With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz (big ebook reader .txt) 📕

friend?” When he cried in this way a wild raving carried him away, and then he drank as if he were not a creature of God, and wanted to march against the prince, attack all his forces⁠—perish and disappear for the ages.

He wished it, but the Cossacks did not. “Though you kill us, father, we will not go!” was their gloomy answer to his outbursts; and vainly in accesses of fury he cut at them with his sabre and singed their faces with his pistol⁠—they would not, they did not go.

You would have said that the ground was slipping away from the ataman’s feet, for this was not the end of his misfortune. Fearing on account of probable pursuit to go straight to the south, and thinking that perhaps Krívonos had already given up the siege, he rushed straight to the east, and came upon the party of Pan Podbipienta. Pan Longin, wakeful as a stork, did not permit an attack, but falling first on Bogun, defeated him the more easily because his Cossacks were unwilling to fight; when he had defeated him he turned him over to Skshetuski, who beat him worst of all; so that Bogun, after long wanderings in the steppes with a few horses only, without glory, without Cossacks, without booty, without informants, made his way back at last to Krívonos.

But the wild Krívonos, usually so terrible to subordinates whom fortune did not favor, was not angry this time. He knew from his own experience what an affair with Yeremi meant; therefore he even petted Bogun, comforted him, quieted him, pacified him, and when he fell into a violent fever, gave orders to nurse and cure him with all care.

The four officers of the prince, having filled the country with terror and dismay, returned safely to Yarmolintsi, where they remained several days to give rest to the men and horses. There, when they came into the same quarters, they gave to Skshetuski, each in turn, an account of what had happened to them and what they had accomplished; then they sat down by the bottle to relieve their hearts in friendly converse and satisfy their mutual curiosity.

But Zagloba gave little chance to any man to speak. He had no desire to listen, but wished only that others should listen to him⁠—in truth it came out that he had the most to tell.

“Gentlemen,” said he, “I fell into captivity, it is true; but fortune turns around. Bogun has been all his life victorious, but we beat him this time. That is how it is usually in war. Today you tan people, tomorrow they tan you. But God punished Bogun because he fell upon us, sleeping sweetly the sleep of the just, and roused us in such a dishonorable way. Ho, ho! he thought to terrify me with his filthy tongue; but I tell you here, gentlemen, that I cornered him so that he lost his boldness, became confused, and said what he didn’t want to say. What’s the use of talking long? If I hadn’t got into captivity. Pan Michael and I would not have defeated him. I say both of us, because in this affair magna pars fui, and I shall not cease to insist on it to my death. So God give me health! Hear my reasons further: If I and Volodyovski had not beaten him, then Podbipienta would not have beaten him, and further Skshetuski would not have beaten him; and finally if we hadn’t beaten him he would have beaten us, and who was the cause that this didn’t take place?”

“Ah! it is with you as with a fox,” said Pan Longin; “you wave your tail here, slink away there, and always get out.”

“It’s a foolish hound that runs after his own tail, for he will not catch it and will not smell anything honorable, and besides will lose his wind. How many men have you lost?”

“Twelve in all, and some wounded; they didn’t strike us very hard.”

“And you, Pan Michael?”

“About thirty, for I fell upon them unawares.”

“And you, Lieutenant?”

“As many as Pan Longin.”

“And I lost two. See yourselves who is the best leader! That’s the question. Why did we come here? On the service of the prince, to get news of Krívonos. Well, I tell you, gentlemen, that I first got news of him, and from the best source, because I got it from Bogun; and I know that he is at Kamenyets, but he thinks of raising the siege, for he is afraid. I know this openly; but I know something else which will put joy into your heart, and of which I have not spoken because I wanted that we should counsel about it together. I was sick till now, for weariness overpowered me, and my bowels rose up against that villanous binding on a stick. I thought my blood would boil over.”

“Tell us, for God’s sake!” cried Volodyovski, “have you heard anything of our unfortunate lady?”

“Yes, God bless her,” said Zagloba.

Skshetuski rose to his full height and then sat down. There followed such a silence that the buzzing of the mosquitoes was heard on the windows till Zagloba began again⁠—

“She lives, I know that certainly; she is in Bogun’s hands. Gentlemen, it is a terrible thing; however, God has not permitted harm or disgrace to meet her. Bogun himself told me this⁠—he who would rather boast of something else.”

“How can that be? how can that be?” asked Skshetuski, feverishly.

“If I lie, may a thunderbolt strike me!” said Zagloba, with importance, “for this is a sacred thing. Listen to what Bogun said when he wished to jeer at me before I settled him at last. ‘Did you think,’ said he, ‘that you brought her to Bar for a peasant; that I was a peasant to constrain her by force; that I was not to be married in Kiev in the church, and monks sing for me, and three hundred candles burn for me⁠—me, an ataman, a hetman!’ And