat in their 
 booths, with piles of flints, steels, and powder; 
 Armenians spread out their rich handkerchiefs ; 
 Tatars turned their mutton-chops with dough 
 upon the spits ; a Jew, with his head thrust 
 forward, was filtering some corn-brandy from 
 a cask. But the first man they 'met was a 
 Zaporozhetz ' who was sleeping in the very 
 middle of the road with legs and arms 
 outstretched. Taras Bulba could not refrain 
 from pausing to admire him. " Eh, how 
 splendidly developed he is ! phew, what a 
 magnificent figure ! " he said, stopping his 
 horse. It was, in fact, a very striking picture. 
 The Zaporozhetz had stretched himself out in 
 the road like a lion ; his scalp-lock, thrown 
 proudly behind him, stretched over half an 
 
 ^ Sometimes written Zaporovian. 
 
52 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 arshin ' of ground ; his trousers of rich red 
 cloth were spotted with tar, to show his utter 
 disdain for them. Having admired to his 
 heart's content, Bulba passed on through the 
 narrow street, which was crowded with me- 
 chanics exercising their trades, and with 
 people of all nationalities who thronged this 
 suburb of the Setch, which resembled a fair, 
 and fed and clothed the Setch, which knew 
 only how to revel, and fire off guns. 
 
 At length they left the suburb behind 
 them, and perceived some scattered kurens,' 
 covered with turf, or with felt in Tatar fashion. 
 Some were furnished with cannon. Nowhere 
 were there any fences visible, or any of 
 those low-roofed houses with awning support- 
 ed upon low wooden pillars, such as there 
 were in the suburb. A small wall and ditch, 
 totally unguarded, showed a terrible degree of 
 recklessness. Some sturdy Zaporozhtzi lying, 
 pipe in mouth, in the very road, glanced 
 
 ' An arshin is twenty-eight inches. 
 
 " Enormous wooden sheds, each inhabited by a troop or kur^n. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 53 
 
 indifferently at tliem, and never moved from 
 their places. Taras threaded his way carefully 
 among them, with his sons, saying, "Good- 
 day, panove. " — "Good-day to you," answered 
 the Zaporozhtzi. All over the plain were 
 picturesque groups of people. From their 
 weather-beaten faces, it was plain that all 
 were steeled in battle, and had undergone 
 every sort of bad weather. And there it 
 was, the Setch! There was the nest from 
 which all those men, proud and strong as 
 lions, issued forth ! There was the place 
 whence poured forth liberty and Cossacks -f. 
 over all the Ukraine. 
 
 The travellers entered the great square 
 where the council generally assembled. On 
 a huge overturned cask, sat a Zaporozhetz 
 without his shirt ; he was holding it in his 
 hands, and slowly sewing up the holes. Again 
 their way was stopped by a whole crowd of 
 musicians, in the midst of whom a young 
 Zaporozhetz was dancing, with head thrown 
 
54 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 back and arms outstretched. He^kept shout- 
 ing, " Play faster, musicians ! Begrudge not, 
 Thoma, brandy to these orthodox Christians!" 
 And Thoma, with his blackened eye, went 
 on measuring out without stint, to every one 
 who presented himself, a huge jugful. 
 
 About the youthful Zaporozhetz, four old 
 men moved their feet quite briskly, leaped 
 like a whirlwind to one side, almost upon 
 the musicians' heads, and, suddenly retreat- 
 ing, squatted down and beat the hard earth 
 vigorously with their silver heels. The earth 
 hummed dully all about, and afar the air 
 resounded with gopak and trepak ' beaten out 
 by the clanging heels of their boots. 
 
 But one shouted more vivaciously than all 
 the rest, and flew after the others in the dance. 
 His cue streamed in the wind, his powerful 
 breast was all uncovered, his warm winter fur 
 jacket was hanging by the sleeves, and the 
 perspiration poured from him as from a pail. 
 
 ' The national Cossack dance. 
 
TARAS BULB A. 55 
 
 "Take off your jacket !" said Taras at length: 
 "see how he steams!" — "I can't!" shouted 
 the Cossack. " Why ?" — "I can't : I have 
 such a disposition, whatever I take off, I drinlc 
 up." And the young man had not had a cap 
 for a long time, nor a belt to his caftan, nor 
 an embroidered neckerchief : all had gone the 
 proper road. The throng increased ; more 
 joined the dancer : and it was impossible to 
 observe without emotion, how all yielded to 
 that dance, the freest, the wildest, the world 
 has ever seen, and which is called from its 
 mighty originators, the Kosq.chka. 
 
 " Oh, if I had no horse to hold," exclaimed 
 Taras, "I would join the dance myself!" 
 
 And meanwhile there began to appear 
 among the throng, men who were respected 
 for their prowess throughout all the Setch, — - 
 old grayheads, who had been leaders more 
 than once. Taras soon found a number of 
 familiar faces. Ostap and Andrfi heard noth- 
 ing but greetings. "Ah, it is you, Petcheritza! 
 
$6 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 Good day, Kozolup !" — "Whence has God 
 brought you, Taras?" — "How did you come 
 here, Doloto? Health to you, Kirdyaga! 
 Hail to you, Gustui ! Did I ever think of see- 
 ing you, Remen?" And the heroes collected 
 from all the roving population of Eastern 
 Russia kissed each other, and began to ask 
 questions. "But what has become of Kas- 
 yan ? Where is Borodavka? and Koloper? 
 and Pidsuitok ? " And in reply, Taras Bulba 
 learned that Borodavka had been hung in 
 Tolopan, that Koloper had been flayed alive 
 at Kizikirmen, that Pidsuitok's head had been 
 salted and sent in a cask to Constantinople. 
 Old Bulba hung his head, and said thought- 
 fully, "They were good Cossacks." 
 
TARAS BULBA. 57 
 
 III. 
 
 Taras Bulba and his sons had been in 
 the Setch about a week. Ostap and An- 
 drfi occupied themselves but little with the 
 school of war. The Setch was not fond of 
 troubling itself with warlike exercises, and 
 wasting time. The young generation grew 
 up, and learned these by experience alone, 
 in the very heat of battles, which were there- 
 fore incessant. The Cossacks thought it a 
 nuisance to fill up the intervals of this in- 
 struction with any sort of drill, except per- 
 haps shooting at a mark, and on rare, occasions 
 with horse-racing and wild-beast hunts on the 
 steppes and in the forests. All the rest of 
 the time was devoted to revelry, — a sign of 
 the wide diffusion of moral liberty. All the 
 Setch presented an unusual scene : it was one 
 
58 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 unbroken revel ; a ball noisily begun, which 
 had lost its end. Some busied themselves 
 with trades, others kept little shops and 
 traded ; but the majority caroused from morn- 
 ing till night, if the wherewithal jingled in 
 their pockets, and if the booty they had cap- 
 tured had not passed into the hands of the 
 shopkeepers and pot-house keepers. This uni- 
 versal revelry had something fascinating about 
 it. It was not an assembly of topers, who 
 drank to drown sorrow, but it was simply a 
 wild revelry of joy. Every one who came 
 thither forgot every thing, abandoned every 
 thing which had hitherto interested him. He, 
 so to speak, spit on all his past, and gave 
 himself recklessly up to freedom and the 
 good-fellowship of men of the same stamp as 
 himself, — idlers having neither relatives nor 
 home nor family, nothing except the free 
 sky, and the eternal revel of their souls. This 
 gave rise to that wild gayety which could not 
 have come from any other source. The tales 
 
TARAS BULBA. 59 
 
 and talk among the assembled crowd, which 
 reposed lazily on the ground, were often so 
 droll, and breathed such power of vivid narra- 
 tion, that it required all the nonchalance of 
 a Zaporozhetz to retain his immovable expres- 
 sion, without even a twitch of the mustache, 
 — a sharp trait which to this day distin- 
 guishes the Southern Russian from his breth- 
 ren. It was drunken, noisy mirth ; but there 
 was no black ale-house, where a man forgets 
 himself in darkly seducing merriment : it was 
 a dense throng of schoolboys. 
 
 The only difference was,, that, instead of 
 sitting under the pointer and worn-out doc- 
 trines of a teacher, they practised racing upon 
 five thousand horses ; instead of the field 
 where they played ball, they had the bound- 
 less, untrammelled border-lands; and at the 
 sight of them the Tatar showed his alert head, 
 and the Turk gazed grimly in his green tur- 
 ban. The difference was, that, instead of 
 their forced companionship of school, they 
 
6o TARAS BULBA. 
 
 themselves deserted their fathers and mothers, 
 and fled from their homes ; that here were 
 those about whose neck a rope had already ^ 
 been wound, and who, instead of pale death, 
 had seen life, and life in all its intensity ; 
 that here were those who, from generous 
 habits, could never keep a kopek in their 
 pockets ; that here were those who had hith- 
 erto regarded a ducat as wealth, whose pockets, 
 thanks to the Jew revenue-farmers, could have 
 been turned wrong side out without any danger 
 of any thing falling from them. Here all were 
 students who would not endure the academic 
 rod, and had not carried away a single letter 
 from the schools ; but with them were also 
 some who knew about Horace, Cicero, and 
 the Roman Republic. There were many of 
 them officers who afterwards distinguished 
 themselves in the king's armies; and there 
 were numerous and clever partisans, who cher- 
 ished a magnanimous conviction that it was of 
 no consequence where they fought, so long as 
 
TARAS BULBA. 6l 
 
 they fought, because it was a disgrace to an 
 honorable man to live without fighting. There 
 were many who had come to the Setch for the 
 sake of being able to say afterwards that they 
 had been in the Setch, and were therefore 
 steeled warriors. But who was there not 
 there .' This strange republic was a neces- /l^ 
 sary outgrowth of that epoch. Lovers of a 
 warlike life, of golden beakers and rich bro- 
 cades, of ducats and gold pieces, could always 
 find employment there. The lovers of women 
 alone could find nothing there, for no woman 
 dared show herself even in the suburbs of the 
 Setch. 
 
 It seemed exceedingly strange to Ostap and 
 Andrfi, that, though a crowd of people had 
 come to the Setch with them, yet not a soul 
 inquired. Whence come these men ? who are 
 they .'' and what are their names .■' They had 
 come thither as though returning to their own 
 homes whence they had departed only an hour 
 before. The new comer merely presented him- 
 
62 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 self to the koschevoi, who generally said, 
 " Welcome ! Do you believe in Christ ? " — "I 
 do," replied the new arrival. "And do you 
 believe in the Holy Trinity?"— "I do." — 
 " And you go to church 1 " — '.' I do." — " Now 
 cross yourself." The new-comer crossed him- 
 self. " Very good," replied the koschevoi ; 
 "enter the kur6n, where you are acquainted." 
 This concluded the ceremony. And all the 
 Setch prayed in one church, and were willing 
 to defend it to their last drop of blood, al- 
 though they would not hear to fasting or 
 abstinence. Jews, Armenians, and Tatars alone, 
 inspired by strong avarice, took the liberty of 
 living and trading in the suburbs ; for the Za- 
 porozhtzi never cared for trade, and paid what- 
 ever money their hand chanced to grasp in 
 their pocket. Moreover, the lot of these gain- 
 loving traders was pitiable in the extreme. 
 They resembled people who had settled at the 
 foot of Vesuvius ; for when the Zaporozhtzi 
 lacked money, then the bold adventurers broke 
 
TARAS BULBA. 63 
 
 down their booths, and took every thing gratis. 
 The Setch consisted of over sixty kurens, 
 which greatly resembled separate, independent 
 republics, but still more a school or seminary 
 of children, always ready for any thing. No 
 one had any occupation ; no one retained any 
 thing for himself ; every thing was in the hands 
 of the ataman of the kuren, who, on that 
 account, generally went by the name of father.^ 
 In his hands were deposited the money, clothes, 
 all the provisions, oatmeal, groats, even the fire- 
 wood. They gave him money to take care of. 
 Quarrels in the kuren among its inhabitants 
 were not infrequent ; in that case they pro- 
 ceeded at once to blows. The inhabitants of 
 the kuren swarmed upon the square, and beat 
 each other's ribs in with their fists, until one 
 side had finally gained the upper hand, when 
 the revelry began. Such was the Setch, which 
 had such an attraction for young men. 
 
 Ostap and Andri'i flung themselves into this 
 _sea_of_dissi£ation with all the ardor of youth, 
 
 ■ Batka. 
 
64 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 and forgot in a trice their father's house, the 
 seminary, and all which had hitherto exercised 
 their minds, and gave themselves up to their 
 new life. Every thing interested them, — the 
 jovial habits of the Setch, and the chaotic 
 morals and laws, which seemed to them even 
 too strict for such a free republic. If a Cos- 
 sack stole the smallest trifle, it was considered 
 a disgrace to the whole Cossack community : 
 he was bound to the pillar of shame, and a club 
 was laid beside him, with which each passer- 
 by was bound to deal him a blow until in this 
 manner he was beaten to death. He who did 
 not pay his debts was chained to a cannon, 
 where he was forced to sit until some one of 
 his comrades should decide to ransom him by 
 paying his debts for him. But what made 
 the deepest impression on Andrfi was the 
 terrible punishment decreed for murder. A 
 hole was dug in his presence, the murderer 
 was lowered alive into it, and over him was 
 placed a coffin which enclosed the body of 
 
TARAS BULBA. 65 
 
 the man he had killed, after which the earth 
 was thrown in upon both. Long afterwards 
 the fearful ceremony of this horrible execution 
 clung to his mind, and the man who had been 
 buried alive appeared to him with his terrible 
 coffin. 
 
 Both the young Cossacks soon took a good 
 standing among the Cossacks. They often 
 went out upon the steppe with comrades from 
 their kur6n, and sometimes also with the 
 whole kuren or with neighboring kurens, to 
 shoot innumerable steppe-birds of every sort, 
 deer and goats ; or they went out upon the 
 lakes, the river, and its tributaries allotted 
 to each kur6n, to throw their nets, and 
 draw out rich prey for the enjoyment of 
 the whole kur^n. Although there was no 
 trade there exercised by a Cossack, yet they 
 were soon remarked on among the other 
 youths for their obstinate bravery and daring 
 in every thing. Skilfully and accurately they 
 fired at the mark, they swam the Dniepr 
 
66 TAJ? AS BULB A. 
 
 against the current, — a deed for which the 
 novice was triumphantly received into the 
 circle of Cossacks. 
 
 But old Taras prepared a different sphere of 
 activity for them. Such an idle life was not 
 to his mind : he wanted active employment. 
 He reflected incessantly, how to stir up the 
 Setch to some bold enterprise, where a man 
 could carouse as became a knight. At length 
 he went one day to the koschevoi, and said 
 plainly, — 
 
 "Well, koschevoi, it is time for the Zapo- 
 rozhtzi to set out." 
 
 " There is nowhere for them to go," replied 
 the koschevoi, removing his short pipe from 
 his mouth, and spitting to one side. 
 
 " How, nowhere .? We can go to Turkey or 
 Tartary." 
 
 " Impossible to go either to Turkey or 
 Tartary," returned the koschevoi, putting his 
 pipe coolly into his mouth again. 
 
 "Why impossible.' " 
 
TARAS BULBA. 6/ 
 
 "It is : we have promised the Sultan peace." 
 
 " But he is a Mussuhiian ; and God and 
 the Holy Scriptures command us to kill the 
 Mussulmans." 
 
 "We have no right. If we had not sworn 
 by our faith, then it might be done ; but now 
 it is impossible." 
 
 " How is it impossible .-' How can you say 
 that we have no right .-' Here are my two 
 sons, both young men. Neither one has been 
 to war ; and you say that we have no right, 
 and you say that there is no necessity for the 
 Zaporozhtzi to set out on an expedition." 
 
 "Well, it is not fitting." 
 
 " Then it must be fitting that Cossack 
 strengtfi should be wasted in vain, that a man ' 
 should disappear like a dog without having 
 done a single good deed, that he should be 
 of no use to his country or to Christianity ! 
 Then why do we live .'' What the deuce do we 
 live for.' just tell me that. You are a sensible 
 man, you were not chosen as koschevoi without 
 I reason : just tell me what we live for .-' " 
 
68 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 The koschevoi made no reply to this ques- 
 tion. He was an obstinate Cossack. He was 
 silent for a while, and then said, "Anyway, 
 there will not be war." 
 
 "There will not be war.'" Taras asked 
 again. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Then it is of no use to think about it ? " 
 
 "It is not to be thought of." 
 
 " Wait, you devil's fist ! " said Taras to 
 himself: "you'll learn to know me!" and 
 he at once resolved to have his revenge on 
 the koschevoi. 
 
 Having entered into an agreement with one 
 and another, he gave them liquor ; and the 
 drunken Cossacks, several in number, stag- 
 gered straight to the square, whei-e on a post 
 hung the kettledrums, which were generally 
 beaten to assemble the people : not finding 
 the sticks, which were kept by the drummer, 
 they seized a piece of wood, and began to 
 beat. The first to respond to the drum-beat 
 
TARAS BULBA. 69 
 
 was the drummer, a tall man with but one 
 eye, but a frightfully sleepy one for all that. 
 
 " Who dares to beat the drum ? " he shouted. 
 
 " Hold your tongue ! take your sticks, and 
 beat when you are ordered ! " replied the 
 drunken men. 
 
 The drummer at once took from his pocket 
 the sticks which he had brought with him, 
 knowing well the result of such proceedings. 
 The drum rattled, and soon black swarms of 
 Cossacks began to collect like bees in the 
 square. All formed in a ring ; and at length, 
 after the third summons, the chiefs began to 
 arrive, — the koschevoi with staff in hand, the 
 symbol of his office ; the judge with the army- 
 seal ; the secretary with his ink-bottle ; and 
 the osaul with his staff. The koschevoi and 
 chiefs took off their caps, and bowed on all 
 sides to the Cossacks, who stood proudly with 
 their arms akimbo. 
 
 " What means this assemblage ? what do you 
 wish, gentlemen {panove) ? " said the kosche- 
 
yo TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 vol Shouts and exclamations interrupted his 
 speech. 
 
 "Resign your staff! resign your staff this 
 moment, you son of Satan ! we will have 
 you no longer ! " shouted Cossacks in the 
 crowd. Some of the sober ones appeared to 
 wish to oppose this, but the sober and drunken 
 fell to blows. The shouting and uproar be- 
 came universal. 
 
 The koschevoi attempted to speak; but 
 knowing that the self-willed multitude, if en- 
 raged, might beat him to death, which almost 
 always happened in such cases, he bowed very 
 low, laid down his staff, and hid himself in 
 the crowd. 
 
 "Do you command us, pan6ve, to resign 
 our insignia of office.'" said the judge, the 
 secretary, and the osaul ; and they prepared 
 to give up the inkhorn, army-seal, and staff, 
 upon the spot. 
 
 " No, you are to remain ! " was shouted from 
 the crowd. " We only wanted to drive out the 
 
TARAS BULBA. 71 
 
 koschevoi because he is a woman, and we 
 want a man lor koschevoi." 
 
 "Whom' do you now elect as koschevoi?" 
 asked the chiefs. 
 
 "Choose Kukubenko," shouted some. 
 
 " We won't have Kukubenko ! " screamed 
 another party : " it is too early for him ; the 
 milk has not dried off his lips yet." 
 
 "Let Schilo be ataman!" shouted some: 
 " make Schilo koschevoi ! " 
 
 " Enough of your Schilo ! " yelled the crowd ; 
 "what kind of a Cossack is he who is as 
 thievish as a Tatar.' To the devil in a sack, 
 with your drunken Schilo ! " 
 
 " Borodaty ! let us make Borodaty kosche- 
 voi ! " 
 
 " We won't have Borodaty ! To the evil 
 one's mother with Borodaty ! " 
 
 " Shout Kirdyaga," whispered Taras Bulba 
 to several. 
 
 " Kirdyaga, Kirdyaga ! " shouted the crowd. 
 " Borodaty, Borodaty ! Kirdyaga, Kirdyaga ! 
 Schilo! Away with Schilo! Kirdyaga!" 
 
72 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 All the candidates, on hearing their names 
 mentioned, stepped out of the crowd, in order 
 not to give any one a chance to suppose that 
 they were personally assisting in their election. 
 
 " Kirdyaga, Kirdyaga ! " echoed more strong- 
 ly than the rest. 
 
 " Borodaty ! " 
 
 They proceeded to decide the matter by a 
 show of hands, and Kirdyaga conquered. 
 
 "Go for Kirdyaga!" they shouted. Half a 
 score of Cossacks immediately stepped from 
 the crowd, — some of them could hardly keep 
 their feet, to such an extent had they drunk, 
 — and went directly to Kirdyaga to inform 
 him of his election. 
 
 Kirdyaga, a very old but wise Cossack, had 
 been sitting for a long time in his kuren, as 
 if he knew nothing of what. was going on. 
 
 f'What is it, panove.? What do you wish.?" 
 he inquire4. 
 
 "Come, they have chosen you for kosche- 
 voi." 
 
TARAS BULBA. 73 
 
 "Have mercy, panove ! " said Kirdyaga. 
 " How am I worthy of such honor ? Why 
 should I be made koschevoi ? I have not 
 sufficient capacity to discharge such a duty. 
 Could no better person be found in all the 
 army ? " 
 
 " Come, I say ! " shouted the Zaporozhtzi. 
 Two of them seized him by the arms ; and in 
 spite of his planting his feet firmly they finally 
 dragged him to the square, accompanied by 
 shouts, thrusts from behind with fists, kicks, 
 and exhortations. " Don't hold back, you son 
 of Satan ! Accept the honor, you dog, when 
 it is given ! " In this manner Kirdyaga was 
 conducted into the ring of Cossacks. 
 
 " How now, panove .'' " announced those who 
 had brought him, " are you agreed that this 
 Cossack shall be your koschevoi .'' " 
 
 "All agreed!" shouted the throng, an d the 
 wliole__plain_trembled for a long time after- 
 wards, from the shout. 
 
 One of the chiefs took the staff, and brought 
 
74 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 it to the newly elected koschevoi. Kirdyaga, 
 in accordance with custom, immediately re- 
 fused it. The chief offered it a second time ; 
 Kirdyaga again declined it, and then, at the 
 third offer, accepted the staff. A shout of 
 approbation rang through the crowd, and again 
 the whole plain resounded afar from the Cos- 
 sacks' shout. Then there stepped out, from 
 among the people, the four oldest of all, white- 
 bearded, white-haired Cossacks (there were no 
 very old men in the Setch, for none of the 
 Zaporozhtzi ever died in their beds) ; and 
 taking each a handful of earth, which recent 
 rain had converted into mud, they laid it on 
 his head. The wet earth trickled down from 
 his head, ran on his mustache and cheeks, and 
 smeared his whole face. But Kirdyaga stood 
 immovable in his place, and thanked the Cos- 
 sacks for the honor shown him. 
 
 Thus ended the noisy election, concerning 
 which we cannot say whether it was as pleas- 
 ing to the others as it was to Bulba : by means 
 
TARAS BULBA. 75 
 
 of it, he had revenged himself on the former 
 koschevoi. Moreover, Kirdyaga was his an- 
 cient ■ comrade, and had been with him on the 
 same expeditions by sea and land, sharing the 
 toils and hardships of war. The crowd imme- 
 diately dispersed to celebrate the election, and 
 such revelry ensued as Ostap and Andrii 
 had not yet beheld. The pot-houses were 
 attacked : mead, corn-brandy, and beer were 
 seized without payment ; the owners were only 
 glad to escape with whole skins themselves. 
 The whole night passed amid shouts, songs, 
 and rejoicings; and the rising moon gazed long 
 at troops of musicians traversing the streets 
 with bandouras, flutes, round balalaikas, and 
 the church choir, who were kept in the Setch 
 to sing in church and glorify the deeds of the 
 Zaporozhtzi. At length drunkenness and fa- 
 tigue began to overpower their strong heads, 
 and here and there a Cossack could be seen 
 to fall upon the earth, embrac"ng his comrade 
 in fraternal fashion ; maudlin, and even weep- 
 
^6 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 ing, the latter rolled upon the earth with 
 him. Here a whole group lay down in a 
 heap ; there a man would choose the most 
 comfortable position, and stretch out straight 
 on a log of wood. The last, who was stronger, 
 still uttered some incoherent speeches : finally 
 even he yielded to the power of intoxication, 
 flung himself down, and all in the Setch slept.^ 
 
TARAS BULBA. yy 
 
 IV. 
 
 But next day Taras Bulba had a conference 
 with the new koschevoi, as to the manner of 
 exciting the Cossacks to some enterprise. The 
 koschevoi was a shrewd and sensible Cossack, 
 knew the Zaporozhtzi through and through, 
 and said at first, " Oaths cannot be violated by 
 any means ; " but after a pause he added, " No 
 matter, it can be done. We will not violate 
 them, but let us devise something. Let the 
 people assemble, not at my summons, but of 
 their own accord. You know how to manage 
 that ; and I will hasten to the square with the 
 chiefs, as though we knew nothing about it." 
 
 Not an hour had elapsed after their con- 
 versation, when the drums thundered. The 
 drunken and senseless Cossacks assembled. 
 A million Cossack caps -were sprinkled over 
 
78 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 the square. A murmur arose, "Why? What? 
 Why was the assembly beaten ? " No one 
 answered. At length, in one quarter and an- 
 other, it began to be rumored about, "Behold, 
 the Cossack strength is being vainly wasted : 
 there is no war ! Behold, our leaders have 
 become as marmots, every one ; their eyes 
 swim in fat ! Plainly, there is no justice in 
 the world ! " The other Cossacks listened at 
 first, and then began to say themselves, "Ah, 
 in truth, there is no justice in the world!" 
 Their leaders seemed surprised at these utter- 
 ances. Finally the koschevoi stepped for- 
 ward : " Permit me, panove Cossacks, to ad- 
 dress you." 
 
 "Do so!" - 
 
 "Touching the matter in question, noble 
 panove, none knows better than yourselves, 
 that many Zaporozhtzi have run in debt to 
 the Jews in the ale-houses and to their breth- 
 ren, so that now they have not an atom of 
 credit. Again, touching the matter in ques- 
 
TARAS BULB A. 79 
 
 tion, there are many young fellows who have 
 no idea of what war is like, although you 
 know, pan6ve, that without war a young man 
 cannot exist. How make a Zaporozhetz out 
 of him if he has never killed a Mussul- 
 man?" 
 
 "He speaks well," thought Bulba. 
 
 "Think not, however, panove, that I speak 
 thus in order to disturb the peace : God forbid ! 
 J_merely^ mention it. Besides, it is a shame 
 to say what sort of church we have for our 
 God. Not only is the church without exterior 
 decoration for all the years which by God's 
 mercy the Setch has stood, but up to this day 
 even the images have no adornments ; no one 
 has thought even of making them a silver 
 frame : they have only received what some 
 Cossacks have left them in their wills ; and 
 the gifts were poor, because they had drunk 
 up nearly all they had during their lifetime. 
 I am making you this speech, therefore, not 
 in order to stir up a war with the Mussulmans : 
 
8o TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 we have promised the Sultan peace, and it 
 would be a great sin in us, for we swore it 
 on our law." 
 
 "What is he mixing things up like that 
 for ? " said Bulba to himself. 
 
 "So you see, panove, that war cannot be 
 begun ; knightly honor does not permit it. 
 But according to my poor opinion, this is what 
 I think : let us send out a few young men in 
 boats ; let them plunder the coasts of Anatolia 
 a little. What do you think, panove ? " 
 
 " Lead us, lead us all ! " shouted the crowd 
 on all sides. " We are ready to lay down our 
 heads for our faith." 
 
 The koschevoi was alarmed. He by no 
 means wished to stir up all Zaporozhe : a 
 breach of the peace appeared to him on this 
 occasion improper. " Permit me, panove, to 
 address you further." 
 
 " Enough ! " yelled the Cossacks : " you can 
 say nothing better." 
 
 " If it must be so, then let it be so. I am 
 
TARAS BULB A. 8 1 
 
 the slave of your will. We know, and from 
 Scripture too, that the voice of the people is 
 the voice of God. It is impossible to devise 
 any thing better than the whole nation has 
 devised. But here is the difificulty : you know, 
 panove, that the Sultan will not permit that 
 which delights our. young men to go unpun- 
 ished. And we should be prepared at such a 
 time, and our forces should be fresh, and then 
 we should fear no one. But during their 
 absence, the Tatars may collect new forces; 
 the Turkish dogs do not exhibit themselves in 
 sight, and they dare not come while the master 
 is at home, but bite his heels from behind, 
 and bite painfully too. And if I must tell 
 you the truth, then we have not boats enough, 
 nor powder ready in suiificient quantity, for all 
 to go. But I am ready, if you please : I am 
 the slave of your will." 
 
 The cunning ataman was silent. The vari- 
 ous groups began to discuss the matter, and 
 the atd^mans of the kur^ns to take counsel 
 
82 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 together : few were drunk, fortunately, so they 
 decided to listen to reason. 
 
