Taras Bulba; a Tale of the Cossacks by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol ~ Full Audiobook
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Taras Bulba by Gogol Translated by Isabelle Hapgood Chapter 1 Hey there, son! Turn round! How ridiculous you look! What's that priest cassock you're wearing? Do all the fellows in the academy go round in that style? With such words did old Bulba greet his two sons, who had been studying in the Kiev Preparatory School and had just returned home to their father. His boys had only just dismounted from their horses,

They were a pair of stalwart lads who still wore a sheepishly distrustful look, like students just out of school. Their strong, healthy faces were covered with the first down, which as yet had never been touched by the razor. They were very much upset by such a reception on the part of their father, and stood stock still with their eyes fixed upon the earth. "'Stand still! 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'll see whether he won't get wound up in the skirts and tumble on the ground.' "'Don't laugh, Dad,' said the elder of them at last. "'See how touchy they are. Why shouldn't I laugh?'

"'because you shan't, although you are my dad. "'But if you do laugh, by God, I'll thrash you. "'A nice sort of son you are. "'What? Your dad?' said Taris Bulber, "'retreating several paces in amazement.'

"'Yes, even my father. I don't stop to consider who deals the insult, and I spare no one. So, you want to fight me? With your fists? Anyway, well, come on with your fists,' said Taras Bulba, stripping up to his sleeves. "'I'll see what sort of a fellow you are at a fight.'

and father and son in place of a friendly greeting after long separation began to plant heavy blows on each other's ribs back and chest now retreating and taking each other's measure with sidelong glances now attacking afresh

"'Look, good people, the old man has gone mad. He has lost his wits completely,' screamed their thin-paled old mother, who was standing on the threshold and had not yet managed to embrace her darling boys. "'The children have come home. We have not seen them for over a year, and now the Lord only knows what he has taken into his head. He's pummeling them!'

"'Yes! He's a glorious fighter!' said Bulba, pausing. "'By God, that was a good one!' he continued, somewhat as though he were excusing himself. "'Yes! Although he has never tried his hand at it before, he'll make a good Cossack. Now, welcome, my lad. Let's greet each other.' And father and son began to exchange kisses. "'Good little son! See that you thrash everyone else as you have thrashed me!'

"'Don't you knuckle under to anyone!' "'All the same, your outfit is ridiculous. What's this rope hanging here? And you, you clumsy lout, why are you standing there with your arms dangling?' said he, turning to the younger lad. "'How about you, you son of a dog? Why don't you also give me a licking?' "'There's another of his crazy ideas,' said the mother, who had managed in the meantime to embrace the younger boy.'

"'Whoever heard of such a thing as a man's own children beating him? "'That will do for the present. "'The child is young. He's had a long journey. He is tired.' "'The child was over twenty and about seven feet tall. "'He ought to rest and eat something, and he sets him to fighting.' "'Oh, I see that you've been raised a pet,' said Bulba. "'Don't listen to your mother, my son. "'She's a woman. She doesn't know anything.'

What do you want with petting? Your petting is a clear field and a good horse. That's what it is. And do you see this sword? That's your mother. All the rest of the things with which they stuff your head is rubbish. The academy, books, primers, philosophy, and all that, the devil only knows what. I spit upon it all. And here Bulba added a word which is not used in print.

"'But here, now, this is the best of all. I'll take you to Zaporozhye next week. That's where you'll find the sort of science that's the real thing. That's the school for you. Only there will you acquire sense.' "'And are they to stay at home only one week?' said the thin old mother piteously, 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.'

i shall not have a chance to feast my eyes upon them to the full stop that stop your howling old woman a cossack is not born to run around with women you'd like to hide them both under your petticoat and sit upon them as if they were hens eggs go get along with you and let us have everything there is on the table in a trice

We don't want any pastry puffs, honey cakes, poppy cakes or any other messes. Bring us a whole sheep, give us a goat, mead forty years old and as much corn brandy as possible. Not with raisins and all sorts of frills, but plain sparkling brandy which foams and hisses like mad.

Bulba led his sons into the best room of the cottage, and two handsome women servants in coin necklaces, who were putting the rooms in order, ran out quickly. Evidently they were frightened by the arrival of the young men, who did not care to be familiar with anyone, or else they merely wanted to maintain their feminine custom of screaming and rushing headlong at the sight of a man, and then screening their lively shame for a long time with their sleeves.

The room was furnished in accordance with the fashion of that period, concerning which vivid hints still linger in the songs and epic lyrics that are no longer sung in the Ukraine by bearded old blind men to the gentle thrumming of the bandura, in the presence of the people thronging about them, in the taste of that warlike and troublous time when skirmishes and battles began to occur in the Ukraine over the Union.

Everything was neat, plastered with coloured clay. On the walls hung sabres, cossack whips, nets for birds, fishing nets and guns, cleverly carved powder horns, gilded bits for horses, and hobble chains with silver discs. The windows were small with round dull panes, such as to be found nowadays only in ancient churches, through which it was impossible to see without raising the one moveable pane.

Around the windows and doors ran incised bands painted red. On shelves in the corners stood jugs, bottles, and flasks of green and blue glass, carved silver cups, and gilded goblets of various makes. Venetian, Turkish, Circassian, which had arrived in Bulba's cottage by various roads at third and fourth hand, something which was quite of common occurrence in those doughty days. There were birch benches all round the walls.

a huge table under the holy pictures in the corner of honour, and a capacious oven all covered with party-coloured tiles, with projections, recesses, and an annex at the rear. All this was extremely familiar to our two young men, who had come home every year during the holidays, and had come because they had no horses as yet, and because it was not customary to permit the students to ride on horseback. All they had was long scalp-locks, which every Cossack who bore arms was entitled to pull.

it was only at the end of their course that bulba sent them from his stud a couple of young stallions bulba to celebrate the arrival of his sons ordered all the sotniks and all the officers of the troop who were of any consequence to be summoned and when two of them arrived with the yasal demetro tovkatch his old comrade he immediately presented his boys saying just look at them aren't they gallant lads i shall send them to the siets shortly

The guests congratulated Bulba and both the young men, and told them they were engaged in good business, and that there was no better knowledge for a young man than a knowledge of the Zaporozhian siege. Now, my friends, seat yourselves, each where it pleases him best, at table. Now, my lads, first of all, let's have a drink of brandy, thus spake Bulba. God's blessing be on us. Welcome, dear sons.

You, Ostap, and you, Andri. God grant that you may always be successful in war, that you may beat the Musalmans, and beat the Turks, and beat the Tatars. When the Poles undertake any expedition against our faith, then you may give the Poles a drubbing also. Now, hold out your glasses. Well, and is the brandy good? What's brandy in Latin? Somehow, my lad, the Latins were stupid.

They didn't know there was such a thing in the world as corn brandy. What the deuce was the name of the man who used to write Latin rhymes? I'm not very strong on reading and writing, so I don't quite remember. Was it Horace? Did anyone ever see such a dad, thought the elder son Ostap. The old dog knows everything, but he is always shamming. I don't believe the Archimandrite allowed you so much as a smell of brandy, Taris went on.

"'Come, confess, my lads. They beat you with fresh birch switches on your backs and everything else that a Cossack owns. And perhaps when you grew conceited with what you knew, they flogged you with whips. And not on Saturday only, I fancy, but of a Wednesday and a Thursday as well.' "'There's no good in recalling the past, Dad,' replied Ostap. "'That's all over and done with.' "'Just let him try it now,' said Andrii.

Just let anybody meddle with me now. Just let any Tatar gang come along now and they'll learn what a Cossack sword is like. Good, my son. By God, good. And when it comes to that, I'll go with you. By God, I will. Why the devil should I tarry here? To become a sower of buckwheat and a housekeeper? To tend sheep and swine and fondle my wife? Devil take them. I'm a Cossack.

I'll have none of them. I'll go with you to the potager to carouse, by God I will." And Bulba grew gradually warmer and warmer and at last rose from the table and in a thorough rage, striking a majestic pose, he stamped his foot. "We'll go tomorrow. Why, Tarry, what enemy can we besiege here? What's this cottage to us? What do we want of all this? What are pots to us?

so saying he began to smash the pots and flasks and hurl them about the poor old woman well used to such behaviour on the part of her husband looked sadly on from her seat on the wall bench she did not dare to say anything but when she heard the decision which was so terrible for her she could not refrain from tears

she looked at her children from whom so speedy a separation was threatened and it's impossible to describe the full force of the speechless grief that seemed to quiver in her eyes and on her lips which were convulsively pressed together bulba was terribly headstrong

his was one of those characters which could arise only in that troublous sixteenth century in that half-nomadic corner of europe when the whole of southern primeval russia deserted by its princes was laid waste burned to ashes by savage hordes of mongolian bandits

When a man deprived of house and home became recklessly brave here, when amid conflagrations in sight of threatening neighbours and eternal danger, he settled down and grew used to looking them squarely in the face, having unlearned the knowledge that there was such a thing as fear in the world. When the ancient peaceable Slav spirit was seized with a warlike flame and there was instituted Cossackdom.

a free wild manifestation of Russian nature, and when all the river country, the lands downstream, the slopes of the river banks and convenient sites were populated by Cossacks whose number no man knew, and whose bold comrades had a right to reply to the Sultan's inquiry as to how many there were of them.

Who knows? We are scattered all over the steppe. Wherever there is a hillock, there also is a Cossack. It was in fact a most remarkable manifestation of Russian strength. Dire necessity wrested it from the bosom of the people.

In place of the original principalities were small towns filled with huntsmen and dogkeepers. In place of the warring and bartering petty princes in cities, there arose great colonies, hamlets and districts bound together by a common danger, and by hatred toward the heathen robbers. Everyone already knows from history how their incessant fighting and roving life saved Europe from the savage invasions which threatened to overwhelm her.

The Polish kings finding themselves in place of the Apanid princes, sovereigns, though distant and feeble, over those vast territories, understood nevertheless the significance of the Cossacks and the advantages of this warlike, lawless life. They encouraged them and flattered this propensity. Under their distant rule, the Hetmans, chosen from among the Cossacks themselves, transformed the districts and hamlets into regiments and uniformed provinces.

It was not an army in the regulation sense. No one would have noticed its existence. But in case of a war or a general uprising, it required a week and no more for every man to make his appearance on horseback, fully armed, receiving only one ducat in payment from the king. And in two weeks, such an army was assembled as no recruiting officers would ever have been able to collect.

When the campaign was ended, the warrior went back to the fields and meadows and the lower reaches of the Dnieper, fished, traded, brewed his beer and was a free Cossack once more. His foreign contemporaries rightly marvelled at his wonderful qualities. There was no trade which the Cossack did not know.

He could distill brandy, build a peasant cart, make powder, do blacksmithing and locksmithing, and in addition amuse himself madly, drinking and carousing as only a Russian can. All this he was equal to. Besides the registered Cossacks, who considered themselves bound to present themselves 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 that the captains should traverse all the marketplaces and squares of the villages and hamlets and shout at the top of their voices as they stood erect in their carts. Hey, ye beer sellers and beer brewers, have done with brewing and with lolling on your ovens and feeding the flies with your fat bodies. Go, win glory and knightly honour.

And these words acted like sparks falling on dry wood. The husbandman broke his plough. The beer sellers threw away their casks.

The brewers destroyed their barrels, the mechanic and the merchant sent trade and shop to the devil, smashed the pots in their houses, and every man jack of them mounted his horse. In short, the Russian character here acquired a broad, mighty scope, a powerful exterior. Taras was one of the band of old, original colonels. He was born for warlike emotions and was noted for the rough uprightness of his character.

At that period the influence of Poland was beginning to make itself felt among the Russian nobility. Many had already adopted Polish customs, had introduced luxury, splendid staffs of servants, hawks, huntsmen, dinners and palaces. This was not to the taste of Taras. He liked the simple life of the Cossacks and quarreled with those of his comrades who inclined to the Warsaw party, calling them the serfs of the Polish nobles.

Ever turbulent, he regarded himself as a legal defender of the faith. He would enter arbitrarily into villages where the sole complaint was with regard to the oppression of the revenue farmers and the imposition of fresh taxes on each hearth. He and his Cossacks would execute justice on them. And he laid down the rule for himself that in three cases it was always proper to have recourse to the sword.

namely, when warrant officers did not show due respect for their superior officers and stood with their caps on in the latter's presence, or when anyone made light of the Orthodox faith and did not observe the customs of his ancestors, and finally when the enemy were Muslims or Turks, against whom he considered it permissible in every case to unsheathe the sword for the glory of Christianity.

Now he rejoiced in anticipation at the thought of how he would present himself with his two sons in the Siege and say, "See what fine fellows I have brought you!" How he would introduce them to all his old comrades steeled in war. How he would watch their first exploits in the art of war and in carousing, which was regarded as one of the chief qualities of a knight.

At first he had intended to send them forth alone, but at the sight of their freshness, stature and robust personal beauty, his martial spirit flamed up within him, 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 bustle about and give orders.

He selected horses and trappings for his young sons, inspected the stables and storehouses, and chose servants to accompany them on the morrow. He delegated his power to Captain Tovkatch, and gave, along with it, a strict command to appear with his entire troop the very instant he should receive a message from him at the Sietch. Although he was half seas over, and the effects of his drinking bouts still lingered in his brain, he forgot nothing.

he even gave orders that the horses should be watered their cribs filled and that they should be fed with the largest and best wheat and then he came into the house fatigued with all his labours well boys we must sleep now but to-morrow we shall do as god appoints don't prepare a bed for us we need no bed we'll sleep outdoors night had only just classed the heavens in her embrace but taras always went to bed early

He threw himself down on a rug and covered himself with a sheepskin coat, 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 grunted as they lay in different corners. The watchman went to sleep the first of all, because he had drunk more than anyone else in honour of his young master's homecoming. The poor mother alone slept not.

She bent over the pillow of her darling boys as they lay side by side. With a comb she smoothed their carelessly tangled young curls and moistened them with her tears. She gazed at them with her whole being, with her every sense. She merged herself wholly in that gaze, and still she could not gaze enough. She had nourished them at her own breast. She had reared them and petted them. 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 tears stood in the furrows which disfigured her once beautiful face in truth she was to be pitied as was every woman in that valorous epoch she had lived only for a moment in love only during the first fever of passion

only during the first flush of youth, and then her grim betrayer had deserted her for the sword, for his comrades and his carousers. She had seen her husband for two or three days in the course of a year, and then for a period of several years there had been no news of him, and when she had seen him, when they had lived together, what sort of a life had been hers?'

she had endured insults even beatings she had seen caresses bestowed merely out of pity she had been a strange object amid that mob of heartless cavaliers upon which the dissolute life of the zaporizh had cast a grim colouring of its own her pleasureless youth had flitted swiftly by and her beautiful rosy cheeks in her bosom had withered away unkissed and become covered with premature wrinkles

All her love, all her feeling, everything that is tender and passionate in a woman had, in her case, been converted into the one sentiment of maternal love. With ardour, with passion, with tears, she hovered over her boys like a gull of the steppe.

Her sons, her darling sons, were being taken from her, taken from her in such a way that she might never see them again. Who knows? Perchance a tatar would cut off their heads in the very first skirmish, and she would never know where their deserted bodies lay, torn by the beasts of prey. And yet for each drop of their blood she would gladly give her whole self. Sobbing, she gazed into their eyes.

even when all-powerful sleep began to close them and said to herself perhaps when bulba wakes he will put off their departure for a brief day or two perhaps he took it into his head to go so soon because he had been drinking hard the moon from the height of heaven had long since illuminated the whole courtyard filled with sleepers the dense clump of willows and the tall stepped grass which hid the wattled hedge

She still sat by the heads of her beloved sons, never removing her eyes from them for a moment, or even thinking of sleep. Already the horses, divining the approach of dawn, had 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 very bases. She sat there, unwearied until daylight, and wished in her heart that the night might last as long as possible.

From the step came the ringing neigh of a stallion. Red tongues darted brightly athwart the sky. Bulba suddenly awoke and sprang to his feet. He remembered perfectly well all that he had ordered the night before. Now, my lads, time's up. You've slept enough. Water the horses. And where's the old woman? This is what he generally called his wife. Hurry up, old woman. Get us something to eat. We've a long trip ahead of us.

The poor old woman, deprived of her last hope, slipped sadly into the cottage. While with tears she prepared what was needed for breakfast, Bulba issued his orders, went to the stable, and himself selected his best trappings for his boys. The collegians were suddenly transformed. Red Morocco boots with silver heels replaced their dirty old footgear. Trousers, wide as the Black Sea, with thousands of folds and plates, were supported by golden girdles.

From the girdles hung long slender thongs with tassels and other jingling things for pipes. The Cossack coat of brilliant scarlet cloth was confined by a flowered belt. Embossed Turkish pistols were thrust into the belt. Their swords clanged at their heels. Their faces, already slightly sunburned, seemed to have grown handsomer and whiter. Their little black moustaches now set off more distinctly, both their pallor and their strong healthy young complexions.

Very handsome were they beneath their black sheepskin caps with golden crowns. When their poor mother saw them, she could not utter a word, and tears stood in her eyes. "'Already there now, sons! No time to waste!' said Bulba at last. "'Now we must all sit down together in accordance with our Christian custom before a journey.' All seated themselves, not accepting the servants, who had been standing respectfully at the door. "'Now, mother, bless your children,' said Bulba."

Pray God that they may always fight bravely, always uphold knightly honour, always defend the faith of Christ, and if not, that they may perish, and their breath be no longer in the world. Come to your mother, my boys. A mother's prayer saves on land and sea. The mother, weak as all mothers are, embraced them, drew out two small holy images, and sobbing, hung one round each neck. May God's mother keep you.

my dear little sons forget not your mother send some little word of yourselves she could say no more now boys let's go said bulba by the porch stood the horses ready saddled bulba sprang upon his devil which jumped madly rearward feeling upon his back a load of twenty puds for taras was extremely stout and heavy when the mother saw that her sons were also mounted on the horses

she flung herself toward the younger whose features expressed somewhat more gentleness than those of his brother she grasped his stirrup clung to his saddle and with despair in her eyes would not loose him from her hands two husky cossacks seized her carefully and carried her into the cottage

But when they had already ridden through the gate, with all the agility of a wild goat, utterly out of keeping with her years, she rushed through the gate with irresistible strength, stopped a horse and embraced one of her sons with a sort of senseless vehemence. Then they led her away once more. The young Cossacks rode on sadly, repressing their tears out of fear of their father, who on his side was somewhat agitated, although he strove not to show it.

The day was grey. The greenery shone brightly. The birds twittered rather discordantly. They glanced back as they rode away. Their farm seemed to have shrunk into the earth. All that was visible above the surface was the two chimneys of their modest cottage, and the crests of the trees up which they had been wont to climb like squirrels. Before them still stretched the meadow by which they could recall the whole history of their lives.

from the years when they had rolled in its dewy grass up to the years when they had awaited in it a black-bowed cossack maiden who ran timidly across it with her quick young feet and now only one pole above the well with the cart-wheel fastened on top rises solitary against the sky already the plain across which they have been riding appears a hill in the distance and has concealed everything

Farewell, childhood and games and everything. Farewell. End of chapter. They said to get a respected degree, I'd have to go to a big state university. But WGU offers online degree programs that employers value and even have alumni working at some of the largest companies in the world. Plus, because the program is online, I didn't even have to quit my job.

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See why over 95% of employers say they would hire another WGU grad and learn more at wgu.edu. Chapter 2 of Taras Bulba by Gogol, translated by Isabel Hapgood. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. All three horsemen rode on in silence. Old Taras was thinking of the distant past. Before him passed his youth.

His years, his vanished 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 Sietch. He reckoned up how many were already dead, how many were still alive. Tears formed slowly in his eyes, and his grey head drooped dejectedly. His sons were occupied with other thoughts, but we must speak more at length of his sons.

They had been sent at the age of 12 years to the Academy at Kiev because all honourable officials of that epoch considered it indispensable to give their children an education, even if it were utterly forgotten afterwards. Like all who entered the Free Academy, they were then wild, having been reared in unrestricted freedom, and there for the first time they were generally smoothed down a bit and acquired a certain something common to them all, which caused them to bear a sort of universal resemblance to one another.

The elder, Ostap, began his career by running away in the course of the first year. He was brought back, terribly flogged, and set down again to his books. Four times did he bury his primer in the earth, and four times, after bestowing upon him an inhuman thrashing, did they buy him a new one.

but he would have repeated his performance for the fifth time doubtless had not his father given him a solemn assurance that he would keep him at service in the monastery for twenty years and had he not sworn to start with that he should never behold zaporozhe so long as he lived unless he learned all the sciences in the academy the other point about it was that he who said this was that same taras bulba who condemned all learning and counselled his boys as we have seen not to trouble themselves about it at all

From that moment, Ostap began to sit over his tiresome books with extraordinary assiduity, and before long he stood on a level with the best. The style of education in that age was widely at variance with the manner of life. These scholastic, grammatical, and theological subtleties never were used and never were met with in real life. Those who studied them, even the most scholastic of the lot, could never put their knowledge to any practical use whatsoever.

