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

The colonels burst into laughter, from which the walls of the room trembled. Such an “appetizer” did the hetman give the commissioners before their dinner; and the commissioners gulped it without a word, in order, as the chamberlain of Lvoff wrote, “not to anger the beast.” But perspiration in heavy drops covered the pale forehead of Kisel.

The entertainment commenced. The colonels took pieces of meat from the platters with their hands, the hetman himself placed pieces on the plates of Kisel and Bjozovski; and the first of the dinner passed in silence, for everyone was satisfying his hunger. In the silence could be heard only the crunching of bones under the teeth of the company or the gurgling of the drinkers. At times someone threw out a word which remained without echo till Hmelnitski, who had first satisfied himself somewhat, and emptied a number of glasses of millet vudka, turned suddenly to the voevoda, and asked⁠—

“Who was the leader of your company?”

Disquiet was reflected on Kisel’s face. “Skshetuski, an honorable knight.”

“I know him,” said Hmelnitski; “and why did he not wish to be present when you delivered the gifts to me?”

“He was not associated with us for assistance, but for safety, and he had an order to that effect.”

“And who gave him that order?”

“I,” answered the voevoda; “for I did not think that it was proper, at the delivery of the gifts, that dragoons should be standing over the necks of you and me.”

“I had another opinion, for I know that soldier is stubborn.”

Here Yashevski mixed in the conversation. “We don’t care for the dragoons,” said he. “We used to think Poles powerful through them; but we discovered at Pilavtsi that they are not the Poles of other days, who beat the Turks, Tartars, and Germans.”

“Not Zamoiskis, Jolkyevskis, Khodkyevichi, Hmelyetskis, and Konyetspolskis,” interrupted Hmelnitski, “but Chorzovskis and Zaiontchkovskis⁠—big fellows, wrapped in iron; and they were dying of terror as soon as they saw us, and ran off, though there were only three thousand Tartars in the place.”

The commissioners were silent, but the eating and drinking seemed to them more and more bitter each moment.

“I beg you humbly to drink and eat,” said Hmelnitski, “or I shall think that our simple Cossack fare cannot pass your lordly throats.”

“Oh, if they are too narrow we can slit them open a little,” said Daidyalo.

The Cossacks, feeling encouraged, burst into laughter; but Hmelnitski looked threateningly at them, and they grew silent again.

Kisel, who had been ill several days, was pale as a sheet. Bjozovski was so red that it seemed as though the blood would burst through his face. At last he could restrain himself no longer, and shouted⁠—

“Have we come here to dine or to be insulted?”

To this Hmelnitski answered: “You have come for a treaty; but meanwhile the Lithuanian forces are burning and slaughtering. I hear they have destroyed Mozir and Turoff; should this prove true, I shall order four hundred captives to be beheaded in your presence.”

Bjozovski restrained his blood, boiling the moment before. It was true! The lives of the captives depended on the humor of the hetman⁠—on one twinkle of his eye; therefore it was necessary to endure everything, and besides to calm his outbursts, to bring him “ad mitiorem et saniorem mentem.”

In this spirit the Carmelite Lentovski, by nature mild and timid, said in a quiet voice⁠—

“May the God of mercy grant that the news from Lithuania about Mozir and Turoff may be changed!”

But scarcely had he finished when Fedor Veshnyak, the colonel of Cherkasi, bent toward him and struck with his baton, wishing to hit the Carmelite on the neck. Fortunately he did not reach him, since there were four men between them; but immediately he cried out⁠—

“Wordy priest! it is not your affair to give the lie to me. But come outdoors, and I will show you how to respect Zaporojian colonels!”

Others, however, hurried to quiet him; but not succeeding, they put him out of the room.

“When, mighty hetman, do you wish that the commissioners should meet?” asked Kisel, wishing to give another turn to the conversation.

Unfortunately Hmelnitski was no longer sober, therefore he gave a quick and biting answer⁠—

“Tomorrow will be business and discussion, for now I am in drink. Why do you talk now of commissions; you do not give me time to eat and drink. I have enough of this already! Now there must be war!” And he thumped the table till the dishes and cups jumped. “In those four weeks I’ll turn you all feet upward and trample you, and sell the remnant to the Turkish Tsar. The king will be king, so as to execute nobles, dukes, princes. If a prince offends, cut off his head; if a Cossack offends, cut off his head! You threaten me with the Swedes, but they cannot stand before me. Tugai Bey is near me, my brother, my soul; the only falcon in the world, he is ready at once to do everything that I wish.”

Here Hmelnitski, with the rapidity peculiar to drunken men, passed from anger to tenderness, till his voice trembled from emotion.

“You wish me to raise my sabre against the Turks and Tartars, but in vain. I’ll go against you with my good friends. I have sent my regiments around so as to provender the horses and to be ready for the road, without wagons, without cannon. I shall find all those among the Poles. I will order any Cossack to be beheaded who takes a wagon, and I will take no carriage myself, nothing but packs and bags; in this fashion I will go to the Vistula and say: ‘Poles, sit still and be quiet!’ And if you say anything beyond the Vistula, then I’ll find you there. We have had enough of your lordship and your dragoons, you cursed reptiles living by injustice itself!”

Here he sprang from his