 A number of men set out at once for the 
 opposite shore of the Dniepr, to the treasury 
 of the army, where in strict secrecy, under 
 water and among the reeds, lay concealed the 
 army chest, and a portion of the arms cap- 
 tured from the enemy. Others hastened to in- 
 spect the boats, and prepare them for service. 
 In a twinkling the whole shore was thronged 
 with men. Carpenters appeared with axes in 
 their hands. Old, weather-beaten, broad-shoul- 
 dered, strong-legged Zaporozhtzi, with black 
 or silvered mustaches, rolled up their trousers, 
 stood up to their knees in water, and dragged 
 the boats from the shore with stout ropes ; 
 others brought the seasoned lumber, and all 
 sorts of wood. Then the boats were freshly 
 planked, turned bottom upwards, calked and 
 tarred ; then the boats were bound together 
 side by side after Cossack fashion, with long 
 strands of reeds, that the swell of the waves 
 
TARAS BULB A. 83 
 
 might not sink them. Far along the shores 
 they built fires, and heated tar in copper ket- 
 tles to smear the boats. The old and experi- 
 enced instructed the young. The blows and 
 shouts of the workers rose all about the neigh- 
 borhood ; the living bank shook and moved 
 about, 
 
 About this time a large ferry-boat began to 
 approach the shore. The mass of people 
 standing in it began to wave their hands 
 from a distance. They were Cossacks in torn, 
 ragged svitkas. Their disordered garments 
 (many wore nothing but their shirts, and a 
 short pipe in their mouths) showed that they 
 had escaped from some disaster, or had 
 caroused to such an extent that they had 
 drunk up all they had on their bodies. A 
 short, broad-shouldered Cossack of about fifty 
 stepped out from the midst of them, and stood 
 in front. He shouted and waved his hand 
 more vigorously than any of the others ; but 
 his words could not be heard for the shouts 
 and hammering of the workmen.' 
 
84 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 " Whence come you ? " asked the koschevoi, 
 when the boat had touched the shore. All 
 the workers paused in their labors, and, raising 
 their axes and chisels, looked on expectantly. 
 
 " From a misfortune ! " shouted the short 
 Cossack. 
 
 " From what } " 
 
 "Permit me, panove Zaporozhtzi, to address 
 you." 
 
 " Speak ! " 
 
 " Or would you prefer to assemble a coun- 
 cil > " 
 
 "Speak, we are all here." 
 
 The people all pressed together in one mass. 
 
 "And have you heard nothing of what has 
 been going on in the hetman's dominions .'' " 
 
 " What is it ? " inquired one of the kurdn 
 atamans. 
 
 "Eh! what! Evidently the Tatars have 
 plastered up your ears, that you might hear 
 nothing." 
 
 " Tell us : what is going on there .■' " 
 
TARAS BULBA. 85 
 
 " That is going on, the like of which no man 
 born or christened ever yet has seen." 
 
 " Tell us what it is, you son of a dog ! " 
 shouted one of the crowd, apparently losing 
 patience. 
 
 " Things have come to such a pass that our 
 holy churches are no longer ours." 
 
 " How not ours .'' " 
 
 " They are pledged to the Jews. If the Jew 
 is not first paid, there can be no mass." 
 
 " What are you saying } " 
 
 " And if the dog of a Jew does not make a 
 sign with his unclean hand over the holy 
 Easter-bread, it cannot be consecrated." 
 
 "He lies, brother pani. It cannot be that 
 an unclean Jew puts his mark upon the holy 
 Easter-bread." 
 
 "Listen! I have not yet told all. Catholic 
 priests are going about all over the Ukraine, 
 in tarataikas. The harm lies not in the tara- 
 taikas, but in the fact that not horses, but 
 orthodox Christians, are harnessed to them. 
 
86 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 Listen ! I have not yet told all. They say that 
 the Jewesses are making themselves petticoats 
 of our popes' vestments. Such are the deeds 
 which are taking place in the Ukraine, panove ! 
 And you sit here revelling in Zaporozhe ; and 
 evidently the Tatars have so scared you, that 
 you have no eyes, no ears, no any thing, and 
 you hear nothing that is going on in the 
 world." 
 
 " Stop, stop ! " broke in the koschevoi, who 
 up to that moment had stood with his eyes 
 fixed upon the earth like all Zaporozhtzi, who 
 on important occasions never yielded to their 
 first impulse, but kept silence, and meanwhile 
 collected in private all the power of their in- 
 dignation. " Stop ! I have also a word to say. 
 But what were you doing .? When your father 
 the devil was raging thus, what were you doing 
 yourselves 1 Had you no swords ? How did 
 you come to permit such lawlessness } " 
 
 " Eh ! how did we come to permit such law- 
 lessness ? You would have tried when there 
 
TARAS BULBA. 8/ 
 
 were fifty thousand of the Lyakhs ' alone ; yes, 
 and it is a shame not to be concealed, that 
 there were also dogs among us, who have 
 already accepted their faith." 
 
 "But your hetman and your colonels, what 
 did they' do ? " 
 
 " God preserve any one from such deeds as 
 our colonels performed ! " 
 
 "How so?" 
 
 " Our hetman, roasted in a brazen ox, now 
 lies in Warsaw; and the heads and hands of 
 our colonels are being carried to all the fairs 
 as a spectacle for the people. That is what 
 our colonels did." 
 
 The whole throng was excited. At first 
 silence reigned all along the shore, like that 
 which precedes a tempest ; and then suddenly 
 voices were raised, and all the shore spoke : — 
 
 " What ! The Jews hold the Christian 
 churches in pledge ! Roman-Catholic priests 
 have harnessed and beaten orthodox Chris- 
 
 ' Lyakhs, opprobrious name for the Poles. 
 
88 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 tians ! What ! such torture has been permit- 
 ted on Russian soil to the cursed unbelievers ! 
 And they have done such things to the colonels 
 and the hetman ? Nay, this shall not be, it 
 shall not be." Such words flew from all quar- 
 ters. The Zaporozhtzi were in an uproar, and 
 saw their power. This was no excitement 
 of a giddy-minded folk. All who were thus 
 agitated were strong, firm characters, which 
 were not easily aroused, but, once aroused, 
 preserved the inward heat long and obstinately. 
 " Hang all Jews ! " rang through the crowd. 
 "They shall not make petticoats for their 
 Jewesses from popes' vestments ! They shall 
 not place their signs upon the holy wafers ! 
 Drown all the heathens in the Dniepr ! " 
 These words, uttered by some one in the 
 throng, flashed like lightning through all 
 minds, and the crowd flung themselves upon 
 the suburb vtith the intention of cutting the 
 throats of all Jews. 
 
 The poor sons of Israel, losing all presence 
 
TARAS BULBA. 89 
 
 of mind, and not being in any case coura- 
 geous, hid themselves in empty brandy-casks, 
 in ovens, and even crawled under the skirts of 
 their Jewesses ; but the Cossacks found them, 
 wherever they were. 
 
 " Gracious pani ! " shrieked one Jew, tall and 
 thin as a stick, thrusting his sorry visage, dis- 
 torted with terror, from among a group of his 
 comrades, " gracious pani ! suffer us to say a 
 word, only one w»rd. We will reveal to you 
 what you never j%t have beard, a thing more 
 important than I can say, — very important ! " 
 
 " Well, say it," said Bulba, who always liked 
 to hear what an accused man had to say. 
 
 " Gracious pani ! " exclaimed the Jew, " such 
 pani were never seen, by heavens, never! Such 
 good, kind, and brave men there never were 
 in the world before ! " His voice died away, 
 and quivered with fear. " How was it possible 
 that we should think any evil of the Zoporozh- 
 tzi .'' Those men are not of us at all, those 
 who have taken pledges in the Ukraine. By 
 
90 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 heavens, they are not of us! They are not 
 Jews at all. The evil one only knows what 
 they are ; they are only fit to be spit upon, 
 and cast aside. Behold, they say the same ! 
 Is it not true, Schloma.? or you, Schmul.?" 
 
 " By heavens, it is true ! " replied Schloma 
 and Schmul, from among the crowd, in their 
 ragged caps, both pale as clay. 
 
 "We never yet," pursued the long Jew, 
 " have had any secret intercourse with your 
 enemies, and Catholics we will have nothing 
 to do with ; may the evil one fly away with 
 them ! We are like own brothers to the 
 Zaporozhtzi." 
 
 " What ! the Zaporozhtzi are brothers to 
 you!" exclaimed one from the crowd. "Don't 
 wait ; cursed Jews ! Into the Dniepr with 
 them, panove ! Drown all the unbelievers ! " 
 
 These words gave the signal. They seized 
 the Jews by the arms, and began to hurl them 
 into the waves. Pitiful cries resounded on all 
 sides ; but the stern Zaporozhtzi only laughed 
 
TARAS BULBA. 91 
 
 when they saw the Jewish legs, incased in 
 shoes and stockings, struggling in the air. 
 The poor orator who had called down de- 
 struction upon himself jumped out of his' caf- 
 tan, by which they had seized him, and in his 
 parti - colored, scant under -waistcoat, clasped 
 Bulba's legs, and begged, in a piteous voice, 
 " Great lord ! gracious pan ! I knew your 
 brother, the late Doroscha. He was a warrior 
 who was an ornament to all knighthood. I 
 gave him eight hundred sequins when he was 
 obliged to ransom himself from the Turks." 
 
 " You knew my brother .' " asked Taras. 
 
 " By heavens, I knew him. He was a mag- 
 nificent nobleman." 
 
 "And what is your name.'" 
 
 "Yankel." 
 
 " Good," said Taras ; and then, after reflect- 
 ing, he turned to the Cossacks, and Spoke as 
 follows : " There will always be plenty of time 
 to hang the Jew, if it proves necessary; but 
 for to-day give him to me." 
 
92 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 So saying, Taras led him to his wagon, be- 
 side which stood his Cossacks. " Now crawl 
 under the telega ; lie there, and do not move. 
 — And do you, brothers, not surrender this 
 Jew." 
 
 So saying, he returned to the square, for the 
 whole crowd had long before collected there. 
 All at once abandoned the shore, and the 
 preparation of the boats; for a land-journey 
 now awaited them, and not a sea-voyage, and 
 they needed horses and telegas, and not ships 
 and Cossack gulls. Now all, both young and 
 old, wanted to go on the expedition ; and it 
 was decided, with the advice of the chiefs, the 
 atamans of the kurdns, the koschevoi, and with 
 the approbation of the whole Zaporozhtzian 
 army, to march straight to Poland, to avenge 
 all the injury and disgrace to the faith and to 
 the Cossack renown, to seize booty from the 
 cities, to burn villages and grain, and spread 
 their glory far over the steppe. All immedi- 
 ately girded and armed themselves. The kos- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 93 
 
 chevoi grew a whole arschin taller. He was no 
 longer the timid executor of the giddy wtehes 
 of a free people : he was the untrammelled 
 master. He was a despot, who understood 
 only how to command. All the independent 
 and pleasure-loving knights stood in an or- 
 derly line, with respectfully bowed heads, not 
 venturing to raise their eyes, when the kos- 
 chevoi gave his orders; he gave them quietly, 
 without shouting, without haste, but with 
 pauses, like an old man deeply learned in 
 Cossack affairs, and carrying into execution, 
 not for the first time, a wisely matured enter- 
 prise. 
 
 " Examinfe yourselves, look well to your- 
 selves ; examine all your equipments thor- 
 oughly," he said : " put your teams and your 
 tar-boxes in order; test your weapons. Take 
 not many clothes with you : a shirt and a 
 couple of pairs of trousers to each Cossack, 
 and a pot of oatmeal and millet apiece, — 
 let no one take any more. There will be 
 
94 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 plenty of provisions, all that is needed, in the 
 wagbns. Let every Cossack have two horses. 
 And two hundred yoke of oxen must be 
 taken, for we shall require them at the fords 
 and marshy places. Keep order, pan(5ve, 
 above all things. I know that there are 
 some among you, whom God has made so 
 greedy, that they would immediately tear up 
 nankin and velvet for foot-cloths. Leave off 
 such devilish habits ; fling aside every petti- 
 coat, and take only weapons : if valuables 
 offer themselves, ducats or silver, they are 
 useful in any case. I tell you this before- 
 hand, pan6ve, if any one gets drunk on the 
 expedition, he will get short shrift : I will 
 order him to be dragged by the neck like a 
 dog, behind the transports, no matter who he 
 may be, even were he the most heroic Cossack 
 in the whole army ; he shall be shot on the 
 spot like a dog, and flung out to be torn by 
 the birds of prey, without sepulture, for a 
 drunkard on the march deserves no Christian 
 
TARAS BULBA. 95 
 
 burial. Young men, obey the old men in all 
 things ! If a ball grazes you, or a sword cuts 
 your head or any other part, attach no im- 
 portance to such trifles. Mix a charge of 
 powder in a cup of brandy, quaff it heartily, 
 and all will pass off — you will not even have 
 any fever ; and if the wound is too large, put 
 simple earth upon it, mixing it first with 
 spittle in your palm, and it will dry up the 
 wound. And now to work, to work, lads, and 
 look well to all, and without haste." 
 
 So spoke the koschevoi ; and no sooner had 
 he finished his speech, than all the Cossacks 
 immediately set to work. All the Setch grew 
 sober, and nowhere was a single drunken man 
 to be found, as though there never had been 
 such a thing among the Cossacks. Some 
 attended to the tires of the wheels, others 
 changed the axles of the telegas ; some car- 
 ried sacks of provisions to the wagons, other 
 wagons they loaded with arms ; others still 
 drove up the horses and oxen. On all sides 
 
96 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 resounded the tramp of horses' hoofs, test- 
 shots from the guns, the clang of swords, 
 the lowing of oxen, the screech of turning 
 wagons, talking, sharp cries and urging - on 
 of cattle. And soon the Cossack camp 
 extended far over all the plain ; and he who 
 should have undertaken to run from its head 
 to its tail, would have had a long course. In 
 the little wooden church, the priest was offer- 
 ing up prayers, and sprinkling them all with 
 holy water. All kissed the cross. When 
 the camp broke up, and moved out of the 
 Setch, all the Zaporozhtzi turned their heads 
 back. " Farewell, our mother ! " they said 
 almost in one breath. "May God preserve 
 thee from all misfortune ! " 
 
 As he passed through the suburb, Taras 
 Bulba saw that his Jew, Yankel, had already 
 erected a sort of booth with an awning, and 
 was selling flints, screw-drivers, powder, and 
 all sorts of military stores needed on the 
 road, even kalatchi ' and bread. " What devils 
 
 * A sort of roll 
 
TARAS BULBA. 97 
 
 those Jews are ! " thought Taras ; and riding 
 up to him, he said, " Fool, why are you sit- 
 ting here ? do you want to be shot like a 
 crow ? 
 
 Yankel in reply approached nearer, and 
 making a sign with both hands, as though 
 wishing to impart some secret, said, " Let 
 the pan but keep silence, and say nothing to 
 any one. Among the Cossack wagons, is a 
 wagon of mine ; I am carrying all sorts of 
 needful stores for the Cossacks, and on the 
 journey I will furnish every sort of provisions 
 at a lower price than any Jew ever sold before. 
 'Tis so, by heavens ! by heavens, 'tis so ! " 
 
 Taras Bulba shrugged his shoulders in 
 amazement at the Jewish nature, and went 
 on to the camp. 
 
98 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 V. 
 
 All South-west Poland speedily became a 
 prey to fear. Everywhere the rumor flew, 
 " The Zaporozhtzi ! the Zaporozhtzi have 
 appeared ! " All who could flee did so. All 
 rose and scattered after the manner of that 
 lawless, reckless age, when they built neither 
 fortresses nor castles, but each man erected 
 temporary dwellings of straw wherever it 
 happened. He thought, "It is useless to 
 waste money and labor on an izba, when the 
 roving Tatars will carry it off in any case." 
 All was in an uproar : one exchanged his 
 plough and oxen for a horse and gun, and 
 joined a regiment ; another hid, drove off his 
 cattle, and carried off all he could. Occa- 
 sionally, on the road, some were encountered 
 who met their visitors with armed hands ; but 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 99 
 
 more fled before their arrival. All knew that 
 it was hard to deal with the raging and war- 
 like throng known by the name of the Zapo- 
 rozhian army ; which, under its independent 
 and disorderly exterior, concealed an organ- 
 ization well calculated for times of battle. 
 The horsemen rode on without overburdening 
 or heating their horses; the foot - soldiers 
 marched soberly behind the wagons ; and the 
 whole camp moved only by night, resting 
 during the day, and selecting for this purpose 
 the wilderness, uninhabited places, and the 
 forests, of which there were then plenty. 
 Spies were sent ahead, and scouts, to discover 
 the where, what, and how. And they sud- 
 denly appeared in those places where they 
 were least expected : and then all yielded 
 up their lives ; the villages were burned ; the 
 horses and cattle which were not driven off 
 behind the army were killed upon the spot. 
 They seemed to be revelling, rather than ^=;^' 
 carrying out an expedition. Our hair would 
 
100 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 rise on end nowadays, at the horrible traits 
 of that fierce, half-civilized age, which the 
 Zaporozhtzi everywhere exhibited ; children 
 killed, women's breasts cut open, the skin 
 flayed from the legs up to the knees, and the 
 victim then set at liberty : in a word, the 
 Cossacks paid their former debts in coin of 
 full weight. The abbot of one monastery, on 
 hearing of their approach, despatched two 
 monks to say that they were not behaving 
 as they should ; that there was an agreement 
 between the Zaporozhtzi and the government ; 
 that they were breaking faith with the king, 
 and all international right. " Tell your bishop, 
 from me and from all the Zaporozhtzi," said the 
 koschevoi, " that he has nothing to fear : the 
 Cossacks, so far, have only lighted and smoked 
 their pipes." And the magnificent abbey 
 was soon wrapped in the devouring flames, 
 and its colossal Gothic windows gazed grimly 
 through the waves of fire as they parted. The 
 fleeing throng of monks, women, and X^-^s 
 
TARAS BULBA. loi 
 
 suddenly thronged into those towns where 
 there was any hojDe in the garrison and the 
 city armament. The assistance sent in sea- 
 son by the government, but delayed, consist- 
 ing of a few regiments, either were unable 
 to enter them, or, seized with fright, turned 
 their backs at the very first encounter, and 
 fled on their swift horses. It came to pass, 
 that many of the royal commanders, who had 
 conquered in former battles, resolved to unite 
 their forces, and present their front to the 
 Zaporozhtzi. 
 
 And here, more than all, did our young Cos- 
 sacks, disgusted with robbery, covetousness, and 
 a weak enemy, and burning with the desire to 
 distinguish ■ themselves before the chiefs, en- 
 deavor to measure themselves in single battle 
 with the warlike and boastful Lyakhs, prancing 
 on their spirited horses, with the sleeves of 
 their jackets thrown back and streaming in 
 the wind. This science was inspiriting : they 
 won themselves many horse-trappings, valuable 
 
I02 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 swords and guns. In one month the scarcely 
 fledged birds reached their full growth, were 
 completely transformed, and became men ; their 
 features, in which hitherto a trace of youthful 
 softness had been visible, grew strong and grim. 
 But it was pleasant to " old Taras, to see his 
 sons among the first. It seemed as though 
 Ostap were designed by nature for the pursuit 
 of war and the difficult science of warlike 
 matters. Never once losing his head or becom- 
 ing confused under any circumstances, with a 
 cool audacity almost supernatural in a youth of 
 two and twenty, he could in an instant gauge 
 the danger and the whole scope of; the matter, 
 could instantly devise a means of escaping it, 
 but of escaping it only that he might the more 
 surely conquer it. His movements now began 
 to be distinguished by the assurance which 
 comes from experience, and in them could be 
 detected the bias of the future leader. His 
 person breathed out strength, and his knightly 
 qualities assumed the broad power of the lion. 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 103 
 
 " Oh, what a fine colonel he will make one of 
 these days ! " said old Taras. " He will make 
 a splendid colonel, far surpassing even his 
 father ! " 
 
 Andn'i gave himself up wholly to the en- 
 chanting music of bullets and swords. He 
 knew not what it was to consider, or calculate, 
 or measure his own and the enemy's strength. 
 He gazed at a battle with mad delight and 
 intoxication : he perceived something festal in 
 the moments when a man's brain burns, when 
 every thing waves and flutters before his eyes, 
 heads fly off, horses fall to the earth with a 
 sound of thunder, and he rides on like a drunk- 
 en man, amid the whistling of bullets and the 
 flashing of swords, dealing blows to all, and 
 heeding not those dealt to him. More than 
 once the father marvelled also at Andn'i, see- 
 ing him, incited only by a flash of impulse, V- 
 fling himself at something which a sensible 
 man in cold blood never would have attempt- 
 ed, and, by the sheer force of his mad attack. 
 
104 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 accomplish such wonders as could not but 
 amaze men old in battle. Old Taras admired, 
 and said, "And he too will be a good war- 
 rior_^(if the enemy does not capture him). He 
 is not Ostap, but he is a fine, a grand warrior, 
 nevertheless." 
 
 The army decided to march straight to the 
 city of Dubno, where, so rumor said, there 
 were many treasures and wealthy inhabitants. 
 The journey was accomplished in a day and a 
 half, and the Zaporozhtzi appeared before the 
 city. The inhabitants resolved to defend them- 
 selves to the utmost extent of their power, and 
 to extremities, and preferred to die in their 
 squares and streets, before their thresholds, 
 rather than admit the enemy to their houses. 
 A high earthen wall surrounded the city ; in 
 places where the wall was lower, they placed . 
 stone vjfalls, pr a bouse which served as a bat- 
 tery, or even an oaken stockade. The garrison 
 was strqng, and felt the importance of their 
 position. The Zaporozhtzi attacked the wall 
 
TARAS BULBA. 
 
 105 
 
 fiercely, but were met by a shower of grape- 
 shot. The citizens and residents of the town 
 evidently did not wish to remain idle, and stood 
 in a group upon the wall ; in their eyes could 
 be read despairing resistance. The women also 
 were determined to take part, and upon the 
 heads of the Zaporozhians rained down stones, 
 casks of boiling water, and sacks of pitch 
 which blinded them. The Zaporozhtzi were 
 not fond of having to do with fortified places : 
 sieges were not in their line. The koschevoi 
 ordered them to retreat, and said, " It is use- 
 less, brother pan! ; we will retire : but may I 
 be a heathen Tatar, and not a Christian, if 
 we do not clear them out of that town ! may 
 tliey all perish of hunger, the dogs!" The 
 army retreated, surrounded the town, and, for 
 lack of something to do, busied themselves 
 with devastating the surrounding country, 
 burned the neighboring villages, the ricks of 
 unthreshed grain, and turned their droves of 
 horses loose in the fields, as yet untouched 
 
Io6 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 by the reaping-hook, where the plump ears 
 waved, as luck would have it, the fruit of an 
 unusual harvest, liberally rewarding all tillers 
 of the soil that season. 
 
 With horror those in the city beheld their 
 means of subsistence destroyed. And mean- 
 while the Zaporozhtzi, having formed a double 
 ring of their wagons around the city, disposed 
 themselves as in the Setch in their kur^ns, 
 smoked their pipes, bartered their booty for 
 weapons, played at leapfrog, at odd-and-even, 
 and gazed at the city with deadly cold-blooded- 
 ness At night they lighted their camp-fires : 
 the cooks boiled the porridge for each kuren, 
 in huge copper kettles ; an unsleeping sentinel 
 stood all night beside the blazing fire. But 
 the Zaporozhtzi soon began to tire of in- 
 activity and prolonged sobriety, unaccompanied 
 by any action. The koschevoi even ordered 
 the allowance of wine to be doubled, which 
 was sometimes done in the army when no dif- 
 ficult enterprises or movements were on hand. 
 
TARAS BULBA. lOJ 
 
 The young men, and Taras Bulba's sons in 
 particular, did not like this life. Andri'i was 
 visibly bored. " You silly head ! " said Taras 
 to him : " be patient, Cossack, you will be 
 ataman one day. And he is not a good 
 warrior who loses his spirit in an important 
 affair ; but he is good who is not tired even 
 of inactivity, who endures all, and who even if 
 he likes a thing gives it up." But hot youth 
 cannot agree with age : the two have different 
 natures, and they look at the same thing with 
 different eyes. 
 
 But in the mean time Taras's regiment, 
 led by Tovkatch, arrived ; with him were also 
 two osauls, the secretary, and other regimental 
 officers : the Cossacks numbered over four 
 thousand in all. There were among them many 
 volunteers, who had risen of their own free will, 
 without any summons, as soon as they heard 
 what the matter was. The osauls brought to 
 Taras's sons the blessing of their aged mother, 
 and to each a cypress image from the Mezhi- 
 
Io8 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 gorski monastery at Kief. The two brothers 
 hung the holy images round their necks, and 
 involuntarily grew pensive as they remembered 
 their old mother. What does this blessing 
 prophesy and say to them .' Is it a blessing 
 for their victory over the enemy, and then a 
 joyous return to their home with booty and 
 glory, to be everlastingly commemorated in 
 the songs of bandoura-players .-' or is it . . . ? 
 But the future is unknown, and stands before 
 a man like autumnal fogs rising from the 
 swamps : birds fly foolishly up and down in 
 it with flapping wings, never recognizing each 
 other, the dove seeing not the vulture, nor 
 the vulture the dove, and no one knows how 
 far he may be flying from his destruction. 
 
 Ostap had long before attended to his 
 duties, and gone to the kuren. Andrii, with- 
 out knowing why, felt a sort of oppression in 
 his heart. The Cossacks had finished their 
 evening meal ; the evening had fully settled 
 down, the wonderful July night ruled the air : 
 
TARAS BULBA. 109 
 
 but he did not go to the kur6n, he did not 
 lie down to sleep, and he gazed unconsciously 
 at the whole scene before him. In the 
 sky twinkled innumerable stars, with a thin, 
 sharp gleam. The plain was covered far 
 around by scattered wagons with swinging 
 tar-buckets smeared with the tar, and loaded 
 with every description of goods and provisions 
 captured from the foe. Beside the telegas, 
 under the telegas, and far beyond the telegas, 
 Zaporozhtzi were everywhere visible, stretched 
 out upon the grass. They all slumbered in 
 picturesque attitudes : one had thrust a sack 
 under his head, another his cap, stilL another 
 simply made use of his comrade's side. Swords, 
 guns, matchlocks, short pipe-stems with copper 
 mountings, iron awls, and a flint and steel 
 were inseparable from every Cossack. The 
 heavy oxen lay with their feet doubled under 
 them like huge whitish masses, and at a dis- 
 tance looked like gray stones scattered on 
 the slopes of the plain. On all sides the 
 
I lO TARAS BULBA. 
 
 heavy snores of sleeping warriors began to 
 arise from the grass, which were answered 
 from the plain by the ringing neighs of their 
 steeds, chafing at their hobbled feet. Mean- 
 while a certain threatening magnificence had 
 mingled with the beauty of the July night. 
 It was the glare of the burning neighborhood 
 afar. In one place the flames spread quietly 
 and grandly over the sky ; in another meeting 
 something on fire, and suddenly bursting into 
 a whirlwind, they hissed and flew upwards to 
 the very stars, and torn fragments died away 
 in the most distant quarter of the heavens. 
 There the black, burned monastery like a 
 grim Carthusian monk stood threatening, and 
 displaying its dark magnificence at every flash ; 
 there burned the monastery garden. It seemed 
 as though the trees could be heard hissing, 
 as they stood wrapped in smoke ; and when 
 the fire sprang away, it suddenly lighted up 
 with a phosphoric lilac-flame-colored gleam the 
 ripe plums, or turned the yellowing pears here 
 
TARAS BULB A. 1 1 1 
 
 and there to pure gold ; and there in the 
 midst of them hung black upon the wall of 
 the building, or upon the trunk of a tree, the 
 body of a poor Jew or monk who had per- 
 ished in the flames with the building. Above 
 the fires afar, hovered birds, appearing like a 
 cluster of tiny black crosses upon a fiery field. 
 The town thus laid bare seemed to sleep ; 
 the spires and roofs, and its palisade and walls, 
 flashed quietly in the glare of the distant con- 
 flagrations. Andru went the rounds of the 
 Cossack ranks. The camp-fires, beside which 
 the sentinels sat, were ready to go out at 
 any moment ; and even the sentinels slept, 
 having eaten oatmeal and dumplings with 
 genuine Cossack appetites. He was astonished 
 at such carelessness, thinking, "It is well 
 that there is no strong enemy at hand, and 
 no one to fear." Finally he went to one of 
 the wagons, climbed into it, and lay down 
 upon his back, putting his clasped hands under 
 his head ; but he could not sleep, and gazed 
 
112 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 long at the sky. It was all open before him ; 
 the air was pure and transparent ; the dense 
 clusters of stars in the Milky Way, traversing 
 the sky in a belt, were flooded with light. 
 From time to time Andrii in a degree forgot 
 himself, and a light mist of dream veiled the 
 heavens from him for a moment ; and then he 
 awoke, and they became visible again. 
 