The most learned men of those days were even more ignorant than the rest because they were entirely removed from all experience. Moreover, the Republican constitution of the Academy, the appalling multitude of young stalwart healthy fellows, all these factors combined were bound to arouse in them an activity quite outside the limits of their studies.

Sometimes the poor fare, sometimes the frequent punishments of fasting, sometimes the numerous requirements which arise in fresh, strong, healthy young men, combined to arouse in them that spirit of enterprise which afterwards received further development in Zaporozhye.

The hungry bursary ran about the streets of Kiev and forced everyone to be on his guard. The huckstresses who sat in the bazaar always covered their patties, their greasy cracknels and their squash seeds with their hands like eagles protecting their young if they but caught a glimpse of a passing student. The monitor who was bound by his official duty to control his comrades who were entrusted to his care had such frightfully wide pockets to his full trousers that he could stow away the entire contents of a slothful huckstress's stall.

These students constituted an entirely separate world by themselves. They were not admitted to the highest circles, composed of Polish and Russian nobles. Even the voivode, Adam Kissel, in spite of the patronage he bestowed upon the academy, did not introduce them into society and gave orders that they were to be ruled as strictly as possible.

This command was entirely superfluous, for neither the rector nor the monk professors spared the rod or the whip, and the lictors sometimes, by their orders, whipped their monitors so severely that the latter rubbed their trousers for weeks afterwards. This was a mere nothing to many of them, and seemed only a little stronger than good vodka with pepper. Others, at last, grew thoroughly tired of such constant thrashings, and ran away to Zaporizhze if they could find the road, and if they were not caught on the way.

Ostap Bulba, although he began to study logic and even theology with much zeal, did not escape the merciless rod. Naturally, all this was bound in some degree to embitter his character and impart to it that firmness which distinguishes the Cossacks. Ostap was always regarded as one of the best students.

He rarely led the others into audacious enterprises, such as robbing other people's gardens or orchards. But on the other hand, he was always among the first to join the standard of an adventurous student, and never, under any circumstances whatsoever, did he betray his comrades. Neither whips nor rods could make him do it.

He bore himself sternly towards all temptations, except those of war and wild carouses. At any rate, he almost never thought of anything else. He was frank with his equals. He was kind-hearted, in the only way that kindness of heart could exist in such a character and at such an epoch. He was sincerely touched by his poor mother's tears, and this one thing only troubled him and caused him to hang his head thoughtfully. His younger brother, Andri, had rather livelier and more developed feelings.

He studied more willingly, and without that effort with which strong, heavy characters generally apply themselves. He was more inventive than his brother, and frequently appeared as the leader of decidedly dangerous expeditions, and sometimes, thanks to the ingenious turn of his mind, he contrived to escape all punishment, while his brother Ostap, abandoning all concern, stripped off his coat and lay down upon the floor without a thought of begging for mercy.

He also was seething with a thirst for action, but at the same time his soul was accessible to other sentiments. The demand for love flamed ardently within him. When he had attained his eighteenth year, woman began to present herself more frequently in his burning dreams. While listening to philosophical discussions, he beheld her each moment: rosy, black-eyed, tender,

Before him flitted constantly her gleaming elastic bosom, her soft, beautiful bare arms. The very gown which clung about her virginal, yet vigorous limbs, exhaled in his visions a certain inexpressible sensuousness. He carefully concealed from his comrades this impulse of his passionate young soul, because in that age it was considered shameful and dishonorable for a Cossack to think of love and a wife before he had tasted battle.

On the whole, during the concluding years of his course, he served more rarely as the leader of a gang. But he roamed about more frequently alone in the remote corners of Kiev, buried in cherry orchards among low-roofed little houses, which peeped forth alluringly along the street. Sometimes he betook himself to the street of the aristocrats, in the old Kiev of today, where dwelt little Russian and Polish nobles, and where the houses were built in somewhat fanciful style.

Once, as he was thus lounging along, a huge old-fashioned carriage belonging to some Polish nobleman almost drove over him, and the coachman, with very terrible moustaches, who sat on the box, gave him a decidedly sharp cut with his whip. The young student, boiled with rage, with reckless daring, he seized a hind wheel with his powerful hand and brought the carriage to a halt.

But a coachman, fearing a reckoning, lashed his horses. They leaped forward, and Andri, although, fortunately, he succeeded in freeing his hand, was flung full length on the ground, with his face flat in the mud. The most resonant and melodious of laughs rang out from overhead. He raised his eyes and saw, standing at a window, a beauty such as he had never beheld before in all his life, black-eyed and white as the snow, illumined by the dawning flush of the sun.

She was laughing heartily, and her laughter lent sparkling force to her dazzling loveliness. He was taken aback. He gazed at her in utter confusion, abstractly wiping the mud from his face, by which means it became still further smeared. Who could this beauty be? He tried to find out from the servants who in rich liveries stood beside the gate in a crowd surrounding a young bandura player, but the servants raised a laugh when they saw his besmeared face and deigned him no reply.

At last he learned that she was the daughter of the voivode of Kovno, who had come hither for a time. The following night, with the daring characteristic of the student alone, he crept through the hedge into the garden, and climbed a tree which spread its branches over the very roof of the house. From the tree he crawled upon the roof, and made his way through the chimney straight into the bedroom of the beauty, who at the moment was seated before a candle, engaged in removing the costly earrings from her ears.

the beautiful pole was so alarmed on suddenly beholding a strange 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 recognised in him the one who had fallen headlong in the street before her laughter again overpowered her

Moreover, there was nothing terrible in Andrii's features. He was very handsome. The beauty was giddy, like all poles. But her eyes, her wondrous, clear, piercing eyes, darted a glance, a glance as long as constancy. The student could not move a hand, but stood bound as in a sack, when the voivode's daughter approached him boldly, placed upon his head her glittering diadem, hung her earrings on his lips, and flung over him a transparent muslin chemise with gold-embroidered garlands.

She tricked him out and played a thousand foolish pranks with the unconstrained of a child, which distinguishes the giddy poles and which threw the poor student into still greater agitation. He presented a ridiculous figure as he stood staring fixedly with wide-open mouth into her dazzling eyes.

At that moment 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 captive, and gave her orders to conduct him to the garden with caution and thence send him away over the hedge. But this time our student did not pass the hedge so successfully. The watchman woke up and caught him firmly by the leg, and the servants assembling beat him for a long time, even in the street, until his swift legs rescued him.

After that, it was very dangerous to pass the house, because the Voivode's servitors were numerous. He encountered her once more, in a Roman Catholic church. She saw him, and smiled very pleasantly, as at an old acquaintance. He saw her yet again, by chance. And shortly afterwards, the Voivode of Kovno took his departure, and instead of the beautiful black-eyed pole, some fat face or other gazed from the window. That was what Andri was thinking about when he hung his head and dropped his eyes on his horse's mane.

In the meantime the steppe had long since receded them into its green embrace, and the tall grass closing in around them concealed them so that only their black Cossack caps were visible among its spikes.

"Come, come! Why are you so quiet, my lads?" said Bulba at last, waking from his own reverie. "You're like monks! Come, send all thinking to the devil on the spot, take your pipes in your lips, and we'll smoke and spur on our horses, and fly so swiftly that no bird can overtake us!" And the Cossacks, bending low over their horses, disappeared in the grass. Their black caps were no longer visible. A wake of trodden grass alone showed a trace of their swift flight.

The sun had long since peered forth from the clear heavens and inundated the steppe with his vitalizing warming light.

All that was dim and sleepy in the minds of the Cossacks fled away in a twinkling. Their hearts fluttered like birds. The further they penetrated into the steppe, the more beautiful did it become. At that time, 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. 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 looked like a green-gold ocean, upon which were sprinkled millions of different flowers. Through the tall, slender stems of the grass peeped light blue, dark blue and lilac cornflowers. The yellow broom thrust up its pyramidal head. The parasol-shaped white flowers of the yarrow dotted its surface. A wheat-ear, brought God knows whence, was filling out to ripening. About their slender roots ran partridges with necks outstretched. The air was filled with the notes of a thousand different birds.

In the sky motionless hung the hawks, with wings outspread and eyes riveted intently on the grass. The cries of a vast flock of wild ducks, moving up on one side, were echoed from God knows what distant lake. From the grass a gull arose with measured sweep and bathed luxurious in the blue waves of air. And now she has vanished on high and appears only as a black dot. Now she has turned her wings and shimmers in the sunlight. Devil take you, step! How beautiful you are!

In the evening, the whole steppe completely changed this aspect.

Its whole variegated expanse was bathed in the last bright glow of the sun, and it darkened gradually, so that the shadow could be seen as it 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 an incense of perfume was wafted like smoke across the whole steppe. Wide streaks of rosy gold were flung athwart the dark blue sky as with a gigantic brush.

Here and there gleamed white tufts of light and transparent clouds, and the coolest, most bewitching of little breezes barely rocked the tops of the grass blades like sea waves and only just caressed the cheek. All the music which had resounded throughout 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 whistling.

The whir of the grasshoppers became more distinctly audible. Sometimes the cry of a swan was audible from some distant lake and rang through the air like silver. The travellers halted in the middle of the plain, selected a spot for their night encampment, made a fire, hung over it a kettle in which they cooked their buckwheat groats. 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 on their cloth coats.

The nocturnal stars gazed directly down upon them. They heard the countless myriads of insects which filled the grass. All their rasping, whistling and whirring resounded clearly through the night, puffed by the cool air and lulled the drowsy ear. If one of them rose and stood for a while, the steppe presented itself to him spangled with the sparks of glowworms. At times the night sky was illumined in spots by the glare of dry reeds which were burning along pools or riverbank.

and a dark file of swans flying northward was suddenly lighted up by the silvery rose-hued gleam, and then it seemed as though crimson kerchiefs were floating across the dark heavens. The travellers rode onward without any adventures. They came across no villages. There was nothing but the same boundless, undulating, wondrously beautiful steppe. At intervals the crests of forests loomed blue in the distance, on one hand, where they stretched along the banks of the Dnieper,

But once Taras pointed out to his boys a small black speck far away in the grass, saying, "Look, boys! Yonder gallops a tatar!" The tiny moustached head fixed its eyes straight upon them from the distance, sniffing the air like a greyhound, then disappeared like a stag on perceiving that the Cossacks were thirty strong.

"Now, my lads, try to overtake the Tatar, but don't try! You will never catch him to all eternity. His horse is swifter than my devil!" Nevertheless, Bulba took precautions, fearing there might be hidden ambushes here or there. They galloped to a small stream called the Tatarka, which emptied into the Dnieper, rowed their horses into the water, and swam down it a long time to conceal their trail. And then climbing out on the shore, they continued on their way. Three days later, they were not far from the place which formed the goal of their journey.

The air grew suddenly colder. They could feel the vicinity of the Dnieper. And yonder it gleamed far off, distinguishable as a dark streak against the horizon. It exhaled waves of cold air and spread nearer, nearer, and finally embraced half the entire surface of the Earth.

this was the part of the dnieper where the river hitherto confined by the rapids at last forced its way freely and roared like the sea pouring forth at will where the islands flung into its midst pressed it further from the shores and its waves spread broadly over the earth encountering neither cliffs nor hills

The Cossacks, alighted from their horses, entered the ferry-boat and, after a sail of three hours duration, arrived at the shore of the island of Kortitsa, where, at that time, was situated the Sjec, which so often changed its location. A throng of people on the shore were quarrelling with the ferrymen. The Cossacks made ready their horses.

Tarras assumed a stately air, pulling his belt tighter and drew his hand proudly over his moustache. His young sons also inspected themselves from head to foot, with some apprehension and an undefined feeling of satisfaction, then all set out together for the suburb, which was half averse from the Siege. On their arrival, they were deafened by fifty blacksmith's hammers beating upon twenty-five anvils sunk in the earth, and concealed with turf.

Stall-wit tanners sat on the street beneath their sloping roofs, scraping ox hides with their strong hands. Shopkeepers sat in their booths with piles of flints, steel and powder. An Armenian had hung out rich kerchiefs. A Tatar was turning mutton collops on a spit. A Jew with head thrust forward was filtering corn brandy from a cask. But the first man they met was a Zaporizhets who was sleeping in the very middle of the road, with legs and arms outstretched. Taras Bulba could not refrain from halting to admire him.

"Eh, how splendidly developed he is! Phew, what a magnificent figure!" he said, reining in his horse. The Zaporizhzhets had stretched himself out in the road like a lion. His scalp-lock, thrown proudly behind him, extended over half an archen of ground. His trousers, of costly scarlet cloth, were spotted with tar to show his utter disdain for them.

Having admired him to his heart's content, Bulba passed on through the narrow street, which was crowded with mechanics pursuing their trades, and with men of all nationalities who thronged this suburb of the Siech, which resembled a fair, and fed and clothed Siech that knew only how to revel and to discharge guns. At last they left the suburb behind them, and perceived some scattered karens covered with turf or with felt in Tatar fashion. Some were furnished with cannon.

Nowhere were any fences visible, or any of those low-roofed houses with sloping porch roofs supported on short wooden pillars, such as there were in the suburb. A small rampart and abatis, totally unguarded, showed a terrible degree of recklessness. Stalwart Zaporozhets, lying pipe in mouth in the very road, glanced at them with great indifference, but did not stir from their places. Taras threaded his way carefully among them with his son, saying, Good morning, noble sirs. Good day to you, answered the Zaporozhets.

Picturesque groups of men were scattered all over the plain. It was evident from their weather-beaten faces that all was steeled in battle and had undergone every sort of reverse. And there it was, the Sietch. There was the nest from which all those men, strong and proud as lions, had issued forth. There was the place whence poured forth liberty and Cossacks all over the Ukraine. The travellers emerged into the great square where the council generally assembled.

on a huge overturned cask sat a Zaporizhets without his shirt. He was holding it in his hands and slowly sewing up the holes. Again their way was barred by a regular crowd of musicians, in the middle of whom a young Zaporizhets was dancing, with head thrown back and arms outstretched. He kept shouting, Play faster musicians! Begrudge not Brandy to these orthodox Christians, Foma! And Foma, with his blackened eye, went on measuring out, without stint, a huge jugful to everyone who presented himself.

About the youthful Zaporozhets, four old men were moving their feet quite briskly, leaping like a whirlwind to one side, almost upon the heads of the musicians, then, suddenly retreating, they continued to dance in a squatting posture, and beat the hard-trodden earth rapidly and vigorously with their silver heels. The earth hummed dully all about the neighbourhood, and afar, through the air, resounded the hopak and the trepak, beaten out by the ringing heels of their boots.

but one shouted more vivaciously than all the rest and flew after the others in the dance his scalp-locks streamed in the wind his powerful chest was all uncovered his warm winter fur coat was hanging by the sleeves and the perspiration poured from him like hail as though from a bucket take off your jacket said taras at last just see how he's steaming

"'I can't!' shouted the Cossack. "'Why? I can't! My character is such that whatever I take off, I drink up!' And the young man had not had a cap for a long time past, nor a belt to his caftan, nor an embroidered kerchief. All had travelled the fated road."

The throng increased. More men joined the dance, and it was impossible to observe without inward emotion how it swept everything before it, that dance, the freest, the wildest the world has ever seen, which is called from its mighty originators the Kazachka. "'Eh, if it wasn't for my horse, I'd strike out myself, that I would!' exclaimed Taras. Meanwhile, they began to appear among the throng, men who were respected for their prowess throughout the entire Siege, old greyheads who had been leaders more than once."

Taras soon encountered a number of familiar faces. Ostap and Andrii heard nothing but greetings. "Ah, so it's you, Petaritsa! Good day, Kozolub! Whence has God brought you, Taras? How did you come here, Doloto? Hail to you, Keryaga! Hail to you, Guschi! Who would ever have thought of seeing you, Remen?" And the heroes, assembled from all the dissolute population of eastern Russia, fell to kissing one another, and questions began to fly back and forth.

But what has become of Kasyan? Where is Borodavka and Kolopa and Pidzitok? And in reply, Taras learned that Borodavka had been hanged in Tolopan, that Kolopa had been flayed alive near Kizirkyman, that Pidzitok's head had been salted down in a cask and sent to Zagrad. Old Bulba hung his head and said thoughtfully, they were good Cossacks. End of chapter two.

I thought online degrees weren't as respected, but WGU online degrees have the same accreditations as the large universities. See why over 95% of employers say they would hire another WGU grad and learn more at wgu.edu. Chapter 3 of Taras Bulba by Gogol, translated by Isabel Hapgood. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Taras Bulba and his sons had been in the church about a week.

Ostap and Andrii occupied themselves very little with the school of war. The Sietsch 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 accordingly almost incessant.

The Cossacks thought it a nuisance to fill up the intervals of this instruction with any sort of drill except perhaps shooting at a target and on rare occasions with horse racing and wild beast hunts on the steppe and in the forests. All the rest of the time they devoted to revelry, a sign of the wide diffusion of spiritual liberty. The Siech as a whole presented an unusual phenomenon. It was a sort of unbroken revel, a ball noisily begun which had lost its end.

Some busied themselves with crafts, others kept little shops and traded, but the majority caroused from morning until night if the wherewithal jingled in their pockets and if the booty they had captured had not passed into the hands of the shopkeepers and dram shopkeepers. There was a certain fascination about this universal reverie.

It was not an assembly of topers who drank to drown sorrow, but simply a wild revelry of joy. Everyone who came thither forgot everything, abandoned everything which had hitherto interested him. He, so to speak, spat on all his past and gave himself up recklessly to freedom and the good fellowship of men of the same stamp as himself, revelers who had neither relatives nor home nor family, nothing save the free sky and the eternal feast of their souls.

this gave rise to that wild gaiety which could not have come from any other source. The tales and chatter among the assembled crowd which reposed lazily on the ground were often so droll and breathed forth such a power of vivid narration that it required all the indifferent exterior cultivated by a Zaporizhets to maintain his immovable expression of countenance without so much as a twitch of the moustache, a sharply accentuated peculiarity which to this day distinguishes the southern Russian from his brethren.

it was drunken noisy mirth but withal it was no black alehouse where a man forgets himself in darkly seducing merriment it was an intimate circle of schoolboys the only difference was that instead of sitting under the pointer and threadbare doctrines of a teacher they made a raid on five thousand horses

In place of the field where scholars played ball, they had the boundless, untrammelled border marches, and at the sight of them the Tatar showed his alert head, and the Turk, in his green turban, gazed phlegmatically, grimly. The difference was that, in the place of the forced freedom which had united them at school, of their own free will they had deserted their fathers and mothers and fled from their parental homes,

That here were those about whose necks a rope was already dangling, and who, instead of pale death, had seen life, and life in all its intensity. That here were those who, from patrician habit, could never keep a copeck in their pockets. That here were those who had hitherto regarded a ducat as wealth, whose pockets, thanks to the due revenue farmers, could have been turned wrong side out without any danger of anything falling from them.

Here, all were students who could not endure the academic rod and had not carried away a single letter from the school, but with them, also, were some who knew about Horace and Cicero and the Roman Republic. Many of them were officers who afterwards distinguished themselves in the king's armies, and there were numerous educated and experienced partisans who cherished a noble conviction that it was of no consequence where they fought so long as they did fight because it was a disgrace to an honourable man to exist without fighting.

Many there were who had come to the Siege for the sake of being able to say later on that they had been in the Siege and were therefore steeled warriors. But who all was not there? This strange republic was an inevitable outgrowth of the epoch. Lovers of a warlike life, of golden beakers and rich brocades, of ducats and gold pieces, could always find employment there. The lovers of women alone could find nothing there, for no woman dared to show herself in the suburbs of the Siege.

It seemed exceedingly strange to Ostap and Andriy that although a crowd of persons had come to this yetch with them, 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 home whence they had departed only an hour previously. A newcomer merely presented himself to the koshevoy, 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 do you go to church i do well now cross yourself the newcomer crossed himself very good said the kosher boy enter whichever barrack you like this comprised the entire ceremony and the entire siech prayed in one church and were willing to defend it to the last drop of their blood although they would not hear to fasting or abstinence

Only Jews, Armenians and Tatars, inspired by strong greed, took the liberty of living and trading in the suburbs, for the Zaporozhtsy never cared to haggle and paid whatever money their hand chanced to grasp in their pockets. 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 Zaporozhtsy lacked money, the bold adventurers broke down their booths and seized everything gratis.

The Siech consisted of over 60 Karenz, which greatly resembled separate, independent republics, but still more a boys' school or a college living carefree with all their expenses paid. No one provided himself with anything. No one retained anything for himself. Everything was in the hands of the Ataman of the Barak, who on that account generally went by the name of Batko. In his hands were deposited the money, clothes, all the provisions, dried oatmeal, buckwheat groats, even the firewood.

They gave him the money to take care of. Quarrels in the barracks among their inhabitants were not infrequent. In such cases they proceeded at once to blows. The inmates of the barracks swarmed out upon the square and smashed in one another's ribs with their fists until one side finally prevailed and gained the upper hand when the reverie began. Such was the Siege, which had such an attraction for young men.

Ostap and Andrii flung themselves into this sea of dissipation with all the ardour of youth and forgot, in a twinkling, their father's house, the seminary and everything which had hitherto perturbed their souls and gave themselves up to their new life. Everything interested them, the jovial habits of the Sietch and the not very complicated laws which even seemed to them too strict for such a free republic.