 At one of these intervals it seemed to him 
 that some strange human figure flitted before 
 him. Thinking it to be merely a dream 
 apparition which would vanish at once, he 
 opened his eyes, and beheld a withered, 
 emaciated face bending over him, and gazing 
 straight in his eyes. The long, coal-black 
 hair, uncoiffed, disordered, fell from beneath 
 a dark veil which had been thrown over the 
 head ; and the strange gleam of the eyes, and 
 the death-like brown tone of the face, bringing 
 out the sharp-cut features, inclined him to 
 think that it was an apparition. His hand 
 involuntarily grasped his gun ; and he ex- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 113 
 
 claimed almost convulsively, " Who are you ? 
 If you are an evil spirit, out of my sight ! 
 If you are a living being, you have chosen an 
 ill time for your jest : I will kill you with 
 one shot." 
 
 In answer to this, the apparition laid its 
 finger upon its lips, and seemed to entreat 
 silence. He dropped his hand, and began to 
 look more attentively. He recognized her to 
 be a woman from the long hair, the brown 
 neck, and half-concealed bosom. But she was 
 not a native of those regions : her wide cheek- 
 bones stood out prominently over the hollow 
 cheeks ; her narrow eyes rose in an arch. 
 The more he gazed at her features, the more 
 he found in them that was familiar. Finally 
 he could restrain himself no longer, and said, 
 " Tell me, who are you 1 It seems to me that 
 I know you, or have seen you somewhere." 
 
 "Two years ago, in Kief." 
 % "Two years ago, in Kief!" repeated Andri'i, 
 endeavoring to collect in his mind all that 
 
114 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 lingered in his memory of his former student 
 life. He loolced intently at her once more, 
 and suddenly exclaimed at the top of his voice, 
 " You are the Tatar ! the servant of the 
 pannochka, the Voevod's daughter ! " 
 
 "Sh!" cried the Tatar, clasping her hands 
 with a supplicating glance, trembling all over, 
 and turning her head round in order to see 
 whether any one had been waked up by 
 Andn'i's loud exclamation. 
 
 "Tell me, tell me, why are you here?" 
 said Andn'i, almost panting, in a whisper, 
 interrupted every moment by inward emotion. 
 "Where is the pannochka.'' is she alive.'" 
 
 "She is now in the city." 
 
 " In the city ! " he exclaimed, again almost 
 in a shriek, and felt that all the blood sud- 
 denly flew to his heart. " Why is she in the 
 city t " 
 
 "Because the old pan himself is in the city : 
 he has been Voevod of Dubno for the last 
 year and a half." 
 
TARAS BULBA. 115 
 
 " Is she married ? How strange you are ! 
 Tell me about her." 
 
 " She has eaten nothing for two days." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 "And not one of the inhabitants has had 
 a morsel of bread for a long while ; all have 
 long been eating earth." 
 
 Andrii was astounded. 
 
 " The pannochka saw you from the city wall, 
 among the Zaporozhti. She said to me, ' Go 
 tell the knight : if he remembers me, let hira 
 come to me; and do not forget to make him 
 give you a bit of bread for my aged mother, 
 for I do not wish to see my mother die before 
 my very eyes. Better that I should die first, 
 and she afterwards ! Beseech him ; clasp his 
 knees, his feet : he also has an aged mother, 
 let him give you the bread for her sake ! ' " 
 
 Many feelings awoke and flamed up in the 
 young Cossack's breast. 
 
 " But how came you here .' how did you 
 get here .-' " 
 
1 1 6 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 "By an underground passage." 
 " Is there an underground passage ? " 
 "Yes." 
 " Where .? " 
 
 " You will not betray it, knight .'' " 
 " I swear it by the holy cross ! " 
 " You descend into a hole, and cross the 
 brook, yonder among the reeds." 
 "And it leads into the city.?" 
 " Straight into the monastery." 
 " Let us go, let us go at once ! " 
 "A bit of bread, in the name of Christ and 
 of His holy mother ! " 
 
 "Good, so be it. Stand here beside the 
 wagon, or, better still, lie down in it : no one 
 will see you, all are asleep. I will return at 
 once." 
 
 And he set off for the transports, which 
 contained the provisions belonging to their 
 kur^n. His heart beat. All the past, all that 
 had been extinguished by the Cossack biv- 
 ouacks, by the stero battle of life, all flamed 
 
TARAS BULBA. W] 
 
 out at once on the surface, and drowned the 
 present, in its turn. Again, as from the dark 
 depths of the sea, the proud woman rose before 
 him : again there gleamed in his memory her 
 beautiful arms, her eyes, her laughing mouth, 
 her thick dark-chestnut hair, falling in curls 
 upon her shoulders, and the elastic, well-knit 
 members of her maiden form. No, they had 
 not been extinguished in his breast ; they had 
 not vanished : they had simply been laid aside, 
 in order, for a time, to make way for other 
 strong emotions; but often, very often, the 
 young Cossack's deep slumber had been trou- 
 bled by them, and often, waking, he lay 
 sleepless on his couch, without being able to 
 explain the cause. 
 
 He went ; but his heart beat more violently 
 at the thought of seeing her again, and his 
 young knees shook. On arriving at the trans- 
 port, he had utterly forgotten why he had 
 come; he raised his hand to his brow, and 
 rubbed it long, trying to recollect what he 
 
Il8 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 was to do. At length he trembled, and was 
 filled with terror : the thought suddenly oc- 
 curred to him, that she was dying of hunger. 
 He flung himself upon the wagon, and seized 
 several large loaves of black bread ; but then 
 he thought, " Is not this food, suited to a ro- 
 bust and easily satisfied Zaporozhetz, coarse 
 and unfit for her delicate frame .■' " Then he 
 recollected that the koschevoi, on the previous 
 evening, had reproved the cooks for having 
 cooked up all the oatmeal into porridge at 
 once, when there was plenty for three times. 
 In the full assurance that he would find 
 plenty of porridge in the kettles, he drew 
 out his father's travelling kettle, and went 
 with it to the cook of their kur6n, who was 
 sleeping beside two big kettles, which held 
 about ten pailfuls, under which the ashes 
 still glowed. Glancing into them, he was 
 amazed to find them empty. It must have 
 required supernatural powers to eat it all ; 
 the more so, as their kuren numbered fewer 
 
TARAS BULB A. 119 
 
 than the others. He looked into the kettles 
 of the other kur^ns, — nothing anywhere. 
 Involuntarily the saying recurred to his mind, 
 " The Zaporozhtzi are like children : if there 
 is little they eat it, if there is much they 
 leave nothing." What was to be done .' 
 There was, somewhere in the wagon belong- 
 ing to his father's regiment, a sack of white 
 bread, which they had found when they 
 robbed the bakery of the monastery. He 
 went straight to his father's wagon, but it 
 was not there. Ostap had taken it, and put 
 it under his head ; and there he lay, stretched 
 out on the earth, snoring so that the whole 
 plain rang again. Andri'i seized the sack 
 abruptly with one hand, and gave it a jerk, 
 so 'that Ostap's head fell to the ground, and 
 the latter sprang up in his sleep, and, sitting 
 there with closed eyes, shouted at the top 
 of his lungs, " Stop them ! Stop the cursed 
 Lyakhs ! Catch the horses ! catch the horses ! " 
 — " Silence ! I'll kill you," shouted Andri'i 
 
I20 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 in terror, flourishing the sack over him. But 
 Ostap did not continue his speech, quieted 
 down, and emitted such a snore that the 
 grass on which he lay waved with his 
 breath. 
 
 Andn'i glanced timidly on all sides to see 
 if Ostap's dream-raving had waked any of 
 the Cossacks. One long-locked head only 
 was raised in the adjoining kuren, glanced 
 about, and then dropped back on the ground. 
 After waiting a couple of minutes he set out 
 with his load. The Tatar woman lay there, 
 scarcely breathing. " Rise, come. Fear not, 
 all are sleeping. Can you take one of these 
 loaves if I cannot carry all 1 " So saying, he 
 flung the sacks on his back, pulled out another 
 sack of millet as he passed the wagon, took in 
 his hands the loaves he had wanted to give 
 the Tatar woman to carry, and, bending some- 
 what under the load, went boldly through the 
 ranks of sleeping Zaporozhtzi. 
 
 "Andn'i," said old Bulba, as he passed. His 
 
TARAS BULBA. 12 1 
 
 heart died within him. He halted, trembling, 
 and said softly, " What is it ? " 
 
 "There's a woman with you. When I get 
 up I'll give you a sound thrashing. Women 
 will lead you to no good." So saying, he 
 leaned his head upon his hand, and gazed 
 intently at the muffled form of the Tatar. 
 
 Andrfi stood there, more dead than alive, 
 not daring to look in his father's face. And 
 when he did raise his eyes, and glance at him, 
 old Bulba was asleep, with his head resting 
 in the palm of his hand. 
 
 He crossed himself. Fear fled from his 
 heart even more rapidly than it had attacked 
 it. When he turned to look at the Tatar 
 woman, she stood before him like a dark gran- 
 ite statue, all muffled in her wrap ; and the 
 gleam of the distant dawn lighted up only 
 her eyes, dull as the eyes of a corpse. He 
 plucked her by the sleeve, and both went on 
 together, glancing back incessantly; and at 
 length they descended the slope of the small 
 
122 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 ravine, almost a hole, at the bottom of which 
 a brook flowed lazily, overgrown with sedge, 
 and strewed with mossy hummocks. Descend- 
 ing into this ravine, they were completely 
 concealed from the view of all the plain occu- 
 pied by the Zaporovian camp. At least An- 
 dri'i, glancing back, saw that the steep slope 
 rose behind him higher than a man. On its 
 crest appeared a few blades of steppe-grass ; 
 and behind them, in the sky, hung the 
 moon, like a reaping-hook of pure gold. The 
 breeze rising on the steppe warned them 
 that the dawn was not far off. But nowhere 
 was the crow of the cock audible. Neither in 
 the city nor in the devastated neighborhood 
 had there been a cock for a long time past. 
 They crossed the brook on a small plank, 
 beyond which rose the opposite bank, which 
 appeared higher than the one behind them, 
 and projected quite steeply. It seemed as 
 though this were the strong point of the cit- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 123 
 
 adel, upon which they could rely ; at all events, 
 the earthen wall was lower there, and no 
 garrison appeared behind it. But farther on 
 rose the thick monastery walls. The precip- 
 itous bank was all overgrown with steppe- 
 grass, and in the narrow ravine between it 
 and the brook grew tall reeds almost as high 
 as a man. At the summit of the crevice were 
 visible the remains of a wattled fence, which 
 had formerly surrounded some garden ; in front 
 of it, the wide leaves of the burdock, from 
 among which rose orache and black-thorn, and 
 sunflowers lifting their heads high above all 
 the rest. Here the Tatar flung off her slip- 
 pers, and went barefoot, gathering her clothes 
 up carefully, for the spot was marshy, and 
 full of water. Forcing their way among the 
 reeds, they stopped before a ruined outwork. 
 Skirting this outwork, they found a sort of 
 earthen arch, — an opening not much larger 
 than the opening of an oven. The Tatar 
 
124 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 woman bent her head, and went first. Andri'i 
 followed, bending as low as he could, in order 
 to pass with his sacks ; and both soon found 
 themselves in total darkness. 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 125 
 
 VI. 
 
 Andrii could hardly move in the dark and 
 narrow earthen corridor, as he followed the 
 Tatar, dragging after him his sacks of bread. 
 " It will soon be light," said his guide : " we are 
 approaching the spot where I placed a light." 
 And in fact the dark earthen walls began to 
 be gradually illuminated. They reached a 
 little widening where, it seemed, there had 
 been a chapel ; at least, there was a small 
 table against the wall, like an altar, and above 
 it was visible the faded, almost entirely obliter- 
 ated picture of a Catholic Madonna. A small 
 silver lamp hanging before it barely lighted it. 
 The Tatar stooped, and picked up from the 
 earth a copper candlestick which she had left 
 there, with a tall, slender foot, and snuffers, 
 
126 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 pin, and extinguisher hanging about it on 
 chains. She lighted it at the silver lamp. 
 The light grew stronger ; and as they went 
 on, now illumined by it, and again enveloped 
 in pitchy shadow, they suggested a picture of 
 Gerard Dow. 
 
 The knight's fresh, handsome countenance, 
 overflowing with health and youth, presented 
 a strong contrast to the pale, emaciated face 
 of his companion. The passage grew a little 
 higher, so that Andri'i could straighten himself 
 up. He gazed with curiosity at the earthen 
 walls. Here, as in the catacombs at Kief, 
 were visible niches in the walls ; and in some 
 places coffins were standing. Sometimes they 
 came across human bones which had become 
 softened with the dampness, and were crum- 
 bling into dust. It was evident that pious 
 people had taken refuge here from the storms, 
 sorrows, and seductions of the world. It was 
 extremely damp in some places ; under their 
 feet it was all water at times. Andn'i was 
 
TARAS BULBA. 127 
 
 forced to halt frequently to allow his com- 
 panion to rest, for her fatigue increased con- 
 stantly. The small piece of bread she had 
 swallowed only caused a pain in her stomach, 
 which was unused to food ; and she often stood 
 motionless for minutes together in one spot. 
 
 At length a small iron door appeared before 
 them. " Now glory be to God, we have ar- 
 rived ! " said the Tatar in a faint voice, and 
 tried to lift her hand to knock; but she had 
 no power. Andn'i knocked hard at the door, 
 in her stead. There was an echo as though 
 a large space were beyond the door ; then the 
 echo changed, as if encountering lofty arches. 
 In a couple of minutes, keys rattled, and some 
 one seemed to be descending some stairs. At 
 last the door opened : a monk, standing on the 
 narrow stairs with the key and a light in his 
 hands, admitted them. Andn'i involuntarily 
 halted at the sight of a Catholic monk, — 
 one of those who had aroused such hate and 
 disdain among the Cossacks, who had treated 
 
128 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 them even more inhumanly than they had 
 treated the Jews. 
 
 The monk, on his side, started back on 
 perceiving a Zaporovian Cossack; but an in- 
 audible word uttered by the Tatar re-assured 
 him. He lighted them, fastened the door 
 behind them, and led them up the stairs; 
 and they found themselves beneath the dark 
 and lofty arches of the monastery church. 
 Before one of the altars, adorned with tall 
 candlesticks and candles, knelt a priest pray- 
 ing quietly. Near him on each side, knelt two 
 young choristers in lilac mantles, with white 
 lace surplices, and with censers in their hands. 
 He prayed for the performance of a miracle, 
 that the city might be saved ; that their souls 
 might be strengthened ; that patience might 
 be given them ; that the tempter, whispering 
 complaint, and timid, weak-spirited mourning 
 over earthly misfortunes, might be banished. 
 A few women, resembling shadows, knelt sup- 
 porting themselves against the backs of the 
 
TARAS BULB A. 129 
 
 chairs and dark wooden benches before them, 
 and laying their exhausted heads upon them. 
 A few men knelt sadly, leaning against the col- 
 umns upon which the wide arches rested. The 
 stained-glass window above the altar glowed 
 with the rosy light of dawn ; and from it, on 
 the floor, fell circles of blue, yellow, and other 
 colors, suddenly illuminating the dim church. 
 The whole altar, to its farthest depths, was 
 suddenly lighted up ; the smoke from the cen- 
 sers hung a cloudy rainbow in the air. Andri'i 
 gazed from his dark corner, not without sur- 
 prise, at the wonders worked by the light. 
 At that moment the magnificent swell of the 
 organ suddenly filled the whole church ; it 
 grew deeper and deeper, expanded, passed into 
 heavy bursts of thunder ; and then all at 
 once, turning into heavenly music, its singing 
 tones floated high among the arches, like clear 
 maiden voices, and again descended into a deep 
 roar and thunder, and then ceased, and the 
 thunderous pulsations echoed long and trem- 
 
130 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 blingly among the arches ; and Andrfi, with 
 half-open mouth, admired the wondrous music. 
 Then he felt some one plucking the skirt 
 of his caftan. "It is time," said the Tatar. 
 They traversed the church unperceived, and 
 emerged upon the square in front. The dawn 
 had long flushed the heavens ; all announced 
 the sunrise. The quadrangular square was 
 entirely empty: in the middle of it still stood 
 wooden pillars, showing that, perhaps only a 
 week before, there had existed a market here 
 'with provisions. The streets, which were 
 unpaved, were simply a mass of dried mud. 
 The square was surrounded by a row of small, 
 one-storied stone or mud houses, on whose 
 walls were visible wooden stakes and posts to 
 their full height, obliquely crossed by carved 
 wooden beams, as was the manner of building 
 in those days, and specimens of which can 
 still be seen in some parts of Lithuania and 
 Poland. They were all covered with enor- 
 mously high roofs, with a multitude of win- 
 
TARAS BULB A. 131 
 
 dows and air-holes. On one side, quite near 
 the church, and taller than the others, rose 
 a building quite detached from the rest ; 
 probably the town-hall or some government 
 office. It was two stories high, and above it, 
 in two arches, was built a belvidere where a 
 watchman stood ; a huge clock-face was let 
 into the roof. 
 
 The square seemed dead, but Andrfi thought 
 he heard a feeble groan. Looking about him, 
 he perceived, on the farther side, a group of 
 two or three men lying nearly motionless upon 
 the earth. He fastened his eyes more intently 
 on them, to see whether they were asleep or 
 dead; and, at the same moment, stumbled 
 over something lying at his feet. It was the 
 dead body of a woman, apparently a Jewess. 
 She appeared to be young, though this was 
 not discernible in her distorted and emaci- 
 ated features. Upon her head was a red silk 
 kerchief ; two rows of pearls or pearl beads 
 adorned the ear-pieces of her headdress ; from 
 
132 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 beneath it, two long curls hung down upon 
 her withered neck, with its tightly drawn 
 veins. Beside her lay a child, grasping con- 
 vulsively at her withered breast, and squeezing 
 it with involuntary ferocity, finding no milk 
 there. He neither wept nor screamed, and 
 only his gently rising and falling body would 
 lead one to think that he was not dead, or 
 at least on the point of breathing his last. 
 They turned into a street, and were suddenly 
 stopped by a madman, who, catching sight 
 of Andrii's precious burden, sprang upon 
 him like a tiger, and clutched him, yellmg, 
 "Bread!" But his strength was not equal 
 to his madness. Andri'i repulsed him : he fell 
 to the ground. Moved with pity, Andrfi flung 
 him a loaf, which he seized like a mad dog; 
 he gnawed and bit it ; and, there in the 
 street, he expired in horrible suffering, from 
 long disuse of eating. The terrible victims 
 of hunger startled them at every step. Many 
 seemed to run into the streets, apparently un- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 133 
 
 able to endure their torments in their houses, 
 to see whether some nourishing power might 
 possibly descend from the air. At the gate 
 of one house sat an old woman, and it was 
 impossible to say whether she was aslfeep or 
 dead, or only unconscious ; at all events, she 
 no longer saw or heard any thing, and sat im- 
 movable in one spot, her head drooping on 
 her breast. From the roof of another house 
 hung a strained and withered body in a rope 
 noose. The poor fellow could not endure 
 the tortures of hunger to the last, and pre- 
 ferred to hasten his end by a voluntary 
 death. 
 
 At the sight of such terrible proof of fam- 
 ine, Andrfi could not refrain from asking the 
 Tatar, "Was there really nothing with which _ 
 they could prolong life.'' If a man is driven 
 to extremities, then there is nothing to be ; 
 done : he must nourish himself on what he ;' 
 has hitherto despised ; he can sustain himself 
 with creatures which are forbidden by the law. 
 
134 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 Any thing can be eaten under such circum- 
 stances." 
 
 "They have eaten every thing," said the 
 Tatar, — " all the animals. Not a horse nor a 
 dog nor even a mouse, can be found in the 
 whole city. We never had any provisions in 
 the town : they were all brought from the 
 villages." 
 
 " But how can you, while dying such a 
 fearful death, still dream of defending the 
 city .? " 
 
 " Possibly the Voevod might have surren- 
 dered : but yesterday morning the colonel in 
 Buzhana sent a hawk into the city with a 
 note saying that it was not to be given up ; 
 that he was coming to its rescue with his regi- 
 ment, and was only waiting for another colonel, 
 that they might march together. And now 
 they are expected every moment. But we 
 have reached the house." 
 
 Andrii had already seen from afar the 
 house, unlike the others, and built apparently 
 
TARAS BULB A. 135 
 
 by some Italian architect : it was constructed 
 of thin red bricks, and had two stories. The 
 windows of the lower story were sheltered 
 under lofty, projecting granite cornices: the 
 upper story consisted entirely of small arches, 
 forming a gallery ; between them, gratings 
 with coats-of-arms were visible ; upon the cor- 
 ners of the house there were more coats-of- 
 arms. The wide external staircase, of tinted 
 bricks, abutted on the square. At the foot of 
 the staircase sat guards, who with one hand 
 held the halberd, standing beside them in a 
 picturesque and symmetrical manner, and with 
 the other supported their drooping heads, and 
 in this attitude more resembled apparitions 
 than living beings. They neither slept nor 
 dreamed, but seemed quite insensible to every 
 thing ; they even paid no attention to who 
 went up the stairs. At the head of the stairs, 
 they found a richly dressed warrior, armed 
 cap-4-pie, holding a breviary in his hand. He 
 turned his dim eyes upon them ; but the Tatar 
 
136 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 spoke a word to him, and he dropped them 
 again upon the open pages of his breviary. 
 They entered the first chamber, quite a large 
 one, serving as a reception-room, or simply as 
 an ante-room ; it was filled with soldiers, serv- 
 ants, secretaries, huntsmen, cup-bearers, and the 
 other servitors indispensable to the support of 
 a Polish magnate's state, all seated along the 
 walls. The reek of extinguished candles was 
 perceptible ; two still burned in two huge 
 candlesticks, nearly as tall as a man, standing 
 in the middle of the room, although morning 
 had long before peeped through the wide 
 grated window. Andri'i wanted to go straight 
 to the large oaken door adorned with a coat- 
 of-arms and a profusion of carved ornaments ; 
 but the Tatar pulled his sleeve, and pointed to 
 a small door in the side wall. Through this 
 they entered a corridor, and then a room, 
 which he began to examine attentively. The 
 light which sifted through a crack in the shut- 
 ters fell upon some objects, — a crimson cur- 
 
TARAS BULB A. 137 
 
 tain, a gilded cornice, and a painting on the 
 wall. Here the Tatar motioned to Andri'i to 
 wait, and opened the door into another room 
 from which flashed the light of a fire. He 
 heard a whispering, and a soft voice which 
 made him quiver all over. Through the open 
 door he beheld flit rapidly past, a tall female 
 figure, with a long thick braid of hair falling 
 over her uplifted hands. The Tatar returned, 
 and told him to enter. 
 
 He could never understand how he entered, 
 and how the door was shut behind him. Two 
 candles burned in the room, and a lamp glowed 
 before the images : beneath it stood a tall table 
 with steps to kneel upon during prayer, after 
 the Catholic fashion. But not this did his 
 eye seek. He turned to the other side, and 
 perceived a woman, who seemed to have frozen 
 or turned to stone in the midst of some quick 
 movement. It seemed as though her whole 
 form had sought to spring towards him, and 
 had suddenly paused. And he stood in like 
 
138 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 manner amazed before her. Not thus had he 
 pictured to himself that he should see her. 
 This was not the same person he had formerly 
 known ; nothing about her resembled that per- 
 son : but she was twice as beautiful, twice as 
 wonderful, now as she had been then. Then 
 there had been something unfinished, incom- 
 plete, about her : now it was a production to 
 which the artist had given the finishing stroke 
 of his brush. That was a charming giddy girl : 
 this was a beauty, a woman in the full develop- 
 ment of her charms. As she raised her eyes, 
 they were full of feeling, not of bits and hints 
 of feeling. The tears were not yet dry in them, 
 and framed them in a shining dew, which pen- 
 etrated the very soul. Her bosom, neck, and 
 arms were moulded in the proportions which 
 mark fully developed loveliness. Her hair, 
 which had in former days waved in light ring- 
 lets about her face, had become a heavy, lux- 
 uriant mass, a part of which wa-s caught up, 
 while part fell in long, slender curls upon her 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 139 
 
 arms and breast. It seemed as though her 
 every feature had changed. In vain did he 
 try to discover in them a single one of those 
 which were engraved in his memory, — even 
 one. Even her great pallor did -not lessen her 
 wonderful beauty : on the contrary, it conferred 
 upon it an irresistible, inexpressible charm. 
 And Andrfi felt in all his soul a noble timid- 
 ity, and stood motionless before her. She, too, 
 seemed surprised at the appearance of the Cos- 
 sack, as he stood before her in all his beauty 
 and the might of his young manhood, and in 
 the very immovability of his limbs personified 
 the utmost freedom of movement. His eyes 
 beamed with clear decision ; his velvet brows 
 bent in a bold arch ; his sunburnt cheeks ( 
 glowed with all the ardor of youthful fire ; and 
 his downy black mustache shone like silk. 
 
 " No, I have no power to thank you, noble 
 knight," she said, her silvery voice all in a 
 tremble. " God alone can reward you : not I, 
 a weak woman." She dropped her eyes; her 
 
140 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 lids fell over them in beautiful, snowy semi- 
 circles, guarded by lashes long as arrows ; all 
 her wondrous face bowed forward, and a deli- 
 cate flush overspread it from below. Andrii 
 knew not what to say : he wanted to say 
 every thing. He had in his mind, to say it 
 all ardently, as it glowed in his heart, — and 
 could not. He felt something confining his 
 mouth ; voice and words were gone ; he felt 
 that it was not for him, bred in the seminary 
 and in the tumult of a roaming life, to reply 
 fitly to such language, and was angry with 
 his Cossack nature. 
 
 At that moment the Tatar entered the room. 
 She had cut up the bread which the knight 
 had brought, into small pieces, brought it in 
 on a golden plate, and placed it before her 
 mistress. The beauty glanced at her, at the 
 bread, at her, and turned her eyes to Andrii ; 
 and there was a great deal in those eyes. 
 That gentle glance, expressive of her weakness 
 and her inability to give words to the feeling 
 
TARAS BULBA. 141 
 
 which overpowered her, was far more com- 
 prehensible to Andrfi than any words. His 
 soul_suddenly became light : all within him 
 seemed made smooth. The mental emotions 
 and the feelings which up to that moment 
 he had restrained with a heavy curb, as it 
 were, now felt themselves released, at liberty, 
 and anxious to pour themselves out in a resist- 
 less torrent of words. Suddenly the beauty 
 turned to the Tatar, and asked anxiously, 
 "But my mother.' you took her some.'" 
 
 " She is asleep." 
 
 "And my father.?" 
 
 " I carried him some : he said that he would 
 come to thank the knight in person." 
 
 She took the bread, and raised it to her 
 mouth. With inexpressible delight, Andri'i 
 watched her break jt with her shining fingers, 
 and eat it ; and all at once he recalled the 
 man, mad with hunger, who had expired 
 before his eyes, on swallowing a morsel of 
 bread. He turned pale, and, seizing her hand. 
 
142 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 screamed, " Enough ! eat no more ! you have 
 not eaten for so long, that bread will poison 
 you now." And she immediately dropped 
 her hand ; she laid the bread upon the plate, 
 and gazed into his eyes like a submissive 
 child. And if any words could express — 
 But neither chisel, nor brush, nor mighty 
 speech is capable of expressing what is some- 
 times seen in glances of maidens, nor the 
 tender feeling which takes possession ^f_him 
 who sees such niaidfin^^glances. 
 
 " Tzaritza ! " exclaimed Andrfi, heart, soul, 
 all, full of emotion : " what do you need .' 
 what do you wish .'' command me ! Impose on 
 me the most impossible task in aU the world : 
 I fly to fulfil it ! Tell me to do that which 
 it is beyond the power of man to do : I will 
 fulfil it if I ruin myself. I will ruin myself. 
 And I swear by the holy cross, that ruin for 
 your sake is so sweet — but no, it is impos- 
 sible to say how sweet ! I have three farms ; 
 half my father's droves of horses are mine; 
 
TARAS BULBA. 143 
 
 all that my mother brought my father, and 
 which she still conceals from him, — all this 
 is mine ! Not one of the Cossacks owns 
 such weapons as I : for the pommel of my 
 sword alone, they would give their best drove 
 of horses and three thousand sheep. And I 
 renounce all this, I discard it, I throw it aside, 
 I burn, I drown it, if you will but say the 
 word, or even move your delicate black brows ! 
 But I know that I am perchance talking 
 foolishly, and wide of the mark ; that all this 
 is not fitting here ; that it is not for me, who 
 have passed my life in the seminary and 
 among the Zaporozhtzi, to speak as they 
 speak where kings, princes, and all the best 
 of noble knighthood, have been. I perceive 
 that you are a different being from the rest 
 of us, and far above all other boyars' wives 
 and maiden daughters." 
 
 With growing amazement the maiden lis- 
 tened, all ear, losing no single word, to the 
 frank, sincere language in which, as in a mir- 
 
144 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 ror, the young, strong spirit reflected itself; 
 and eachL simple word of this speech, uttered 
 in a voice which flew straight to the depths 
 of the heart, was clothed in power. And she 
 reached forward her .beautiful face, pushed 
 back her troublesome hair, opened her mouth, 
 and gazed long, with parted lips. Then she 
 tried to say something, and suddenly stopped, 
 and remembered that the knight was known 
 by a different name ; that his father, brothers, 
 country, lay beyond, grim avengers ; that the 
 Zaporozhtzi besieging the city were terrible, 
 and a cruel death awaited all who were in 
 the city, and her eyes suddenly filled with 
 tears. She seized a silk embroidered handker- 
 chief, and threw it over her face, and in a 
 moment it was all wet ; and she sat long with 
 her beautiful head thrown back, her snowy 
 teeth set on her lovely under-lip, as though 
 she suddenly felt the sting of a poisonous 
 serpent, and without removing the handker- 
 chief from her face, lest he should see her 
 broken with grief. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 145 
 
 " Say one word to me," said Andrfi, and 
 took her satin hand. A s park ling fire coursed 
 through his veins at the touch, and he pressed 
 the hand lying motionless in his. 
 
 But she kept silence, never taking the ker- 
 chief from her face, and remained motionless. 
 
 "Why are you so sad.' Tell me, why are 
 you so sad ? " 
 
 She cast away the handkerchief, pushed 
 aside her long hair which fell over her eyes, 
 and poured out her heart in sad speech, in a 
 quiet voice, like the breeze which, rising on 
 a beautiful evening, blows through the thick 
 growth of reeds beside the stream ; they rus- 
 tle, murmur, and emit delicately sad sounds, 
 and the traveller, pausing in inexplicable sad- 
 ness, hears them, heeding not the fading light, 
 nor the gay songs of the people which float 
 by. as they stray from their labors in meadow 
 and stubble-field, nor the distant thud of the 
 passing telega. 
 
 " Am not I worthy of eternal pity .' Is not 
 
146 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 the mother that bore me unhappy ? Is it 
 not a bitter lot which has fallen to me ? Art 
 not thou a cruel executioner, my grim fate ? 
 Thou hast brought all to my feet, — the high- 
 est nobles in the land, the richest gentlemen, 
 counts, foreign barons, all the flower of our 
 knighthood. All loved me freely, and any 
 one of them would have counted my love a 
 great blessing. I had but to wave my hand, 
 and the best of them, the handsomest, the 
 very first in beauty and birth, would have 
 become my husband. And to none of them 
 didst thou incline my heart, O my bitter 
 fate ! but thou didst turn my heart against 
 the noblest heroes of our land, and towards a 
 stranger, towards our enemy. Why, O most 
 holy mother of God ! for what sin, dost thou 
 so pitilessly, mercilessly, persecute me 1 In 
 abundance and superfluity of luxury my days 
 were passed ; the richest dishes and the sweet- 
 est wine were my food. And to what end 
 was it all .■' What was it all foi- ? In order 
 
TARAS BULB A. 147 
 
 that I might at last die a cruel death, more 
 cruel than the death of the meanest beggar 
 in the kingdom ? And it was not enough, 
 that I was condemned to so horrible a fate ; 
 not enough, that before my own end I should 
 behold my father and mother perish in intol- 
 erable torment, when I would have willingly 
 given my own life twenty times over to save 
 them ; all this was not enough : before my 
 own death I must hear words and love such 
 as I had never before dreamed of. It was 
 necessary that he should break my heart 
 with his utterances ; that my bitter lot should 
 be rendered still more bitter; that my young 
 life should be made yet more sad ; that my 
 death should seem even more terrible ; and 
 that, dying, I should reproach thee still 
 more, O cruel fate! and thee, — forgive my 
 sin, — O holy mother of Godl " 
 
 And when she ceased in despair, feeling 
 was expressed in her face ; every feature spoke 
 of gnawing sorrow ; and all, from the sadly 
 
148 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 bowed brow and downcast eyes, to the tears 
 trickling down and drying away on her softly 
 burning cheeks, seemed to say, "There is no 
 happiness in this face." 
 
 "Such a thing was never heard of since 
 the world began. It cannot be," said Andri'i, 
 "that the best and most beautiful of women 
 should suffer so bitter a fate, when she was 
 born that all the best there is in the world 
 should bow before her as before a saint. No, 
 you will not die, you shall not die ! I swear 
 it by my birth, and by all there is dear to 
 me in the world, that you shall not die. 
 But if it must be so ; if nothing, neither 
 strength, nor prayer, nor heroism, will avail to 
 avert that cruel fate, — then we will die to- 
 gether, and I will die first. I will die before 
 you, at your beauteous knees, and even in 
 death they shall not divide us." 
 
 "Deceive not yourself and me, knight," 
 she said, gently shaking her beautiful head; 
 "I know, and to my great sorrow I know 
 
TARAS BULB A. 149 
 
 but too well, that it is impossible for you 
 to love me. I know what your duty is, 
 and your faith. Your father calls you, your 
 comrades, your country, and we are your 
 enemies." 
 
 "And what are my father, my comrades, 
 my country, to me .? " said Andri'i, with a 
 quick movement of his head, and straight- 
 ening up his figure hke a poplar beside the 
 river. " Be that as it may, I have no one, 
 no one, no one ! " he repeated, with the move- 
 ment of the hand with which the elastic, 
 irrepressible Cossack expresses his determi- 
 nation to do some unheard-of deed, impossible 
 to any other man. " Who has said that my 
 country was the Ukraine .-• Who gave it to 
 me for my country } Our country is the one 
 our spirit longs for, the one which is dearest 
 of all to it. My country is — you! That is 
 my native land, and I bear that country in 
 my heart. I will beat~ it there all my life, 
 and I will see whether any of the Cossacks 
 
 ' can'' t-^ r^LCLsL,: 
 
ISO TARAS BULB A. 
 
 can tear it thence. And I will give evei 
 thing, barter every thing, I will destroy m; 
 self, for that country ! " 
 
 Astounded for a space, she gazed in h 
 eyes like a beautiful statue, and suddenly bur 
 out sobbing ; and with the wonderful fen 
 nine impetuosity which only grand-souled, u: 
 calculating women, created for fine impuls( 
 of the heart, are capable of, she threw herse 
 upon his neck, encircling it with her wo 
 drous snowy arms, and wept. At that m 
 ment indistinct shouts rang through the stree 
 accompanied by the sound of trumpets ar 
 kettle-drums; but he heard them not. Y. 
 was only conscious of the lovely mouth bat 
 ing him in its warm, sweet breath, of tl 
 tears streaming down his face, and her Ion, 
 unbound, perfumed hair, veiling him cor 
 pletely in its dark and shining silk. 
 
 At that moment the Tatar ran in with a ci 
 of joy. "Saved, saved!" she cried, besic 
 herself. " Our troops have arrived in the cit 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 151 
 
 They have brought corn, millet, flour, and Za- 
 porozhtzi in chains ! " But no one heard that 
 our troops had arrived in the city, or what they 
 had brought with them, or how they had bound 
 the Zaporozhtzi. Filled with feelings untasted 
 upon earth, Andri'i kissed the sweet mouth 
 which pressed his cheek, and the sweet mouth 
 did not remain unresponsive. In this union of 
 kisses, they experienced that which it is given 
 to a man to feel but once on earth. 
 
 And the Cossack was ruined. He was lost 
 to the Cossack knighthood. Never again will 
 Zaporozhe, nor his father's house, nor the 
 Church of God, behold him. The Ukraine will 
 never more see the bravest of her children, who 
 have undertaken to defend her. Old Taras 
 may tear the gray locks from his top-knot, and 
 curse the day and hour in which such a son 
 was born to dishonor him. 
 
152 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Noise and movement were rife in the Zapo- 
 rozhian camp. At first, no one could account 
 for the army's having made its way into the 
 city ; but afterwards it appeared that the Pere- 
 yaslavsky kuren, encamped before the wide 
 gate of the town, had been dead drunk : it 
 was no wonder that half had been killed, and 
 the other half bound, before they knew what 
 it was all about. Meantime the neighboring 
 kurdns, aroused by the tumult, succeeded in 
 grasping their weapons ; but the army had 
 already passed through the gate, and the last 
 rank^ fired upon the sleepy and only half-sober' 
 Zapprozhtzi whq were pressing in disorder 
 upon them, and kept them back. 
 
 The koschevoi ordered all to be assembled ; 
 and when all stood in a ring, and had removed 
 
TARAS BULBA. 153 
 
 their caps, and become quiet, he said, "See 
 what happened last night, brother panove ! 
 See what drunkenness has led to ! See what 
 a disgrace the enemy has put upon us ! It is 
 evidently so arranged with us, that, if your 
 allowances are kindly doubled, then you are 
 ready to stretch out at full length, and the 
 enemies of Christ can not only take your very 
 trousers off you, but can sneeze in your faces 
 without your hearing them ! " 
 
 The Cossacks all stood with drooping heads, 
 knowing that they were guilty : only the ataman 
 of one kur^n, Kukubenko the Nezamisky, an- 
 swered back. " Stop, batko ! " said he : " al- 
 though it is not lawful to make such a retort 
 when the koschevoi speaks before the whole 
 army, yet it is necessary to say that that was 
 not the state of the case. You have not been 
 quite just in your reprimand. The Cossacks 
 would have been guilty, and deserving of death, 
 had they got drunk on the march, during war 
 or heavy toilsome labor ; but we have been 
 
154 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 sitting here unoccupied, loitering in vain be- 
 fore the city. There was no fast, or other 
 Christian restraint : how could it be otherwise, 
 than that a man should get drunk in idleness-? 
 There is no sin in that. But we had better 
 show them what it is to attack innocent 
 people. They first beat us well, and now we 
 will beat them so that not half a dozen of them 
 will ever see home again." 
 
 The speech of the kuren ataman pleased 
 the Cossacks. They raised their drooping heads 
 upright, and many nodded approvingly, mutter- 
 ing, " Kukubenko has spoken well ! " And 
 Taras Bulba, who stood not far from the kos- 
 chevoi, said, " How now, koschevoi .■' Kuku- 
 benko has spoken truth. What have you to 
 say to this 1 " 
 
 " What have I to say .-' I say. Blessed be 
 the father of such a son ! It requires not 
 much wisdom to utter words of reproof; but 
 much wisdom is needed to say such words as 
 do not curse a man's misfortune, but encour- 
 
TARAS BULB A. 155 
 
 age him, restore to him his spirit, put spurs 
 to the horse of his soul, refreshed by water. 
 I meant myself to speak words of comfort to 
 you, but Kukubenko forestalled me." 
 
 " The koschevoi also has spoken well ! " 
 rang through the rar^is of the Zaporozhtzi. 
 " His words are good," repeated others. And 
 even the gray-heads who stood there like dark 
 blue doves, nodded their heads, and, twitching 
 their gray mustaches, said softly, "That word 
 was well said." 
 
 "Listen now, panove," continued the kos- 
 chevoi. " To take the city, to scale it, or un- 
 dermine it as the foreign engineers do, — let 
 the enemy make that pretence : that is not 
 proper nor Cossack fashion. But, judging from 
 appearances, the enemy entered the city with- 
 out many provisions ; they had not many tele- 
 gas with them. The people in the city are 
 hungry : they will all eat heartily, and the 
 horses will devour the hay. I don't know 
 whether their saints will fling them down any 
 
IS6 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 thing from heaven with hay-forks : God only 
 knows that. But, in a word, there are a great 
 many Catholic priests among them. By one 
 means or another they will leave the city. 
 Divide yourselves, therefore, into three forces, 
 and take up your posts before the three gates ; 
 five kur6ns before the principal gate, and three 
 kur6ns before each of the others. Let the 
 Dadikivsky and Korsunsky kur^ns go into 
 ambush ; Colonel Taras and his regiment into 
 ambush ; the Titarevsky and Timoschevsky 
 kurens are to guard the provisions from the 
 right side of the transports, the Scherbinovsky 
 and Steblikivsky on the left ; and select from 
 the ranks the most daring young men to beat 
 the foe. The Lyakhs are of a giddy nature, and 
 cannot endure a fight, and perhaps this very 
 day they will issue forth from the gates. Let 
 each ataman inspect his kur^n : those which 
 are not full are to be recruited from the re- 
 mains of the Pereyaslavsky kur6n. Inspect 
 them all anew. Give a loaf and a beaker to 
 
TARAS BULBA. 157 
 
 each Cossack to strengthen him. But surely 
 every one must be satiated from last night ; 
 for all stuffed themselves so that, to tell the 
 truth, I am only surprised that no one burst 
 in the night. And here is one further com- 
 mand : If any Jew rumseller sells a Cossack 
 so much as a single jug of brandy, I will nail 
 pig's ears to his very forehead, the dog, and 
 I will hang him up by his feet. To work, 
 brothers, to work ! " 
 
 Thus did the koschevoi give his orders ; 
 and all bowed to his girdle, and without put- 
 ting on their caps set out for their transports 
 and camps, and only when they had gone quite 
 a distance did they put on their caps. All 
 began to equip themselves ; they tested their 
 swords, poured powder from the sacks into 
 their powder-flasks, rolled out and arranged 
 the viragons, and looked up their horses. 
 
 On his way to his regiment, Taras wondered, 
 and could not conceive, what had become of 
 Andrii : had he been captured and bound 
 
158 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 while asleep, with the others ? But no, Andn'i 
 was not the man to go alive into captivity. 
 And he was not to be seen among the slaugh- 
 tered Cossacks. Taras pondered deeply, and 
 went past his regiment, without hearing that 
 some one had long been calling him by name. 
 "Who wants me.''" he said, finally coming 
 to himself. Before him stood the Jew Yankel. 
 " Pan colonel ! pan colonel ! " said the Jew in 
 a hasty and broken voice, as though desirous 
 of revealing something not utterly useless. 
 " I have been in the city, pan colonel ! " 
 
 Taras looked at the Jew, and wondered how 
 he had succeeded in getting into the city. 
 " What enemy took you thfire .■• " 
 
 " I will tell you at once," said Yankel. 
 "As soon as I heard the uproar this morning, 
 and when the Cossacks began to fire, I seized 
 my caftan, and, without stopping to put it on, 
 ran at the top of my speed, thrusting my arms 
 in on the way, because I wanted to know as 
 soon as possible the cause of the noise, and 
 
TARAS BULB A. 159 
 
 why the Cossacks were firing at dawn. I ran 
 to the very gate of the city, at the moment 
 when the last of the army was passing through. 
 I look, and at the head of the file is Cornet 
 Galyand6vitch. He is a man well known to 
 me : he has owed me a hundred ducats these 
 three years past. I ran after him, as though 
 to claim the debt of him, and so entered the 
 city with them." 
 
 "And you entered the city, and wanted to 
 settle the debt!" said Bulba ; "and he did 
 not order you to be hung like a dog, on the 
 spot .? " 
 
 " By heavens, he did want to hang me," re- 
 plied the Jew : " his servants had already seized 
 me, and thrown a rope about my neck. But I 
 besought the pan, and said that I would wait 
 for the money as long as the pan liked, and 
 promised to lend him more if he would only 
 help me to collect my debts from the other 
 knights : for I will tell the pan, that the pan 
 cornet had not a ducat in his pocket, although 
 
l6o TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 he has farms and properties and four castles, 
 and steppe-land that extends clear to Schklof ; 
 but he has not a groschen, any more than a 
 Cossack. And now, if the Breslau Jews had 
 not equipped him, he could not have gone to 
 the war. That was the reason he did not go 
 to the Landtag." 
 
 " What did you do in the city .■' Did you 
 see any of our people .■■ " 
 
 " Certainly, there are many of them there : 
 Itzok, Rachum, Samuel, Khaivalkh, Evrei the 
 pawnbroker " — 
 
 " May they die, dogs ! " shouted the enraged 
 Taras. " Why do you name over your Jewish 
 tribe to me .' I ask you about our Zaporozhtzi." 
 
 "I saw none of our Zaporozhtzi : I saw only 
 Pan Andri'i." 
 
 " You saw Andri'i ! " shouted Bulba. " What 
 is he doing.' Where did you see him.' in a 
 dungeon.' in a pit.' dishonored.' bound.'" 
 
 " Who would dare to bind Pan Andrii .' now 
 he is so grand a knight, I hardly recognized 
 
TARAS BULBA. i6l 
 
 him. Gold on his shoulders and his belt, gold 
 everywhere, always gold ; as the sun shines in 
 spring, when every bird twitters and sings in 
 the orchard, so he shines, all gold. And his 
 horse, which the Voevod himself gave him, 
 is the very best : the horse alone is worth two 
 hundred ducats." 
 
 Bulba was petrified. "Why has he put on 
 strange garments .? " 
 
 " He put them on because they were finer. 
 And he rides about, and the others ride about, 
 and he teaches them, and they teach him ; like 
 the very grandest Polish pan." 
 
 "Who forced him to this.'" 
 
 " I should not say that he had been forced. 
 Does not the pan know that he went over to 
 them of his own free will?" 
 
 " Who went over ? " 
 
 "Pan Andri'i." 
 
 "Went where.?" 
 
 "Went over to their side: he is now a 
 complete stranger." 
 
1 62 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 " You lie, you hog's ear ! " 
 
 " How is it possible that I should lie ? Am 
 I a fool, that I should lie ? Would I lie at the 
 risk of my head ? Do not I know that Jews 
 are hung like dogs if they lie to the pani ? " 
 
 "Then it means, that, in your opinion, he 
 has betrayed his native land and his faith?" 
 
 "I do not say that he has betrayed any 
 thing : I merely said that he had gone over to 
 them." 
 
 " You lie, you imp of a Jew ! Such a deed 
 was never known in a Christian land. You 
 are confusing things, dog ! " 
 
 "May the grass grow upon the threshold 
 of my house, if I am confusing things ! May 
 every one spit upon the grave of my father, 
 my mother, my father's father-in-law, and my 
 mother's father, if I am confusing things! If 
 the pan wishes, I can even tell him why he 
 went over to them." 
 
 "Why.?." 
 
 " The Voevod has a beautiful daughter. 
 
TARAS BULB A. 163 
 
 Holy Father! what a beauty!" Here the Jew 
 tried his utmost to express beauty, extending 
 his hands, screwing up his eyes, and twisting 
 his mouth to one side as though tasting some- 
 thing on trial. 
 
 "Well, what of that?" 
 
 " He did it all for her, he went there for 
 her. When a man is in love, then all things 
 are the same to him ; like a sole which you 
 can bend in any direction if you soak it in 
 water." 
 
 Bulba reflected deeply. He remembered 
 the great power of weak woman, — that she 
 had ruined many a strong man, that this was 
 the weak point in Andrfi's nature, — and he 
 stood long in one place, as though rooted 
 there. 
 
 "Listen, pan, I will tell the pan all," said 
 the Jew. "As soon as I heard the uproar, and 
 saw them going through the city gate, I seized 
 a string of pearls, in case of any emergency. 
 For there are beauties and noblewomen there ; 
 
l64 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 'and if there are beauties and noblewomen,' 
 I said to myself, ' they will buy pearls, even if 
 they have nothing to eat.' And, as soon as 
 ever the cornet's servants set me at liberty, 
 I hastened to the Voevod's court to sell my 
 pearls. I asked all manner of questions of 
 the Tatar maid ; the wedding is to take place 
 immediately, as soon as they have driven off 
 the Zaporozhtzi. Pan Andrii has promised to 
 drive off the Zaporovians." 
 
 "And you did not kill him on the spot, you 
 devil's brat .' " shouted Bulba. 
 
 " Why should I kill him >. He went over of 
 his own free will. What is his crime.' He 
 liked it better there, so he went there." 
 
 "And you saw him face to face.'" 
 
 " Face to face, by heavens ! such a magnifi- 
 cent warrior ! more splendid than all the rest. 
 God bless him, he knew me at once, and when 
 I approached him, he said at once " 
 
 "What did he say.?" 
 
 " He said — First he beckoned me with his 
 
TARAS BULB A. 165 
 
 finger, and then he said, ' Yankel ! ' And I, 
 'Pan Andri'i!' I say. 'Yankel, tell my father, 
 tell my brother, tell all the Cossacks, all the 
 Zaporozhtzi, everybody, that my father is no 
 longer my father, nor my brother my brother, 
 nor my comrades my comrades ; and that I will 
 fight them all, all.' " 
 
 " You lie, imp of a Jew ! " shouted Taras, 
 beside himself. " You lie, dog ! I will kill you, 
 Satan! Get away from here! if not, death 
 awaits you ! " So saying, Taras unsheatiied 
 his sword. 
 
 The frightened Jew set off instantly, at the 
 full speed of his thin, withered legs. He ran 
 for a long time, without looking back, through 
 the Cossack camp, and then far out on the 
 deserted plain, although Taras did not chase 
 him at all, reasoning that it was foolish to 
 vent his rage on the first person who pre- 
 sented himself. 
 
 Then he recollected that he had seen Andri'i 
 on the previous night, traversing the camp 
 
l66 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 with some woman; and he bowed his gray 
 head. And still he would not believe that so 
 disgraceful a thing could have happened, and 
 that his own son had betrayed his faith and 
 his soul. 
 
 Finally he led his regiment into ambush, and 
 hid himself with it behind a wood, — the only 
 one which had not been burned by the Cossacks, 
 — and the Zaporozhians, foot and horse, set 
 out for the three gates by three different roads. 
 One after another the kur^ns turned out : 
 the Oumansky, Popovichesky, Kanevsky, Ste- 
 blikovsky, Nezamaikovsky, Gurgazif, Titarev- 
 sky, Timoschevsky. The Pereyaslavsky alone 
 was wanting. Its Cossacks had smoked and 
 drank it to its destruction. One awoke to find 
 himself bound in the enemy's hands; another 
 never woke at all, but went in his sleep into 
 the damp earth ; and the atdman Khlib himself, 
 minus his trousers and outward adornments, 
 found himself in the camp of the Lyakhs. 
 
 The uproar among the Cossacks was heard 
 
TARAS BULBA. 167 
 
 in the city. All hastened to the ramparts, 
 and a lively scene was presented to the Cos- 
 sacks. The Polish heroes, each handsomer 
 than the other, stood on the wall. Their 
 bronze helmets shone like the sun, and were 
 adorned with feathers white as swans. Others 
 wore light caps, pink and blue, with crowns 
 drooping over one ear ; caftans with the 
 sleeves thrown back, either embroidered with 
 gold or simply corded. Their swords and 
 guns were richly mounted, and the pani had 
 paid great sums for them ; they had also 
 many equipments of all sorts. In front stood 
 the colonel proudly, in his red cap ornamented 
 with gold. The Budzhakovsky colonel was 
 taller and stouter than all the rest, and his 
 rich and voluminous caftan hardly covered 
 him. On the other hand, almost by the side 
 gate, stood another colonel. He was a small, 
 dried-up man ; but his small, piercing eyes 
 gleamed sharply from under his thick and 
 shaggy brows, and he turned quickly on all 
 
l68 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 sides, motioning boldly with his thin, with- 
 ered hand, and distributing his orders. It 
 was evident, that, in spite of his little body, 
 he understood military science thoroughly. 
 Not far from him stood a tall, very tall, 
 cornet, with thick mustaches, and he did 
 not seem to lack color in his face : the 
 pan was fond of strong mead and hearty 
 revelry. And behind them were visible many 
 nobles, who had equipped themselves, some 
 with their own ducats, some from the royal 
 treasury, some with money from the Jews, 
 by pawning every thing they found in their 
 ancestral castles. Many also were the sena- 
 torial parasites, whom the senators took with 
 them to dinners for show, who stole silver 
 cups from the table and the sideboard, 
 and who, after the day's show was over, 
 mounted some gentleman's coach-box, and 
 drove his horses. There were many of all 
 sorts there. Sometimes there was not even 
 enough to drink, but all were equipped for 
 war. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 169 
 
 The Cossack ranks stood quietly before the 
 walls. There was no gold about them, only 
 here and there it shone on the hilt of a 
 sword or the mountings of a gun. The Cos- 
 sacks were not given to decking themselves 
 out gayly for battle : their coats-of-mail and 
 their svitkas were plain, and their black, red- 
 crowned caps glowed darkly in the distance. 
 
 Two Cossacks advanced from the Zaporo- 
 zhian ranks. One was quite young, the other 
 older ; both fierce in words, and not bad 
 specimens of Cossacks in action, — Okhrim 
 Nasch and Mikiga Golokopuitenko. They were 
 followed by Demid Popovitch, a robust Cos- 
 sack who had been hanging about the Setch 
 for a long time, who had been at Adrianople, 
 and undergone a great deal in the course 
 of his life. He had been burned, and had 
 run away to the Setch with tarred and black- 
 ened head and singed mustaches. But Popo- 
 vitch recovered, let his hair grow, raised mus- 
 taches thick and black as pitch, and was a 
 
I70 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 stout fellow, according to Popovitch's own 
 biting speech. 
 
 " Red jackets on all the army, but I should 
 like to know whether the strength corre- 
 sponds." 
 
 " I'll give it to you," shouted a stout colonel 
 from above. " I will bind you all. Surrender 
 your guns and horses, slaves. Did you see 
 how I bound your men .' — Bring out a Zapo- 
 rozhetz on the wall, for them to see." 
 
 And they led out a Zaporozhetz loaded with 
 rope bonds. 
 
 Before them stood the ataman of the kuren, 
 Khlib, without his trousers and outward 
 adornments, just as they had captured him 
 in his drunken sleep ; and the ataman bowed 
 his head in shame before the Cossacks at his 
 nakedness, and at having been taken prisoner 
 like a dog, while asleep. His powerful head 
 had turned gray in one night. 
 
 " Grieve not, Khlib : we will rescue you," 
 shouted the Cossacks from below. 
 
TARAS BULB A. 171 
 
 "Grieve not, friend," cried ataman' Borodaty. 
 " It is not your fault that they caught you 
 naked : that misfortune can happen to any 
 man. But it is a disgrace to them, that they 
 have exposed you to dishonor, and not covered 
 your nakedness decently." 
 
 "You seem to be a brave army when you 
 meet people asleep," remarked Golokopuitenko, 
 glancing at the ramparts. 
 
 " Wait, we'll singe your top-knots for you ! " 
 
 " I should like to see them singe our 
 locks ! " said Popovitch, prancing about before 
 them on his horse ; and then, glancing at his 
 comrades, he said, " Well, perhaps the Lyakhs 
 speak the truth : if that fat-bellied fellow there 
 leads them, they will all find a good shelter 
 behind him." 
 
 " Why do you think they will find a good 
 shelter .' " asked the Cossacks, knowing that 
 Popovitch was probably preparing some remark 
 
 ' Ordinarily it is accented atarndtij but the Little Russian accent 
 as given by Gogol is as above. 
 
1/2 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 " Because the whole army will hide tehind 
 him ; and the devil himself couldn't help you 
 to reach anybody with your spear, from behind 
 that belly of his ! " 
 
 All the Cossacks laughed, and many ot 
 them shook their heads, saying, " What a 
 fellow Popovitch is, if anybody wants to turn 
 a phrase! but now" — But the Cossacks did 
 not explain what they meant by that now. 
 
 " Fall back, fall back quickly from the wall ! " 
 shouted the koschevoi ; for it seemed that 
 the Lyakhs could not endure these biting 
 words, and the colonel waved his hand. 
 
 The Cossacks had hardly retreated from 
 the wall, when the grape-shot rained down. 
 On the ramparts all was excitement, and the 
 gray-haired Voevod himself appeared on horse- 
 back. The gates opened, and the army sallied 
 forth. In front came the mounted hussars 
 in orderly ranks, behind them the men in 
 armor, then all those with brazen helmets ; 
 after them rode singly the highest nobility, 
 
TARAS BULBA. 173 
 
 each man dressed as he pleased. The haughty- 
 nobles would not mingle in the ranks with 
 the others, and those who had no commands 
 rode alone with their own followers. After 
 these came more companies, and after these 
 still emerged the cornet, then more files of 
 men, and then the stout colonel ; and in the 
 rear of the whole army came the little colonel. 
 
 " Keep them from forming in line ! " shouted 
 the koschevoi ; "let all the kur^ns attack them 
 at once ! Block the other gate ! Titarevsky 
 kurdn, fall on one flank ! Dyadovsky kur^n, 
 fall on the other ! Attack them in the rear, 
 Kukubenko and Palivod ! Hinder them, 
 divide them ! " And the Cossacks attacked 
 on all sidds, killing the Lyakhs and throwing 
 them into confusion, and getting confused 
 themselves. They did not even give them 
 time to fire : it came to swords and spears at 
 once. All fought in a mass, and each man 
 had an opportunity to distinguish himself. 
 
 Demid Popovitch ran three common soldiers 
 
174 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 through, and cut two of the highest nobles 
 from their horses, saying, " Here are good 
 horses! I have long wanted just such horses." 
 And he drove the horses far afield, shouting 
 to the Cossacks standing about to catch them. 
 Then he flung himself again into the throng, 
 fell again upon the fallen nobles, killed one, 
 and flung his lasso round the neck of the 
 other, tied him to his saddle, and dragged him 
 all over the plain, having taken from him his 
 sword with its rich hilt, and removed from 
 his girdle a whole bag of ducats. 
 