If a Cossack stole the smallest trifle, it was regarded as a disgrace to the whole Cossack community. He was tied to a pillar of shame and an oaken 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 decided to ransom him by paying his debts for him.

But what made the deepest impression upon Andri was the terrible punishment decreed for murder. A hole was dug in the murderer's presence, he was lowered into it, and over him was placed a coffin which enclosed the corpse of the man whom he had killed, after which earth was heaped upon both. Long afterwards, the frightful 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 took a good standing among the Cossacks.

They frequently went out on the steppe with comrades from their barrack, and sometimes with the entire barrack, or with neighbouring barracks, to shoot the innumerable steppe-birds of every sort, and deer, and goats; or they went out upon the lakes, the river and its tributaries, assigned by lot to each barrack, to cast their bag-nets and drag-nets, and draw out rich prey for the enjoyment of the whole Kuren.

Although a Cossack was not tested there by any apprenticeship, yet they were soon remarked on among the other youths for their dogged bravery and their skill in everything. Vigorously and accurately they fired at a target. They swam across the Dnieper against the current, a deed for which a novice was triumphantly received into the circle of Cossacks. But old Taras had planned a different sort of activity for them. Such an idle existence was not to his mind. He wanted actual work.

He meditated incessantly how he might stir up the Sietch to some bold enterprise wherein a man could carouse as became a knight. At last he went one day to the Koschevoi and said plainly, Well, Koschevoi, it is time for the Zaporozhty to make a little excursion. Nowhere to go, replied the Koschevoi, removing his short pipe from his mouth and spitting to one side. What do you mean by nowhere? We can make a raid on the Turks and the Tatars.

"Impossible to raid either the Turks or the Tatars," returned the Koschevoi, putting his pipe coolly into his mouth again. "Why is it impossible?" "Because it is. We've promised the Sultan peace." "But he's a Muslim! And God and the Holy Scriptures command us to slay the Muslims!"

We have no right. If we had not sworn by our holy faith, then perhaps 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 grown. Neither one has been to war. And you say that we have no right. And you say there is no necessity for the Zaporozhye to set out on an expedition. Well, it is not fitting.

Then it must be fitting that Cossack strength should be wasted in vain, that a man should disappear like a dog without having done a single good deed, without having been of any use to his country or to Christianity. Then why do we live? What the devil do we live for? Just tell me that! You're a sensible man. You were not elected as Koschevoi without reason. Just explain to me what we live for. To this question, the Koschevoi made no reply. He was a headstrong Cossack. He remained silent for a while, then said,

Anyway, there shall be no war. There shall be no war, Taras repeated. No. Then there's no use in thinking about it. No. No use. Just wait, you damned pig-headed brute, said Taras himself. I'll teach you to know me. And he immediately resolved to revenge himself on the Koschevoi.

Having entered into an agreement with one man here, another man there, he gave a drinking-bound for everybody, and several of the Cossacks, in a state of intoxication, staggered straight to the square, where on a post hung the kettle-drums which were generally beaten to summon the council. Not finding the sticks, which were always kept by the drummer, they seized a billet of wood and began to thump. The first to respond to the drum-beat was the drummer, a tall man with but one eye, and a frightfully sleepy eye at that.

"Who dares to beat the drum?" he shouted. "Hold your tongue! Take your sticks and beat when you're ordered!" replied the drunken men. The drummer immediately took from his pocket the sticks which he had brought with him, being very well aware what would be the result of such proceedings. The drums began to thunder, and ere long black bunches of Cossacks began to collect like swarms of bees in the square.

All formed in a ring, and at last, after the third summons, the chiefs began to arrive. The Koschevoi with his mace, the symbol of his office in his hand, the judge with the seal of the army, the scribe with his inkhorn, and the Yassal with his staff. The Koschevoi and the chiefs doffed their caps and bowed on all sides to the Cossacks, who stood proudly with their arms akimbo. What means this assemblage?

"What is your wish, noble sirs?" said the Koschevoi. Shouts and abuse interrupted his speech. "Give up your mace! Give up your mace this moment, you son of the devil! We'll have no more of you!" shouted Cossacks in the crowd. Some of the sober ones appeared to wish to oppose this, but the barracks, sober and drunken, fell to blows. The shouting and uproar became general.

The Koschevoi made an attempt to speak, but knowing that the headstrong multitude, if enraged, might beat him to death, as almost always happened in such cases, he bowed very low, laid down his mace and hid himself in the crowd.

Do you command us, noble sirs, to resign our insignia of office, said the judge, the scribe and the assault. And they prepared to give up the inkhorn, the seal of the army and the staff on the spot. No, remain, we shouted from the crowd. We only want to drive out the Koschevoi because he's a woman and we want a man for Koschevoi. Whom do you elect as Koschevoi, asked the chiefs.

"Elet Kukubenko!" shouted some. "We won't have Kukubenko!" yelled another party. "He's too young. The milk isn't dry on his lips yet." "Let Shiloh be Ataman!" shouted some. "Make Shiloh the Koshevoy!" "None of your Shiloh!" yelled the crowd. "A nice sort of Cossack he is. That son of a dog is as thievish as a Tatar. To the devil in a sack with your drunken Shiloh!" "Borodaty! Let's make Borodaty Koshevoy!"

"'We won't have Borodati! To the devil's mother with Borodati!' "'Shout Kyrgyz-gar!' whispered Taras Bulba to several. "'Kyrgyz-gar! Kyrgyz-gar!' shouted the crowd. "'Borodati! Borodati! Kyrgyz-gar! Kyrgyz-gar! Shiloh! Away with Shiloh! Kyrgyz-gar!'

All the candidates, the moment they heard their names mentioned, stepped out to the crowd, in order not to give anyone a chance to suppose that they were taking a part personally in their election. "Kirjagar! Kirjagar!" rang out more strongly than the rest. "Borodati!" They proceeded to decide the matter by a show of fists, and Kirjagar won. "Go for Kirjagar!" they shouted. Half a score of Cossacks immediately stepped out from the crowd.

Some of them could hardly keep their feet, so intoxicated were they, and went directly to Kierjigar to notify him of his election. Kierjigar, although very old, was a very shrewd Cossack and had been sitting in his barrack for a good while already, as though he knew nothing about what was going on. "What is it, noble sirs? What is your will?" he inquired. "Come, your elected Koschevoi!" "Have mercy, noble sirs," said Kierjigar. "How am I worthy of such an honour?"

why should i be made koshevoy i haven't sufficient sense to discharge such a duty could no better man be found in all the army come along as you bid shouted the zaporozhzi two of them seized him by the arms and although he planted his feet firmly they finally dragged him to the square accompanied by shouts thrusts from the rear with fists kicks and exhortations don't hold back you son of the devil accept the honour you dog when tis given to you in this manner was kirjigar conducted into the ring of cossacks

"'Well, noble sirs!' yelled those who had brought him. "'Are you agreed that this Cossack shall be your Koschevoi?' "'All agreed!' shouted the throng, and the whole plain reverberated for a long time afterwards with that shout. One of the chiefs took the mace and handed it to the newly elected Koschevoi. Kierjiga, in accordance with custom, immediately refused it,

The chief offered it a second time. Kyrgyz again declined it, and then at the third offer accepted it. A shout of approbation rang through the crowd, and again the whole plain resounded afar with the shout of the Cossacks. Then there stepped forth from among the people the four oldest of all, white-moustached Cossacks with white scalp-locks. There were no very old men in the sietch, for none of the Zborizhzh ever died a natural death.

and taking each a handful of earth which recent rains had converted into mud they laid it on his head the wet earth tricked down from his head ran on his moustache and cheeks and smeared his whole face with mud but kirdigar stood motionless in his place and thanked the cossacks for the honour they had shown him

Thus ended the noisy election, as to which one cannot say whether it was as pleasing to the others as it was to Bulba. By means of it, he had taken his revenge on the former Koschevoi. Moreover, Kierjegar was an old comrade of his, and had been on expeditions with him by land and sea, sharing the toils and hardships of war. The crowd immediately dispersed to celebrate the election, and such revelry ensued as Ostap and Andri had not yet beheld.

The dram shops were attacked. Mead, corn brandy and beer were seized quite simply without payment. The owners were glad enough to escape with whole skins themselves. The whole night passed amid shouts and songs which celebrated warlike feats. And the rising moon gazed long at troops of musicians marching about the streets with banduras, round balalaikas and the church choir, who were kept to sing in church and to glorify the deeds of the Zaporizhzhia,

At last drunkenness and fatigue began to overpower their strong heads, and here and there a Cossack could be seen to fall upon the earth, and Comrade embracing Comrade in fraternal fashion, Maudlin and even Weeping both rolled upon the earth together. Here a whole group tumbled down in a heap, there a man chose the most comfortable position and stretched straight out on a log of wood.

This last, who was stronger, was still giving utterance to incoherent speeches. At last, even he yielded to the power of intoxication, flung himself down, and all in the sietch slept. End of chapter 3

Chapter 4 of Taras Bulba by Gogol, translated by Isabel Hapgood. This Liberox recording is in the public domain.

But on the following day, Taras Bulba had a conference with the new Koschevoi as to the best way of inciting the Cossacks to some enterprise. The Koschevoi was a wily and sagacious Cossack, knew the Zaporozhets through and through, and said at first, "Oaths cannot be violated. It's downright impossible." But after a pause he added, "No matter. It can be managed. We won't violate them, but let's devise something."

Let the men assemble, not at my summons, but simply of their own accord. You know how to contrive it. And I'll hasten to the square instantly with the chiefs as though we knew nothing about it. Not an hour had elapsed after their conversation when the kettle drums thundered. Instantly the drunken and foolish Cossacks made their appearance. A million Cossack caps poured into the square. A murmur arose. Why? What? Why was the assembly beaten? No one answered. At last...

In one quarter and another, it began to be rumoured about: "Behold, the Cossacks' strength is being vainly wasted! There is no war! Behold, our leaders have become altogether fat and sleepy! Their eyes swim in fat! Yes, plainly there is no justice in the world!" The other Cossacks first listened, and then began to say to themselves: "Ah, that's the truth! There's no justice in the world!" Their leaders seemed surprised at these utterances. At last the Kosovoi stepped forwards,

Permit me, noble Cossacks, to address you. Speak out! Touching the matter in question, noble sirs, probably no one knows better than yourselves that many Zaporozhzi have run in debt to the Jews in the dram shops

and to that sort of folks so that now not even a devil would give them credit again touching the matter in question there are many young fellows who have no idea of what war is like although as you are aware noble sirs without war a young man cannot exist how make a zaporozhets out of him if he has never slain a mussulman he speaks well said bulba to himself

Think not, however, noble sirs, that I speak thus with a view of disturbing the peace. God forbid. I merely mention the fact. Moreover, the church we have for our God is too disgraceful for words. Just consider how many years the Sietch has existed, by the mercy of God. But to this day, it not only doesn't look like a church outside, but even the holy pictures have no adornments.

no one has so much as thought of making them a garment they have received only that which some other cossacks have bequeathed them in their wills and moreover those gifts have been meager because those men had drunk up nearly all they had during their lifetime i am making you this speech therefore not with the object of stirring you up to a war with the mussulmans we have promised the sultan peace and it would be a great sin in us for we swore it according to our law

"'What's he mixing things up like that for?' said Bulba to himself. "'So you see, noble sirs, that war cannot be begun. Knightly honour does not permit it, but according to my poor opinion, this is what I think. Let's send out a few young men in boats. Let them ravage the coasts of Anatolia a bit. What say you, noble sirs?' "'Lead on! Take us all!' shouted the crowd on all sides. "'We're ready to lay down our heads for our faith!'

The Koschevoi was alarmed. He did not wish by any manner of means to stir up all Zaporozhye. A breach of the peace appeared to him improper on the present occasion. "Permit me, noble sirs, to address you further." "Enough!" yelled the Cossacks. "You can say nothing better." "If so it must be, then so be it. I am the slave of your will."

Everybody knows and the scriptures also tell us that the voice of the people is the voice of God. It is impossible to devise anything better than the whole nation has devised. But here's the difficulty.

You know, noble sirs, that the Sultan will not permit the diversion which delights our young men to go unpunished, and we ought to be well prepared at such a time, and our forces ought to be fresh, and then we need fear no one, but during their absence the Tatars may make an attack. Those Turkish dogs don't show themselves, and they daren't come while the master is at home, but they snap at his heels from behind and bite painfully to boot.'

and if it comes to that to speak the truth we have not boats enough on hand nor powder ready in sufficient quantity for all to go but i am glad and ready if you like i am the slave of your will the wily ataman stopped speaking the various groups began to discuss the matter and the atamans of the different barracks to take counsel together fortunately few of these were drunk so they decided to heed the counsels of reason

A number of men set out at once for the opposite shore of the Dnieper, to the treasury of the army, where, in an inaccessible hiding-place, under water and among the reeds, lay concealed the army chest and a part of the arms captured from the enemy. Others hastened to inspect the boats and prepare them for service. In a twinkling the whole shore was thronged with men. Carpenters appeared, axes in hand,

Old, weather-beaten, broad-shouldered, strong-legged Zaporizhzhi with black or silvered moustaches rolled up their trousers, stood knee-deep in the water, and dragged the boats from the shore with stout ropes. Others brought thither seasoned lumber, ready for immediate use, and timber of all sorts. Here the boats were freshly planked, turned bottom upwards, caulked, and tarred.

there other skiffs were bound together side by side in cossack fashion with long strands of reeds that the swell of the waves on the sea might not sink them further on all along the shores they built fires and heated tar in copper kettles to coat the boats the old and experienced instructed the young the blows and shouts of the workers rose over all the countryside the bank alive with men shook and swayed about

About this time, a large ferry boat began to approach the shore. The mass of men standing in it began to wave their arms from a long distance away. There were Cossacks in torn, ragged svitkas. Their disordered garments, many had nothing but their shirt and a short pipe in their mouth, showed that they had escaped from some disaster, or had caroused to such an extent that they had drunk up all they had had on their bodies.

A very short, broad-shouldered Cossack of about fifty stepped out from their midst 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. "'Whence come you?' asked the Koschevoi when the boat had touched ashore. All the workers paused in their labours, and with axes and chisels uplifted, looked on expectantly. "'From a misfortune!' shouted the Cossack. "'From what?'

"'Permit me, noble Zaporoshtzi, to address you. Speak! Or would you prefer to assemble the council? Speak! We are all here!' The men all pressed together in a close mass. "'And have you heard nothing of what has been going on in the Hetman's dominions?' "'What is it?' inquired one of the Barak Atamans. "'Eh? What? Evidently a Tatar has blasted up your ears, that you might hear nothing. Tell us! What is going on there? 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 leased to the Jews now. If the Jew is not first paid, there can be no service. What nonsense is this you're telling us? And if the thrice-accursed dog of a Jew does not make a sign with his unclean hand over the holy Pascha, it cannot be blessed.

He lies, brother nobles. It cannot be that an unclean Jew puts his mark upon the Holy Pascha. Listen, I have not yet told all. Roman Catholic priests are driving about all over the Ukraine in carts. The harm lies not in the carts.

but that not horses, but Orthodox Christians are harnessed to them. Listen, even that is not all. They say that the Jewish's are making themselves petticoats out of our priest's vestments. Such are the deeds that are taking place in the Ukraine noble sirs. And you sit here, reveling in Zaporozhye and evidently a Tatar has so scared you that you have no eyes, no ears, no anything 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 Zaporozh'e, who on important occasions never yielded to their first impulse, but kept silence, and meanwhile collected privately all the menacing power of their indignation. "Stop! I also have a word to say!"

What have you been doing the while? When the devil was thus mauling your priest, what were you doing yourselves? Do you know swords? How did you come to permit such lawlessness?

how did we come to permit such lawlessness you ought to have tried to stop it when there are fifty thousand of the leacs alone yet and tis a shame not to be concealed that there are also dogs among our men who have already accepted their faith but your hetmen and your colonels what did they do god preserve anyone from such deeds as our colonels performed how so

this way our hetman roasted at a brains and ox now lies in warsaw and the heads and hands of our colonels are being carried round to all the fairs as a spectacle for the people that's what our colonels did

The whole throng became violently agitated. At first, silence reigned all along the shore, like that which precedes a fierce tempest. And then suddenly, voices were raised, and all the shore broke into utterance. "What? Jews hold the Christian churches on lease? Roman Catholic priests have harnessed and beaten Orthodox Christians? What?"

Such torture has been permitted on Russian soil by accursed unbelievers, and they have done such things to the colonels and the hetmen. Nay, this shall not be. It shall not be. Words of this sort flew from all quarters. The Zaporozhse were in uproar and felt their power. This was not the excitement of a giddy-headed folk.

all who were thus agitated were strong firm characters which were not easily heated but once rendered red-hot preserved the inward heat long and obstinately hang all jews rang through the crowd they shall not make petticoats for their jewesses from priests vestments they shall not place their tokens on the holy pascha drown them all the heathens in the dnieper

These words, uttered by someone in the throng, flashed like lightning through all minds, and the crowd flung themselves upon the suburb with the intention of cutting the throats of all the Jews. The poor sons of Israel, losing all presence of mind, and not being courageous in any case, hid themselves in empty brandy casks, in ovens, and even crawled under the skirts of their Jewish people. But the Cossacks routed them out wherever they were.

"'Most illustrious lords!' shrieked one Jew, tall and thin as a stick, thrusting his sorry visage, distorted with terror, from among a group of his comrades. "'Most illustrious lords! Suffer us to say a word, only one word. We will reveal to you what you never yet have heard, 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.'

illustrious lords exclaimed the jew such lords never were seen before never by god such good kind brave men there never were in the world before his voice died away quivering with terror how was it possible that we should think any evil of the

Those men are not of us at all, those who take leases in the Ukraine. God is my witness. They are not of us. They are not Jews at all. The devil only knows what they are. They are only fit to spit upon and cast aside. Behold, they will tell you the same thing. Is it not true, Shlomo? Or you, Shmuel? By God, it is true, replied Shlomo and Shmuel from among the crowd, both pale as clay under their ragged caps.

we never yet pursued the long jew have had any secret intercourse with your enemies and with roman catholics we will have nothing to do may they dream of the devil we are like blood brothers to the zaporozhse what do you mean to say that the zaporozhse are brothers to you exclaimed one among the throng don't wait accursed jews into the dnieper with them noble sirs drown all unbelievers

these words served as a signal they seized the jews by the arms and began to hurl them into the waves piteous cries resounded on all sides but the grim zaporozhye only laughed when they saw the jewish legs encased in shoes and stockings flourishing in the air

The poor orator, who had called down destruction on himself, wriggled out of his caftan, by which they had seized him, and in his scant, party-coloured under-waistcoat, clasped Bulba's legs and begged in a piteous voice, "'Great lord, most gracious sir, I used to know your brother, the late Derocha. He was a warrior who was an ornament to knighthood. I gave him eight hundred sequins when he was forced to ransom himself from the Turks.' "'You knew my brother?' asked Taras."

"God is my witness that I did. He was a magnificent nobleman." "And what is your name?" "Yankil." "Good," said Taras, and then after reflecting 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 give him to me for today." So saying, Taras led him to his wagon, beside which stood his Cossacks. "Now crawl under the cart, lie there, and don't move."

and as for you my good men don't you surrender the jew thereupon he returned to the square for the whole crowd had long before collected there all had at once abandoned the shore and the preparation of the boats for a land journey now lay before them not a sea voyage and they needed horses and carts 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 barracks, the Kosciuboi, and the will of the whole Zaporizhian army, to march straight to Poland, to avenge all the injury and disgrace to the faith, and to Kos Akronaun, to seize booty from the cities, to start conflagrations in the villages and crops, and to spread their fame far abroad over the steppe.

all immediately girded and armed themselves the koshevoy grew two feet and more taller he was no longer the timid executor of the frivolous wishes of a free people he was the untrammeled master he was a despot who understood only how to command

All the headstrong and uproarious knights stood in orderly ranks with respectfully bowed heads, not venturing to lift their eyes when the Koschevoi issued his orders. He gave them quietly, without shouting, without haste, but with pauses, like an old man deeply learned in Cossack affairs, and putting into execution, not for the first time, a wisely matured enterprise. Examine yourselves.

"'Inspect yourselves thoroughly, all of you,' he said. "'Put your teams and your tarboxes in order. Test your weapons. Take not many garments with you, a shirt and a couple of pairs of trousers to each Cossack, and a pot of dried oatmeal and ground millet apiece.'

Let no one take any more. There will be plenty of provisions, all that's needed, in the wagons. 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. Maintain order, noble sirs, above all things. I know that there are some among you who, as soon as God sends greed, will immediately tear up nankin and rich velvets to make themselves foot wrappers.

Leave off such devilish habits. Spurn every petticoat and take only weapons, if you happen to come across good ones, and ducats or silver, noble sirs, for they are subject to capture and useful in any case. And I'll tell you this beforehand, noble sirs. If anyone gets drunk on this expedition, he will receive short shrift. I'll order him to be chained by the neck like a dog to a transport, no matter who he may be.

even were he the most heroic cossack in the whole army he should be shot on the spot like a dog and flung out to be torn by the birds of prey without burial for a drunkard on the march deserves not christian 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 pay no heed to such trifles

Mix a charge of powder in a cup of brandy. Quaff heartily of it, and all will pass off. You will not even have any fever, and if the wound is not too large, put simple earth on it, mixing it first with spittle in your palm, and it will dry up the wound. And now, to work, to work, my lads. Get into action, but without overhaste. So spoke the Koschevoi, and no sooner had he finished his speech than all the Cossacks instantly set to work.