 Kobita, a good Cossack and still very young, 
 attacked one of the bravest men in the Polish 
 army, and they fought long together. They 
 had come to fisticuffs, and the Cossack had 
 nearly conquered, and, throwing him down, 
 stabbed him in the breast with his sharp 
 Turkish knife. But he did not guard him- 
 self properly : a hot bullet struck him on the 
 temple. The man who struck him down was 
 the most distinguished of the pani, the hand- 
 
TARAS BULB A. 1 75 
 
 somest knight of an ancient and princely race. 
 Like a stately poplar, he bestrode his tawny 
 steed. And many heroic deeds did the boyar 
 perform : he cut two Cossacks in twain ; Fedor 
 Korzh, the brave Cossack, he overthrew to- 
 gether with his horse ; he shot the horse, and 
 picked the Cossack off with his spear ; many 
 heads and hands did he hew off ; and he killed 
 Cossack Kobita, sending a bullet through his 
 temple. 
 
 " There's the man I should like to meas- 
 ure forces with ! " shouted Kukubenko, the 
 atdman of the Nezamaikovsky kurdn. Spur- 
 ring on his horse, he flew straight at his back, 
 and shouted loudly, so that all who stood near 
 shuddered at that unearthly yell. The Lyakh 
 tried to turn his horse suddenly, and face 
 himj but the horse did not obey : frightened 
 by the terrible cry, it sprang aside, and the 
 Lyakh received Kukubenko's fire. The hot 
 ball struck him in the shoulder-blade, and he 
 rolled from his horse. But even then he did not 
 
176 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 surrender, but still strove to deal his enemy 
 a blow ; but his hand, falling with the sword, 
 was weak. Then Kukubenko, taking his 
 heavy sword in both hands, drove it through 
 his pallid mouth. The sword, breaking out 
 two teeth, cut the tongue in twain, pierced 
 the windpipe, and penetrated deep into the 
 earth ; and so he fastened him there forever 
 to the damp ground. His noble blood, red 
 as viburnum berries beside the river, welled 
 up in a fountain, and stained his yellow, gold- 
 embroidered caftan. But Kukubenko had al- 
 ready left him, and was forcing his way, with 
 his Nezam^ikovsky kur^n, towards another 
 group. 
 
 " Eh, he left untouched such valuable equip- 
 ments.'" said Borodaty, ataman of the Ou- 
 mansky kurdn, leaving his men, and going to 
 the place where the nobleman killed by Ku- 
 kubenko lay ; " I have killed seven nobles 
 with my own hand, but such equipments I 
 never beheld on any one." And, prompted 
 
TARAS BULBA. l^J 
 
 by greed, Borodaty bent down to take off 
 the rich armor, and had already pulled off his 
 Turkish knife set with precious stones, loosed 
 from his belt the purse of ducats, from his 
 breast the case of fine linen, silver, and a 
 maiden's curl, cherished carefully as a sou- 
 venir. And Borodaty heeded not how the 
 red-nosed cornet flew upon him from behind; 
 he had already once hurled him from the 
 saddle, and given him a good blow as a 
 remembrance. He flourished his arm with all 
 his might, and brought down his sword upon 
 the bent neck. Greed led to no good : the 
 strong head rolled off, and the body fell head- 
 less, sprinkling the earth far and wide ; the 
 Cossack soul ascended, grimacing, indignant, 
 and surprised at having so soon quitted so 
 stout a body. The cornet had not succeeded 
 in seizing the ataman's head by its scalp-lock, 
 and fastening it to his saddle, before an 
 avenger arrived. 
 
 As a vulture floating in the sky, beating 
 
178 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 great circles with his mighty wings, suddenly 
 remains poised in air, in one spot, and thence 
 darts down like an arrow upon the shrieking . 
 male quail beside the road ; just so Taras's 
 son Ostap flew suddenly upon the cornet, 
 and flung a rope about his neck with one 
 cast. The cornet's red face became a still 
 deeper purple when the cruel noose pressed 
 his throat, and he tried to sieze his pistol ; 
 but his convulsively quivering hand could not 
 direct the shot, and the bullet flew wild across 
 the plain. Ostap immediately unfastened a 
 silken cord which the cornet carried at his 
 saddle-bow to bind prisoners, and with this 
 cord bound him hand and foot, attached the 
 cord to his saddle, and dragged him across 
 the field, calling all the Cossacks of the Ou- 
 mansky kur^n to come and render the last 
 honors to their ataman. 
 
 When the Oumantzi heard that the ata- 
 man of their kur^n, Borodaty, was no longer 
 among the living, they deserted the field of 
 
TARAS BULBA. 179 
 
 battle, and rushed to get his body; and con- V 
 suited at once whom to select as their leader. ^ ' 
 At length they said, " But why consult ? It 
 is impossible to appoint a better leader than 
 Bulba's Ostap : he is younger than all the 
 rest of us, it is true ; but his judgment is 
 equal to that of the eldest." 
 
 Ostap, taking off his cap, thanked all his 
 Cossack comrades for the honor, and did not 
 decline either on account of his youth or 
 youthful judgment, knowing that war-time is 
 no^ fitting season for that; but instantly or- 
 dered them straight to the throng, and already 
 showed them all that not in vain had they 
 chosen him as ataman. The Lyakhs felt that 
 the matter was growing too hot for them, 
 and retreated across the plain in order to 
 assemble again at its other extremity. But 
 the little colonel signalled to the fresh divis- 
 ion of four hundred, standing at the gate, 
 and they rained down grape-shot upon the 
 Cossack throng ; but to little purpose : their 
 
l8o TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 shot took effect in the Cossack oxen, wh 
 were gazing wildly upon the battle. Th 
 frightened oxen bellowed, turned on the hei 
 of horses, broke the wagons, and trample 
 on many. But Taras, emerging from ambus 
 at the moment, with his troops, flung himse 
 on the stockade. He headed off the infuriate 
 herd startled by his yell, and swooped dow 
 upon the Polish regiments, overthrew the ca^ 
 airy, crushed and dispersed them all. 
 
 " Oh, thank you, oxen ! " cried the Zap( 
 rozhtzi: "you served us on the march, an 
 now you serve us in war." And they attacke 
 the foe with fresh vigor. They killed many c 
 the enemy. Many distinguished themselves, - 
 Metelitza, Schilo, both of the Pisarenki, Vo\ 
 tuzenko, and many others. The Lyakhs pe 
 ceived that matters were going ill ; flung awa 
 their banners, and shouted for the city gate 
 to be opened. With a squeak the iron-boun 
 gates opened, and received the weary an 
 dust-covered riders, flocking in like sheep int 
 
TARAS BULB A. i8l 
 
 a fold. Many of the Zaporozhtzi would have 
 pursued them ; but Ostap stopped his Ou- 
 mantzi, saying, "Farther, farther from the 
 walls, brother pani ! it is not well to approach 
 them too closely." And he spoke truly; for 
 from the ramparts rained and poured down 
 every thing which came to hand, and a great 
 many were struck. At that moment the kos- 
 chevoi came up, and congratulated Ostap, 
 saying, " Here is the new at&man leading the 
 army like an old one ! " Old Bulba glanced 
 round to see the new ataman, and beheld Os- 
 tap sitting on his horse at the head of the 
 Oumantzi, his cap on one ear, and the ataman's 
 staff in his hand. "Who ever saw the like!" 
 he exclaimed ; and the old man rejoiced, and 
 began to thank all the Oumantzi for the honor 
 they had conferred upon his son. 
 
 The Cossacks retired, again preparing to go 
 into camp ; but the Lyakhs showed themselves 
 again on the city ramparts with tattered 
 mantles. Many rich caftans were spotted 
 
1 82 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 with blood, and dust covered the beautiful 
 brazen helmets. 
 
 " Have you bound us ? " cried the Zapo- 
 rozhtzi to them from below. 
 
 "I'll give it to you!" shouted the big col- 
 onel from above, showing them a rope; and 
 the weary, dust-covered warriors ceased not- 
 to threaten, and all the most zealous on both 
 sides exchanged fierce remarks. 
 
 At length all dispersed. One, weary with 
 battle, stretched himself out to rest ; another 
 sprinkled his wounds with earth, and bound 
 them with kerchiefs and rich garments cap- 
 tured from the enemy. Others, who were 
 fresher, began to inspect the corpses, and 
 to render them the last honors. They dug 
 graves with swords and spears, brought earth 
 in their caps and the skirts of their garments, 
 laid the Cossacks' bodies out decently, and 
 sprinkled them with fresh earth in order 
 that the ravens and eagles might not claw 
 out their eyes. But binding the bodies of 
 
TARAS BULBA. 183 
 
 Lyakhs by tens, as they came to hand, to the 
 tails of wild horses, they let these loose on 
 the plain, pursued them, and beat them for 
 a long time on their flanks. The infuriated 
 horses flew over furrow and hillock, through 
 ditch and brook, and beat the bodies of the 
 Poles, all covered with blood and dust, upon 
 the earth. 
 
 Then all the kurdns sat down in circles in 
 the evening, and talked long of their deeds, 
 and of the achievements which had fallen to 
 the share of each, for eternal repetition by 
 strangers and posterity. It was long before 
 they lay down to sleep ; and longer still be- 
 fore old Taras, meditating what it might sig- 
 nify that Andrfi was not among the foe, lay 
 down. Had Judas been ashamed to come 
 forth against his own countrymen "i or had 
 the Jew been deceiving him, and had he 
 simply gone against his will .' But then he 
 recollected that there were no bounds to 
 woman's influer^ce upon Andrii's heart : he 
 
1 84 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 felt ashamed, and swore a mighty oath in 
 spirit against the fair Pole who had charmed 
 his son. Artd he would have kept his oath. 
 He would not have glanced at her beauty : 
 he would have dragged her forth by her 
 thick and splendid hair; he would have 
 dragged her after him over all the plain, 
 among all the Cossacks. Her beautiful 
 shoulders and bosom, white as fresh-fallen 
 snow upon the mountain-tops, would have 
 been crushed upon the earth, all covered with 
 blood and dust. Her lovely body would have 
 been torn in pieces. But Taras did not foresee 
 what God prepares for man on the morrow, 
 began to forget himself with drowsiness, and 
 finally fell asleep. But the Cossacks still 
 talked among themselves ; and the sober sen- 
 tinel stood all night long • beside the fire 
 without winking, looking intently on all sides. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 185 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The sun had not scaled half the height of 
 heaven when all the Cossacks assembled in 
 a group. News had arrived from the Setch 
 that the Tatars, during the Cossacks' absence, 
 had plundered it completely, unearthed the 
 treasures which the Cossacks kept concealed 
 in the ground, had killed or carried into cap- 
 tivity all who remained, and had straightway 
 set out, with all the flocks and droves of horses 
 they had collected, for Perekop. One Cossack 
 only, Maksim Galodukha, had forced his way 
 out of the Tatars' hands, had stabbed the 
 Mirza, had unbound his bag of sequins, and 
 on a Tatar horse, in Tatar garments, had 
 fled from before his pursuers for two nights 
 and a day and a half, ridden his horse to 
 death, changed to another, killed that one 
 
1 86 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 also, and arrived at the Zaporozhian camp 
 upon a third, having learned upon the road 
 that the Zaporozhtzi were before Dubno. He 
 only succeeded in informing them that this 
 misfortune had happened ; but how it hap- 
 pened, — whether the remaining Zaporozhtzi 
 had been carousing after Cossack fashion, 
 and had been carried drunk into captivity, 
 and how the Tatars knew of the spot where 
 the treasures of the army were concealed, — 
 he said nothing. The Cossack was extremely 
 fatigued ; he was all swollen, and his face 
 was burned and beaten by the weather; he 
 fell down at once, and a deep sleep over- 
 powered him. 
 
 In such cases it was customary for the 
 Cossacks to pursue the robbers on the in- 
 stant, endeavoring to overtake them on the 
 road ; for, let the prisoners once be got to 
 the bazaars of Asia Minor, in Smyrna, or the 
 island of Crete, and God knows in what places 
 the tufted heads of Zaporozhtzi might not be 
 
TARAS BULB A. 187 
 
 seen. This was the occasion of the Cossacks' 
 assembling. They all stood to a man with 
 their caps on ; for they were not come to- 
 gether to listen to the commands of their 
 governing ataman, but to take counsel to- 
 gether as equals among equals. "Let the 
 old men first advise," was shouted in the 
 crowd. " Let the koschevoi give his opin- 
 ion," said others. 
 
 And the koschevoi, taking off his cap, not 
 as commander, but as a comrade among com- 
 rades, thanked all the Cossacks for the honor, 
 and said, " There are among us many old 
 men, and much advice of wise men ; but 
 since you have thought me worthy, this is 
 my counsel : not to lose time, comrades, in 
 pursuing the Tatars, for you know yourselves 
 what the Tatar is. He will not pause with 
 his stolen booty to await our coming, but 
 will vanish in a twinkling, so that you can 
 find no trace of him. Therefore this is my 
 counsel : to go. We have revelled here. The 
 
1 88 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 Lyakhs know what Cossacks are. We have 
 avenged our faith to the extent of our powers ; 
 there is not much to satisfy greed in the 
 famished city, and so my advice is to go." 
 
 "To go," rang heavily through the Zapo- 
 rozhian kur^ns. But such words did not suit 
 Taras Bulba's mood at all ; and he brought 
 his frowning, iron-gray brows still lower down 
 over his eyes, like bushes growing on dark 
 mountain heights, whose crowns are suddenly 
 covered with prickly northern frost. 
 
 "No, koschevoi, your counsel is not good," 
 said he. "You will not say that. You have • 
 evidently forgotten that our men captured by 
 the Lyakhs will remain prisoners. You evi- 
 dently wish that we should not heed the 
 first holy law of comradeship ; that we should 
 leave our brethren to be flayed alive, or to 
 be carried about through the towns and 
 villages after their Cossack bodies had been 
 quartered, as they did with the hetman and 
 the bravest Russian warriors in the Ukraine. 
 
TARAS BULB A. i8g 
 
 Have they not desecrated the holy things 
 sufficiently without that ? What are we ? I 
 ask you all, what sort of a Cossack is 
 he who would desert his comrade in mis- 
 fortune, and let him perish like a dog in a 
 foreign land ? If it has come to such a pass 
 that no one has any confidence in Cossack 
 honor, permitting men to spit upon his gray 
 mustache, and upbraid him with offensive 
 words, then let no one blame me : I will re- 
 main here alone." 
 
 All the Zaporozhtzi who stood there wa- 
 vered. 
 
 "And have you forgotten, brave colonel," 
 said the koschevoi, "that the Tatars also 
 have our comrades in their hands; that, if 
 we do not rescue them now, their lives will 
 be sacrificed to eternal imprisonment among 
 the infidels, which is worse than the most 
 cruel death .■' Have you forgotten that they 
 now hold all our treasure, won by Christian 
 blood } " 
 
IQO TARAS BULBA. 
 
 All the Cossacks meditated, and knew not 
 what to say. None of them wished to de- 
 serve disgraceful renown. Then there stepped 
 out in front of them the oldest in years of 
 all the Zaporozhian army, Kasyan Bovdug, 
 He was respected by all the Cossacks. Twice 
 had he been chosen koschevoi, and he had 
 also been a stout, brave Cossack in the wars : 
 but he had long been old, and had been upon 
 no expeditions, neither did the old man like 
 to give advice to any one ; but he loved to 
 lie constantly upon his side in the ring of 
 Cossacks, listening to tales of every occurrence 
 on the Cossack marches. He never joined 
 in the conversation, but only listened, and 
 pressed the ashes with his finger in his short 
 pipe, which never left his mouth; and then 
 he sat long with his eyes half open, and the 
 Cossacks never knew whether he were asleep 
 or still listening. He always staid at home 
 during their expeditions, but this time the 
 old man had joined the discussion. He waved 
 
TARAS BULBA. 191 
 
 his hand in Cossack fashion, and said, " Wher- 
 ever you go, I am going too ; perhaps I may 
 be of some service to the Cossack nation." 
 All the Cossacks became silent when he 
 now stepped forward before the assembly, 
 for it was long since any speech from him 
 had been heard. Each one wanted to know 
 what Bovdug had to say. 
 
 "It is my turn to speak a word, brother 
 pani," thus he began : "listen, my children, to 
 the old man. The koschevoi spoke well as 
 the head of the Cossack army ; being bound 
 to protect it, and regretting the treasures of 
 the army, he could say nothing wiser. There 
 it is ! Let that be my first remark ; but now 
 listen to my second. And this is my second 
 remark : Colonel Taras spoke even more truly. 
 God grant him many years, and that such 
 colonels may be plentiful in the Ukraine ! A 
 Cossack's first duty and first honor is to guard 
 comradeship. Never in all my life, brother 
 pani, have I heard of any Cossack deserting 
 
192 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 or betraying any of his comrades. Both those 
 and these are our comrades : whether they 
 are few or many, it makes no difference ; 
 all are our comrades, and all are dear to us. 
 So this is my speech : Let those to whom the 
 prisoners captured by the Tatars are dear, 
 set out after the Tatars ; and let those to 
 whom the captives of the Poles are dear, and 
 who do not care to desert a righteous cause, 
 stay behind. The koschevoi, in accordance 
 with his duty, will accompany one half in pur- 
 suit of the Tatars, and the other half can 
 choose an ataman to lead them. But if you 
 will heed the words of an old man, there is 
 no man fitter to be the commanding ataman 
 than Taras Bulba. Not one of us is his equal 
 in heroism." 
 
 Thus spoke Bovdug, and paused ; and all the 
 Cossacks rejoiced that the old man had in this 
 manner brought them to reason. All flung 
 up their caps, and shouted, "Thanks, batko 
 [father] ! He kept silence, he kept silence 
 
TARAS BULBA. 193 
 
 for a long, long time, but he has spoken at last. 
 Not in vain did he say, when we prepared for 
 this expedition, that he would be useful to the 
 Cossack nation : even so it has come to pass ! " 
 
 " Well, are you agreed upon any thing ? " 
 asked the koschevoi. 
 
 " All agreed ! " cried the Cossacks. 
 
 "Then the council is at an end?" 
 
 " At an end ! " cried the Cossacks. 
 
 "Then listen to the military command, chil- 
 dren," said the koschevoi, stepping forward, 
 and putting on his cap ; and all the Cossacks 
 took off theirs, and stood with uncovered 
 heads, and with eyes fixed upon the earth, as 
 was always the custom among the Cossacks 
 when the leader prepared to speak. "Now 
 divide yourselves, brother pani ! Let those 
 who wish to go stand on the right, and those 
 who wish to stay, on the left. Where the 
 majority of a kuren goes, there the rest are 
 to go : if the minority of a kur^n goes over, 
 it must be added to another kuren." 
 
194 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 And then they began to take up their posi- 
 tions, some to the right, and some to the 
 left. Whither the majority of a kuren went, 
 thither the ataman went also ; and the kuren 
 where there was a minority attached itself to 
 another kur^n : and it came out pretty even on 
 both sides. Those who wished to remain were 
 nearly the whole of the Nezamaikovsky kur^n, 
 the larger half of the Popovitchvsky kuren, the 
 entire Oumansky kuren, the entire Kanevsky 
 kurdn, and the larger half of the Timoschev- 
 sky and the Steblikivsky kurdns. All the 
 rest preferred to go in pursuit of the Tatars. 
 On both sides there were many stout and 
 brave Cossacks. Among those who decided 
 to follow the Tatars were Tcherevaty, and the 
 good old Cossacks Pokotfpole, Lemi'sch, and 
 Prokopovitch Khoma. Demid Popovitch also 
 went in that party, because the Cossack na- 
 ture was deeply involved, and he could not 
 sit long in one place : he had tried his hand 
 on the Lyakhs, and wanted to try it on the 
 
TARAS BULBA. 195 
 
 Tatars also. The atamans of kur^ns were 
 Nostiugan, Pokruischka, Nevnimsky, and many 
 other brave and renowned Cossacks who 
 wished to try their swords -and brawny shoul- 
 ders in an encounter with the Tatars. There 
 were likewise many very brave Cossacks among 
 those who preferred to remain : the kur^n 
 atamans, Demitrovitch, Kukubenko, Verti'kh- 
 vist, Balan, and Ostap Bulba. Besides these 
 there were many stout and distinguished Cos- 
 sacks : Vovtuzenko, Tcherevitch^nko, Stepan 
 Guska, Okhriro Guska, Vikola Gonstiy, Zado- 
 rozhniy, Met^litza, Ivan Zakruti'guba, Mosiy 
 Schilo, Degtyar6nko, Sidorenko, Pisarenko, a 
 second Pisarenko, and still another Pisarenko, 
 and many other good Cossacks. They were 
 all great travellers ; they had been on the 
 shores of Anatolia, on the salt marshes and 
 steppes of the Crimea, on all the rivers great 
 and small which empty into the Dniepr, and 
 on all the fords and islands of the Dniepr ; 
 they had been in Moldavia, Wallachia, and 
 
196 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 Turkey ; they had sailed all over the Black 
 Sea, in their double-ruddered Cossack boats ; 
 they had attacked with fifty skiffs in line the 
 tallest and richest ships ; they had sunk many 
 a Turkish galley, and had burnt much, very 
 much powder in their day ; more than once 
 they had torn foot-bandages from velvets and 
 rich stuffs ; more than once they had beaten 
 buckles for their trouser-suspenders out of 
 sequins. And every one of them had drunk 
 and revelled away what would have sufificed 
 any other for a whole lifetime, and there was 
 nothing to show for it. They spent it all, like 
 Cossacks, in treating all the world, and in 
 hiring music that every one might be merry. 
 Even now very few of them had amassed any 
 property : caskets, cups, bracelets, were hidden 
 beneath the reeds on the islands of the 
 Dniepr in order that the Tatars might not find 
 them if in case of disaster they should suc- 
 ceed in falling suddenly on the Setch ; but 
 it would have been difficult for the Tatar to 
 
TARAS BULBA. 197 
 
 find them, for the owner himself forgot where 
 he had buried them. Such were the Cossacks 
 who wished to remain, and take vengeance on 
 ■the Lyakhs for their trusty comrades, and the 
 faith of Christ. The old Cossack Bovdug 
 wished also to remain with them, saying, " I 
 am not of an age to pursue the Tatars, but 
 this is a place to meet a good Cossack death. 
 I have long prayed God, that when my life was 
 to end, I might end it in battle for a holy and 
 Christian cause. And so it has come to pass. 
 There can be no more glorious end in any 
 other place for the aged Cossack." 
 
 When they had all separated, and stood in 
 two lines on opposite sides, the koschevoi 
 passed through the ranks, and said, "Well, 
 brother pani, are the two parties satisfied with 
 each other .? " 
 
 "All satisfied, batko!" replied the Cossacks. 
 
 "Then kiss each other, and bid farewell; for 
 God knows whether you will ever see each 
 other alive again. Obey your ataman, and 
 
198 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 you know yourselves what you have to do : 
 you know yourselves what Cossack honor 
 requires." 
 
 And all the Cossacks kissed each other. 
 The atamans first began it : stroking down 
 their gray mustaches, they kissed each other 
 in cross form, and then, grasping hands firm- 
 ly, they wanted to ask each other, "Well, 
 brother pan, shall we see each other again 
 or not } " But they did not ask the question : 
 they kept silence, and both gray-heads medi- 
 tated. Then the Cossacks took leave of each 
 other to the last man, knowing that there 
 was a great deal of work before them all. 
 Yet they were not obliged to part at once : 
 they must wait until dark night, in order not 
 to let the Lyakhs perceive the diminution in 
 the Cossack army. Then all went off, by 
 kur^ns, to dine. 
 
 After dinner, all who had the journey before 
 them lay down to rest, and fell into a deep 
 and long sleep, as though foreseeing that it 
 
TARAS BULBA. 199 
 
 was the last sleep they should taste in such 
 freedom. They slept even until sunset ; and 
 when the sun had gone down, and it had 
 grown somewhat dusky, they began to grease 
 the telegas. All being in readiness, they sent 
 the wagons ahead, and, having pulled off their 
 caps once more to their comrades, they quietly 
 followed the transports. The cavalry with dig- 
 nity, without shouts or whistles to the horses, 
 tramped lightly after the foot-soldiers ; and all 
 soon vanished in the darkness. The only 
 sound was the dull thud of horses' hoofs, or 
 the squeak of some wheel which had not got 
 into working order, or had not been properly 
 greased amid the darkness. 
 
 Their comrades stood long waving their 
 hands, though nothing was visible. But when 
 these returned to their places, and saw by 
 the light of the gleaming stars that half the 
 telegas were gone, and many, many of their 
 comrades, then each man's heart grew sad ; 
 and all became involuntarily pensive, and 
 
200 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 drooped their pleasure-loving heads towards 
 the earth. 
 
 Taras saw how troubled were the Cossack 
 ranks, and that sadness, unsuited to brave men, 
 had begun to quietly master the Cossack 
 heads ; but he remained silent. He wished to 
 give them all time to become accustomed to 
 the melancholy caused by their parting from 
 their comrades ; but, meantime, he was quietly 
 preparing to rouse them all suddenly, with one 
 blow, by a loud battle-cry in Cossack fashion, 
 in order that, with greater strength than before, 
 that good cheer might return to the soul of each, 
 ' of which only the Slav nature (a broad, power- 
 ful nature, which is to others what the sea is 
 to small rivulets) is capable. In stormy times 
 it all turns to roaring and thunder, raging, and 
 raising such waves as weak rivers cannot throw 
 up ; but when it is windless and quiet, clearer 
 than any river, it spreads its boundless, glassy 
 surface, a constant delight to the eye. 
 
 And Taras ordered his servants tp unload 
 
TARAS BULBA. 20I 
 
 one of the wagons which stood apart. It was 
 larger and stronger than any other in the Cos- 
 sack camp ; two stout tires encircled its mighty 
 wheels. It was heavily laden, covered with 
 horsecloths and strong wolf-skins, and firmly 
 bound with tightly drawn tarred ropes. In the 
 wagon were flasks and casks of good old wine, 
 which had long lain in Taras's cellar. He had 
 brought it along to celebrate some occasion, in 
 case a grand moment should arrive, when some 
 deed awaited them worthy of being handed 
 down to posterity, so that each Cossack, to the 
 very last man, might quaff the forbidden wine, 
 and be inspired with a grand sentiment befit- 
 ting the grand moment. On receiving theif 
 colonel's command, the servants hastened to 
 the wagon, hewed the stout ropes with their 
 swords, removed the thick wolf-skins and horse- 
 cloths, and drew forth the flasks and casks. 
 
 "Take them all," said Bulba, "all there are; 
 take them, that every one may be supplied. 
 Take jugs, or the pails for watering the horses ; 
 
202 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 take sleeve or cap ; but if you have nothing 
 else, then hold your two fists under." 
 
 And all the Cossacks seized something : one 
 took a jug, another a pail, another a sleeve, 
 another a cap, and another held both hands. 
 Taras's servants, making their way among the 
 ranks, poured out for all, from the casks and 
 flasks. But Taras ordered them not to drink 
 until he should give the signal for all to drink 
 together. It was evident that he wished to say 
 something. Taras knew that however good in 
 itself the ,, old winel might be, and however 
 fitted to strengthen the spirit of man, yet, if a 
 suitable speech were linked with it, then the 
 strength of the wine and of the spirit would 
 be double. 
 
 "I treat you, brother pani," thus spoke 
 Bulba, "not in honor of your having made me 
 atiman, however great such an honor may be, 
 nor in honor of our parting from our com- 
 rades. No ; both are fitting at a fitting time : 
 the moment before us is not such a time. The 
 
TARAS BULBA. 203 
 
 work before us is great in labor, and in glory 
 for the Cossacks. And therefore let us drink 
 all together, let us drink before all else, to the 
 holy orthodox faith, that the day may finally 
 come when it may be spread over all the world, 
 and that everywhere there may be but one 
 faith, and that all Mussulmans may become 
 Christians. And let us also drink together 
 to the Setch, that it may stand long for the 
 ruin of the Mussulmans, that each year there 
 may issue forth from it young men, each 
 better, each handsomer, than the other. And 
 let us drink to our own glory, that our 
 grandsons and their sons may say that there 
 were once men who were not ashamed of 
 comradeship, and who never betrayed each 
 other. Now to the faith, brother pani, to the 
 faith ! " 
 
 " To the faith ! " cried those standing in the 
 ranks near by, with thick voices. "To the 
 faith ! " those more distant took up the cry ; 
 and all, both young and old, drank to the faith. 
 
204 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 " To the Setch ! " said Taras, raising his 
 hand high above his head. 
 
 " To the Setch ! " echoed the foremost ranks. 
 " To the Setch ! " said the old men softly, 
 twitching their gray mustaches ; and eagerly 
 as young hawks, the youths repeated, " To the 
 Setch ! " And the distant plain heard how 
 the Cossacks mentioned their Setch. 
 