All the Siec so sobered up, and there was not a single drunken man to be found, any more than if there never had been such a thing among the Cossacks. Some Cossacks repaired the fellies of the wheels, others shifted the axles of the carts, some carried sacks of provisions to the transport wagons, while other wagons they loaded with arms, others still drove up the horses and oxen.

On all sides resounded the trampling of horses' hooves, test shots from the guns, the clanging of swords, the lowing of oxen, the screech of turning wagons, talking shrill cries, and urging on of cattle. And soon the Cossack camp stretched far over the plain, and he who might have undertaken to run from its head to its tail would have had a long course.

In the tiny wooden church, the priest held a special service of prayer and sprinkled everyone with holy water. All kissed the cross. When the horde started out and moved out of the siege, all the Zaporoshzi turned their heads for a last look. "'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, Yankal, had already erected a sort of stall with an awning, and was selling flints, screwdrivers, powder, and all sorts of military stores needed on the road, even rolls and loaves of bread. "'What devils those Jews are!' said Taras to himself. And riding up to him he said, "'Fool, why are you sitting here? Do you want to be shot like a sparrow?'

Yankul, in reply, came as near to him as possible, and making signs with both hands, as though desirous of imparting some secret, said: "Let the noble lord but keep silence, and say nothing to anyone. Among the Cossack wagons is a cart of mine. I am carrying all sorts of needful stores for the Cossacks, and on the journey I will furnish every sort of provision at a lower price than any Jew ever sold before. 'Tis so! God is my witness! God is my witness! 'Tis so!"

Tarras Bulba shrugged his shoulders in amazement at the Jewish nature and rode on to the hoard. End of chapter four

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Chapter 5 of Taras Bulba by Gogol, translated by Isabel Hapgood. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. All southwest Poland speedily became prey to fear. Everywhere the rumour flew, There's a poroshtzi! There's a poroshtzi have appeared! All who could flee did so. All rose up and scattered after the manner of that lawless, reckless age, when men built neither fortresses nor castles, but each erected his temporary dwelling of straw at haphazard.

Each man thought, 'Tis useless to waste money and labour on a cottage; 'twill be swept away in any case in a Tatar raid. Everyone took fright. One exchanged his plough and oxen for a horse and gun; another hid, driving off his cattle and carrying away all he could. Occasionally on the road, some were encountered who greeted their visitors with arms in hand, but more numerous were those who fled before their arrival.

everyone knew that it was difficult to deal with the wild and warlike horde known by the name of the zaporozhian army which beneath its reckless and disorderly exterior concealed an organization 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 camped moved only by night, resting during the day, and selecting for this purpose the wilderness, uninhabited places, and the forests of which there was then an abundance. Spires and scouts were sent ahead to ferret out the where, the what, and the how. And often they made their appearance suddenly in the places where they were least expected, and then everyone bade farewell to life.

The villages were burned, the horses and cattle, which were not driven off behind the army, were killed on the spot. They seemed to be revelling rather than carrying out a raid. Our hair would rise and end nowadays at the horrible exhibitions of savagery of that fierce half-civilised age which the Zaporozh'e everywhere displayed. Children slain, women's breasts cut off, the skin flayed from the feet up to the knees of victims who were then set at liberty.

In a word, the Cossacks paid old debts in coin of full weight. The prelate of one monastery, on hearing of their approach, dispatched two monks to say that they were not behaving as they should, that an agreement existed between the Zaporozhets and the government, that they were breaking faith with the king and all international right. "Tell your bishop, from me and from all the Zaporozhets," said the Koschevoi, "that he has nothing to fear. The Cossacks so far are only lighting and smoking their pipes."

A magnificent abbey was soon wrapped in the devouring flames, and its colossal Gothic windows gazed grimly through the waves of fire as they parted. Fleeing throngs of monks, women, and Jews suddenly flooded those towns where there was any hope in the garrison and the town defenses.

The belated Saka, dispatched from time to time by the government, consisting of a few small regiments, either could not find them or, seized with fright, turned tail at the very first encounter and fled on their swift horses. So it came to pass that many of the royal commanders, who had conquered in former battles, resolved to unite their forces and present a front to the Zaporozhtsy.

And here, more than all, did our young Cossacks, who avoided robbery, cupidity, and a weak enemy, and were burning with the desire to distinguish themselves in the presence of the chiefs, endeavour to measure themselves in single combat with a warlike and boastful Leac, prancing on his spirited horse, with the sleeves of his jacket thrown back and streaming in the wind.

this science was inspiriting they had already won for themselves many horse trappings valuable swords and guns in a single month the newly-fledged birds had attained their full growth were completely transformed and had become men

their features in which hitherto a trace of youthful softness had been discernible had now grown grim and it was pleasant to old tarras to see both his sons among the leaders it seemed as though ostap were designed by nature for the pursuit of war and the difficult art of conducting military operations

never once losing his head or becoming confused under any circumstances. With a cool audacity which was almost supernatural in a youth of two and twenty, he could, in an instant, gauge the danger and grasp 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 springs from experience, and in them could be detected the temperament of the future great leader. His person exhaled strength, and his knightly qualities had already assumed the broad power of the lion. "'Oh, what a fine colonel that fellow will make one of these days,' said old Taras. "'By God, he'll make a magnificent colonel, far surpassing even his father!' Andrii surrendered himself wholly to the enchanting music of bullets and swords."

He knew not what it was to consider or to calculate, or to measure and advance his own strength in the enemy's. He found in battle a mad delight and intoxication,

He perceived something festal in the moments when a man's brain burns, when everything waves and flutters before his eyes, heads fly off, horses fall to the earth with the sound of thunder, while he rides on like a drunken 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 Andri when he beheld him, incited only by a passionate impulse.

hurl himself at something which a sensible man in cold blood would never have attempted and by the sheer force of his mad onslaught accomplish such wonders as could not but amaze men old in battle old taras admired and said and he too will be a good warrior 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 rumour asserted, there were many treasures and wealthy inhabitants. The journey was accomplished in a day and a half, and the Zaporizhzhs made their appearance before the city. The inhabitants resolved to defend themselves to the utmost extent of their power, to the last extremity, and preferred to die in their squares and streets before their own thresholds, rather than admit the enemy to their houses.

A high earthen rampart surrounded the city. In places where the rampart was somewhat lower, there rose up a stone wall, or a house, or even an oaken stockade, which served as a battery. The garrison was strong and felt the importance of their business. The Zaporizhzi attacked the rampart fiercely, but were met by a shower of grapeshot. The citizens and residents of the town evidently did not wish to remain idle either, and stood in groups upon the rampart.

in their eyes could be read desperate resistance the women also were determined to take part and raid down upon the heads of the zaporozhzi stones casks pots and finally boiling water and sacks of sand which blinded them the zaporozhzi were not fond of dealing with fortified places sieges were not in their line

The Koschevoi ordered a retreat and said, "'To useless brother nobles! We will retire, but may I be a heathen Tatar and not a Christian if we don't clean them out of that town. Let them all perish of hunger, the dogs!'

The army retreated, invested the town on all sides, and for lack of something to do, busied themselves with devastating the surrounding country, burning the neighbouring villages, the ricks of unthreshed grain, and turning their droves of horses loose in the fields as yet untouched by the reaping hook, whereas though intentionally prepared for them, waved the plump ears, the fruit of an unusual harvest, liberally rewarding all tillers of the soil that season.

With horror, the inhabitants, looking on from the city, beheld their means of subsistence destroyed. And meanwhile the Zaporozhetsi, having formed a double cordon of their wagons around the city, disposed themselves as in the Siech in their barracks, smoked their pipes, bartered their booty for weapons, played at leapfrog, at odd and even, and gazed at the city with deadly cold-bloodedness. At night they lighted their campfires. The cooks boiled the porridge for each karen in huge copper kettles.

An unsleeping sentinel stood all night long beside the blazing fires. But the Zaporozhsi soon began to tire of inactivity and prolonged sobriety, unaccompanied by any fighting. The Koschevoi even ordered the allowance of liquor to be doubled, which is sometimes done in the army when difficult enterprises or operations are underway. The young men in general, and Taras Bulba's sons in particular, did not like this life. Andri was visibly bored. "You silly head!"

said Taras to him. "Be patient, Cossack. You will be Ataman some day. And he is not a good warrior who loses his spirit in an important affair. But he is good, who does not weary, even of inaction, who endures everything, and no matter what you do to him, turns it to account." 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 meantime Taras's regiment, led by Tovkatch, arrived.

With him were also two yasals, the scribe and other regimental officers. The Cossacks numbered over 4,000 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 yasals brought to Taras' sons the blessing of their aged mother, and to each a holy image of cypress wood from the Mezhigorsk monastery in Kiev. The two brothers hung the holy icons around their necks,

and involuntarily grew pensive as they recalled their old mother. What did this blessing prophesy? What did it say to them? Was it a blessing for their victory over the enemy, and then a joyful return to their home with booty and glory, to be everlastingly commemorated in the songs of the bandura players? Or was it? But the future is not to be known, and stands before a man like autumnal fogs rising from the swamps.

Birds fly to and fro in it, with flapping wings, never recognising one another, the dove not seeing the vulture, nor the vulture the dove, and no one knows how near he may be flying to his destruction. Ostap had long before attended to his duties, and gone to the barrack. Andri, without knowing why, felt a sort of oppression in his heart. The Cossacks had finished their evening meal, the evening had fully quieted down,

The wonderful July night ruled the air, but he did not go to the barracks. He did not lie down to sleep, and involuntarily he surveyed the whole scene before him. In the sky, with a thin, sharp gleam, twinkled innumerable stars.

The plain was covered, far and wide, by wagons scattered over its expanse, their swinging tar buckets smeared with tar, loaded with every description of goods and provisions captured from the foe. By the side of the carts, under the carts, and far beyond the carts, Zaporozhse were everywhere visible, stretched out upon the grass, all asleep in picturesque attitudes. One had thrust a sack under his head, another his cap, still another was simply making use of his comrade's side.

swords guns arquebuses short-stemmed pipes with copper mountings iron awls and a flint and steel were inseparable from every cossack the heavy oxen with legs doubled under them lay in huge whitish masses and at a distance looked like grey stones scattered on the slopes of the plain

on all sides the heavy snores of sleeping warriors had already begun to rise from the grass and were answered from the plain by the ringing neighs of their steeds chafing at their hobbled feet meanwhile a certain grim magnificence was mingled with the beauty of the july night it was the distant glare of conflagrations from the country round about in one place the flames spread tranquilly and grandly over the sky

In another, having encountered something else on fire, they suddenly burst into a whirlwind and flew hissing upwards to the very stars, and torn fragments faded away in the most distant quarter of the heavens. There a black monastery like a grim Carthusian monk stood threatening and displaying its dark magnificence at every flash. Yonder burned the monastery garden.

It seemed as though the trees could be heard hissing as they wrapped themselves in smoke, and when the fire leaped aside it suddenly lighted up with a phosphorescent lilac rose-hued gleam the ripe plums, or turned the yellowing pears here and there to ruddy gold, and there among them all, on the wall of a building or against the trunk of a tree, a black blot hung the body of a poor Jew or monk who had perished in the flames of the building.

Far away, high above the conflagration hovered birds which looked like a cluster of tiny black crosses upon a fiery background. The town thus laid bare seemed asleep. Its spires and roofs and the stockade and walls flashed quietly in the glare of the distant conflagrations. Andrii made the rounds of the Cossack ranks. The fires beside which the sentinels sat were on the point of dying out.

and even the sentinels were asleep having devoured oatmeal and dumplings with genuine cossack appetites he was amazed at such carelessness and said to himself tis well that there is no strong enemy near at hand and no one to fear at last he went to one of the transport wagons climbed into it and laid down upon his back thrusting his clasped hands under his head but he could not sleep and gazed long at the sky it was all open before him the air was pure and transparent

The dense mass of stars which constitutes the Milky Way and traverses the sky in a belt was flooded with light. From time to time, Andrii forgot himself to a degree, and a light mist of dreaming seemed to veil the heavens from him for a moment, and then it cleared away and they became visible again. During one of these intervals, it seemed to him that some strange human figure was flitting before him. Thinking it was merely a dream apparition which would immediately fade away, he opened his eyes fully

and beheld a withered, emaciated face bending over him and gazing straight into his eyes. The long, coal-black hair fell, uncoiffed, dishevelled from beneath a dark veil which was thrown over the head, and the strange glitter of the eyes and the death-like brown tone of the face, which threw the sharply cut features into relief, inclined him to believe that it was an apparition. His hand involuntarily grasped his arquebus.

And he exclaimed almost convulsively, Who are you? If you are an evil spirit, be gone from my sight. If you are a living being, you have chosen an unseemly time for your jest. I will kill you with a single 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 scrutinize it more attentively.

He recognized it as a woman from the long hair, the brown neck, the half-concealed bosom. But she was not a native of those regions. Her whole face was swarthy, wasted by disease. Her broad cheekbones stood out prominently above her hollow cheeks. Her narrow eyes rose upwards in an arch. The more he gazed at her features, the more he discerned in them that which was familiar. At last, unable to restrain himself longer, he said, "'Tell me!'

"Who are you? It seems to me that I know you, or have seen you somewhere." "Two years ago, in Kiev." "Two years ago, in Kiev!" repeated Andrii, endeavouring to collect in his mind all that still lingered in his memory of his former student life. He looked intently at her once more, and suddenly exclaimed, at the top of his voice: "You are the Tatar, the servant of the young noblewoman, the voivode's daughter!"

cried the Tatar, clasping her hands with a gesture of supplication, trembling all over and turning her head round in order to see whether anyone had been waked up by Andri's loud exclamation. Tell me, tell me, why are you here? said Andri, almost panting in a whisper, interrupted every moment by inward emotion. Where is the young lady? Is she alive? She is now in the city. In the city! he exclaimed, almost in a shriek, and felt that all the blood suddenly flew to his heart.

why is she in the city because the old nobleman himself is in the city he has been voivode of dubnow for the last year and a half is she married how strange you look tell me about her she has had nothing to eat for two days what not one of the inhabitants has had a morsel of bread for a long while past all have been eating earth only andri was astonished

The young lady saw you from the city ramparts, among the Zaporossi. She said to me, "Go say to the knight, if he remembers me, let him 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 bread for her sake."

Many feelings awoke and flamed up in the young Cossack's breast. "But how came you hither? By what road did you arrive?" "By an underground passage." "Is there an underground passage?" "Yes." "Where?" "You will not betray it, Knight." "I swear by the Holy Cross that I will not." "You must descend into the gully and cross the watercourse yonder among the reeds. It leads into the city, straight into the town monastery." "Let us go! Let us go at once!"

a bit of bread in the name of Christ and 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 immediately. And he set off for the transports, which contained the provisions belonging to their barrack. His heart beat violently.

All the past, all that had been extinguished by the Cossack bivouacs, by the stern battle of life, flamed up at once to the surface, and in its turn drowned the present.

Again, as from the dark depths of the sea, the proud woman rose up before him. Again, in his memory shone forth her beautiful arms, her eyes, her laughing mouth, her thick, dark chestnut hair falling in curls upon her shoulders, the elastic, well-knit members of her maiden figure.

No, they had not been extinguished in his breast. They had not vanished. They had simply withdrawn to one side in order, for a time, to make way for other strong emotions. But often, very often, the young Cossack's deep slumbers had been troubled by them, and often, waking, he had lain sleepless on his bed, without being able to explain the cause.

He walked on, but his heart beat more violently still at the mere thought of seeing her again, and his young knees shook when he reached the transport he had utterly forgotten the reason for his coming. He raised his hand to his brow and rubbed it long, trying to recollect what he meant to do.

At last he trembled and was filled with terror. The thought suddenly occurred 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 which is suited to a robust and easily satisfied Zaporizhets, too coarse and unfit for her delicate frame?"

Then he remembered that the Koschevoi, on the previous evening, had reproved the cooks for having cooked up all the buckwheat flour into porridge at once, when there was plenty for at least 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 barrack, who was sleeping alongside two huge kettles, holding about ten bucketfuls apiece, under which the ashes still glowed. Glancing into them, he was amazed to find both empty. Supernatural powers must have been required to eat it all, the more so as their barrack numbered fewer men than the others. He looked into the kettles of the other Karens. Nothing anywhere.

Involuntarily there occurred to his mind: "The Zaporozhets are like children. If there is little, they eat it; if there is much, they leave nothing." What was he to do? Still somewhere in the wagon belonging to his father's regiment there was, he thought, a sack of white bread, which they had found when they pillaged the bakery of a monastery. He went straight to his father's load, but it was not there. Ostap had taken it and put it under his head, and there he lay stretched out on the ground, snoring so that the whole plain reverberated.

Andri seized the sack abruptly with one hand and gave it a jerk so that Ostap's head fell on the ground and the latter sprang up half awake and sitting there with closed eyes shouted at the top of his lungs, Stop him! Stop the damned Liag! Catch the horse! Silence! I'll kill you! shouted Andri in terror, brandishing 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 undulated with his breath.

Andrii glanced timidly about him on all sides, to see if Ostap's dream-ravings had waked any of the Cossacks. Only one scalp-locked head rose up in the adjoining barrack, glanced about, then dropped back on the ground. After waiting a couple of minutes, he set out with his burden. The Tatar woman still lay there, scarcely breathing. "Rise! Let us go! Fear not, all are sleeping! Can you take one of these loaves, if I cannot carry all?"

"'So saying, he flung the sacks on his back, "'pulled out another sack of millet as he passed a wagon, "'took in his hands the loaves he had wanted to give the Tatar woman to carry, "'and bending somewhat under his load, "'went boldly through the ranks of slumbering Zaporizhzi. "'Andry!' said old Bulba as he passed. "'His heart died within him. "'He halted, all of a tremble, 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. Andrii stood there more dead than alive, not daring to look his father in the face, and when he did raise his eyes and glance at him, old Bulba was fast asleep, with his head resting in the palm of his hand. He made the sign of the cross on his breast. 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 granite statue, all muffled in her veil, and the glow of the crimson glare in the distance lighted up only her eyes, dull as the eyes of a corpse. He plucked her by the sleeve, and both went on together, glancing incessantly behind them, and at last they descended the slope into a small ravine, almost a hole, at the bottom of which a stream flowed lazily, overgrown with sedge and strewn with mossy hummocks.

Descending into this ravine, they were completely concealed from view of all the plain occupied by the Zaporozhian camp. At least, Andri, as he glanced back, saw that the abrupt declivity rose behind him like a steep wall, taller than a man's stature. On its crest waved a few stalks of stepgrass, and above them in the sky hung the moon like a reaping hook of pure ruddy gold set aslant.

the breeze blowing off the step warned them that the dawn was not far off but nowhere was the distant crow of a cock audible there had been not a single cock for a long time past either in the city or in the devastated neighbourhood they crossed the stream on a narrow plank beyond which rose the opposite bank that appeared higher than the one behind them and formed a complete precipice

It seemed as though this were a strong and solid point of the citadel at all events. The earthen rampart was lower there, and no garrison appeared behind it, but further on rose the thick monastery wall. The precipitous bank was all overgrown with step grass, and in the narrow ravine between it and the stream grew tall reeds almost to the height of a man. At the summit of the ravine were visible the remains of a wattled fence, revealing that a garden had once existed there.

In front of it, the broad leaves of the burdock, from among which rose pigweed and blackthorn and sunflowers, rearing their heads high above all the rest. Here, the Tatar flung off her high-heeled slippers and went barefoot, gathering up her gown carefully, for the spot was marshy and soaked with water. Forcing their way through the reeds, they halted before a pile of faggots and brushwood.

pushing aside the brushwood they found a sort of earthen arch an opening not much larger than the mouth of an oven the tartar woman bent her head and went first andri followed bending as low as he could in order to pass with his sacks and both soon found themselves in total darkness chapter five

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Chapter 6 of Taris Bulba by Gogol Translated by Isabelle Hapgood This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Andri 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 nearing the spot where I placed a candle.' And in fact the dark earthen walls began to be gradually illuminated. They reached a little widening where, apparently, there had once been a chapel, at least a small table was set against the wall, like an altar table, and above it was visible the faded, almost entirely obliterated picture of a Catholic Madonna, a small silver lamp hanging before it barely illuminated it.

The Tatar stooped and picked up from the earth a brass candlestick with a tall slender foot and snuffers, pin and extinguisher hanging from it on chains, which she had left there. 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 by Gerard Dow. The night's handsome rosy countenance, overflowing with health and youth,

presented a strong contrast to the pale, emaciated face of his companion. The passage grew a little more roomy, so that Andri was able to straighten himself up. He gazed with curiosity at the earthen walls. Here, as in the catacombs at Kiev, were visible niches in the walls. Here and there stood coffins. In some places they came across human bones, which had become softened with the dampness, and were crumbling into dust.

It was evident that here also pious people had taken refuge 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. Andri was forced to halt frequently in order to allow his companion to rest, for her fatigue constantly increased. The small piece of bread she had swallowed only caused a pain in her stomach, which had grown unused to food, and she often stood motionless for several minutes at a time in one spot.

At last a small iron door appeared before them. "Now, glory be to God, we have arrived," said the Tatar in a faint voice, and tried to raise her hand to knock, but she had not the strength. Andrii knocked loudly at the door in her stead. The echo which followed showed that there was a large space beyond the door. Then the echo changed, as though encountering lofty arches. In a couple of minutes a rattling of keys became audible, and someone could be heard, apparently descending a staircase.

At last the door opened. A monk, standing on a narrow staircase, with the key and a candle in his hands, admitted them. Andrii involuntarily stopped short at the sight of a Catholic monk, one of those who had aroused such hatred and disdain among the Cossacks, who had treated them even more ruthlessly than they had treated the Jews. The monk on his side started back at the sight of a Zaporozhian Cossack, but an inaudible word uttered by the Tatar reassured him.

He lighted them, locked 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 absorbed in silent prayer. Near him, on each side, knelt two young choristers in lilac cassocks, with white lace surplices and censers in their hands. He was praying that heaven would send down miraculous intervention, that the city might be saved.

that their drooping spirits might be strengthened, that patience might be given them, that the tempter, whispering complaint and weak-spirited grief over earthly misfortunes might be banished. A few women, resembling shadows, knelt supporting themselves against the backs of the chairs and dark wooden benches in front of them, and drooping their exhausted heads upon them. A few men knelt sadly, leaning against the pillars which supported the side archers.

The stained glass window above the altar glowed with the rosy light of dawn, and from it on the floor fell circles of azure, yellow, and other colors, suddenly illuminating the dim church. The entire altar, even to its furthest recesses, suddenly shone forth in a radiant halo. The smoke of the censers hung like an illuminated rainbow-hued cloud in the air. Andrii gazed from his dark corner, not without surprise, at the wonders wrought by the light.

At that moment, the magnificent swell of the organs suddenly filled the whole church. It grew deeper and deeper, increased in volume, passed into heavy bursts of thunder, and then all at once, turning into heavenly music, its singing tones floated high among the arches, suggesting the voices of young maidens, and again descended into a deep roar and thunder, and then ceased. And the thunderous pulsations echoed long and tremulously among the arches, and Andri, with mouth agape, was amazed by the wondrous music.

At that moment he felt someone pluck the skirt of his kaftan. "'Tis time to be going,' said the Tatar. They traversed the church, unperceived, and emerged upon the square in front. The quadrangular square was entirely deserted. In the middle of it stood wooden pillars, showing that only a week before, perhaps, a provision market had existed there. The streets, which were then unpaved, were simply a mass of dried mud."

The square was surrounded by a row of small, one-storied houses of stone or mud, 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, examples of which style of construction are still to be seen in some parts of Lithuania and Poland. They were covered with enormously high roofs, with a multitude of dormer windows and ventilating orifices.

on one side quite close to the church and taller than the others rose a building entirely 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 belvedere where stood a watchman a huge clock-face was inserted in the roof the square seemed dead but andrew thought he heard a feeble groan glancing about him he perceived on the further side a group of two or three men lying almost motionless on the ground

he fastened his eyes more intently upon them to see whether they were asleep or dead and at the same moment he stumbled over something which lay at his feet it was the dead body of a woman evidently a jewess she appeared to have been young though this was not discernible in her distorted and emaciated features

upon her head was a red silk kerchief two rows of pearls or pearl beads adorned the ear-pieces of her head-dress from beneath it two or three long curls in curled papers hung down upon her withered neck with its tightly drawn sinews beside her lay a baby clutching convulsively at her withered breast and squeezing it with its fingers in involuntary wrath and finding no milk there

He neither wept nor screamed, and only the gentle rise and fall of his 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 Andri's precious burden, sprang upon him like a tiger and clutched him, yelling, "'Bread!' But his strength was not equal to his madness. Andri repulsed him. He fell to the ground."

Moved with pity, Andri tossed him a loaf, upon which he flung himself like a mad dog, gnawing and biting it, and immediately there in the street he expired, in horrible convulsions, from long disuse of eating. The terrible victims of hunger startled them at almost every step. Many apparently unable to endure their torments in their own houses seemed to have run into the streets 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 asleep dead or only unconscious at all events she no longer saw or heard anything and sat motionless 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 had not been able to endure the tortures of hunger to the end and had preferred to hasten his death by voluntary suicide at the sight of such terrible proofs of famine andrii could not refrain from asking the tartar

have they really been unable to find anything with which to sustain life if a man is driven to extremities then there is no help for it he must nourish himself on that which he has hitherto despised he may sustain himself with creatures which are forbidden by the law anything may be eaten under such circumstances they have eaten everything said the tartare all the animals not a horse or a dog nor even a mouse can be found in the whole city we never had any store of provisions in the town they were all brought in from the villages

But how can you, while dying such a fearful death, still dream of defending the city? Possibly the voivode might have surrendered, but yesterday the colonel in Bujana 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 regiment and was only waiting for another colonel, that they might march together. And now they are expected at any moment, but we have reached the house.

Andri had already seen from afar the house which was unlike the others and had been built, apparently, by an 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 which formed a gallery. Between them gratings with coats of arms could be seen. On the corners of the houses were more coats of arms. The broad external staircase of tinted bricks abutted on the square.

At the foot of the staircase sat sentries, one on each side, who with one hand held the halberd, standing beside him in a picturesque and symmetrical manner, and with the other supported his drooping head, and in this attitude more resembled statues than living beings. They were neither asleep nor dozing, but seemed perfectly insensible to everything. They even paid no attention when anyone ascended the stairs. At the head of the stairs they found a richly dressed warrior, clad in armour from head to foot, holding a prayer book in his hand.

He was turning his dim eyes upon them when the Tatar spoke a word to him, and he dropped them again upon the open pages of his book. They entered the first chamber, rather a large one, serving as a reception room or simply as an anteroom. It was completely filled with soldiers, servants, huntsmen, cupbearers, and other servitors indispensable to the maintenance of a Polish magnate's state, all seated along the walls in various attitudes.

The reek of extinguished candles was perceptible. Two in huge candlesticks, nearly as tall as a man, which stood in the middle of the room, were still burning, although morning had long since peeped through the wide grated window. Andri was about to proceed straight to a large open 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 shutters, fell upon some objects. A crimson curtain, a gilded cornice, a painting on the wall. The Tatar motioned to Andri to wait here, and opened the door into another room, from which gleamed the light of a fire. Through the open door he beheld, rapidly flitting past, a tall female figure with a splendid braid of hair falling over her uplifted arm. The Tatar returned and bade him enter. He was never able to remember how he entered, and how the door was shut behind him.

two candles burned in the room and a shrine lamp glowed before a holy picture beneath it stood a small but lofty table with steps to kneel upon during prayer after the roman catholic fashion he turned in the other direction and perceived a woman who seemed to have congealed and turned to stone in the midst of some rapid movement it seemed as though her whole form had been trying to spring towards him and had suddenly paused

and amazed he stood in like manner before her not thus had he pictured to himself that he would see her this was not the person whom he had formerly known nothing about her resembled that person but she was twice as beautiful twice as wonderful now as she had formerly been then there had been something unfinished incomplete about her now it was a production to which the artist had given the finishing stroke of his brush that other one had been a charming giddy girl

This was a beauty, a woman in the full development of her charms. Complete feeling, not scraps and hints of feeling, but all feeling was expressed in her eyes as she raised them. The tears were not yet dry in them, and framed them in a shining dew, which pierced the very soul. Her bosom, neck, and arms were moulded in proportions which indicated fully developed loveliness.

Her hair, which in former days had waved in airy ringlets about her face, had become a heavy luxuriant mass, part of which was fastened up, while part, in long, slender, beautifully curling locks, spread over her breast. It seemed as though her every feature were changed. In vain did he seek to discover in them a single one of those which were engraved on his memory. There was not one. Even her extreme pallor did not lessen her wonderful beauty. On the contrary, it seemed to impart to it an irresistibly conquering charm.

and Andrii felt in all his soul a reverent timidity, and stood motionless before her. She too seemed surprised at the appearance of the Cossack, 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 ardour of virginal fire, and his youthful black moustache shone like silk. "'No, I have no power to thank you, magnanimous 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 lids fell all over them in beautiful snowy crescents, guarded by lashes long as arrows. All her wondrous face bowed forward, and a delicate flush overspread it from below."

Andrii knew not what reply to make to this. He wanted to express everything. He had it in his soul to express it with all the ardour he felt, and could not. He felt that something was obstructing his mouth, and words were deprived of sound. He felt that it was not for him, reared in the seminary and in a warlike nomadic life, to reply fitly to such language, and was wroth at his Cossack nature.

At that moment the Tatar entered the room. She had cut the bread which the knight had brought in slices, and now brought it on a golden plate and placed it before her young mistress. The beauty glanced at her, at the bread, at her again, then turned her eyes on Andri, and there was a great deal in those eyes. That gentle glance, expressive of her weakness, and her inability to give utterance to the feelings which overpowered her, was far more comprehensible to Andri than any words. His soul suddenly grew light.

All within him seemed to have been released. The emotions of his soul, which, up to that moment, someone seemed to have been restraining with a heavy curb, now felt themselves set free, at liberty, and eager to pour themselves out in a resistless torrent of words. Suddenly the beauty turned to the Tatar and inquired anxiously, "'But my mother, you took her some?' "'She is asleep.' "'And my father?'

I carried him some also. He said that he would come and thank the knight in person. She took the bread and raised it to her mouth. With inexpressible delight, Andri watched her break it with her shining fingers. And all at once, he recalled the man mad with hunger who had expired before his very eyes on swallowing a morsel of bread. He turned pale and seizing her hand, cried, Enough! Eat no more! You have not eaten for so long that bread will be poison to you now. She immediately dropped her hand.

She laid the bread on the plate and gazed into his eyes like a submissive child, and if any words could express. But neither chisel nor brush nor all-powerful speech is capable of expressing what is sometimes to be seen in the glances of maidens, nor the tender feeling which takes possession of him who sees such maiden glances. "'Zaritza!' exclaimed Andri, filled heart and soul with emotion and with overflowing feelings of every sort. "'What do you need? What do you wish?'

Command me! Impose on me the most impossible task in all the world. I will fly to perform it, even though I perish. I will perish, I will. And I swear by the Holy Cross that death for your sake is so sweet. But no, it's impossible to say how sweet it is. I have three farms. Half my father's drove of horses is mine. All that my mother brought my father in dowry and still conceals even from him. All this is mine.

Not one of the Cossacks now possesses such weapons as I do. For the hilt of my sword alone they would give their best drove of horses and three thousand sheep. And all this will I renounce, discard, throw aside. I will burn it, drown it, if you will but say the word or even move your delicate black brows. But I know that I am probably talking 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 in Zaparge to speak as they are wont who speak among kings, princes, and all the rest of the noble knights. I perceive that you are a different sort of God's creature from the rest of us, and far above all other nobles' wives and their maiden daughters."

With glowing amazement did the maiden listen, all ear, losing no single word to this frank, sincere language in which, as in a mirror, the strong young spirit was reflected. And each simple word of this speech, uttered in a voice which winged its way straight to the depths of the heart, was clothed with power. And she bent forward her beautiful face, pushed back her troublesome hair, opened her mouth, and gazed long with parted lips.

Then she tried to say something, but suddenly paused, remembering that the night came in a different class, that his father, brethren, country, stood behind him as grim avengers, that the Zaporozhtsy who were besieging the city were terrible men, and a cruel death awaited all who were in the place, and her eyes suddenly filled with tears. She caught up a handkerchief embroidered in silks, and threw it over her face, and in a moment it was all wet.

She sat long with her beautiful head thrown back, her snowy teeth on her lovely under lip, as though she had suddenly felt the sting of a poisonous serpent, and without removing the handkerchief from her face, lest he should see her broken with grief. "Speak one word to me," entreated Andri, taking her satin hand. A sparkling fire coursed through his veins at the touch, and he pressed the hand which lay apathetically in his own. But she maintained silence,

never taking the kerchief from her face, and remained motionless. "Why are you so sad? Tell me, why are you so sad?" She cast aside the handkerchief, pushed back her long hair which fell over her eyes, and poured out her heart in mournful speech, in a quiet voice like the breeze which, arising on a beautiful evening, suddenly blows through a dense growth of reeds beside the stream. They rustle, murmur, and suddenly begin to emit delicately sad sounds,

And the wayfarer, pausing, in inexplicable melancholy, captures them, and heeds neither the fading light, nor the gay songs of the people which float past as they stray homeward from their labours in meadow and stubble-field, nor the distant rumble of a passing cart. Am I not worthy of eternal pity? Is not the mother who brought me into the world unhappy? Is it not a bitter fate which has fallen to my share? Art not thou a cruel executioner, my grim fate?

thou has brought all to my feet the highest nobles in the land the wealthiest gentleman counts and foreign barons and all the flower of our knighthood all these were free to love me and any one of them would have accounted 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 oh my bitter fate

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 sins dost thou piteously, so mercilessly persecute me? In abundance and superfluity of luxury my days have been passed. The richest dishes, the sweetest wines have been my food. And to what end was it all?

What was it all for? In order that I might at the last die a cruel death, such as is not the lot of even the meanest beggar in the kingdom? And was it 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 intolerable torment, when I would willingly have given my own life twenty times over to save them? All this was not enough.

Before my own death I must see and hear Words and love such as I had never known before. It needs must be that he should break my heart in pieces 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 God,

and when she ceased in despair a feeling of hopelessness was expressed in her face every feature spoke of gnawing sorrow and all from the sadly bowed brow and downcast eyes to the tears trickling down and drying on her softly flushed 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 it shall not be said andri 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 shall not die i swear it by my birth and by all i hold dear in the world you shall not die

but if it must indeed be so if nothing neither strength nor prayer nor heroism will avail to avert that cruel fate then we will die together and i will die first i will die before you at your beauteous knees and even in death they shall not part us deceive not yourself and me knight she said gently shaking her beautiful head i know and to my great sorrow i know only too well that it is impossible for you to love me

I know what your duty is and what your faith, your father, your comrades, your fatherland call you, and we are your enemies.

"'And what are my father, my comrades, my fatherland to me?' said Andriy, shaking his head with a quick movement, and straightening up his young figure like a poplar beside the river. "'Be that as it may, I have no one, no one, no one,' he repeated, with the same voice and movement of the hand, wherewith the buoyant, irrepressible Cossack expresses his determination to do some unheard-of deed, impossible to any other man. "'Who has said that my fatherland is the Ukraine?'

Who gave it to me for my country? Our fatherland is the one our spirit longs for, the one which is dearest of all to it. My country is you. That is my fatherland, and that land I bear in my heart. I shall bear it there all my life long, and I will see whether any of the Cossacks can dare it thence. And I will renounce everything, barter everything. I will lose myself for that country.

Petrified for an instant, she gazed into his eyes like a beautiful statue, and suddenly burst out sobbing. And with that wonderful feminine impetuosity, of which only grand-souled uncalculating women created for fine impulses are capable, she threw herself upon his neck, encircling it with her wondrous snowy arms, and fell to weeping. At that moment indistinct shouts rang out in the streets, accompanied by the sound of trumpets and kettledrums, but he heard them not.

He was conscious of nothing save the lovely mouth which was bathing him in its warm sweet breath, of the tears streaming down his face and her long unbound perfumed hair which veiled him completely in its dark shining silk. At that moment the Tatar ran in with a cry of joy. "Saved! Saved!" she cried beside herself. "Our troops have arrived in the city. They have brought corn, millet, flour and Zaporozhian chains.

But neither of them heard that our troops had arrived in the city, nor what they had brought with them, nor how they had bound the Zaporozh'e. Filled with feelings untasted elsewhere on earth, Andriy 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 is given to a man to feel but once in his lifetime. And the Cossack was lost. He was lost to Cossack chivalry.

Never again will you behold, Sir Porriget, nor his father's house, nor the church of God. The Ukraine will never more behold the bravest of her sons, who have undertaken to defend her. Old Taras will tear a grey tuft from his scalp-lock, and curse the day and the hour in which such a son was born to dishonour him. End of chapter 6

You're listening to Classic Audiobook Collection. Give us five stars and share with a friend who likes free audiobooks as much as we do. Now back to the show. Chapter 7 of Taras Bulba by Gogol. Translated by Isabel Hapgood. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Noise and movement were rife in the camp of the Zborosi. At first, no one could explain the true reason why the army had managed to enter the city.

Afterwards it appeared that the Bereslavsky barrack, encamped before the side gate of the city, had been dead drunk, so it was no wonder that half of the men had been killed and the other half bound before they knew what it was all about. While the neighbouring Karenz, aroused by the uproar, were grasping their weapons, the army had already passed through the gate, and the rear ranks fired upon the sleepy and only half-sober Zaporozhse, who were pressing in disorder upon them.

The Koschevoi ordered all to be assembled, and when all were standing in a ring and had removed their caps and become quiet, he said, Just see, brother nobles, what happened last night. See what drunkenness has led to. See what an insult the enemy has put upon us. Evidently, it is so arranged with us that if one kindly doubles your allowance, then you are ready to get drunk, and the enemies of Christ can not only take your very trousers off you, but can even sneeze in your faces without your hearing them.

The Cossacks all stood with drooping heads, knowing well that they were guilty. Only one, Kukubenko, the Ataman of the Nezamaeski Karen, answered back. "'Stop, father!' said he. "'Although it's not lawful to make such a retort when the Koschevoi speaks, in the presence of the whole army, yet it is necessary to say that that wasn't the way of it. 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 labour. But we have been camped down here, unoccupied, loitering in vain before the city. It was not a fast or any other time of Christian abstinence. How can a man do otherwise than get drunk in idleness? There's no sin in that, but we'd better show them what it is to attack innocent people.

They first beat us well, and now we'll give them such a beating that they won't carry five of them home again. The speech of the Barakataman pleased the Cossacks. They raised their utterly despondent heads upright, and many nodded approvingly, muttering, Kukubenko has spoken well. And Taras Bulba, who stood not far from the Koschevoi, said, How now, Koschevoi? Kukubenko has spoken truth. What have you to say to that?

What have I to say? I say, blessed be the father who begat such a son. It requires not much wisdom to utter words of reproof, but much wisdom is needed to say such words as, without cursing a man's misfortune, encourage him, restore to him his spirit, put spurs to the horse of his soul, refreshed by watering. I meant myself to speak words of comfort to you, but Kukubenko has forestalled me.

"The Koschevoi also has spoken well," rang through the ranks of the Zaporozhets. "His words are good," repeated others. And even the grey heads who stood there like dark blue doves nodded their heads, and twitching their grey moustaches said softly, "That word was well spoken." "Listen now, noble sirs," continued the Koschevoi, "to take a city, scale it, undermine it as the foreign engineers do, is the sort of shamming we'll leave to the enemy."

That's not proper nor an affair for a Cossack. But judging from appearances, the enemy entered the city without many provisions. They hadn't many carts with them. The people in the city are hungry. They will eat up everything in a trice, and the horses will do the same with the hay. I don't know whether one of their saints will toss them down anything from heaven with hay forks. God alone knows that. But their Catholic priests are clever at empty words. 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 karens before the principal gate, and three karens before each of the others. Let the Diyanivsky and Korsensky barracks go into the ambush. Colonel Taras and his regiment into ambush.

the Titoerewski and the Tounrashevskii Karens as reserves on the right side of the transports, the Scherbanovskii and the upper Steblekivskii on the left, and select from the ranks the young men of most quarrelsome tongue to gall the foe. All the acts are an empty-headed lot and can't endure abuse, and perhaps this very day they will issue forth from the gates

Let each Ataman inspect his karen. If any are not of full strength, recruit them from the remnants of the Pereyaslavsky karen. Inspect them all afresh. Give a loaf and a beaker to each Cossack to sober him. But surely everyone must be satiated after last night, for all stuffed themselves so that, truth to tell, I'm only surprised that no one burst during the night. And here is one further command.

If any Jew rum-seller sells a Cossack so much as a single jug of his vile brandy, I'll nail a pig's ear to his very forehead, the dog, and I'll hang him up by the feet. To work, my men, to work. Thus did the Koschevoi issue his orders. And all did him reverence, bowing low, even to his girdle. And without putting on their caps, they set out for their transports and camps. And only after they had gone a considerable distance did they don their caps.

all began to equip themselves they tested their swords and cutlasses poured powder from the sacks into their powder flasks rolled out and arranged the wagons and picked out their horses on his way to his regiment taras wandered and could not explain to himself what had become of andri had he been captured and bound while asleep with the others but no andri was not the man to go alive into captivity and he was not to be seen among the slaughtered cossacks

Tarras pondered deeply, and went past his regiment without being aware that someone had long been calling him by name. "'Who wants me?' he said, coming to himself at last. Before him stood the Jew Yankle. "'Sir Colonel! Sir Colonel!' said the Jew in a hurried, broken voice, as though desirous of revealing something not utterly useless. "'I've been in the city, Sir Colonel.' Tarras looked at the Jew, and wondered how he had already succeeded in entering the city. "'What enemy took you there?'