 " Now a last draught, comrades, to the glory 
 of all Christians now living in the world ! " 
 
 And every Cossack drank a last draught to 
 the glory of all the Christians in the world. 
 And among all the ranks in all the kurens, 
 they long repeated, " To all the Christians in 
 the world ! " 
 
 The pails were empty, but the Cossacks still 
 stood with their hands uplifted. Although the 
 eyes of all gleamed brightly with . the wine, 
 they were thinking deeply. Not of greed or 
 the spoils of war were they thinking now, nor 
 of who would be lucky enough to get ducats, 
 fine weapons, embroidered caftans, and Tcher- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 205 
 
 kessian horses ; but they meditated like eagles 
 perched upon the rocky crests of mountains, 
 from which the distant boundless sea is visible, 
 dotted, as with tiny birds, with galleys, ships, 
 and every sort of vessel, confined only by the 
 scarcely visible, thin lines of shore, with their 
 sea-coast cities like gnats, and their forests like 
 small grass. Like eagles they gazed about on 
 all the plain, with their fate darkling in the 
 distance. All the plain, with its slopes and 
 roads, will be covered with their white pro- 
 jecting bones, lavishly washed with their Cos- 
 sack blood, and strewn with shattered wagons 
 and with broken swords and spears : still 
 higher rise the tufted heads, with downward- 
 drooping mustaches ; the eagles will swoop 
 down, and tear out their Cossack eyes. But 
 there is one grand advantage in this wide and 
 free bivouac : not a single noble deed will 
 be lost, and, like the tiniest grain of powder 
 from a gun-barrel, the Cossack glory will not 
 vanish. The bandoura-player with gray beard 
 
206 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 falling upon his breast, and perhaps a white- 
 headed old man still full of ripe, manly 
 strength, prophesying in spirit, will come, and 
 will speak his low, strong words of them. And 
 their glory will resound through all the world, 
 and all who are born thereafter will speak of 
 them ; for the word of power is carried afar, 
 ringing like a booming brazen bell, in which 
 the maker has mingled much rich, pure silver, 
 that its beautiful sound may be borne far and 
 wide through the cities, villages, huts, and 
 palaces, summoning all betimes to holy prayer. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 207 
 
 IX. 
 
 In the city, no one knew that one-half of 
 the Cossacks had gone in pursuit of the Tatars. 
 From the tower of the court, the sentinel only 
 perceived that a part of the wagons had been 
 dragged into the forest : but they thought the 
 Cossacks were preparing an ambush ; thus 
 thought the French engineer also. Meanwhile 
 the koschevoi's words proved not unfounded, 
 and a scarcity of provisions arose in the city. 
 According to a custom of past centuries, the 
 army did not separate as much as was neces- 
 sary. They tried to make a sortie ; but half 
 the daring men were instantly killed by the 
 Cossacks, and the other half driven into the 
 city with no results. But the Jews availed 
 themselves of the opportunity to find out 
 every thing ; whither and why the Zaporozhtzi 
 
208 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 had departed, and with what leaders, and which 
 particular kurens, and their number, and how 
 many had remained on the spot, and what they 
 intended to do : in short, within a few minutes 
 all was known in the city. 
 
 The colonels took courage, and prepared tc 
 offer battle. Taras had already divined it by 
 the noise and movement in the city, and 
 hastened about, making his arrangements, form- 
 ing the men into columns, giving orders anc 
 instructions. He ranged the kurens in three 
 camps, surrounding them with the wagons 
 in the form of bulwarks, — a form of battle ir 
 which the Zaporozhtzi were invincible ; h« 
 ordered two kurens into ambush ; he drove 
 sharp stakes, broken guns, fragments of spears, 
 into a part of the plain, with a view to forcing 
 the enemy's cavalry upon it if an opportunity 
 should present itself. And when all was done 
 which was necessary, he made a speech to the 
 Cossacks, not for the purpose of encouraging 
 and freshening up their spirits, — he knew theii 
 
TARAS BULBA. 209 
 
 souls were strong without that, — but simply 
 because he wished to tell them all he had 
 upon his heart. 
 
 " I want to tell you, brother pani, what our 
 brotherhood is. You have heard from your 
 fathers and grandfathers in what honor our 
 land has always been held by all. We made 
 ourselves known to the Greeks, and we took 
 gold from Constantinople, and our cities were 
 luxurious, and the temples, and the princes, — 
 the princes of the Russian people, our own 
 princes, not Catholic unbelievers. But the 
 Mussulmans took all; all vanished, and we 
 remained defenceless ; yea, like a widow after 
 the death of a powerful husband : defenceless 
 was our land as well as ourselves ! Such was 
 the time, comrades, when we joined hands in 
 a brotherhood : that is what our fellowship con- 
 sists in. There is no more sacred brotherhood. 
 The father loves his children, the mother loves 
 her children, the children love their father and 
 toother; but this is not like that, brothers. 
 
2IO TARAS BULB A. 
 
 The wild beast also loves its young. But s 
 man can be related only by similarity of mind 
 and not of blood. There have been brother- 
 hoods in other lands, but never any such 
 brotherhoods as on our Russian soil. It has 
 happened to many of you, to be in foreign 
 lands. You look : there are people there also, 
 God's creatures too ; and you talk with them 
 as with the men of your own country. But 
 when it comes to saying a hearty word — you 
 will see. No ! they are sensible people, but 
 not the same ; the same kind of people, and 
 yet not the same ! No, brothers, to love as 
 the Russian soul loves, is to love not with 
 the mind or any thing else, but with all that 
 God has given, all that is within you. Ah ! " 
 said Taras, and waved his hand, and wiped 
 his gray head, and twitched his mustache, and 
 then went on : " No, no one can love in that 
 way ! I know that baseness has now made 
 its way into our land. Men care only tc 
 have ricks of grain and hay, and their droves 
 
TARAS BULB A. 211 
 
 of horses, and that their mead may be sealed 
 up in their cellars ; they adopt, the devil only 
 knows what Mussulman customs. They speak 
 scornfully with their tongues. They care not 
 to speak their real thoughts with their own 
 countrymen. They sell their own things to 
 their own comrades, like soulless creatures on 
 the market-place. The favor of a foreign king, 
 and not even of a king, but the poor favor 
 of a Polish magnate, who beats them on the 
 mouth with his yellow shoe, is dearer to 
 them than all brotherhood. But the very 
 meanest of these vile men, whoever he may 
 be, given over though he be to vileness and 
 slavishness, even he, brothers, has some grains 
 of Russian feeling ; and they will assert them- 
 selves some day. And then the wretched man 
 will beat his breast with his hands ; and he 
 will seize his head, cursing his vile life loudly, 
 and ready to expiate his disgraceful deeds with 
 torture. Let them know what brotherhood 
 means on Russian soil ! And if it has come 
 
212 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 to the point when such a man must die, ther 
 it is not fit that any of them should die so, 
 No ! none of them. It is not a fit thing foi 
 their mouse-like natures." 
 
 Thus spoke the ataman ; and after he had 
 finished his speech he still continued to shake 
 his head, which had grown silver in Cossack 
 affairs. All who stood there were deeply 
 affected by this speech, which went to their 
 very hearts. The oldest in the ranks stood 
 motionless, their gray heads drooping ; tears 
 trickled quietly from their aged eyes ; they 
 wiped them slowly away with their sleeves, and 
 then all, as if with one consent, waved their 
 hands in the air at the same moment, and 
 shook their experienced heads. For it was 
 evident that old Taras had reminded them of 
 many of the best-known and finest points of 
 the heart in a man who has become wise 
 through suffering, toil, daring, and every 
 earthly misfortune, or, though unknown to 
 them, of many things felt by the young, pearly 
 
TARAS BULB A. 213 
 
 spirits, to the eternal joy of the aged parents 
 who bore them. 
 
 But the army of the enemy was already 
 marching out of the city, thundering on drums 
 and trumpets; and the pani, with their arms' 
 akimbo, rode out, surrounded by innumerable 
 servants. The stout colonel gave the orders, 
 and they began to advance briskly on the 
 Cossack camps, threateningly aiming their 
 matchlocks : their eyes flashed, and they were 
 brilliant with brass armor. As soon as the 
 Cossacks perceived that they had come within 
 gunshot, their matchlocks thundered all to- 
 gether, and they continued to fire without 
 cessation. 
 
 The heavy detonations resounded through 
 the distant fields and meadows, merging into 
 one continuous- roar. The whole plain was 
 shrouded in smoke, but the Zaporozhtzi con- 
 tinued to fire without drawing breath : the rear 
 ranks did nothing but load, and hand to those 
 in front, creating amazement among the enemy. 
 
214 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 who could not understand how the Cossacks 
 fired without loading their guns. Amid the 
 dense smoke which enveloped both armies, it 
 could not be seen how one and another dropped 
 'out of the ranks : but the Lyakhs felt that the 
 balls flew thick, and that the affair was growing 
 hot ; and when they retreated to escape from 
 the smoke, and to take an observation, many 
 were missing from their ranks, but only two or 
 three out of a hundred were killed on the 
 Cossack side. And still the Cossacks went on 
 firing off their matchlocks without a moment's 
 intermission. Even the foreign engineers were 
 amazed at tactics heretofore unknown to them, 
 and said then and there, in the presence of all, 
 "Those Zaporozhtzi are brave youths. That is 
 the way others in other lands ought to fight." 
 And they advised that the cannons should at 
 once be directed upon the camps. Heavily 
 roared the iron cannons with their wide throats ; 
 the earth hummed and trembled far and wide, 
 and the smoke lay twice as heavy over the 
 
TARAS BULB A. 215 
 
 plain. They smelt the reek of the powder 
 among the squares and streets in the most dis- 
 tant as well as the nearest quarters of the city. 
 But those who aimed the cannons pointed 
 them too high : the hot shot described too wide 
 a curve ; screaming horribly, they flew over 
 the heads of the camp, and buried themselves 
 deep in the earth at a distance, tearing the 
 ground, and throwing the black dirt high in 
 the air. At the sight of such lack of skill, the 
 French engineer tore his hair, and undertook 
 to train the cannon himself, heeding not the 
 Cossack bullets which burned and showered 
 round him. 
 
 Taras saw from afar that destruction men- 
 aced the whole Nezamaikovsky and Steblikiv- 
 sky kur^ns, and he gave a ringing shout, "Get 
 away from the wagons instantly, and mount 
 your horses ! " But the Cossacks would not 
 have succeeded in effecting both these move- 
 ments if Ostap had not flown into the midst 
 of them, and wrenched the lunts from six 
 
2l6 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 cannoneers. But he could not wrench them 
 from the other four : the Lyakhs drove him 
 back. Meanwhile the foreign captain had 
 taken the lunt in his own hand, to fire off the 
 largest cannon, such a cannon as none of the 
 Cossacks had ever beheld before. It looked 
 horrible with its wide mouth, and a thousand 
 deaths poured from it. And as it thundered, 
 the three others followed, shaking in fourfold 
 earthquake the dully responsive earth ; and 
 much woe did they cause. For more than one 
 Cossack wails the aged mother, beating with 
 bony hands her feeble breast ; more than one 
 widow is left in Glukhof, Nemirof, Chernigof, 
 and other cities. The loving woman will hasten 
 forth every day to the bazaar, grasping at all 
 passers-by, scanning the face of each to see 
 if there be not among them one dearer than 
 all ; but many an army will pass through 'the 
 city, but never among them will a single one 
 of all their dearest be. 
 
 And half the Nezamaikovsky kurdn was 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 217 
 
 as if it had never been. As the hail suddenly 
 beats down a field where every ear of grain 
 shines like purest gold, so were they beaten 
 down. 
 
 How the Cossacks hastened thither ! How 
 they all. started up! How raged the ataman 
 of the kur6n, Kukubenko, when he saw that 
 the best half of his kuren was no more ! 
 He fought his way with his remaining Neza- 
 maikovtzi to the very middle of the fray, 
 cut down in his wrath, like a cabbage, the 
 first man he met, flung many a rider from 
 his horse, piercing both horse and rider 
 with his lance ; made his way to the gunners, 
 and took a cannon ; but there he beholds the 
 atdman of the Oumansky kur6n, and Stepan 
 Guska, hard at work, having already seized 
 the chief cannon. He left those Cossacks 
 there, and returned with his own to another 
 group of the foe : and where the Nezamaikov- 
 tzi went there was a street ; where they turned 
 about, there was a square where streets meet. 
 
2l8 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 And the ranks were visibly thinning, and the 
 Lyakbs falling in sheaves. And right beside 
 the wagons was Vovtuzenko, and in front 
 Tcherevitchenko, and by the more distant ones 
 Degtyarenko ; and behind them the kuren ata- 
 man, Vertikhvist. Degtyarenko had raised 
 two Lyakhs on his spear, and now attacked 
 the third, a stubborn fellow. Agile and strong 
 was the Lyakh, with gorgeous equipments, and 
 he was accompanied^ by fifty servants^ He 
 fell fiercely upon Degtyarenko, beat him to 
 the ground, and, flourishing his sword above 
 him, cried, " There is not one of you Cossack 
 dogs who has dared to oppose me." 
 
 " Here is one," said Mosiy Schilo, and 
 stepped forward. He was a muscular Cos- 
 sack, who had often commanded at sea, and 
 undergone many vicissitudes. The Turks 
 had seized him and his men at Trebizond, 
 and thrown them all, captives, into the gal- 
 leys ; they bound them hand and foot with 
 iron chains, gave them no food for a week at 
 
TARAS BULBA. 219 
 
 a time, and made them drink the repulsive 
 sea-water. The poor prisoners bore and suf- 
 fered all, but they would not renounce their 
 orthodox faith. The ataman Mosiy Schilo 
 could not bear it : he trampled the Holy 
 Scriptures under foot, wound the vile turban 
 about his sinful head, became the confidant 
 of a pasha, steward of a ship, and ruler over 
 all the slaves. The poor slaves sorrowed 
 greatly thereat, for they knew that if he 
 had renounced his faith he would be a ty- 
 rant, and his hand would be the more heavy 
 and severe upon them ; and so it turned out. 
 Mosiy Schilo had them put in new chains, 
 three in a row, and the cruel cords cut to 
 the very bone ; and he beat them upon the 
 back of the neck. And when the Turks re- 
 joiced at having obtained such a servant, and 
 began to carouse, and, forgetful of their law, 
 all got drunk, he distributed all the sixty-four 
 keys among the prisoners, in order that they 
 might free themselves, fling their chains and 
 
220 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 manacles into the sea, and, seizing their 
 swords, in their turn kill the Turks. Then 
 the Cossacks collected great booty, and re- 
 turned with glory to their country ; and the 
 ban doura- players celebrated Mosiy Schilo's 
 exploits for a long time. They would have 
 elected him koschevoi, but he was a very 
 singular Cossack. At one time he would per- 
 form some feat which the most sagacious 
 would never have dreamed of : and at another, 
 folly simply took possession of him ; he drank 
 away and squandered every thing, was in 
 debt to every one in the Setch, and, in addi- 
 tion to that, stole like a street thief. He 
 carried off a whole Cossack equipment from 
 a strange kuren by night, and pawned it to 
 the pot-house keeper. For this dishonorable 
 act they bound him to a post in the bazaar, 
 and laid a club beside him, in order that every 
 one, according to the measure of his strength, 
 might deal him a blow. But there was not 
 one Zaporozhetz out of them all to be found, 
 
TARAS BULB A. 22 1 
 
 who would raise the club against him, remem- 
 bering his former services. Such was the 
 Cossack Mosiy Schilo. 
 
 "Here are some who will kill you, dog!" he 
 said, springing upon him. And how they 
 hacked away ! their shoulder-plates and breast- 
 plates bent under their blows. The hostile 
 Lyakh cut through his shirt of mail, reaching 
 the body itself with his blade ; the Cossack's 
 shirt was dyed purple : but Schilo heeded it 
 not, flourished his muscular hand (heavy was 
 that mighty fist), and brought it down unex- 
 pectedly upon his head. The brazen helmet 
 flew into pieces, the Lyakh wavered and fell ; 
 but Schilo went on hacking and cutting crosses 
 upon the stunned man. Kill not utterly thine 
 enemy, Cossack : turn back rather ! The Cos- 
 sack turned not, and one of the dead man's 
 servants plunged a knife into his neck. Schilo 
 turned, and tried to seize the daring man, but 
 he disappeared amid the smoke of the powder. 
 On all sides rose the clash of matchlocks. 
 
222 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 Schilo fell, and knew that his wound was mor- 
 tal. He fell, with his hand upon his wound, 
 and said, turning to his comrades, " Farewell, 
 brother pani, my comrades ! may the holy 
 Russian land stand forever, and may it have 
 eternal honor ! " And as he closed his failing 
 eyes, the Cossack soul fled from the grim 
 body. And then Zadorozhniy came forward 
 with his men, Vertikhvist broke the ranks, and 
 Balaban stepped forth. 
 
 " What now, pani .' " said Taras, calling to 
 the atamans by name : "there is yet powder in 
 the powder-flasks } The Cossack force is not 
 weakened ? the Cossacks do not yield .' " 
 
 " There is yet powder in the flasks, batko ; 
 the Cossack force is not weakened yet : the 
 Cossacks yield not ! " 
 
 And the Cossacks pressed vigorously on : 
 the ranks were all in confusion. The short 
 colonel beat the assembly, and ordered eight 
 painted standards to be hung out to collect 
 his men, who were scattered over all the plain. 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 223 
 
 All the Lyakhs hastened to the standards. 
 But they had not succeeded in ranging them- 
 selves in order, when the ataman Kukubenko 
 attacked again with his Nezamaikovtzi, in their 
 centre, and fell straight upon the big-bellied 
 colonel. The colonel could not resist the at- 
 tack, and, wheeling his horse about, set out at 
 a gallop ; but Kukubenko pursued him for a 
 long distance, all over the plain, and prevented 
 him from joining his regiment. 
 
 Perceiving this from the kuren on the flank, 
 Stepan Guska set out after him, lasso in hand, 
 bending his head to his horse's neck, and 
 taking advantage of an opportunity, with one 
 fling he cast his lasso about his neck : the colo- 
 nel turned purple in the face, grasped the cord 
 with both hands, and tried to break it ; but a 
 powerful blow drove the lance through his 
 body, and there he remained pinned to the 
 earth. But Guska did not escape his turn. 
 The Cossacks had but time to look round when 
 they beheld Stepan Guska elevated on four 
 
224 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 spears. All the poor fellow succeeded in say- 
 ing was, " May all our enemies perish, and 
 may the Russian land rejoice forever ! " and 
 then he gave up his spirit. 
 
 The Cossacks glanced around, and there was 
 Cossack Metelitza on one side, entertaining the 
 Lyakhs, dealing blows on the head to one and 
 another ; and on the other side, atiman Neve- 
 litchkiy was attacking with his men ; and Za- 
 krutibuga was turning and killing the enemy 
 by the wagons ; and the third Pisarenko had 
 repulsed a whole squadron from the more dis- 
 tant wagons ; and they were still fighting and 
 killing at the other wagons, and even upon 
 them. 
 
 " How now, pani .' " cried ataman Taras, 
 stepping forward before them all : " is there 
 still powder in your flasks .' Is the Cossack 
 force still strong.? do the Cossacks yield.'" 
 
 " There is still powder in the flasks, batko ; 
 the Cossack force is still strong : the Cossacks 
 yield not!" 
 
TARAS BULBA. 225 
 
 But Bovdug had already fallen from the 
 wagons ; a bullet had struck him straight under 
 the heart. The old man collected all his 
 strength, and said, " I sorrow not to part from 
 the world. God grant every man such an end ! 
 May the Russian land be forever glorious ! " 
 And Bovdug's spirit flew above, to tell the old 
 men who had gone on long before, that men 
 still knew how to fight on Russian soil, and, 
 better still, that they knew how to die for it 
 and the holy faith. 
 
 Balaban, atdman of a kur^n, soon after fell 
 to the ground also from a wagon. Three 
 mortal wounds had he received from a lance, 
 a bullet, and a sword. He had been one of 
 the very best of Cossacks, and had accom- 
 plished a great deal in his expeditions on the 
 sea as commander ; but more glorious than all 
 the rest was his expedition to the shores of 
 Anatolia. They collected many sequins, many 
 valuable Turkish articles, caftans, and adorn- 
 ments of every description. But misfortune 
 
226 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 awaited them on their way back : they ran 
 across the Turkish fleet, so they were fired on 
 from the ships ; half the boats were crushed 
 and overturned, drowning more than one ; but 
 the reeds bound to the sides saved the boats 
 from sinking. Balaban rowed off at full speed, 
 and stood straight in the face of the sun, thus 
 rendering himself invisible to the Turkish ship. 
 All the following night they spent in baling 
 out the water with pails and their caps, and in 
 repairing the damaged places. They cut sails 
 from their Cossack trousers, and, sailing off, 
 escaped from the fastest Turkish vessel. And 
 not only did they arrive unharmed in the 
 Setch, but they brought a gold - embroidered 
 vesture to the archimandrite of the Mezhiiror- 
 sky Monastery in Kief, and for the church in 
 honor of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, 
 which is in Zaporozhe, an ikon frame of pure 
 silver. And the bandoura-players celebrated 
 the daring of the Cossacks for a long time 
 afterwards. Now he bowed his head, feeling 
 
TARAS BULBA. 227 
 
 the pains which precede death, and said 
 quietly, " I am permitted, brother pani, to die 
 a fine death. Seven have I hewed in pieces, 
 nine have I transfixed with my lance, and 
 many have I trampled upon with my horse's 
 hoofs ; and I no longer remember how many 
 my bullets killed. May our Russian land flour- 
 ish forever ! " and his spirit fled. 
 
 Cossacks, Cossacks ! surrender not the flower 
 of your army. Already was Kukubenko sur- 
 rounded, and seven men only remained of all 
 the Nezamaikovsky kur^n, and they had de- 
 fended themselves beyond their strength ; their 
 garments were already stained with blood. 
 Taras himself, perceiving his straits, hastened 
 to his rescue ; but the Cossacks arrived too 
 late. Before the enemies who surrounded him 
 could be driven off, a spear was buried just 
 below his heart. Quietly he sank into the 
 arms of the Cossacks who grasped him, and his 
 young blood flowed in a stream, like precious 
 wine brought from the cellar in a glass vessel 
 
228 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 by careless servants, who, stumbling at the 
 entrance, break the rich flask : the wine pours 
 over the ground, and the master, hastening up, 
 tears his hair, having reserved it for the best 
 occasion of his life, in order that if God should 
 grant him, in his old age, to meet again the 
 comrade of his youth, they might recall to- 
 gether former days, when a man revelled other- 
 wise and better than now. Kukubenko turned 
 his eyes about, and said, " I thank God that 
 it has been my lot to die before your eyes, 
 comrades. May they live better after us than 
 we have lived ; and may our Russian land, be- 
 loved by Christ, flourish forever ! " and his 
 young spirit fled. The angels took it in their 
 arms, and bore it to heaven : it will be well 
 with him there. " Sit down at my right hand, 
 Kukubenko," Christ will say to him: "you 
 never betrayed your comrades, j^ou never com- 
 mitted a dishonorable act, you never sold a man 
 into misery, you preserved and defended my 
 church." The death of Kukubenko saddened 
 
TARAS BULBA. 229 
 
 them all. The Cossack ranks were terribly 
 thinned. Many brave men were missing, but 
 the Cossacks still stood their ground. 
 
 " How now, pani .' " cried Taras to the 
 remaining kur^ns : " is there still powder in 
 your flasks .■• Are your swords dulled .' Are the 
 Cossack forces wearied "i Have the Cossacks 
 given way .'' " 
 
 " There is still an abundance of powder ; our 
 swords are still sharp : the Cossack forces are 
 not wearied, and the Cossacks have not yet 
 yielded." 
 
 And the Cossacks again strained every nerve, 
 as though they had suffered no loss. Only 
 three kuren atamans still remained alive. 
 The red blood flowed in streams everywhere ; 
 bridges of their bodies and of those of the 
 enemy were piled high. Taras looked up to 
 heaven, and there already stretched a flock of 
 vultures. Well, there will be booty for some 
 one. And there they were raising Mctclitza 
 on their lances, and the head of the second 
 
230 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 Pisarenko was -dizzily opening and shutting its 
 eyes ; and the mangled body of Okhrim 
 Guska broke apart, and fell upon the ground 
 in four pieces. "Now," said Taras, and waved 
 a cloth. Ostap understood this signal, and 
 springing quickly from his ambush attacked 
 sharply. The Lyakhs could not withstand this 
 onslaught; and he drove them back, and chased 
 them straight to the spot where the stakes and 
 fragments of spears were driven into the earth. 
 The horses began to stumble and fall, and the 
 Lyakhs to fly over their heads. At that moment 
 the Korsuntzi, who had remained till the last 
 by the transports, perceived that they still had 
 some bullets left, and suddenly fired off their 
 matchlocks. The Lyakhs all became confused, 
 and lost their presence of mind ; and the 
 Cossacks took courage. " Here is our vic- 
 tory ! " rang Cossack voices on all sides ; the 
 trumpets sounded, and the banner of victory 
 was unfurled. The beaten Lyakhs ran in all 
 directions, and hid themselves. "No, the 
 
TARAS BULB A. 23 1 
 
 victory is not yet complete," said Taras, glan- 
 cing at the city gate ; and he was right. 
 
 The gates opened, and out flew a hussar 
 regiment, the flower of all the cavalry. Every 
 rider was mounted on a matched brown horse 
 from-the Kabardei ; in front rode the handsom- 
 est, the most heroic, of them all ; his black hair 
 streamed from under his brazen helmet ; from 
 his arm floated a rich scarf, embroidered by 
 the hands of a peerless beauty. Taras sprang 
 back in horror when he saw that it was Andn'i. 
 And he meanwhile, enveloped in the dust and 
 heat of battle, anxious to deserve the scarf 
 which had been bound as a gift upon his arm, 
 flew on like a greyhound ; the handsomest, 
 most agile, and youngest of all the band. The 
 experienced huntsman urges on the greyhound, 
 and he springs forward, his legs cutting a 
 straight line in the air, his body all on one 
 side, tossing up the snow, and a score of times 
 outrunning the hare, in the ardor of his course. 
 And just like this was Andrfi. Old Taras 
 
232 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 paused and observed how he cleared a path be- 
 fore him, pursued, hewed away and distributed 
 blows to the right and the left. Taras could 
 not restrain himself, but shouted, "How! your 
 comrades ! your comrades ! you devil's brat, do 
 you' kill your own comrades ? " But Andrii dis- 
 tinguished not who stood before him, his com- 
 rades or strangers : he saw nothing. Curls, 
 curls, long, long curls, were what he saw ; and a 
 bosom like that of a river swan, and a snowy 
 neck and shoulders, and all that is created for 
 wild kisses. 
 
 " Hey there, lads ! only draw him to the for- 
 est, entice him to the forest for me ! " shouted 
 Taras. And instantly thirty of the smartest 
 Cossacks volunteered to entice him thither ; 
 and settling their tall caps firmly, they spurred 
 their horses straight at a gap in the hussars. 
 They attacked the front ranks from the flank, 
 beat them down, separated them from the rear 
 ranks, despatched one and another; but Golo- 
 puitenko struck Andrii on the back with his 
 
TARAS BULBA. 233 
 
 sword, and then immediately set out to ride 
 away from them, at the top of his speed. How 
 Andn'i flew ! How his young blood coursed 
 through all his veins ! Driving his sharp spurs 
 into his horse's flanks, he flew after the Cos- 
 sacks, never glancing back, and perceiving not 
 that only twenty men at the most were follow- 
 ing him ; but the Cossacks fled at full gallop, 
 and directed their course straight for the forest. 
 Andn'i overtook them, and was on the point of 
 catching Golopuitenko, when a powerful hand 
 seized his horse's bridle. Andrfi looked : be- 
 fore him stood Taras ! He trembled all over, 
 and turned suddenly pale, like a student who 
 has beaten his comrade excessivel}', and receiv- 
 ing in consequence a blow on the forehead with 
 a ruler, flushes up like fire, springs in wrath 
 from his seat, to chase his frightened comrade, 
 and suddenly encounters his teacher entering 
 the classroom : in an instant his wrathful im- 
 pulse calms down, and his futile anger vanishes. 
 In this wise, in one instant, Andn'i's wrath was 
 
234 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 as if it had never existed. And he beheld 
 before him only his terrible father. 
 
 "Well, what are we going to do now.?" said 
 Taras, looking him straight in the eye. But 
 Andri'i could make no reply to this, and stood 
 with his eyes fixed on the ground. 
 
 " Well, little son ! Did your Lyakhs help 
 you ■>. " 
 
 Andri'i made no answer. 
 
 " To think that you should be such a traitor ! 
 that you should betray your faith ! betray your 
 comrades ! Stop, dismount from your horse ! " 
 
 Obedient as a child, he dismounted, and 
 stood before Taras more dead than alive. 
 
 " Stand still, do not move ! I gave you life, 
 I will also kill you ! " said Taras, and, retreat- 
 ing a step backwards, he brought his gun up to 
 his shoulder. Andrfi was white as linen : his 
 mouth moved gently, and he uttered a name ; 
 but it was not the name of his native land, or 
 of his mother, or his brother : it was the name 
 of the beautiful Pole. Taras fired. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 235 
 
 Like the ear of corn cut down by the reap- 
 ing-hook, like the young lamb when it feels 
 the deadly steel in its heart, he hung his 
 head, and rolled upon the grass without utter- 
 ing a word. 
 