"'I'll tell you at once,' said Yankul. "'As soon as I heard the uproar at daybreak "'and the Cossacks began to fire, "'I seized my kaftan 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 why the Cossacks were firing at dawn. "'I took and ran to the very gate of the city "'at the moment when the last of the troops were passing through. "'I look, and at the head of the file is Kornit Galyandovich. "'He is a man well known to me.'

he has owed me a hundred ducats for more than two years past i ran after him as though to claim the debt of him and so entered the city with them so you entered the city and wanted him to settle the debt said taras and he didn't order you to be hung on the spot like a dog god is my witness that he did want to hang me replied the jew

his servants had already seized me and thrown a rope about my neck but i besought the nobleman and said that i would wait for my money as long as he liked and promised to send him more if only he would help me to collect my debts from the other knights for i will tell your nobility that the cornet has not a ducat in his pocket although he has farms and properties in four castles and steppe land that extends to

But he has not a Groschen any more than a Cossack. And now if the Breslau Jews had not fitted him out, he wouldn't have been able to go to the war. That was the reason he didn't go to the Diet. What did you do in the city? Did you see any of our people? Certainly. Many of our people are there. Itzhak, Rakum, Samuel, Kaivalk, Yevre, the revenue farmer...

"'May they perish, the dogs!' shouted the enraged Tarras. "'Why do you name over your Jew tribe to me? I'm asking you about our Ziporoshti!' "'I saw none of our Ziporoshti. I saw only Panandri.' "'You saw Andri!' shouted Bulba. "'What's he doing there? Where did you see him? In a dungeon? In a pit? Dishonoured? Bound?' "'Who would dare to bind Panandri?'

"'Now he's so grand a knight, by God, I hardly recognised him. "'Gold on his shoulder-straps, gold on his belt. "'Gold everywhere, always gold, as when the sun shines in spring "'and every bird begins to chirp and sing in the orchards, "'so is he shining all over with gold. "'And his horse, which the voivode 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's put them on because they're finer. And he rides about. And the others ride about. And he teaches them. And they teach him. Like the very richest sort of a Polish pan. Who has forced him to this? I shouldn't say that he'd been forced. Doesn't the noble lord know that he went over to them of his own free will? Who went over? Why, Pan Andri. Went where? Went over to their side. He's entirely theirs now. You lie, you hogs here!

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 don't i know that jews are hung like dogs if they lie to noble lords then this means in your opinion he has betrayed his fatherland and his faith

I don't say that he's betrayed anything. I merely said that he'd gone over to them. You lie! You devil of a Jew! Such a deed was never known in a Christian land. You're getting things mixed up, you dog! May grass grow upon the threshold of my house if I am mixing things. May everyone spit upon the grave of my father, my mother, my father's father-in-law and my mother's father if I am mixing things. If the noble Lord wishes, I can even tell him why he went over to them. Why?!

"'The voivode has a beautiful daughter. "'Holy God, what a beauty!' "'Here the Jew tried his best to depict beauty in his own person, "'throwing out his hands, screwing up his eyes, "'and twisting his mouth to one side, "'as though testing something by tasting it. "'Well, what of that?' "'He did it, went over to them, for her sake. "'When a man's in love, then he's just like a boot-sole "'which if you soak it you can bend in any direction and it will yield.' "'Bulba pondered deeply.'

He remembered that the power of weak woman is great, that she had ruined many a strong man, that this was the weak point in Andri's nature, and he stood long in one place as though rooted to the spot. Listen, noble lord, and I will tell the noble lord all, said the Jew. As soon as I heard the uproar and saw them going through the city gate, I caught up a string of pearls in case of any emergency, for there are beauties and noble women there.

and if there are beauties and noble women i said to myself they will buy pearls even if they have nothing to eat and as soon as ever the cornet servants set me at liberty i hastened to the voivode's palace to sell my pearls i asked all manner of questions to the tatar serving-woman

"'The wedding is to take place as soon as they have driven off the Zaporossi. "'Pan Andri has promised to drive off the Zaporossi.' "'And you didn't slay him on the spot, you devil's brat!' shouted Bulba. "'Why should I kill him? He went over of his own free will. "'What's the crime? He liked it better there. So he went there. "'And you saw him face to face!'

face to face god is my witness such a magnificent warrior more splendid than all the rest god grant him health he knew me at once and when i approached him he said immediately what did he say he said first he beckoned me with his finger and then he said yankle and i panandri said i yankle

Tell my father, tell my brother, tell all the Cossacks, all the Zaporossi, everybody, that my father is no longer my father, nor my brother my brother, nor my comrades my comrades, and that I mean to fight them all, all. You lie, you devil of a Judas, shouted Taras, beside himself with rage. You lie, dog, I'll kill you, Satan. Get away from here. If not, death awaits you. So saying, Taras unsheathed his sword.

The frightened Jew set off instantly at the full speed of his shrunken 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 pursue him at all, reasoning that it was foolish to vent his rage on the first person who came to hand. Then he recollected that he had seen Andrii on the night before, traversing the camp with some woman, and he bowed his grey head. And still he would not believe that so disgraceful a thing could have happened.

and that his own son had sold his faith and his soul. Finally, he led his regiment into ambush and hid himself with it behind a forest, the only one which had not been burned by the Cossacks. But the Zaporoshtzi foot and horse set out for the three gates by different roads. One after another the Karenz turned out. The Umansky, Popovichevsky, Konevsky, Steblikovsky, Nezamaikovsky, Gurgazy, Titarovsky, Timoshevsky.

The Pereyaslavski alone was wanting. Its Cossacks had smoked and drunk it to its fate. One awoke to find himself bound in the enemy's hands. Another never woke at all, but went in his slumber into the damp earth. And the Ataman Klib himself, minus his trousers and outward adornments, found himself in the camp of the Leaks. The uproar among the Cossacks was heard in the city. Everyone hastened to the ramparts, and a lively spectacle was presented to the Cossacks.

Polish warriors, 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 or blue, with crowns which drooped over one ear. Kaftans with the sleeves thrown back, either embroidered with gold or simply garnished with cords. Their swords and guns were richly chased, and the noble lords had paid huge prices for them. They had also many equipments of every sort.

In front stood the heavy Budzhakovsky colonel, haughtily, in his red cap ornamented with gold. The colonel was taller and stouter than all the rest, and his rich and voluminous caftan was a tight fit. On the other hand, almost by the side of the gate stood another colonel, a small dried-up man, but his little piercing eyes gleamed sharply from under his thick and shaggly overgrown brows, and he turned quickly on all sides, gesticulating energetically with his thin, withered hand and distributing his commands.

It was evident that in spite of his tiny body, he understood the art of war thoroughly. Not far from him stood a very tall cornet with thick moustaches, and he did not seem to lack colour in his face. The noble lord was fond of strong mead and hearty revelry. And behind these were visible army noblemen of all degrees, who had equipped themselves, some with their own ducats, some at the expense of the royal treasury, some with money from the Jews, by pawning everything they had in their ancestral castles.

many also were the senatorial parasites whom the senators took with them to dinners to make a fine show and who stole silver cups from the table and the sideboard and after the day's show was over mounted some gentleman's coach-box and drove his horses there were many of all sorts there in some cases they had not enough money to pay for a drink yet they were all fitted out for war the cossacks ranks stood quietly in front of the walls there was no gold about any of them except here and there

perhaps a glint of it on the hilt of a sword, or the mount of a gun. The Cossacks were not addicted to decking themselves out gaily for battle. Their chain armour and their doublets were plain, and their black-red crowned caps glowed darkly afar. Two Cossacks rode out from the ranks of Zaporozhse. One was quite young, the other was older. Both were fierce in words, and not bad specimens of Cossacks in action. Okhrim Nash and Mikita Golokopitenko

Behind them rode Dmit Popovich, a stalwart Cossack, who had been hanging about the Siege for a long time, who had been present at the siege of Adrianople and undergone a great deal in the course of his existence. He had been burned in the conflagration and had run away to the Siege with tarred and blackened head and singed moustaches. But Popovich had become stout, had grown long locks of hair behind the ears, had raised moustaches black as pitch, and was a gallant fellow when it came to biting speeches, was Popovich.

Aha! Red caftans on all the army. But what I'd like to know is whether the strength of the troops matches them. I'll give it to you, shouted the fat colonel from above. I'll bind you all. Surrender your guns and horses, slaves. Have you seen how I bound your men? Bring out the Zaporozhye on the ramparts for them to see. And the Zaporozhye were laid out, pinioned with ropes.

At their head stood the Ataman of the barrack, Klib, without his trousers and outward adornments, exactly as they had captured him in his drunken sleep. And the Ataman bowed his head earthward in shame before the Cossacks, at his nakedness and at having been taken prisoner like a dog while asleep. His powerful head had turned grey overnight. "'Grieve not, Klib! We'll rescue you!' shouted the Cossacks from below. "'Grieve not, dear friend!' shouted Ataman Borodati.'

"'It's not your fault they caught you naked. That's a misfortune which may happen to any man. But it's a disgrace to them that they have exposed you to dishonour and not covered your nakedness decently. You seem to be a brave army when you catch people asleep,' remarked Golokopitenko, glancing at the ramparts. "'Wait, we'll clip your top knots for you.' "'I'd like to see them clip our scalp locks,' said Popovich.'

Broncing about before them on his horse, then glancing at his comrades, he said, Well, perhaps the Leac speak the truth. If that fat-bellied fellow yonder leads them, they'll all find a good shelter behind him. Why do you think they'll find a good shelter? asked the Cossacks, aware that Popovich was preparing to launch some cutting remark.

Because the whole army can hide behind him and two devils couldn't help you to reach anybody with your spear from behind that belly of his. All the Cossacks burst out laughing and many of them shook their heads saying, What a fellow that Popovich is. If anyone wants to turn a phrase, only 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 appeared that the Leaks could not endure these biting words, and the Colonel waved his hand. The Cossacks had barely retreated from the wall when grapeshot rained down. On the ramparts all was excitement, and the grey-haired Voivode himself made his appearance on horseback. The gates swung open, and the army sallied forth. In front came the mounted hussars. Behind them the men in armour,

Then all those with brazen helmets, after them rode singly the highest nobility, each man dressed as pleased him best. The haughty nobles would not mingle with the others in the ranks, and those who had no commands rode alone with their retinues. After these came more companies, and after these still emerged the cornet, then more files of men, and then the fat colonel, and quite in the rear of the whole army came, last of all, the little colonel.

"Stop them! Keep them from drawing up, from forming in line!" shouted the Koschevoi. "Let all the Karen's attack them at once! Abandon the other gates! Titovsky-Karen, fall on one flank! Jeddakovsky-Karen, fall on the other! Attack them in the rear! Kukobenko and Palyavoda! Stop them! Stop them! Separate them!" And the Cossacks attacked on all sides, killing the Lyaks, throwing them into confusion, and being thrown into confusion themselves.

They did not even give them time to fire. It came to swords and spears at once. All merged together in a heap, and each man had an opportunity to distinguish himself. Dimit Popovich ran three common soldiers through, and knocked two of the highest nobles from their horses, saying, Here are good horses! I have long wanted to get hold of just such horses! And he drove the horses far afield, shouting to the Cossacks who were standing about to catch them.

Then he flung himself again into the mass, 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 after having taken from him his sword with a rich hilt, and removed from his girdle a whole coinbag of ducats. Kubita, a good Cossack and still very young, engaged one of the bravest men in the Polish army in single combat, and they fought long together.

they had come to fisticuffs and the cossack had nearly conquered his foe and throwing him down stabbed him in the breast with his sharp turkish knife but he did not guard himself properly at that moment a hot bullet struck him on the temple the man who struck him down was the most distinguished of the nobles the handsomest knight of an ancient and princely race

Like a stately column he bestrode his light bay steed, and many deeds of daring did this boyar perform. He clove two Cossacks in twain. Fyodor Korzh, the brave Cossack, he overthrew together with his horse. Then he shot the horse and picked the Cossack off the animal with his spear. Many heads and hands did he hew off, and he slew Cossack Kubita, sending a bullet through his temple.

"'There's the man I'd like to measure forces with!' shouted Kukubenko, the Ataman of the Nezmaikovsky Karen. Spurring on his horse, he flew straight at his back and shouted loudly, so that all that stood near shuddered at that unearthly yell. The Leac tried to turn his horse quickly and face him, but the horse did not obey. Frightened by the terrible cry, it sprang aside and the Leac received Kukubenko's fire. The hot ball struck him in the shoulder blade and he rolled from his horse."

But even then the Leac did not surrender. He still strove to deal his enemy a blow, but his hand grew weak and fell with his sword. Then Kukabenko, taking his heavy sword in both hands, thrust it into his mouth, already grown pallid. The sword, breaking out two teeth, cut the tongue in twain, pierced the windpipe and penetrated deep into the ground, and so he pinned him there forever to the damp earth.

his noble blood scarlet as viburnum berries beside the river welled up in a fountain and stained his yellow gold-embroidered caftan but kukubenko had already left him and was forcing his way with his nezamaikovski karen towards another group he didn't appropriate those splendid accoutrements said borodaty ataman of the umanski karen leaving his men and going to the place where lay the nobleman slayed by kukubenko

"I've killed several nobles with my own hand, but such accoutrements I had never beheld on anyone!" And tempted by greed, Boredati bent down to remove the rich armour, and forthwith pulled out the knight's Turkish knife, set with precious stones, loosed from his belt the purse of ducats, and from his breast a wallet with fine linen, silver, and a maiden's curl, carefully cherished as a souvenir. But Boredati did not hear the red-nosed cornet rushing upon him from the rear.

He had already once hurled him from the saddle, and bestowed on him a fine gash by way of remembrance. He flourished his arm with all his might, and brought his sword down on the bended neck. Greed led to no good. The strong head rolled off, and the body fell headless, sprinkling the earth far and wide. The grim Cossack soul soared heavenward, grimacing, indignant, amazed at having so suddenly quitted, so stalwart a body.

before the cornet managed to seize the ataman's head with its scalp-lock and fasten it to his saddle a savage avenger arrived as a vulture hovering in the sky beating great circles with its mighty wings suddenly remained poised in air in one spot and thence darts down like an arrow upon the shrieking cock-whale beside the road

just so did taras's son ostap fly suddenly upon the cossack and fling a rope about his neck with one cast the cornet's red face grew a still deeper crimson when the cruel noose pressed his throat and he tried to seize his pistol but his convulsively contracted 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 his own cord bound him hand and foot, attached the cord to his saddle, and dragged him across the plain, calling all the Cossacks of the Umansky Kuren to come and render the last honour to their Ataman. When the Umansky heard that the Ataman of their Kuren, Borodati, was no longer among the living, they deserted the field of battle, and rushed to recover his body.

and they consulted immediately as to whom they should elect to be their leader. At last they said, "But why discuss the matter? It's impossible to appoint a better leader than Bulba's Ostap. He's younger than any of us, it's true, but his judgment is that of an old man." Ostap, doffing his cap, thanked all his Cossacks for the honour, and did not decline, either on the score of his youth or of his youthful judgment, knowing well that wartime is not a fitting season to waste oneself on such things.

But he instantly led them straight at the throng and proceeded to show them all that not in vain had they elected him at Amman. The Liyaks realized that the engagement was growing too hot for them and retreated across the plain with the intention of reforming at its other extremity. But the little colonel signaled to four fresh companies close to the gate and they rained down grape shot on the Cossack throng. But very few men were hit. Their shot took effect on the Cossack oxen who were gazing wildly at the battle.

The frightened oxen bellowed, turned on the camps, smashed the wagons and trampled many persons underfoot. But Taras, emerging from ambush at the moment with his troops, rushed forward with a yell to intercept them. He headed off the entire infuriated herd which, startled by his yell, swooped down upon the Polish regiments, overthrew the cavalry and crushed and dispersed them all.

"'Oh, thank you, oxen!' cried the Zaporoshzi. "'You served us on the march, and now you have served us in war!' And they attacked the foe with renewed vigour. They slew many of the enemy. Many distinguished themselves. Metelitsa, Shiloh, both of the Pisarenkos, Vovtisenko, and not a few others. The Leaks perceived that matters were going ill, flung away their banners, and shouted for the city gates to be opened.'

Creaking, the iron-bound gates opened and received the weary and dust-covered riders, flocking in like sheep into the fold. Many of the Zaporozh'i started to pursue them. But Ostap stopped his amancy, saying, "Keep off! Keep further away from the wall, brother nobles! 'Tis not well to approach them too closely." And he spoke truly, for from the ramparts there began to rain and pour down everything which came to hand, and a great many were struck.

At that moment the Koschevoi rode up and praised Ostap, saying, "He's a new Ataman, but he's leading the army like an old one!" Old Bulba glanced round to see who the new Ataman might be, and beheld Ostap sitting on his horse at the head of the Amanci, his cap cocked on one ear, and the Ataman's staff in his hand. "Whoever saw the like!" he exclaimed as he gazed at him, and the old man rejoiced and began to thank all the Amanci for the honour they had conferred on his son.

The Cossacks retired again and were preparing to go into camp, but the Leacs showed themselves again on the city ramparts with tattered mantles. There was clotted blood on many rich caftans, and the beautiful bronze helmets were covered with dust. "'Have you bound us?' shouted the Zaporozhse to them from below. "'I'll give it to you!' shouted back the fat colonel from above, shaking a rope at them, and the weary, dust-covered warriors ceased not to threaten, while the most exasperating on both sides exchanged fierce remarks."

at last all dispersed one weary with battle stretched himself out to rest another sprinkled his wounds with earth and tore up for bandages kerchiefs and rich garments captured from the enemy others who were less exhausted began to sort over the corpses and to render them the last honours

They dug graves with their swords and spears, brought earth in their caps and the skirts of their garments, laid the Cossacks' bodies out decently, and buried them in fresh earth, in order that the ravens and the eagles might not claw out their eyes. But binding the corpses of the Leacs by tens, as they came to hand to the tails of wild horses, they let these loose on the plain, pursued them, and lashed them for a long time on their flanks.

The infuriated horses flew over furrow and hillock, through gullies and streams, and thrashed the bodies of the poles, all covered with blood and dust, against the earth. Then all the Kurens sat down in circles in the evening, and talked long of their deeds, and of the feats which had fallen to the share of each, for eternal repetition by newcomers, and by posterity. It was long before they lay down to sleep,

and longer still before old taras meditating what it might signify that andri was not among the enemy's warriors lay down had judas been ashamed to come forth against his countrymen or had the jew deceived him and had he simply been made a captive against his will but then he recollected that andri's heart was boundlessly susceptible to feminine speeches

He felt ashamed and swore a mighty oath in spirit against the fair Pole who had bewitched his son. And he would have put his oath into execution. He would not have so much as glanced at her beauty. He would have pulled her forth by her thick and splendid hair. He would have dragged her after him all over the plain, among all the Cossacks. Her splendid shoulders and bosom, white as fresh-fallen snow upon the mountaintops, would have been battered against the earth.

and all covered with blood and dust. He would have dispersed her sumptuous, lovely body in fragments. But Taras did not know what God was preparing for man on the morrow, and began to forget himself with drowsiness, and finally fell asleep. But the Cossacks still went on talking among themselves, and the sober sentinel stood all night long beside the fire, never closing his eyes, and looking intently on all sides. End of chapter seven

The sun had not scaled half the height of heaven when all the Cossacks assembled in a group.

News had arrived from the Siech that the Tatars, during the Cossacks' absence, had plundered it thoroughly, had dug up the treasures which the Cossacks kept buried in the ground, had killed or carried away into captivity all who remained, and had straightaway set out with all the flocks and droves of horses they had collected for Perikop.

One Cossack only, Maxim Golodukha, had torn himself out of the Tatar's hands on the road, had stabbed the Mirza, had unbound his bag of sequins, and on a Tatar horse in Tatar garments, had fled before his pursuers for two nights and a day and a half, ridden his horse to death, changed to another, killed that one also, and arrived at the Zaporozhian camp upon a third, having learned on the way that the Zaporozhsi were before Dubno.

He only succeeded in informing them that this misfortune had happened, but how it had happened, whether the Zaporozhsev who had remained behind had been carousing in Cossack fashion and had been carried drunk into captivity, and how the Tatars had learned in what spot the treasures of the army were buried, he said nothing. The Cossack was extremely tired. He was all swollen, and his face was burned and scorched by the wind. He fell down at once, and a deep sleep overpowered him.

in such cases it was customary for the koschevoi to pursue the brigands on the instant endeavoring to overtake them on the road for the prisoners might find themselves promptly in the bazaars of asia minor in smyrna or the island of crete and god knows in what places the scalp-locked heads of zaporizhzi might not be seen this was the reason of the cossacks assembling

they all stood to a man with their caps on for they were not come together at the word of command of their ruling ataman but to take counsel together as equals with equals let the old men first advise rose a shout from the crowd let the koshevoy give his opinion said others and the koshevoy doffing his cap not as commander but as a comrade among comrades thanked all the cossacks for the honour and said

There are among us many old men, and those who are wise are in council. But since you have deemed me worthy, this is my advice: not to lose any time, comrades, but to pursue the Tatar's, for you know yourselves what sort of a man 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:

Go. We have already diverted ourselves sufficiently here. The Leacs know what the Cossacks are like. We have avenged our faith to the extent of our powers. There's not much to satisfy greed in this famished city. And so my advice is, go.