 The murderer of his son stood still, and 
 gazed long upon the lifeless body. Even in 
 death he was very handsome : his manly face, 
 so short a time ago filled with power, and 
 an irresistible charm for every woman, still 
 breathed a marvellous beauty ; his black brows, 
 like sombre velvet, set off his pale features. 
 
 " Is he not a genuine Cossack .' " said Taras ; 
 " he is tall of stature, and black-browed, and 
 his face is that of a nobleman, and his hand 
 was strong in battle ! He is fallen ! fallen 
 without glory, like a vile dog ! " 
 
 " Father, what have you done .^ Was it you 
 who killed him .' " said Ostap, coming up at 
 this moment. 
 
 Taras nodded. 
 
 Ostap gazed intently at the dead man. He 
 
236 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 was sorry for his brother, and said at once, 
 "Let us give him an honorable burial, batko, 
 that the foe may not dishonor his body, nor the 
 birds of prey rend it." 
 
 "They will bury him without our help," 
 said Taras : " there will be plenty of mourners 
 and rejoicers for him." 
 
 And he reflected for a couple of minutes : 
 should he fling him to the wolves for prey, 
 or respect in him the knightly bravery which 
 every brave man is bound to honor in another, 
 no matter whom } Then he saw Golopuitenko 
 galloping towards them on his horse : " Woe, 
 ataman! the Lyakhs have been re-enforced, a 
 fresh force has come to their rescue ! " Golo- 
 puitenko had not finished speaking when Vov- 
 tuzenko galloped up : " Woe, atiman ! a fresh 
 force is bearing down upon us ! 
 
 Vovtuzenko had not finished speaking, when 
 Pisarenko rushed up without his horse : 
 " Where are you, batko .' The Cossacks are 
 seeking for you. Ataman Nevelitchkiy is 
 
TARAS BULBA. 237 
 
 killed, Zadorozhniy is killed, and Tcherevitch- 
 enko : but the Cossacks stand their ground ; 
 they will not die without looking in your eyes ; 
 they want you to gaze upon them once more 
 before the hour of death arrives." 
 
 " To horse, Ostap ! " said Taras, and hastened 
 to find his Cossacks, to look once more upon 
 them, and let them behold their atdman once 
 more before the hour of death. But they 
 had not emerged from the wood, when the 
 enemy's force had already surrounded it on 
 all sides, and horsemen armed with swords 
 and spears appeared everywhere between the 
 trees. " Ostap, Ostap ! don't surrender ! " 
 shouted Taras, and grasping his naked sword 
 he began to cut down all he encountered on 
 every side. But six suddenly sprang upon 
 Ostap. They did it in an unpropitious hour : 
 the head of one flew off, another turned to flee, 
 a spear pierced the ribs of a third ; a fourth, 
 more bold, bent his head to escape from the 
 bullet, and the bullet struck his horse's breast ; 
 
238 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 the maddened animal reared, fell back upon the 
 earth, and crushed his rider under him. "Well 
 done, my little son ! Well done, Ostap ! " cried 
 Taras : " I am following you." And he shook 
 off those who attacked, him. Taras hewed 
 and fought, dealt blows upon the heads of one 
 after another, still keeping his eye upon Ostap 
 ahead ; and he sees that eight more are fall- 
 ing upon Ostap. " Ostap, Ostap ! don't sur- 
 render ! " But they had already overpowered 
 Ostap ; one had flung his lasso about his neck, 
 and they had bound him, and were carrying 
 him away. " Hey, Ostap, Ostap ! " shouted 
 Taras, forcing his way to him, cutting men 
 down like cabbages to right and left. " Hey, 
 Ostap, Ostap ! " But something struck him 
 like a heavy stone at that moment. All grew 
 dim and confused before his eyes. In one mo- 
 ment there flashed confusedly before him heads, 
 spears, smoke, the gleam of fire, tree-stumps, 
 and leaves ; and he sank heavily to the earth 
 like a felled oak, and darkness covered his eyes. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 239 
 
 X. 
 
 "I HAVE slept long! " said Taras, coming to 
 his senses, as if after a heavy drunken sleep, 
 and trying to distinguish the objects about 
 him. A terrible weakness overpowered his 
 limbs. The walls and corners of a strange 
 room appeared dimly before him. At length 
 he perceived that Tovkatch was seated before 
 him, apparently listening to his every breath. 
 
 "Yes," thought Tovkatch, "you might have 
 slept forever." But he said nothing, shook 
 his finger, and motioned him to be silent. 
 
 "But tell me where I am now?" asked 
 Taras again, straining his mind, and trying 
 to recollect what had taken place. 
 
 " Be silent ! " cried his companion sternly. 
 "Why should you want to know.? Don't 
 you see that you are all hacked to pieces } 
 Here I have been galloping with you for two 
 
240 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 weeks without taking breath; and you have 
 been burning up with fever, and talking non- 
 sense. This is the first time you have slept 
 quietly. Be silent if you don't wish to do 
 yourself an injury." 
 
 But Taras still strove, and tried to collect 
 his thoughts, and to recall what had passed. 
 "Well, the Lyakhs must have surrounded and 
 captured me. I had no chance to fight my- 
 self free from the throng." 
 
 " Be silent, I tell you, you devil's brat ! " 
 cried Tovkatch angrily, as a nurse, driven 
 beyond her patience, cries out at her unruly 
 young charge. " What good will it do you 
 to know how you got away .' It is enough 
 that you did get away. Some people were 
 found who did not give you up: now let 
 that be enough for you. It is something for 
 me to have ridden all night with you. You 
 think that you passed for a common Cossack.' 
 No, they have offered a reward of two thou- 
 sand ducats for your head." 
 
TARAS BULBA. 241 
 
 " And Ostap ! " cried Taras suddenly, and 
 tried to rise ; for all at once he recollected 
 that Ostap had been seized and bound before 
 his very eyes, and that he was now in the 
 hands of the Lyakhs. And grief overpowered 
 his aged head. He pulled off and tore in 
 pieces the bandages from his wounds ; he 
 threw them far from him ; he tried to say 
 something aloud, and uttered something in- 
 coherent. Fever and delirium seized upon 
 him afresh, and he uttered foolish and inco- 
 herent speeches. Meanwhile his faithful com- 
 rade stood before him, scolding and showering 
 harsh, reproachful words upon him without 
 stint. Finally he seized him by the arms and 
 legs, covered him up like a child, arranged all 
 his bandages, rolled him up in an ox-hide, 
 bound him with bast, and, fastening him with 
 ropes to his saddle, rode with him again at 
 full speed along the road. 
 
 " I'll get you there, even if it is not alive ! 
 I will not abandon you for the Lyakhs to make 
 
242 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 merry over your Cossack race, and cut your 
 body in twain, and fling it into the water. Let 
 the eagle tear out your eyes if it must be so ; 
 but let it be our eagle of the steppe, and not 
 a Polish eagle, not one which has flown hither 
 from Polish soil. I will bring you, though it 
 be a corpse, to the Ukraine ! " 
 
 Thus spoke his faithful companion. He 
 rode, without drawing breath, day and night, 
 and brought him insensible into Zaporozhian 
 Setch itself. There he undertook to cure him, 
 with unswerving care, with herbs and lini- 
 ments. He sought out a skilful Jewess : she 
 made Taras drink various potions for a whole 
 month, and at length he improved. Whether 
 it was owing to the medicine, or to his iron 
 constitution gaining the upper hand, at all 
 events, in six weeks he was on his feet ; his 
 wounds had closed, and only the scars of the 
 sabre-cuts showed how deeply injured the old 
 Cossack had been. But he was markedly sad 
 and morose. Three deep wrinkles engraved 
 
TARAS BULBA. 243 
 
 themselves upon his brow, and never more 
 departed thence. Then he looked about him : 
 all was new in the Setch ; all his old compan- 
 ions were dead. Not one was left of those 
 who had stood up for the right, for faith and 
 brotherhood. And those who had gone forth 
 with the koschevoi in pursuit of the Tatars, 
 they also had long since disappeared. All 
 had lost their heads : all had perished. One 
 had lost his honest head in battle ; another had 
 died for lack of bread and water, amid the 
 salt marshes of the Crimea ; another had fallen 
 in captivity, unable to survive the disgrace ; 
 and their former koschevoi was no longer 
 living, nor any of his old companions, and the 
 grass was growing over those once alert with 
 Cossack power. He only heard that there 
 had been a feast, a noisy, great feast. All the 
 dishes had been smashed in pieces ; not a 
 drop of wine was left anywhere ; the guests 
 and servants had all stolen valuable cups and 
 platters ; and the master of the house stood 
 
244 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 sadly thinking that it would have been better 
 if there had been no feast. In vain did they 
 try to cheer Taras, and to divert his mind ; 
 in vain did the long-bearded, gray-haired ban- 
 doura-players come by twos and threes to 
 glorify his Cossack deeds. He gazed grimly 
 and indifferently at every thing, and on his 
 stolid face unquenchable sorrow stood forth ; 
 and he said softly, as he drooped his head, 
 { " My son, my Ostap ! " 
 
 The Zaporozhtzi assembled for an expe- 
 dition by sea. Two hundred boats were 
 launched on the Dniepr, and Asia Minor saw 
 them, with their shaven heads and long scalp- 
 locks, devote her thriving shores to fire and 
 sword ; she saw the turbans of her Mahome- 
 tan inhabitants strewn^ like her innumerable 
 flowers, over the blood-besprinkled fields, and 
 floating along her banks ; she saw many tarry 
 Zaporozhian trousers, and muscular hands with 
 black hunting-whips. The Zaporozhtzi ate up 
 and laid waste all their vineyard. In the 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 245 
 
 mosques they left heaps of dung. They used 
 rich Persian shawls instead of suspenders, and 
 girded their dirty svitkas with them. Long 
 afterwards, short Zaporozhian pipes were found 
 in those regions. They sailed merrily back. 
 A ten-gun Turkish ship pursued them, and 
 scattered their skiffs, like dainty birds, with a 
 volley from all its guns. A third part of them 
 sank in the depths. of the sea; but the rest 
 again assembled, and gained the mouth of the 
 Dniepr with twelve kegs full of sequins. But 
 all this did not interest Taras. He went off 
 upon the fields and the steppe as though to 
 hunt ; but the charge remained in his gun un- 
 fired, and, laying down the- weapon, he would 
 seat himself sadly on the shores of the sea. 
 He sat there long with drooping head, repeat- 
 ing continually, "My Ostap, my Ostap!" Be- 
 fore him spread the gleaming Black Sea; in 
 the distant reeds the sea-gull screamed. His 
 gray mustache turned to silver, and the tears 
 fell one by one. 
 
246 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 And at last Taras could endure it no longer. 
 "Whatever happens, I must go and find out 
 what he is doing. Is he alive, or in the grave ? 
 or is he not yet in the grave ? I will know, 
 cost what it may ! " And within a week he 
 found himself in the city of Ouman, fully armed, 
 mounted, with lance, sword, a travelling cask at 
 his saddle-bow, his pot of oatmeal, his powder- 
 horn, cord to hobble his horse, and other equip- 
 ments. He went straight to a dirty, ill-kept 
 little house, whose tiny windows were almost 
 invisible, blackened as they were with some 
 unknown dirt ; the chimney was wrapped in 
 rags ; and the roof, ' which was full of holes, 
 was covered with sparrows. A heap of all 
 sorts of refuse lay before the very door. From 
 the window peered the head of a Jewess, in a 
 headdress with discolored pearls. 
 
 " Is your husband at home .' " said Bulba, 
 dismounting, and fastening his horse's bridle 
 to an iron hook beside the door. 
 
 " He is at home," said the Jewess, and has- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 247 
 
 tened out at once with a measure of grain for 
 the horse, and a stoup of beer for the rider. 
 
 " Where is your Jew ? " 
 
 " He is in the other room at prayer," replied 
 the Jewess, bowing and wishing Bulba good 
 health as he raised the cup to his lips. 
 
 " Remain here, feed and water my horse, and 
 I will go speak with him alone. I have busi- 
 ness with him." 
 
 This Jew was the well-known Yankel. He 
 was there as revenue-farmer and pot-house 
 keeper. He had gradually got nearly all the 
 neighboring noblemen and gentlemen into his 
 hands, had slowly sucked away most of their 
 money, and strongly marked his presence in 
 that locality. For a distance of three miles in 
 all directions, not a single izba remained in a 
 proper state. All were falling in ruins ; all 
 had been drunk away, and poverty and rags 
 alone remained. The whole neighborhood was 
 depopulated, as if after a fire or an epidemic ; 
 and if Yankel had lived there teri years, he 
 
248 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 would probably have depopulated the Voevod's 
 whole domains. 
 
 Taras entered the room. The Jew was pray- 
 ing, enveloped in his dirty shroud, and was 
 turning to spit for the last time, according to 
 the forms of his creed, when his eye suddenly 
 lighted on Taras standing behind him. And 
 the iirst thing of all which struck the Jew's eye 
 was the two thousand . ducats offered for. his 
 head ; but he was ashamed of his avarice, and 
 tried to stifle within him the eternal thought 
 of gold, which twines, like a snake, about the 
 soul of a Jew. 
 
 "Listen, Yankel," said Taras to the Jew, 
 who began to bow low before him, and he shut 
 the door so that they might not be seen. " I 
 saved your life : the Zaporozhtzi would have 
 torn you in pieces like a dog. Now it is your 
 turn to do me a service." 
 
 The Jew's face clouded over a little. 
 
 " What service .' If it is a service I can 
 render, why not render it .■' " 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 249 
 
 " Say nothing. Take me to Warsaw." 
 " To Warsaw .' Why to Warsaw \ " said the 
 Jew, and his brows and shoulders rose in 
 amazement. 
 
 " Say nothing to me. Take me to Warsaw. 
 I must see him once more at any cost, and 
 say one word to him." 
 " Say a word to whom 1 " 
 "To him — to Ostap — to my son." 
 " Has not the pan heard that already " — 
 " I know, I know all. They offer two thou- 
 sand ducats for my head. They know its value, 
 fools ! I will give you five thousand. Here 
 are two thousand on the spot " (Bulba poured 
 out two thousand ducats from a leather purse), 
 " and the rest when I return." 
 
 The Jew instantly seized a towel, and con- 
 cealed the ducats under it. " Ai, glorious 
 money ! ai, good money ! " he said, twirling 
 one gold piece in his hand, and testing it with 
 his teeth. "I don't believe the man from 
 whom the pan stole these fine gold pieces re- 
 
250 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 mained in the world an hour longer ; he went 
 straight to the river, and drowned himself, after 
 the loss of such magnificent gold pieces." 
 
 " I should not have asked you. I might pos- 
 sibly have found my own way to Warsaw ; but 
 some one might recognize me, and then the 
 cursed Lyakhs would have captured me, for I 
 am not clever at inventions; but that is just 
 what you Jews are created for. You would 
 deceive the very devil. You know all the 
 tricks : that is why I have come to you ; and, 
 besides, I could get nothing myself in Warsaw. 
 Harness up your wagon at once, and take 
 me." 
 
 "And the pan thinks that I can take the 
 nag out of hand so, and harness him, and, 'Get 
 up, Dapple ! ' The pan thinks that I can take 
 the pan just as he is, without concealing him.'" 
 
 " Well, hide me, hide me as you like : in a 
 powder-cask .' " 
 
 " Ai, ai ! and the pan thinks he can be con- 
 cealed in a powder-cask .-' Does not the pan 
 
TARAS BULBA. 251 
 
 know that every man thinks that every cask 
 contains brandy ? " 
 
 " Well, let them think it is brandy." 
 " What ! let them think it is brandy ? " 
 said the Jew, and grasped his ear-locks with 
 both hands, and then raised them both on 
 high. 
 
 "Well, why are you so frightened.'" 
 " And does not the pan know that God has 
 made brandy expressly for every one to taste .'' 
 They are all gluttons and fond of dainties 
 there : a nobleman will run five versts after a 
 cask ; he will make a hole, and as soon as he 
 sees that nothing runs out he will say, ' The 
 Jew is not bringing powder-casks ; there is cer- 
 tainly something wrong. Seize the Jew, bind 
 the Jew, take away all the Jew's money, put 
 the Jew in prison ! ' Then all the vile people 
 will fall upon the Jew, for every one takes a 
 Jew for a dog ; and they think he is not a man, 
 but only a Jew. " 
 
 "Then lay me in the wagon with fish," 
 
252 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 "I cannot, pan, by heaven, I cannot: all 
 over Poland the people are as hungry as 
 dogs now. They will steal the fish, and feel 
 the pan." 
 
 " Then take me in the fiend's way, only take 
 me." 
 
 " Listen, listen, pan ! " said the ]&'^, strip- 
 ping up the borders of his sleeves, and ap- 
 proaching him with extended arms. "This is 
 what we will do. They are building fortresses 
 and castles everywhere : French engineers 
 have come from Germany, and so a great deal 
 of brick and stone is being carried over the 
 roads. Let the pan lie down in the bottom of 
 the wagon, and over him I will pile bricks. 
 The pan is strong and well, apparently, so he 
 will not mind if it is a little heavy ; and I will 
 make a hole in the bottom of the wagon, in 
 order to feed the pan." 
 
 " Do what you will, only take me ! " 
 
 And in an hour the wagon-load of bricks left 
 Ouman, drawn by two sorry nags. On one of 
 
TARAS BULB A. 253 
 
 them sat tall Yankel ; and his long, curling ear- 
 locks flowed from beneath his Jewish felt cap, 
 as he bounced about on the horse, like a verst- 
 mark planted by the roadside. 
 
254 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 XI. 
 
 At the time when the above incidents took 
 place, there were as yet on the boundaries no 
 custom-house officials and guards, — those bug- 
 bears of enterprising people, — so that any one 
 could bring across any thing which he fancied. 
 If any one. made any search or inspection, he 
 did it chiefly for his own pleasure, especially if 
 there happened to be in the wagon objects 
 attractive to the eye, and if his own hand pos- 
 sessed a certain weight and power. But the 
 bricks found no admirers, and they entered the 
 principal gate unmolested. Bulba, in his nar- 
 row cage, could only hear the noise, the shouts 
 of the driver, and nothing more. Yankel, 
 bouncing away on his short, dust-covered 
 trotter, turned, after making several detours, 
 into a dark, narrow street bearing the names 
 
TARAS BULBA. 255 
 
 of the Muddy, and also of the Jews' Street, 
 because, in fact, Jews from nearly every part 
 of Warsaw were to be found here. This street 
 greatly resembled a back-yard turned wrong 
 side out. The sun appeared never to come 
 there. The totally black wooden houses, with 
 numerous poles projecting from the windows, 
 still further increased the darkness. Rarely 
 did a brick wall gleam red among them ; for 
 it also, in many places, had turned quite black. 
 Here and there, high up, a bit of stuccoed 
 wall illumined by the sun shone with intoler- 
 able whiteness. Every thing there struck the 
 senses sharply ; pipes, rags, shells, broken and 
 discarded tubs : every one flung whatever was 
 useless to him into the street, thus affording 
 the passer-by an opportunity to nourish all his 
 senses with the rubbish. A man on horseback 
 could almost touch with his hand the poles 
 thrown across the street from one house to 
 another, upon which hung Jewish stockings, 
 short trousers, and smoked geese. Sometimes 
 
256 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 a very pretty little Hebrew face adorned with 
 discolored pearls peeped out of an ancient win- 
 dow. A group of little Jews, with torn and 
 dirty garments and curly hair, screamed and 
 rolled about in the dirt. A red-haired Jew 
 with freckles all over his face, which made him 
 look like a sparrow's ^%z, gazed from a window. 
 He addressed Yankel at once in his gibberish, 
 and Yankel immediately drove into a court- 
 yard. Another Jew came along, halted, and 
 entered into conversation. When Bulba finally 
 emerged from beneath the bricks, he beheld 
 three Jews talking with great heat. 
 
 Yankel turned to him, and said that every 
 thing would be done ; that his Ostap was in 
 the city jail, and, although it would be difficult 
 to persuade the jailer, yet he hoped to arrange 
 a meeting. 
 
 Bulba entered the room with the three Jews. 
 
 The Jews again began to talk among 
 themselves, in their incomprehensible tongue. 
 Taras looked well at each of them. Somethin<^ 
 
TARAS BULB A. 257 
 
 seemed to have moved him deeply ; on his 
 rough and stolid countenance, a consuming 
 flame of hope flashed up, of hope such as 
 sometimes visits a man in the last depths of 
 despair ; his aged heart began to beat violently, 
 as though he had been a youth. 
 
 " Listen, Jews ! " said he, and there was a 
 triumphant ring in his words. "You can do 
 any thing in the world, even extract things 
 from the bottom of the sea ; and it has long 
 been a proverb, that a Jew will steal from him- 
 self if he takes a fancy to steal. Set my 
 Ostap at liberty ! give him a chance to escape 
 from their diabolical hands. I promised this 
 man five thousand ducats ; I add another five 
 thousand : all that I have, rich cups, buried 
 gold, houses, all, even to my last garment, I 
 will sell ; and I will enter into a contract with 
 you for my whole life, to give you half of all 
 the booty I may win in war." 
 
 " Oh, impossible, dear pan, it is impossible ! " 
 said Yankel with a sigh. 
 
258 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 "No, impossible," said another Jew. 
 
 All three Jews looked at each other. 
 
 "We might try," said the third, glancing 
 timidly at the other two. "God may favor 
 us." 
 
 All three Jews discussed the matter in Ger- 
 man. Bulba, in spite of all his straining his 
 ears, could make nothing of it : he only caught 
 the word Mardokhai often repeated. 
 
 " Listen, pan ! " said Yankel. " We must 
 consult with a man such as there never was 
 before in the world . . . ugh, ugh ! as wise as 
 Solomon; and if he will do nothing, then no 
 one in all the world can. Sit here : this is the 
 key ; admit no one." The Jews went out into 
 the street. 
 
 Taras locked the door, and gazed from the 
 little window upon the dirty Jewish prospect. 
 The three Jews halted in the middle of the 
 street, and began to talk with a good deal of 
 warmth : a fourth soon joined them, and finally 
 a fifth. Again he heard repeated, Mardokhai, 
 
TARAS BULBA. 259 
 
 Mardokhai ! The Jews glanced incessantly at 
 one side of the street ; at length at the end 
 of it there emerged from behind a dirty house, 
 a foot in a Jewish shoe, and the skirts of a 
 half-caftan fluttered. "Ah! Mardokhai, Mardo- 
 khai ! " shouted the Jews with one voice. A 
 thin Jew somewhat shorter than Yankel, but 
 even more wrinkled, and with a huge upper lip, 
 approached the impatient group ; and all the 
 Jews made haste, even interrupting each other, 
 to talk to him. During the recital, Mardokhai 
 glanced several times towards the little win- 
 dow, and Taras divined that the conversation 
 concerned him. 
 
 Mardokhai waved his hands, listened, inter- 
 rupted, spit frequently to one side, and, pulling 
 up the skirts of his half-caftan, thrust his 
 hand into his pocket, and drew out some 
 jingling thing, showing his very dirty trousers 
 in the operation. Finally all the Jews set up 
 such a shout, that the Jew who was standing 
 guard was forced to make a signal for silence. 
 
26o TARAS BULB A. 
 
 and Taras began to fear for his safety ; but 
 when he remembered that Jews can only con- 
 sult in the street, and that the demon himself 
 cannot understand their language, he regained 
 his composure. 
 
 Two minutes later the Jews all entered the 
 room together. Mardokhai approached Taras, 
 tapped him on the shoulder, and said, "When 
 we wish to act, then it will be as it is neces- 
 sary." Taras looked at this Solomon such as 
 the world had never known, and conceived 
 some hope : in fact, his face might well inspire 
 confidence. His upper lip was simply an ob- 
 ject of horror; its thickness was doubtless in- 
 creased by adventitious circumstances. This 
 Solomon's beard consisted only of about fifteen 
 hairs, and they were on the left side. Solo- 
 mon's face bore so many scars of battle, 
 received for his daring, that he had doubtless 
 lost count of them long before, and had jrrown 
 accustomed to considering them as birthmarks. 
 
 Mardokhai departed, accompanied by his 
 
TARAS BULBA. 261 
 
 comrades, who were filled with admiration at his 
 wisdom. Bulba remained alone. He was in a 
 strange, unaccustomed situation ; he felt un- 
 easy, for the first time in his life. His soul was 
 in a state of fever. He was no longer unbend- 
 ing, immovable, strong as an oak, as he had 
 formerly been : he was timid ; he was weak. 
 He trembled at every sound, at every new Jew- 
 ish face which showed itself at the end of the 
 street. In this condition he passed the whole 
 day ; he neither ate nor drank, and his eye 
 never for a moment left the small window look- 
 ing on the street. Finally, late at night, Mar- 
 dokhai and Yankel made their appearance. 
 Taras's heart died within him. 
 
 " What news .' are you successful .' " he asked 
 with the impatience of a wild horse. 
 
 But before the Jews had recovered breath 
 to answer, Taras perceived that Mardokhai no 
 longer had his locks, which, although very 
 greasy, fell in curls from under his felt cap. It 
 was evident that he wished to say somethin'; 
 
262 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 but uttered only such nonsense that Taras 
 understood nothing of it. And Yankel himself 
 put his hand very often to his mouth as though 
 suffering from a cold. 
 
 "Oh, dearest pan!" said Yankel: "it is ut- 
 terly impossible now ! by heaven, impossible ! 
 Such vile people that one must spit on their 
 heads ! And Mardokhai here says the same. 
 Mardokhai has done what no man in the world 
 ever did, but God did not will that it should be 
 so. Three thousand of the army are standing 
 here, and to-morrow they are all to be exe- 
 cuted." 
 
 Taras looked the Jew straight in the eye, 
 but no longer with impatience or anger. 
 
 "But if the pan wishes to see him, then it 
 must be early to-morrow morning, before the 
 sun has risen. The sentinels have agreed, and 
 one jailer has promised. But may he have no 
 happiness in the world, woe is me! What 
 greedy people ! There are none such among 
 us : I gave fifty ducats to each one, and to the 
 jailer" — 
 
TARAS BULB A. 263 
 
 " Good. Take me to him ! " exclaimed Taras 
 with decision, and all his firmness returned to 
 his spirit. He agreed to Yankel's proposition 
 that he should disguise himself as a foreign 
 count, just arrived from Germany, for which 
 purpose the prudent Jew had already provided 
 a costume. It was already night. The master 
 of the house, the above mentioned red-haired 
 Jew with freckles, drew forth a thin mattress 
 covered with some sort of rug, and spread it 
 on the bench for Bulba. Yankel lay upon the 
 floor, on a similar mattress. The red-haired 
 Jew drank a small cup of brandy, threw off his 
 half-caftan, and betook himself, — looking, in 
 his shoes and stockings, a good deal like a 
 chicken, — with his wife, to something resem- 
 bling a cupboard. Two Jewesses lay down on 
 the floor beside the "cupboard, like a couple of 
 family dogs. But Taras did not sleep : he sat 
 motionless, drumming on the table with his 
 fingers. He kept his pipe in his mouth, and 
 puffed out smoke, which made the Jew sneeze 
 
264 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 in his sleep, and wrap his nose up in his 
 coverlet. Scarcely was the sky touched with 
 the iirst faint gleams of dawn, when he pushed 
 Yankel with his foot: "Rise, Jew, and give 
 me your count's dress ! " 
 
 In a moment he was dressed ; he blackened 
 his mustache and eyebrows, put on his head 
 a small dark cap, and not even the Cossacks 
 who knew him best would have recognized him. 
 Apparently he was not more than thirty-five. 
 A healthy color played in his cheeks, and even 
 his scars lent him an air of command. The 
 gold-embroidered dress became him extremely. 
 
 The streets were still asleep. Not a single 
 mercantile person yet showed himself in the 
 city, with his basket on his arm. Yankel and 
 Bulba went to a building which had the ap- 
 pearance of a crouching stork. It was low, 
 wide, huge, and black ; and on one side a long 
 slender tower like a stork's neck projected, 
 above which rose a bit of the roof. This build- 
 ing served for a variety of purposes : it was a 
 
TARAS BULBA. 265 
 
 barrack, a jail, and even the criminal court. 
 Our travellers entered the gate, and found them- 
 selves in a vast room, or covered court-yard. 
 About a thousand men were sleeping there. 
 Straight before them was a small door, in front 
 of which sat two sentries playing at some game 
 which consisted in one striking the palm of the 
 ■other's hand with two fingers. They paid little 
 heed to the new arrivals, and only turned their 
 heads when Yankel said, " It is we, pani ; do 
 you hear .' it is we." 
 
 "Go. in!" said one of them, opening the 
 door with one hand, and holding out the other 
 to his comrade to receive his blows. 
 
 They entered a low and dark corridor, which 
 led them to a room of the same description, 
 with small windows overhead. " Who goes 
 there .' " shouted several voices, and Taras 
 beheld quite a number of warriors in full 
 armor. "We have been ordered to admit 
 no one." 
 