"'Go!' rang heavily through the Zaporozhian Karenz, but such words did not suit Taras Bulba's mood at all, and he brought his frowning, iron-grey brows still lower down over his eyes, like bushes growing on a dark, lofty mountain, whose crests are suddenly covered with prickly northern frost. "'No, Koschevoi! Your counsel is not good!' said he. "'You have not spoken aright!'

Evidently, you have forgotten that our men captured by the Leaks will remain prisoners? Evidently, you wish that we should not respect 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 have been quartered as was done with the Hetman and the bravest warriors in the Ukraine. Have not they already blasphemed sufficiently against the holy things without that?

What are we? I ask you all, what sort of a Cossack would he be who should desert his comrade in misfortune 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 honour, permitting himself to spit upon his grey moustache and upbraid him with offensive words, then no one will blame me. I will remain here alone. All the Zaporossi then who stood there wavered.

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, they will be sold into everlasting captivity 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? All the Cossacks pondered and knew not what to say. None of them wished to merit disgraceful renown.

Then they stepped out in front of them, the oldest in years of all the Zaporizhian army, Kasyan Bovdyuk. He was respected by all the Cossacks. Twice had he been elected Koshovoi, and he had also been a very 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 anyone, but he loved to lie constantly on his side in the circle of Cossacks, listening to the tale of every occurrence on the Cossack marches. He never joined in the conversation.

but merely listened, and with his finger pressed the ashes down in the short pipe which never left his mouth, and then he would sit long with his eyes half open, and the Cossacks never knew whether he were asleep or still listening. He always stayed at home during their expeditions, but on this occasion the whim to take part had seized upon the old man. He waved his hand in Cossack fashion and said, "So be it! I'm going also! Perhaps I may be of some service to the Cossack nation!"

All the Cossacks fell silent when he now stepped forward before the assembly, for it was long since any speech from him had been heard. Each man wanted to know what Bovdug had to say. "It's my turn to speak a word, brother nobles," he began. "Listen, my lads, to an old man. The Koschevoi spoke wisely, and as the head of the Cossack army, and bound to protect it, and regretting the treasures of the army, he could have said nothing wiser. That's a fact.

That's my first speech. And now, hearken to my second. This is my second speech. Colonel Taras has spoken even more truly, God grant him many years, and that such colonels as he may be plentiful in the Ukraine. The first duty and the first honour of a Cossack is to uphold comradeship.

Never in all my life, brother nobles, have I heard of any Cossack deserting or selling any of his comrades. The men there and the men here are equally our comrades, whether they be few or many, 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 wish to desert a righteous cause, stay behind. The Koschevoi, in accordance with his duty, will accompany one half in pursuit of the Tatars, and the other half may choose a temporary Ataman to lead them. But if you will heed the words of an old man, there is no one more fit to act as temporary Ataman than Taras Bulba.

"Not one of us is his equal in valor," thus spoke Bovdug and paused. And all the Cossacks rejoiced that the old man had, in this manner, set them to rights. All tossed up their caps and shouted, "Thanks, Batko! He has been silent, silent for a long time, but he has spoken at last. Not in vain did he say, when we were preparing for this expedition, that he might be useful to the Cossack nation. Even so has it come to pass.

"Well, are you agreed upon anything?" asked the Koschevoi. "We are!" shouted the Cossacks. "Then the council is at an end?" "It is!" shouted the Cossacks. "Then listen to the military command, my lads," said the Koschevoi, stepping forward and putting on his cap. And all the Cossacks took off their caps and stood with heads uncovered and eyes fixed upon the earth, as was always the custom among the Cossacks when the leader prepared to speak.

Now divide yourselves, brother nobles. Let those who wish to go take their stand on the right, and those who wish to stay on the left. Where the majority of a Karen goes, then the rest are to go. If a minority of a Karen goes over, it must be added to another Karen. And they began to take up their positions, some on the right, some on the left. Whither the majority of a Karen went, there the Ataman went also. And where there was a minority, the Karen attached itself to another Karen.

and it came out pretty even on both sides. Those who wished to remain were nearly the whole of the Nezamaikovsky Karen, the larger half of the Popovichevsky Karen, the entire Umansky Karen, the entire Konevsky Karen, and the larger half of the Steblikivsky and Timoshevsky Karens. All the rest offered to go in pursuit of the Tatars. On both sides were many stalwart and valorous Cossacks. Among those who decided to pursue the Tatars were Cerevati and the good old Cossacks, Pokotipolei, Lemes and Koma Prokopovich.

Demid Popovich also went in that party, because he was a Cossack of very restless disposition, and he could not stay still long in one place. He had tried his hand on the Leaks, and now wanted to try it on the Tatars also. The Atamans of Kurens were Nostugan, Pokryshka, Nevinsky, and many other brave and renowned Cossacks who wished to put their swords and their brawny shoulders to the test in an encounter with the Tatars.

there were likewise very brave cossacks not a few among those who elected to remain the karen ataman's dimitrovich kukubenko vertikvist balan and bulba's

Beside these there were many valiant and distinguished Cossacks: Vov Tizenko, Cherovichenko, Stepan Guzka, Okrem Guzka, Mikolai Guzchi, Zora Dozhni, Metelica, Ivan Zakrutiguba, Mosil Shiloh, Degtyarenko, Sidorenko, Pisarenko, a second Pisarenko, and still another Pisarenko, and many other good Cossacks. All of them had had great experience and had travelled far and wide.

They had been on the shores of Anatolia, on the salt marshes and the steppes of the Crimea, on all the rivers, great and small, which empty into the Dnieper, and on all the fords and islands of the Dnieper. They had been in Moldavia, Wallachia, and the Turkish land. They had sailed all over the Black Sea in their double-rutted Cossack boats. They had attacked with fifty skiffs in line the tallest and richest ships. They had sunk many a Turkish galley, and had burned much, very much powder in their day.

More than once had they torn up velvets and rich stuffs of cotton and silk for foot wrappers. Many a time had they beaten out buckles for the straps which confined their full trousers from the sequins of pure gold. And every one of them had drunk up and revelled away as much as would have sufficed any other man for a whole lifetime. And there was nothing to show for it. They had squandered it all, like Cossacks, in treating all the world and in hiring music so that everyone might be merry.

Even now, rare was the man among them who had not some property. Tankards, silver porringers, bracelets, buried under the reeds of the islands of the Dnieper, in order that the Tatars might not find them if, in case of disaster, they should succeed in making a sudden attack on the Sietch. But it would have been difficult for a Tatar to find them, for the owner himself was already beginning to forget where he had buried them.

Such were the Cossacks who wished to remain and take vengeance on the Leacs for their trusty comrades and the faith of Christ. The aged Cossack Bovdjig also wished to remain with them, saying: "My years do not permit me to pursue the Tatars, but this is the place where I may lie down in a good Cossack death. Long have I prayed to God that when my life was to end, I might end it in a war 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 old Cossack." When they had all separated and had ranged themselves in two lines on opposite sides, the Koschevoi passed through the ranks and said, "Well, brother nobles, are the two parties satisfied with each other?" "Yes, all satisfied, Batko," replied the Cossacks. "Then kiss one another and say goodbye, for God knows whether you will ever see each other again in this life. Obey your Ataman and do what your duty bids you."

"You yourselves know what Cossack honour commands!" And all the Cossacks began to exchange kisses. The Atamans were the first to begin. Stroking down their grey moustaches, they kissed each other in cross form. Then grasping each other's hands and squeezing them firmly, each wanted to say to the other, "Well, sir brother, shall we meet again or not?" But they did not ask the question. They kept silent, and both grey heads speculated on the future.

Then the Cossacks took leave of one another, to the last man, knowing well that both parties had a great deal of work before them. But they were not obliged to part at once. They had to wait until dark night, in order that the enemy might not notice the diminution in the Cossack army. Then they all went off, by Corenz, 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 was, perhaps, the last sleep they would taste in such freedom. They slept even until sunset,

and when the sun had gone down and twilight had descended to a certain degree they began to grease their carts when everything was in readiness they sent the wagons on ahead and having doffed their caps once more to their comrades they quickly followed the transports the cavalry with dignity without shouts or whistling at the horses trampled lightly after the foot soldiers and all speedily vanished in the darkness

The only sound was the dull thud of horses' hoofs, or the creaking of some wheel which had not got into working order, or had not been properly greased because of the darkness of the night. Their comrades stood for a long time waving their hands to them from afar, though nothing could be seen. But when they returned to their places, when they perceived by the light of the brightly gleaming stars that half the carts were gone, and many, many of their comrades, then every man's heart grew sad.

and all involuntarily became pensive, and their pleasure-loving heads drooped towards the earth. Taras saw how troubled the Cossacks had become, and that sadness, unfitting for brave men, had begun quietly to overmaster their heads. But he remained silent. He wished to give them all the time to become accustomed to the melancholy caused by their parting from their comrades.

But meantime he was quietly preparing to arouse them suddenly, and all at once, by a loud war-whoop, in Cossack fashion. In order that there might return afresh, and with greater strength than before, to the soul of each, that valour of which only the Slav race, a broad and powerful race, which is to others what the sea is to shallow rivers, is capable.

In stormy times it turns all 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. Antares ordered his servitors to unload one of the wagons which stood apart from the rest. It was larger and stronger than any other in the Cossack camp. Stout, double tyres encircled its huge wheels.

it was heavily laden covered with horse-cloths and strong wolfskins and firmly bound with tightly drawn tarred ropes in the wagon were flasks and casks of good old wine which had lain long in taras's cellars

He had brought it along as a reserve, to celebrate some occasion, in case a grand moment should arrive when there awaited them some deed worthy of being handed down to posterity, so that each Cossack, to the very last man, might quaff the forbidden liquor and be inspired with a grand sentiment befitting the grand moment.

On receiving their colonel's command, the servants hasted to the wagon, hewed the stout ropes with their swords, removed the thick wolfskins and horsecloths, and drew forth the flasks and casks. "'Take it, all of you,' said Bulba. "'All of you, no matter how many there are, take it in whatever you have, a ladle or a bucket for watering the horses, or your sleeve or your cap, but if you have nothing else, then simply hold your two fists under.'

And all the Cossacks seized something. One took a ladle, another a horse bucket, another a sleeve, another a cap, and still another held out both his 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.

"'Tarras knew that, no matter how strong in itself the good old wine 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 doubly great. "'I treat you, sir brothers,' thus spoke Bulba, "'not in honour of your having made me your Ataman, great as that honour is, "'nor to celebrate our parting from our comrades, no.'

Both these would be fitting at a different time, but not such is the present moment. The work before us is great in labour and in glory for the Cossacks. Let us therefore, comrades, drink all together. Let us drink before all else to the holy orthodox faith that the day may come at last when it may be spread over all the world and that everywhere there may be but one faith and that all Muslims may become Christians.

And let us drink also, all together, to the sietch, that it may stand long for the destruction of the Muslims, that each year there may issue forth from it young men, each better, each handsomer than the other. And let us also drink, all together, to our own glory, that our grandsons and the sons of those grandsons may say that there once were men who were not ashamed of comradeship, and who never betrayed one another,

"Now, to the Faith, sir brothers! To the Faith!" "To the Faith!" shouted with thick voices those who were standing in nearby ranks. "To the Faith!" Those more distant took up the cry, and all, both young and old, drank to the Faith. "To the Sjetch!" said Taras, raising his hand high above his head. "To the Sjetch!" echoed the foremost ranks.

"'To the Sietch!' said the old men softly, twitching their grey moustaches. And eagerly, as young hawks, the youths repeated, "'To the Sietch!' And the distant plain heard how the Cossacks commemorated their Sietch. "'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 Christians in the world. And among the ranks, in all the Karenz, they long repeated, "'For all the Christians in the world!'

the ladles were empty but the cossacks still stood with their hands uplifted although the eyes of all gleamed cheerily with the liquor all were thinking deeply not of greed or of the spoils of war were they thinking now nor of which of them would be lucky enough to acquire ducats fine weapons embroidered caftans and circassian horses

But they were meditating like eagles perched upon the rocky crests of lofty precipitous mountains, from which far away the boundless sea is visible, dotted as with tiny birds, with galleys, ships and every sort of vessel, confined at the sides by scarcely visible thin lines of shore, with their sea-coast cities like gnats, and their bending forests like short grass. Like eagles they gazed about them, all over the plain, and at their fate darkling in the distance.

It will come, all the plain, with its wastelands, and its road tracks will be covered with their white protruding bones, lavishly washed with their Cossack blood, and strewn with shattered wagons and splintered swords and spears. Far afield will be strewn the scalp-locked heads with downward drooping moustaches. The eagles will swoop down and tear out their Cossack eyes. But there is great good in this so widely and boldly broadcast bivouac of death.

not a single magnanimous deed will perish and the cossack glory will not be lost like a tiny grain of powder from a gun-barrel he will come the bandura player with grey beard falling upon his breast will come

and perhaps the old man still full of ripe manly strength though his head is white with years eloquent by the spirit will utter ringing mighty words of them and their glory shall resound through all the world and all who shall be born thereafter shall speak of them

for the word of power is borne afar reverberating like a booming brazen bell in which the maker has mingled much pure silver that its beautiful sound may be wafted far and wide through cities huts palaces and villages summoning all men without exception to hold orisons chapter eight chapter nine of taras bulba by goggle translated by isabel hapgood this librivox recording is in the public domain

No one in the city knew that one half of the Cossacks had gone in pursuit of the Tatars. From the Tower of the Magistrate, all the sentinels observed was that a part of the wagons had been dragged into the forest, but they thought the Cossacks were preparing an ambush, so also thought the French engineer. Meanwhile, the Koschevoi's words proved to be not devoid of foundation, and a scarcity of provisions arose in the city. In accordance with the custom of past centuries, the troops did not separate as much as was necessary.

They tried to make a sortie, but half the venturesome men were instantly slain by the Cossacks, and the other half driven into the city with no result. But the Jews availed themselves of the opportunity to find out everything: whither and why the Zaporozhye had departed, and with what leaders, and which particular karens, and their number, and how many had remained on the spot, and what they intended to do. In short, within a few minutes everything was known in the city. The colonels took courage and prepared to offer battle.

taras had already divined it by the noise and movement in the city and toiled energetically making his arrangements forming his men into columns issuing orders and instructions he ranged the karens in three camps surrounding them with the wagons in the guise of bulwarks a form of battle in which the zaporozhtzi were invincible he ordered two karens 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 should an opportunity present itself. And when all was done that was needed, he made a speech to the Cossacks, not for the purpose of encouraging and freshening up their spirits he knew that they were strong of soul without that, but simply because he wished to tell them all he had in his heart. "I want to tell you, Sir Brothers, what our brotherhood is.

You have heard from your fathers and grandfathers in what honour our land has always been held by all men. We have made ourselves known to the Greeks, and we captured gold from Zagrad, and our cities were luxurious, and so were the temples and the princes, the princes of the Russian people, our own princes, not Catholic unbelievers.

But the Muslims took all, all vanished, and only we orphans remained. Yea, like unto a widow after the death of a powerful husband, orphaned was our land, as well as ourselves. Such was the time, comrades, when we joined hands in a brotherhood. That is what our fellowship consists of. There is no bond more sacred than brotherhood. A father loves his children.

A mother loves her children. The children love their father and their mother. But this is not like that, brethren. The wild beasts also love their young. But only men can enter into a relationship which is of the spirit and not of blood. There have been comrades in other lands, but never any such brotherhoods as on our Russian soil. It has happened to many of you to be lost for a while in foreign lands.

You look, there are people there also. They also are God's creatures. And you talk with them as with the men of your own country. But when it comes to saying a heartfelt word, you see the difference. No, they're sensible folks, but not the right sort.

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 anything else, but with all that God has given you, all that is within you. Ah, said Taras and waved his hand, shook his grey head, twitched his moustache 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 to possess ricks of grain and hay and their droves of horses and that their sealed mead may be untouched in their cellars. They adopt the devil only knows what Muslim customs. They abhor their own language. They care not to speak their real thoughts with their own countrymen. They sell their fellow countrymen as they sell soulless creatures on the marketplace.

the favour of a foreign king and not even of a king but the grudging favour 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 scoundrel whoever he may be given over though he be to vileness and servility even he brothers has at least a russian feeling and it will assert itself some day

And then the wretched man will beat the floor with his hands, and he will grasp his head in despair, loudly cursing his vile life, and ready to expiate his disgraceful deeds with torture. For they know, all of them, what brotherhood means on Russian soil. And if it has come to the point when such a man must die, not one of them will have the chance to die in the right way.

"'No, not one of them! "'Tis not a fitting thing for 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 grey heads drooping earthward. "'A tear gathered quietly in their aged eyes.'

They slowly wiped it away with their sleeve, and then all, as with one consent, waved their hands in the air at the same moment, and shook their experienced heads.

For it was evident that 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 young, pearly spirits, to the eternal joy of the parents who bore them.

But the enemy's troops were already marching out of the city to the thunder of kettledrums and trumpets, and the noble lords with arms akimbo rode forth surrounded by innumerable retinues. The fat colonel was giving orders, and they began to advance briskly on the Cossack camps, threateningly aiming their arquebuses with eyes flashing and brazen armour glittering.

as soon as the cossacks perceived that they had arrived within gunshot they let fly all together with their seven palm arquebuses and 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 Zaporozh'i went on firing without stopping to draw breath. The rear ranks did nothing but load and hand to those in front, creating amazement among the enemy, who could not understand how the Cossacks fired without loading their guns.

Amid the dense smoke which enveloped both armies, it could no longer be seen how one and another dropped out of the ranks, but the Leaks felt that the bullets were flying thickly and that the engagement was growing hot. And when they retreated to escape from the smoke and to take an observation, many were missing from the ranks, but only two or three out of a company had been killed on the Cossack side. And still the Cossacks went on firing their arquebuses without a moment's intermission.

Even the foreign engineer was amazed at tactics heretofore unknown to him, and said, "Then and there, in the presence of all, those Zaporozh'i are brave lads. That's the way men in other lands ought to fight." And he advised that the cannon should immediately be trained on the camps. Heavily roared the iron cannon with their wide throats. The earth hummed and trembled far and wide, and the smoke lay twice as heavy over the plain.

The reek of the powder could be smelled among the squares and streets in the most distant, as well as the nearest quarters of the city. But those who aimed the cannon pointed them too high. The hot shot described too large a curve. Screaming horribly, they flew over the heads of the whole camp and buried themselves deep in the earth at a distance, tearing up 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 point the cannon himself, heeding not the Cossack bullets which burned and showered around him. Taras saw from afar that the whole Nezamaikovsky and Steblikivsky Kurens were threatened with destruction and uttered a ringing shout, ''Get away instantly from behind the wagons and mount your horses!''

But the Cossacks would not have succeeded in effecting these two movements had not Ostap dashed into the midst of the enemy and wrenched the lunts from six cannoneers, but he was unable to wrench them from the remaining four. The Leacs drove him back. Meanwhile, the foreign captain had taken a lunt in his own hand to fire off the largest of the cannon, such a cannon as none of the Cossacks had ever beheld before.

it looked horrible with its wide mouth and a thousand deaths peered forth 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 an aged mother beating with bony hands her feeble breast more than one widow will be left in glukhov nemirov chernigov and other towns

every day will the loving woman hasten forth to the bazaar catching at all passers-by scanning the face of each to see if there be not among them one dearer than all but many troops of all sorts will pass through the town yet never among them will appear the single one who is dearest of all to her and half the nezamaikovsky karen was though it had never been

as hail suddenly beats down a field where every ear of grain shines like a duck at a full weight so they were beaten down how hastened the cossacks thither how they all started up how raged the ataman of the karen kukubenko when he saw that the best half of his karen was no more

He fought his way with his remaining Nezmaikovtsi to the very heart of the fray, hewed down in his wrath like a cabbage the first man he encountered, hurled many a rider from his horse, impaling both horse and rider with his spear, made his way to the gunners and captured a cannon. But there he beheld the Ataman of the Umansky Karen and Stepan Guzka 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 Nezmaikotsi went, there was a street. Where they wheeled about, there was a lane. And the ranks were visibly thinning, and the Leaks were falling in sheaves. And right beside the wagons was Vovtuzhenko, and in front, Cherovichenko, and by the more distant one, Degtyarenko, and behind them was the Ataman of the Karen, Vertikvist.

Degtyarenko already had raised two lyaks upon his spear and was now attacking the third, a stubborn fellow. Agile and strong was the lyak with gorgeous accoutrements and he was accompanied by fifty servitors. He fell fiercely upon Degtyarenko, beat him to the ground and flourishing his sword above him cried, "There's not one of you Cossack dogs who would dare to oppose me." "Here's one!" said Moshe El Shiloh stepping forward.