 "It is we!" cried Yankel ; "we, by heavens, 
 
56 TARAS BULB A. 
 
 able pani ! " But no one would listen to him. 
 ortunately, at that moment a fat man came 
 ong, who, from all the signs, appeared to be 
 
 commanding officer, for he cursed louder 
 lan all the others. 
 
 " Pan, it is we ! you know us, and the pan 
 )unt will thank you." 
 
 " Admit them, a hundred fiends, and mother 
 ■ fiends ! And admit no one else. And no 
 :e is to draw his sword, and no one is to 
 jarrel on the floor." 
 
 The conclusion of this eloquent order, our 
 avellers did not hear. " It is we, it is I, it 
 
 your friends ! " Yankel said to every one 
 ley met. 
 
 " Well, is it possible now .? " he inquired of 
 le of the guards, when they at length reached 
 le end of the corridor. 
 
 " It is possible, but I don't know whether 
 )u are to be admitted to the prison itself, 
 ana is not here now : another man is stand- 
 g guard in his place," replied the guard. 
 
TARAS BULBA. 267 
 
 " Ai, ai ! " cried the Jew softly : "this is bad, 
 my dear pan ! " 
 
 " Go on ! " said Taras firmly. The Jew 
 obeyed. 
 
 At the door of the vaults, which ran to a 
 peak at the top, stood a heyduke, with mus- 
 tache in three layers : the upper layer ran 
 back, the second straight forward, and the third 
 downwards, which made him greatly resemble 
 a cat. 
 
 The Jew shrank into nothing, and approached 
 him almost sideways : " Your high excellency ! 
 High and illustrious pan ! " 
 
 " Are you speaking to me, Jew 1 " 
 
 "To you, illustrious pan." 
 
 "Hm, but I am merely a heyduke," said 
 the merry-eyed man with the three-story mus- 
 tache. 
 
 "And I thought it was the Voevod himself, 
 by heavens ! Ai, ai, ai ! " Thereupon the Jew 
 twisted his head about, and spread out his 
 fingers. "Ai, what a majestic form! Another 
 
268 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 finger's breadth, and he would be a colonel. 
 The pan must mount a horse as fleet as a fly, 
 and drill the troops ! " 
 
 The heyduke arranged the lower story of 
 his mustache, and his eyes beamed. 
 
 " What a warlike people ! " continued the 
 Jew. " Ah, woe is me, what a fine race ! 
 Cords and spangles, they shine like the sun ; 
 and the maidens, wherever they see warriors — 
 Ai, ai .' " Again the Jew wagged his head. 
 
 The heyduke twirled his upper mustache, 
 and uttered a sound somewhat resembling the 
 neigh of a horse. 
 
 " I pray the pan to do us a service ! " ex- 
 claimed the Jew : " this prince has come hither 
 from a foreign land, and wants to get a look 
 at the Cossacks. He never, in all his life, 
 has seen what sort of people the Cossacks 
 are. 
 
 The appearance of foreign counts and barons 
 was sufficiently common in Poland : they were 
 often drawn by curiosity to view this half- 
 
TARAS BULBA. 269 
 
 Asiatic corner of Europe. They regarded 
 Moscow and the Ukraine as situated in Asia. 
 So the heyduke bowed low, and thought fit to 
 add a few words of his own. ^ 
 
 "I do not know, your excellency," said he, 
 "why you should desire to see them. They f 
 are dogs, not people ; and their faith is such as 
 no one respects." 
 
 " You lie, you son of Satan ! " said Bulba. 
 " You are a dog yourself ! How dare you say 
 that our faith is not respected } It is your 
 heretical faith which is not respected." 
 
 "Oho!" said the heyduke. "But I know 
 who you are, my friend ; you are one of those 
 who are under my charge. So wait, I will 
 summon our men." 
 
 Taras perceived his indiscretion, but vexa- 
 tion and obstinacy prevented his devising a 
 means of remedying it. Fortunately Yankel 
 managed to interpose at this moment: — 
 
 " Most noble pan, how is it possible that the 
 count should be a Cossack .■" And if he were 
 
2/0 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 a Cossack, where could he have obtained such 
 a dress, and such a count-like mien ? " 
 
 "Explain it yourself." And the heyduke 
 opened his wide mouth to shout. 
 
 " Your royal highness, silence, silence, for 
 heaven's sake ! " cried Yankel. " Silence ! we 
 will pay you for it in a way you never dreamed 
 of : we will give you two golden ducats." 
 
 " Oho ! two ducats ! I can't do any thing 
 with two ducats. I give my barber two ducats 
 for only shaving the half of my beard. Give 
 a hundred ducats, Jew." Here the heyduke 
 twirled his upper mustache. " And if you 
 don't give a hundred ducats, I will shout at 
 once." 
 
 " And why so much } " said the Jew sadly, 
 turning pale, and undoing his leather purse ; 
 but it was lucky that he had no more in his 
 purse, and that the heyduke could not count 
 over a hundred. 
 
 " Pan, pan, let us depart quickly ! See the 
 evil people yonder ! " said Yankel, perceiving 
 
TARAS BULBA. 2/1 
 
 that the heyduke was turning the money over 
 in his hand, as though regretting that he had 
 not demanded more. 
 
 "What do you mean, you devil of a hey- 
 duke?" said Bulba. "You have taken our 
 money, and do not mean to let us see ? No, 
 you must let us see. Since you have taken 
 the money, you have no right to refuse." 
 
 " Go, go to the devil ! and if you won't, 
 I'll give the alarm this moment, and you — 
 Take yourselves off quick, I say ! " 
 
 " Pan, pan, let us go ! in God's name, let us 
 go ! Curse him ! May he dream such things 
 that he will have to spit," cried poor Yankel. 
 
 Bulba turned slowly, with drooping head, and 
 went back, followed by the reproaches of 
 Yankel, who sorrowed at the thought of the 
 wasted ducats. 
 
 " And why be angry .' Let the dog curse. 
 That race cannot help cursing. Oh, woe is 
 me, what luck God sends to some people ! A 
 hundred ducats merely for driving us off ! 
 
272 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 And our brother : they will tear off his ear- 
 locks, and they will make something out of 
 his face that you cannot look at, and no one 
 will give him a hundred gold pieces. O 
 heavens ! Merciful God ! " 
 
 But this failure made a much deeper impres- 
 sion on Bulba : it was expressed by a devour- 
 ing flame in his eyes. 
 
 " Let us go," he said suddenly, as if shaking 
 himself; "let us go to the square. I want to 
 see how fhey will torture him." 
 
 " Oh, pan ! why go .' That will do us no 
 good now." 
 
 " Let us go," said Bulba obstinately ; and 
 the Jew followed him, sighing like a nurse. 
 
 The square on which the execution was to 
 take place was not hard to find : the people 
 were thronging thither from all quarters. In 
 that savage age it constituted one of the most 
 noteworthy spectacles, not only for the common 
 people, but among the higher classes. A 
 number of the most pious old men, a throng of 
 
TARAS BULBA. 273 
 
 young girls, and the most cowardly women, 
 who dreamed the whole night afterwards of 
 bloody corpses, who shrieked as loudly in their 
 sleep as a drunken hussar, missed no oppor- 
 tunity, nevertheless, to gratify their curiosity. 
 " Ah, what tortures ! " cried many of them 
 hysterically, covering their eyes, and turning 
 away ; but they stood their ground for quite a 
 while, nevertheless. Many a one, with gaping 
 mouth and out-stretched hands, would have 
 liked to jump upon the people's heads, to 
 get a better view. Above the mass of small, 
 narrow, commonplace heads, towered the large 
 head of a butcher, admiring the whole process 
 with the air of a connoisseur, and exchanging 
 brief words with a gunsmith, whom he called 
 Gossip because he had got drunk in the same 
 alehouse' with him on a holiday. Some en- 
 tered into warm discussions, others even laid 
 wagers. But the majority were of the kind, 
 who, all the world over, look on at the world 
 and at every thing that goes on in it, and 
 
274 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 merely scratch their noses. In the foreground, 
 close to the bearded city-guards, stood a young 
 noble, or one who appeared such, in warlike 
 costume, who had certainly put on all he 
 owned, leaving only his torn shirt and his old 
 shoes in his quarters. Two chains, one on top 
 of the other, hung around his neck, with some 
 ducats. He stood with his mistress Usisya, 
 and glanced round incessantly to see that no 
 one soiled her silk gown. He explained every 
 thing to her so perfectly that no one could 
 have added a word. "All these people, my 
 dear Usisya," he said, " whom you see, have 
 come to see the criminals executed ; and that 
 man, my love, yonder, who holds the axe and 
 other instruments in his hands, is the exe- 
 cutioner, and he will despatch them : and 
 when he begins to break them on the wheel, 
 and torture them in other ways, the criminal 
 will be still alive ; but when he cuts off his 
 head, then, my love, he will die at once. Be- 
 fore that, he will cry and move; but just as 
 
TARAS BULBA. 275 
 
 soon as his head is cut off, it will be impossible 
 for him to cry, or to eat or drink, because, my 
 dear, he will no longer have any head." And 
 Usisya listened to it all with terror and curios- 
 ity. The roofs of the houses were filled with 
 people. From the windows in the roof peered 
 strange faces with beards and something 
 resembling caps. Upon the balconies, beneath 
 awnings, sat the aristocracy. The beautiful 
 hands of the smiling young ladies, brilliant as 
 white sugar, clasped the railing. The noble 
 pani, all quite stout, looked on with dignity. 
 A servant in rich garb, with backward-flowing 
 sleeves, carried round various drinks and 
 eatables. Sometimes a black-eyed rogue would 
 take her pie or fruit, and fling it among the 
 crowd with her own noble little hand. The 
 crowd of hungry knights held up their caps to 
 catch it ; and some tall noble, whose head rose 
 amid the throng, with his faded red jacket and 
 discolored gold braid, was the first to catch it 
 with the aid of his long arms, and kissed his 
 
276 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 booty, pressed it to his heart, and finally put 
 it in his mouth. The hawk, suspended beneath 
 the balcony in a golden cage, was also a 
 . spectator ; with beak inclined to one side, and 
 with one foot raised, he also watched the people 
 attentively. But suddenly a murmur ran 
 through the crowd, and a rumor spread, "They 
 are coming ! they are coming ! the Cossacks ! " 
 They walked with uncovered heads, with 
 their long locks floating. Their beards were 
 gone. They walked neither timidly nor surli- 
 ly, but with a certain pride. Their garments 
 of handsome cloth were worn out, and hung 
 abou^ them in tatters. They neither looked 
 at nor bowed to the people. At the head 
 of all walked Ostap. 
 
 What were old Taras's feelings when he 
 beheld his Ostap } What was in his heart 
 then .' He gazed at him from amid the 
 crowd, and lost not a single movement of 
 his. They approached the place of execu- 
 tion. Ostap stopped. He was to be the 
 
TARAS BULBA. 277 
 
 first to drink the bitter cup. He glanced 
 at his comrades, raised his hand, and spoke 
 loudly : " God grant that none of the heretics 
 who stand here may hear, the unclean dogs,, 
 how Christians suffer ! Let none of us utter 
 a single word." After this he approached the 
 scaffold. 
 
 " Well done, son ! well done ! " said Bulba 
 softly, and bent his gray head. 
 
 The executioner tore off his old rags ; they 
 fastened his hands and feet in stocks pre- 
 pared expressly, and — We will not pain the 
 reader with a picture of the hellish tortures, 
 which would make his hair rise upright on 
 his head. They were the outcome of that 
 coarse, wild age, when men still led the 
 bloody life of warlike expeditions, and hard- 
 ened their souls in them until no sense of 
 humanity was left. In- vain did some (they 
 were not many, but exceptions, in that age) 
 make a stand against such terrible measures. 
 In vain did the king and many knights, en- 
 
278 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 lightened in mind and soul, demonstrate that 
 such severity of punishment could but fan 
 the flame of vengeance in the Cossack nation. . 
 But the powder of the king, and the opinion 
 of the wise, was nothing before the disordered 
 and savage will of the magnates of the king- 
 dom, who by their thoughtlessness and uncon- 
 querable lack of all far-sighted policy, their 
 childish self-love and miserable pride, con- 
 verted the Landtag into the mockery of a 
 government. Ostap endured the pains and 
 torments like a giant. Not a cry, not a 
 groan, was heard ; even when they began to 
 break the bones in his hands and feet, when 
 the horrible cracking was audible to the 
 most distant spectators amid the death-like 
 stillness of the crowd, when even his tor- 
 mentors turned aside their eyes, nothing like 
 a groan escaped his lips, nor did his face 
 quiver. Taras stood in the crowd with bowed 
 head ; and, raising his eyes proudly at that 
 moment, he only said approvingly, "Well 
 done, son ! well done ! " 
 
TAR AS BULB A. 279 
 
 But when they took him to the last deadly 
 tortures, it seemed as though his strength 
 were failing. He turned his eyes about. 
 
 O God ! all strangers, all unknown faces ! 
 If only some of his relatives were present at 
 his death ! He would not have cared to hear 
 the sobs and anguish of his feeble mother, or 
 the unreasoning cries of a wife, tearing her 
 hair and beating her white breast : he would 
 have liked to see the strong man who could 
 refresh him with a wise word, and cheer his 
 end. And his strength failed him, and he 
 cried in the weakness of his soul, " Father ! 
 where are you .■' do you hear all .' " 
 
 '^I^ hearer' rang through the universal 
 silence, and all that- million of people shud- 
 dered in concert. A detachment of the 
 mounted soldiers hastened anxiously to scan 
 the throng of people. Yankel turned pale as 
 death, and when the horsemen had got a 
 short distance from him, he turned round in 
 terror to look for Taras : but Taras was no 
 longer beside him ; every trace of him was lost. 
 
28o TARAS BULBA. 
 
 XII. 
 
 They found traces of Taras. An army of 
 a hundred and twenty thousand Cossacks 
 appeared on the borders of the Ukraine. 
 This was not a small division or detachment 
 which had sallied forth for plunder or in 
 pursuit of the Tatars. No : the whole nation 
 had risen, for the measure of the people's 
 patience was over-full ; they had risen to 
 avenge the ridicule of their rights, the dis- 
 honorable humiliation of their natures, the 
 insults to the faith of their fathers and their 
 sacred customs, for injuries to their church, 
 the excesses of the foreign pani, the perse- 
 cution, the union, the disgraceful domination 
 of the Jews on Christian soil, and all that 
 had excited and increased the stern hatred 
 of the Cossacks for a long time. Iletman 
 
TARAS BULB A. 28 1 
 
 Ostranitza, young, but strong in spirit, led 
 the whole innumerable Cossack force. Be- 
 side him was seen his very aged and expe- 
 rienced friend and counsellor, Gunya. Eight 
 colonels led regiments of twelve thousand men 
 each. Two osauls-general and a bunch-Azhniy 
 (major) general followed the hetman. A cor- 
 net general carried the chief standard ; many 
 other banners and standards floated afar off ; 
 the comrades of the staff bore the golden 
 hetman's staff. There were also many other 
 officials of the regiment, of the transports, 
 and of the general army, and regimental 
 secretaries, and with them detachments of 
 foot-soldiers and cavalry. There were almost 
 as many free Cossacks and volunteers as there 
 were registered Cossacks. The Cossacks had 
 risen everywhere, in Tchigirin, from Pereyaslaf, 
 from Baturin, from Glukhof, from the regions 
 of the lower Dniepr, and from all its upper 
 shores and islands. An innumerable stream of 
 horses and herds stretched across the plain. 
 
282 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 And among all these Cossacks, among all these 
 regiments, one regiment was the choicest ; and 
 that regiment was led by Taras Bulba. All 
 contributed to give him a weight over the 
 others : his advanced years, his experience and 
 skill in directing an army, and his exceeding 
 hatred of the enemy. His unsparing fierce- 
 ness and harshness seemed exaggerated even 
 to the Cossacks. His gray head dreamed of 
 nothing but fire and the halter, and his utter- 
 ances in the council of war breathed only 
 annihilation. 
 
 It is useless to describe all the battles in 
 which the Cossacks distinguished themselves, 
 or the gradual course of the campaign. All 
 this is set down in the chronicles. It is well 
 known what an army raised on Russian soil, 
 for the faith, is like. There is no power 
 stronger than faith. It is threatening and 
 invincible as a rock, not made by human 
 hands, amid the stormy, ever-changing sea. 
 From the very bottom of the sea it raises 
 
TARAS BULBA. 283 
 
 its jagged walls to heaven, of one firm, im- 
 penetrable stone. It is visible from every- 
 where, and looks the waves straight in the 
 eye as they roll past. And woe to the ship 
 which is dashed against it! Its frame flies 
 into splinters, every thing in it is split and 
 crushed into dust, and the startled air re- 
 echoes the piteous cries of the drowning. 
 
 In the pages of the chronicles there is a 
 minute description of how the Polish garrisons 
 fled from the freed cities ; how the unscru- 
 pulous Jew pot-house keepers were hung ; 
 how weak was the royal hetman, Nikolai 
 Pototzky, with his numerous army, against 
 this invincible force ; how, broken, pursued, he 
 drowned the best part of his army in a small 
 stream ; how the fierce Cossack regiments be- 
 sieged him in the small town of Polon ; and 
 how, reduced to extremities, the Polish hetman 
 promised, under oath, full satisfaction for all 
 on the part of the king and the government 
 officials, and the return of all their rights and 
 
284 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 privileges. But the Cossacks were not men 
 to yield for that. They already knew well 
 what a Polish oath was. And Pototzky would 
 never more have pranced on his six-thousand- 
 ducat horse from the Kabardei, attracting the 
 glances of distinguished ladies, and the envy 
 of the nobility ; he would never more have 
 made a figure in the Landtag, giving expen- 
 sive feasts to the senators, — if the Russian 
 priests who were in the little town had not 
 saved him. When all the popes, in their bril- 
 liant gold vestments, went out to meet the 
 Cossacks, bearing the ikon and the cross, 
 with the bishop himself at their head, cross 
 in hand, and the episcopal mitre on his head, 
 the Cossacks all bowed their heads, and took 
 off their caps. No one lower than the king 
 himself would they have respected at such an 
 hour; but their daring fell before the Church 
 of Christ, and they respected their priest- 
 hood. The hetman and colonels agreed to 
 release Pototzky, after having exacted from 
 
TARAS BULBA. 285 
 
 bim a solemn oath to leave all the Christian 
 :hurches at liberty, to lay aside the ancient 
 snmity, and to do no injury to the Cossack 
 irmy. One colonel alone would not consent 
 to such a peace. This one was Taras. He 
 tore a handful of hair from his head, and 
 cried, — 
 
 " Eh, hetman and colonels ! Commit no 
 such womanish deed. Trust not the Lyakhs ; 
 perish the dogs ! " 
 
 When the regimental secretary presented the 
 agreement, and the hetman put his powerful 
 hand to it, Taras drew out a genuine Damascus 
 blade, a rich Turkish sabre of the finest steel, 
 broke it in twain like a reed, and threw the two 
 pieces far away on each side, saying, "Fare- 
 well ! As the two pieces of this sword will 
 never re-unite and form one sword again, so we, 
 comrades, shall nevermore behold each other 
 in this world. Remember my parting words." 
 (Here his voice grew stronger, rose higher, and 
 acquired a hitherto unknown power ; and his 
 
286 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 prophetic utterances troubled them all.) "Be- 
 fore the death hour you will remember me ! 
 Do you think that you have purchased peace 
 and quiet ? do you think that you will live in 
 grand style ? You will live in grand style, but 
 after another fashion. They will flay the skin 
 from your head, hetman, they will stuff it with 
 bran, and long will it be exhibited at fairs. 
 Neither will you retain your heads, panove. 
 You will fall into damp dungeons, walled about 
 with stone, if they do not boil you all alive in 
 kettles, like sheep. 
 
 "And you, men," he continued, turning to 
 his followers, "which of you wants to die his 
 own death .' not through sorrows and woman- 
 ish lounging, nor drunk under a hedge beside 
 the ale-house ; but an honorable Cossack death, 
 all in one bed, like bride and groom.' Or, per- 
 haps, you would like to return home, and turn 
 to infidels, and carry Polish priests on your 
 backs .? " 
 
 "After you, pan colonel, after you ! " shouted 
 
TARAS BULBA. 287 
 
 all his regiment, and many others joined 
 them. 
 
 " If it is after me, then follow me," said 
 Taras, pulling his cap farther over his brows ; 
 and looking menacingly at the others, he went 
 to his horse, and cried to his men, " Let no 
 one reproach us with any insulting speeches. 
 Now, hey there, men ! we'll call on the Catho- 
 lics." And then he struck his horse, and there 
 followed him a camp of a hundred telegas, and 
 with them many Cossack cavalry and foot- 
 soldiers ; and, turning, he threatened with a 
 glance all who remained behind, and wrath was 
 in his eye. The regiment departed in full view 
 of all the army, and Taras continued long to 
 turn and glower. 
 
 The hetman and colonels were disturbed ; all 
 became thoughtful, and remained long silent, 
 as though oppressed by some heavy foreboding. 
 Not in vain had Taras prophesied : all came to 
 pass as he had foretold. A little while after- 
 wards, after the treacherous attack at Kaneva, 
 
288 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 the hetman's head was mounted on a stake, 
 together with those of many of his officers. 
 
 And what of Taras ? Taras made raids all 
 over Poland with his regiment, burned eighteen 
 towns and nearly forty churches, and reached 
 Cracow. He killed many nobles, plundered 
 the richest and finest castles. The Cossacks 
 opened and emptied on the ground the century- 
 old mead and wine, carefully hoarded up in the 
 lordly cellars ; they cut and burned rich cloths, 
 garments, and equipments, which they found 
 in the wardrobes. " Spare nothing," enjoined 
 Taras. The Cossacks spared not the black- 
 browed gentlewomen, the brilliant, white-bos- 
 omed maidens : they could not save themselves 
 even at the altar ; Taras burned them with the 
 altar. Many snowy hands were raised to 
 heaven from amid the fiery flames, accompa- 
 nied by piteous shrieks, which would have 
 moved the damp earth itself to pity, and caused 
 the steppe-grass to bend with compassion at 
 their fate. But the cruel Cossacks paid no 
 
TARAS BULBA. 289 
 
 heed ; and, raising the children in the streets 
 upon their lances, they cast them also into the 
 flames. 
 
 " This is a mass for the soul of Ostap, you 
 malignant Lyakhs," was all that Taras said. 
 And such masses for Ostap he arranged in 
 every village, until the Polish Government per- 
 ceived that Taras's raids vi^ere more than ordi- 
 nary expeditions for plunder ; and that same 
 Pototzky was given five regiments, and ordered 
 to capture Taras without fail. 
 
 Six days did the Cossacks retreat along the 
 country roads, before the pursuit ; their horses 
 almost endured this excessive flight, and saved 
 the Cossacks. But this time Pototzky was 
 equal to the task that was intrusted to him ; 
 unweariedly he followed them, and reached 
 the bank of the Dniestr, where Taras had 
 taken possession of an abandoned and ruined 
 castle for the purpose of resting. 
 
 On the very brink of the Dniestr it stood, 
 with its shattered rampart? and the ruined 
 
290 
 
 TAR AS BULB A. 
 
 remains of its walls. The summit of the cliff 
 was strewn with ragged stones and broken 
 bricks, ready at any moment to detach them- 
 selves and fly to the bottom. The royal het- 
 man, Pototzky, surrounded it on the two sides 
 which faced on the plain. Four days did the 
 Cossacks fight and struggle, tearing down 
 bricks and stones for missiles. But their 
 stones and their strength were exhausted, and 
 Taras resolved to fight his way through the 
 ranks. And the Cossacks would have fought 
 their way out, and their swift steeds might 
 again have served them faithfully, had not 
 Taras halted suddenly in the very midst of 
 their flight, and shouted, " Halt ! my pipe has 
 dropped with its tobacco : I won't let those 
 malignant Lyakhs have my pipe!" And the 
 old ataman bent down, and reached in the 
 grass for his pipe full of tobacco, his insep- 
 arable companion on all his expeditions on 
 sea and land and at home. 
 
 But in the m^n time a band of Lyakhs 
 
TARAS BULBA. 291 
 
 suddenly rushed up, and seized him by his 
 powerful shoulders. He tried to struggle with 
 all his limbs ; but he did not scatter on the 
 earth, as he had been wont to do, the hey- 
 dukes who had seized him. "Oh, old age, old 
 age!" he said: and the stout old Cossack 
 wept. But his age was not to blame : nearly 
 thirty men were hanging on his arms and legs. 
 " The raven is caught ! " screamed the 
 Lyakhs. " Now it is only necessary to think 
 how we can show him the most honor, the 
 dog ! " and they decided, with the permission 
 of the hetman, to burn him alive in the sight 
 of all. There stood near by a naked tree, the 
 summit of which had been struck by lightning. 
 They bound him with iron chains to the 
 trunk of the tree, driving nails through his 
 hands, and raising him higher that the Cossack 
 might be everywhere visible ; and they began 
 at once to place fagots at the foot of the tree. 
 But Taras did not look at the wood, nor did 
 he think of the fire with which they were 
 
292 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 preparing to roast him : he gazed anxiously in 
 the direction whence the Cossacks were firing. 
 From his high post of observation he could see 
 every thing, as in the palm of his hand. 
 
 "Take possession, men, take possession 
 quickly," he shouted, "of the hillock behind 
 the wood : they cannot climb it ! " But the 
 wind did not carry his words to them. " They 
 are lost, lost for nothing ! " he said in despair, 
 and glanced down to where the Dniestr shone. 
 Joy gleamed in his eyes. He saw the sterns 
 of four boats peeping out from behind the 
 bushes ; gathered together all the strength of 
 his voice, and shouted in a ringing tone, "To 
 the shore, to the shore, men ! descend the path 
 to the left, under the cliff. There are boats 
 on the shore ; take all, that they may not 
 catch you." 
 
 This time the breeze blew from the other 
 side, and all his words were audible to the 
 Cossacks. But for this counsel he received a 
 blow on the head with the back of an axe, 
 
TARAS BULB A. 293 
 
 which made every thing dance before his 
 eyes. 
 
 The Cossacks descended the cliff path at 
 full speed, but the pursuers were at their 
 heels. They looked : the path wound and 
 twisted, and made many detours to one side. 
 " Ah, comrades, we are trapped ! " said they 
 all, halted for an instant, raised their whips, 
 whistled, and their Tatar horses rose from the 
 ground, parted the air like serpents, flew over 
 the precipice, and plunged straight into the 
 Dniestr. Two only did not fall into the 
 river, but thundered from the height upon 
 the stones, and perished there with their 
 horses without uttering a cry. But the Cos- 
 sacks had already swam from their horses, 
 and unfastened the boats. The Lyakhs halted 
 on the brink of the precipice, astounded at 
 this wonderful feat of the Cossacks, and think- 
 ing, " Shall we spring down to them, or not t " 
 
 One young colonel, a lively, hot-blooded 
 fellow, own brother to the beautiful Pole who 
 
294 TARAS BULBA. 
 
 had seduced poor Andrfi, did not reflect long, 
 but flung himself and his horse after the Cos- 
 sacks with all his might. He made three 
 turns in the air with his steed, and fell heavily 
 on the ragged cliffs. The sharp stones tore 
 him in pieces as he fell into the abyss ; and 
 his brains, mingled with blood, bespattered 
 the shrubs growing on the uneven walls of 
 the precipice. 
 
 When Taras Bulba recovered from the blow, 
 and glanced at the Dniestr, the Cossacks were 
 already in the skiffs and rowing away ; balls 
 showered upon them from above, but did not 
 reach them. And the old atiman's eyes 
 sparkled with joy. 
 
 " Farewell, comrades ! " he shouted to them 
 from above ; " remember me, and come hither 
 again next spring, and make merry ! What ! 
 cursed Lyakhs, ye have caught me.? Think 
 ye there is any thing in the world that a Cos- 
 sack fears t Wait ; the time will come when 
 ye shall learn what the orthodox Russian faith 
 
TARAS BULBA. 295 
 
 is ! Already the people scent it far and near. 
 A czar shall arise from Russian soil, and there 
 shall not be a power in the world which shall 
 not submit to him ! " But the fire had already 
 risen over the fagots ; it lapped his feet, 
 and the flame spread to the tree. . . . But 
 can any fire, flames, or power be found on 
 earth, which are capable of overpowering 
 Russian strength ? 
 
 Not small is the river Dniestr, and in it are 
 many deep pools, dense reed-beds, shallows 
 and little bays ; its watery mirror gleams, filled 
 with the melodious plaint of the swan, and the 
 proud wild goose glides swiftly over it ; and 
 many snipe, red-throated ruffs, and various 
 other sorts of birds, are to be found among the 
 reeds and along the banks. The Cossacks 
 rowed swiftly on in the narrow double-ruddered 
 boats, — rowed stoutly, carefully shunning the 
 reefs, cleaving the ranks of the birds, which 
 took wing, — and talked of their ataman.