He was a muscular Cossack who had often served as Ataman on the sea and had undergone many vicissitudes. The Turks had captured him and his men at Trebizond and thrown them all captives into the galleys. They bound them hand and foot with iron chains, gave them no millet for a week at a time and made them drink the repulsive seawater. The poor prisoners bore and suffered all things. If only they might not be forced to renounce their orthodox faith.

ataman mawzeel shiloh could not endure it he trampled underfoot the holy scriptures wound a vile turban about his sinful head won the confidence of a pasha became steward on a ship and ruler over all the slaves

The poor prisoners sorrowed greatly thereat, for they knew that if he had betrayed his faith he would become a tyrant, and his hand would be the more severe and heavy on them. And so it turned out. Mosil Shilo had them all put in new chains, three in a row, and twisted the cruel cords until they cut clean to the bone, and he beat them upon the back of the neck, regaling them with cuffs for their napes.

And when the Turks rejoiced 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 manacles into the sea and, seizing their swords, in their turn slay the Turks. Then did the Cossacks collect great booty and return with glory to their country.

And the Bandura players glorified Mozil Shiloh for a very long time. The men would have elected him Koschevoi, but he was a very peculiar Cossack. At one time, he would perform some feat which the most sagacious never would have dreamed of. And at another, folly simply took possession of him. He drank away and squandered away everything, was in debt to everyone in the Sietch and stole like a common street thief to boot.

He carried off a complete Cossack equipment from another Karen by night and pawned it to a dram-shop keeper. For this dishonourable act, they bound him to a post in the bazaar and laid a club by his side, so that everyone, according to the measure of his strength, might deal him a blow. But there was not one Zaporozhets out of them all to be found who would raise the club against him, remembering his former services. Such was the Cossack Mossy Shiloh.

"'Here are some who will kill you, you dog!' he said, springing upon him. And how they hacked away, their shoulder-plates and breast-plates bent beneath the blows. The hostile Leac cut through his shirt of mail, reaching the body itself with his sharp blade. The Cossack's shirt was dyed crimson. But Shiloh heeded it not, flourished his muscular hand—heavy was that mighty fist—and brought it down unexpectedly on his head.'

The brazen helmet flew off, the liak reeled and fell, but Shiloh went on hacking and making crosses on the stunned man. Kill not utterly thine enemy, Cossack. Turn back, rather. The Cossack turned not, and one of the dead man's servitors plunged a knife into his neck. Shiloh turned and almost succeeded in seizing the daring man, but he disappeared amid the smoke of the powder.

On all sides rose the clash of arquebuses. Shiloh reeled and knew that his wound was mortal. He fell with his hand upon his wound and said, turning to his comrades, "Farewell, Sir Brothers, my comrades! May the holy Russian land stand forever and may it have eternal honour!"

Then he closed his failing eyes, and the Cossack's soul took flight from the grim body. And then Zadarozhny came forward with his men. Vertikovist broke the ranks, and Balaban stepped forward. "'What now, noble sirs?' said Taras, calling to the Atamans by name. "'Is there yet powder in the powder flasks? The Cossack force is not weakened, is it? The Cossacks do not yield!'

There is yet powder in the flasks, Batco. The Cossack force is not yet weakened. The Cossacks do not yield. And the Cossacks pressed vigorously on. The ranks were all in confusion. The little colonel had the assembly beaten and ordered eight painted standards to be flung out to collect his men who were scattered far over all the plain.

All the Leaks hastened to the standards, but they had not yet succeeded in ranging themselves in order when Ataman Kukubenko attacked again with his Nezmaikovtsy in their centre and fell straight upon the big-bellied colonel. The colonel could not withstand the attack 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 Karen 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 cast he landed the lasso about his neck. The colonel turned purple in the face, grasped the cord with both hands, and tried to break it, but a powerful blow drove a lance through his body, and there he remained, pinned to the earth. But things turned out badly for Guska.

Before the Cossacks had time to look about them, they beheld Stepan Guska elevated on four spears. All the poor fellow succeeded in saying was, "May all our enemies perish and may the Russian land rejoice forever!" And then he yielded up his spirit. The Cossacks glanced around, and there was Cossack Meteltsia on one side, entertaining the Leaks, dealing blows on the head to one another.

And on the other side, Ataman Nevelichki was attacking with his men, and the Krutibuga was turning and slaying the foe near the transports. And the 3rd Pisarenko had repulsed a whole squadron from the more distant wagons, and they were still fighting and killing round the other wagons and even upon them. How now, noble sirs! cried Ataman Taras, stepping forward before them all. Is there still powder in your flasks?

Is the Cossack force still strong? Do not the Cossacks yield? There is still powder in our flask, Batko. The Cossack force is still strong. The Cossacks do not yield. But Bovdug had already toppled off one of the wagons. A bullet had struck him straight under the heart. The old man collected all his strength and said, I sorrow not at parting with this world. God grant to every man such an end.

May the Russian land be forever glorious! And Bovdug's spirit soared on high, 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 for the holy faith. Balaban, Ataman of Akuren, soon after fell to the ground, also from a wagon. Three mortal wounds had he received, from a spear, a bullet, and a sword.

He had been one of the most valorous of the Cossacks and had accomplished a great deal during his Ataman ship in expeditions on the sea, but more glorious than all the rest was his expedition to the shores of Anatolia. There they had collected many sequins, much valuable Turkish property, caftans and adornments of every description. But misfortune awaited them on their way back. The gallant fellows fell under the fire of the Turks. How they caught it from the ship!

Half the boats were crushed and overturned, drowning many a 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 bailing out the water with scoops in their caps and in repairing the damaged places. They cut sails from their full Cossack trousers and, sailing off, escaped from the very swift Turkish vessel.

And not only did they arrive unharmed in the Siege, but they brought a gold-embroidered vestment to the Archimandrite of the Mezhigorsky Monastery in Kiev, and for the church in honor of the intercession of the Holy Virgin, which is in Zaporozhye an icon frame of pure silver. And for a very long time afterwards did the Bandura players celebrate the daring of the Cossacks. Now he bowed his head, feeling the pains which precede death, and said quietly,

"'It seems to me, sir brothers, that I am dying a fine death. Seven have I hewn in pieces, nine have I transfixed with my spear, and many have I trampled under my horse's hoofs, and I no longer remember how many my bullets have slain. May our Russian land flourish forever!' And his spirit fled. "'Cossacks! Cossacks! Surrender not the flower of your army!'

Already was Kukabenko surrounded, and seven men only remained out of all the Nezamaikovsky Karen, and these had already defended 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 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

they might recall together days gone by when men revelled otherwise 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 those who come after us live better than we have lived and may our russian land beloved of christ flourish for ever and his young spirit fled angels took it and supporting it by the arms bore it to heaven there it will be well with him

"Sit down at my right hand, Kukubenko," Christ will say to him. "You never betrayed your comrades. You never committed a dishonorable act. You never sold a man into misery. You preserved and defended my church." The death of Kukubenko saddened them all. The Cossack ranks were already terribly thinned. Many brave men were missing, but the Cossacks still held their ground.

How now, sir brothers, cried Taras to the remaining Karenz. Is there still powder in your flasks? Your swords are not yet dulled. Are the Cossack forces weary? Have the Cossacks given way? There is still plenty of powder, Batko. Our swords are still fit. The Cossack forces are not weary and the Cossacks have not yielded.

And again the Cossacks strained every nerve, as though they had suffered no losses whatsoever. Only three Kuren Atamans still remained alive. Their red blood flowed everywhere in crimson streams. Cossack corpses and those of the enemy were piled high in layers. Taras looked up to the sky, and there already was outstretched a long file of vultures. Well, there will be booty for someone.

and yonder they were raising mateltsya on their spears and the head of the second pisarenko as it went spinning round opened and shut 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 kerchief ostap understood the signal and dashing quickly from his ambush attacked sharply

The Leax could not withstand this violent onslaught, and he drove them back, chasing them straight to the spot where the stakes and fragments of spears were embedded in the earth. The horses began to stumble and fall, and the Leax to fly over their heads. At that moment, the Corsunzi, who had remained until the last behind the transport wagons, perceived that they still had some bullets left, and suddenly fired off their arquebuses.

The Leacs all fell into confusion and lost their presence of mind, and the Cossacks took courage. "'Here's our victory!' rang out Cossack voices on all sides. The trumpets began to blare, and the standard of victory was unfurled. The defeated Leacs dispersed in all directions and hid themselves. "'No! The victory is not yet complete!' said Taras, glancing at the city gate. And he was right."

The gate opened, and out dashed a Hussar regiment, the pride of all the cavalry troops. Every rider was mounted on a matched bay racehorse from Kabada. In front of the rest rode the handsomest, the most heroic warrior of them all. His black locks streamed from beneath his brazen helmet. A rich scarf, embroidered by the hands of a peerless beauty, was bound about his arm.

taras sprang back in horror when he saw that it was andri and he meanwhile enveloped in the dust and heat of battle anxious to deserve the scarf which had been bound as a gift on his arm flew on like a young greyhound the handsomest swiftest and youngest of all the troop

The experienced huntsman halloos on the greyhound, which leaps forward, its legs cutting a straight line in the air, its body slanted all on one side, tossing up the snow, and a score of times outrunning the hare in the ardour of the course. And Andri was precisely like this. Old Taras paused and observed how he cleared a path before him, dispersing, hewing, and distributing blows to right and left. Taras could not restrain himself from shouting,

"What? Your own comrades? Your own comrades? You devil's brat! Do you slay your own comrades?" But Andri did not distinguish who stood before him, his comrades or strangers. He saw nothing. 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 my lads just lure him to the forest entice him to the forest for me shouted harris 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, distributing a gift to one and another. But Golokopitenko struck Andriy on the back with his sword and then immediately roan away from the hussars at the top of his speed. How furiously Andriy raged! How his young blood rebelled in his veins!

Driving his sharp spurs into his horse's flanks, he flew at top speed after the Cossack, never glancing back and not perceiving that only twenty men at most were following him. But the Cossacks fled at full gallop and directed their course straight for the forest. Andrii overtook them and was on the point of catching Golikopitenko when a powerful hand grasped his horse's bridle. Andrii looked. Before him stood Taras.

He began to tremble all over, and suddenly turned pale, like a student who has incautiously teased his comrade to excess, and receiving in consequence a blow on the forehead with a ruler, flushes up like fire, springs up in wrath from the bench to chase his frightened comrade, prepared to tear him in pieces, and suddenly encounters his teacher entering the classroom.

in an instant his wrathful impulse calms down and his futile anger vanishes in such wise in one instant andrii's wrath was as though it had never existed and he beheld nothing save only his terrible father standing before him well what are we going to do now said taras looking him straight in the eye but andrii could make no reply to this and sat there with his eyes riveted on the ground well little son did your leax help you

Andrii did not answer. "'You'll be such a traitor, will you? You'll betray your faith in this fashion. Betray your comrades. Hold on there. Dismount from your horse.' Obedient as a child, he dismounted, and stood before Taras more dead than alive. "'Stand still. Don't move. I gave you life. I will also kill you,' said Taras, and retreating apace, he brought his gun up to his shoulder.'

"'Andry was white as linen. His lips could be seen to move softly, and he uttered a name, but it was not the name of his native land, or of his mother, or of his brethren. It was the name of the beautiful pole. "'Tarras fired. Like an ear of corn cut down by the reaping hook, like a young limb when it feels the deadly steel in its heart, he hung his head and rolled upon the grass without uttering a word.'

The murderer of his son stood 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, an irresistible charm for every woman, still breathed forth marvellous beauty. His black brows, like sombre velvet, set off his pale features. In what way wasn't he a genuine Cossack? said Taras. He's tall of stature.

and black-browed, and his face is that of a nobleman, and his hand was strong in battle. He has fallen, fallen ingloriously like a vile dog. Father, what have you done? Was it you who killed him? said Ostap riding up at this moment. Taras nodded. Ostap gazed intently at the dead man. He felt sorry for his brother, and said at once,

Let's give him an honourable burial, father, that the foe may not dishonour his body, nor the birds of prey rend it. They'll bury him without any help from us, said Taris. There'll be plenty of mourners and comforters for him. And he reflected for a couple of minutes. Should he fling him to the fierce wolves for their prey, or respect in him the knightly valour which every brave man is bound to honour in another, no matter who the man may be?

Then he espied Golokopitenko galloping towards them. "'Disaster, Ataman! The Leaks have been reinforced! A fresh force has come to their rescue!' Golokopitenko had not finished speaking when Vovtizenko dashed up. "'Disaster, Ataman! A fresh force is bearing down upon us!' Vovtizenko had not finished speaking when Pissarenko rushed up without his horse. "'Where are you, Batko? The Cossacks are looking for you!'

"Ataman Nevelichki is killed! Zadorozhni is killed! And so is Cherovichenko! But the Cossacks are still standing their ground! They do not wish to die without having seen you! They want you to gaze upon them once more before the hour of death arrives!" "To horse, Ostap!" said Taras, and hastened in search of his Cossacks, to look once more upon them, and let them once more behold their Ataman before the hour of death.

But before they could emerge from the forest, the enemy's forces had already surrounded it on all sides, and horsemen, armed with swords and spears, appeared everywhere among 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 had already sprung upon Ostap.

"'twas an unpropitious hour for them. "'The head of one flew off, another toppled off, "'a spear pierced the ribs of a third, "'a fourth, more bold, bent his head to escape from a bullet, "'and the hot bullet struck his horse in the breast. "'The maddened animal reared, fell back upon the earth, "'and crushed his rider under him. "'Well done! Well done, Ostap!' shouted Taras. "'I'm following you!'

And he beat off all who attacked him. Taras hewed and fought, dealing blows upon the head of one after another, still keeping his eye upon Ostap ahead of him. And he saw that eight more were falling upon Ostap. Ostap! Ostap! Don't surrender! But already they had overpowered Ostap.

One had flung his lasso around his neck, and they had bound him and were carrying him away. "Hey! Ostap! Ostap!" shouted Taras, forcing his way to him and cutting down men as though they had been cabbages to right and left. "Hey! Ostap! Ostap!"

But at that moment something struck him like a heavy stone. Everything grew dim and confused before his eyes. For a moment there flashed before him, confusedly, heads, spears, smoke, flashes of fire, tree stumps with their leaves, and he sank heavily to the earth like a felled oak, and darkness covered his eyes.

"'Well, I've had a long sleep,' said Tarras, coming to his senses as if after a heavy drunken slumber and trying to distinguish the objects about him. A terrible weakness overpowered his limbs. The walls and corners of a strange room appeared dimly to his vision. At last he perceived Tovkatch 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 Tarras to keep quiet."

"But tell me, where am I now?" asked Harris, straining his mind and endeavouring to recollect what had happened. "Hold your tongue!" cried his companion roughly. "Why should you want to know? Don't you see that you're all hacked to pieces? Here I've been galloping with you for two weeks without stopping to take breath, and all the while you've been burning up with fever and jabbering nonsense. This is the first time you've slept quietly. Be silent if you don't wish to do yourself an injury."

But Tara still strove to collect his thoughts and to recall what had taken place. "Well,

But the Leax must have surrounded me completely and captured me. I hadn't a chance to fight myself free from the mob. Hold your tongue, I tell you, you devil's brat, shouted Tovkatch angrily as a nurse, driven beyond her patience, cries out at a naughty, fractious young charge. What good will it do you to know how you got away? It's enough that you did get away. Some people were found who didn't betray you. That's enough for you to know.

You and I must still gallop on together for many a night. Think that you are accounted a common Cossack? No, they have offered a reward of two thousand ducats for your head.

"'And Ostap!' cried Taras suddenly, making a tremendous effort to rise, and then 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 Leax, and grief overpowered his aged head. He tugged at his bandages and tore them all from his wounds. He threw them far from him. He tried to say something aloud and uttered something incoherent.'

Fever and delirium took possession of him afresh, and he chattered foolish speeches, devoid of rhyme or reason.

Meanwhile, his faithful comrade stood before him, cursing and showering harsh, reproachful words upon him without stint. Finally, he seized him by the arms and legs, swaddled him like a baby, replaced all his bandages, rolled him up in an ox hide, bound him with linden bust and fastening him with ropes to his saddle, dashed off with him again at full speed along the road.

I'll get you there, even if not alive. I'll not abandon you for the Leacs to make mock at your Cossack race, and rend your body in twain, and fling it into the water. Let the eagles claw your eyes from your brow, if so it must be. But let it be our own eagle of the steppe, and not a Polish eagle, not one which has flown hither from Polish soil. I'll bring you, though it be a corpse, to the Ukraine.

Thus spoke his faithful comrade. He galloped on, without drawing breath, day and night, and brought him, insensible, into the Zaporozhian Shetch itself. There he undertook to heal him, with unwearied care, with herbs and liniments. He sought out a skilful Jewess. She made Taras drink various potions for a whole month, and at last he began to improve, whether it was owing to the medicine or to his iron constitution gaining the upper hand. At any rate, in six weeks he was on his feet again.

his wounds had closed and only the scars of the sabre-cut showed how seriously injured the old cossack had been but he had become markedly sad and morose three deep wrinkles had engraved themselves upon his brow and never more departed thence then he looked about him all was new in the sieche all his old comrades were dead not one was left of those who had defended the right the faith and brotherhood

And as for those who had fared forth with the Koschevoi in pursuit of the Tatars, they also had died long since. All had laid down their heads. All had perished. One had lost his honourable head in battle. Another had died for lack of bread and water amid the salt marshes of the Crimea.

another had disappeared in captivity unable to endure the disgrace and even their former koshevoy was long since dead and so were all old comrades and the seething cossack power was overgrown with grass he heard only that there had been a feast a noisy strenuous feast all the dishes had been smashed to bits not a drop of liquor was left anywhere

The guests and servants had stolen all the valuable cups and platters, and the master of the house stood sadly, thinking that it would have been better had there been no feast. In vain did they try to cheer Taras, and to divert his mind. In vain did the long-bearded, grey-haired Bandura players, passing by in twos and threes, glorify his Cossack deeds. He gazed grimly and indifferently at everything, and on his stolid face sorrow unquenchable stood forth, and he said softly,

"My son, my Ostap!" The Zaporozhye assembled for an expedition by sea. Two hundred boats were launched on the Dnieper, and Asia Minor saw the Cossacks, with their shaven heads and long scalp-locks, devote her thriving shores to fire and sword. She saw the turbans of her Mohammedan inhabitants strewn, like her innumerable flowers, over the blood-besprinkled fields and floating along her banks.

She beheld many tarry Zaporozhian trousers and muscular hands with black hunting-whips. The Zaporozh'i ate up and laid waste all their vineyard. In her mosques they left heaps of dung. They used rich Persian shawls for trouser belts and girded their dirty doublets with them. For a long time afterwards, short Zaporozhian pipes were found in those regions. Then they sailed merrily homeward again.

A ten-gun Turkish vessel pursued them and scattered their fragile skiffs like birds with a volley from its guns. A third part of them sank in the depths of the sea, but the rest assembled again and gained the mouth of the Dnieper with twelve kegs full of sequins. But all this had no interest for Taras. He went off upon the fields and the steppe as though to hunt, but the charge remained unfired in his gun, and laying down the weapon, he sat sadly on the seashore.

He sat there long, with drooping head, repeating continually, "Majostap! Majostap!" Before him spread the gleaming black sea. In the distant reeds the seagulls screamed. His grey moustache turned to silver, and the tears chased one another down his cheeks. 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? No, I will, cost what it may." And within a week he was in the town of Uman, mounted, fully armed with spears, sword, a flat travelling casket, his saddle-bow, his pot of oatmeal, his cartridges, cord to hobble his horse, and other accoutrements. He rode straight to a dirty, bedaubed little house, whose tiny windows were almost invisible, blackened as they were with some unknown dirt.

the chimney was plugged with a rag 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 head-dress with discoloured pearls is your husband at home asked bulba dismounting and fastening his horse's bridle to an iron hook beside the door yes said the jewess and hastened out immediately with a little trough of wheat for the horse and a stoop of beer for the rider

where's your jew in the other room at prayer replied the jewess bowing and wishing bulba good health as he raised the drinking-cup to his lips remain here and feed and water my horse and i'll go and speak with him alone i have business with him this jew was that yankle already known to us he was there as a revenue farmer and dram-shop keeper

He had gradually got all the neighbouring noblemen and gentry into his clutches, had slowly sucked away most of their money, had made his presence severely felt in that region. For a distance of three miles in every direction, not a single cottage remained in a proper condition. All were falling in ruins, all had been drunk away, and rags and poverty alone remained. The whole neighbourhood was devastated, as if after a fire or an epidemic.

And if Yankel had lived there ten years, he would, probably, have depopulated the Voivode's entire domain. Taras entered the room. The Jew was praying, wrapped in his dirty scarf, and was turning to spit for the last time, in accordance with the forms of his creed, when his eyes suddenly alighted upon Taras standing behind him. And the very first thing of all, which struck the Jew full in the face, was the recollection of 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 worm about the soul of a Jew. "'Hearken to me, yankle,' 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 Zoporashi were ready to tear you to pieces, like a dog. Now it's your turn to do me a service.' The Jew's face contracted a bit. "'What service?'

If it's a service I can render, why not render it? Don't give me any talk. Take me to Warsaw. To Warsaw? Why to Warsaw? said the Jew, and his brows and shoulders rose in amazement. Don't answer back. Take me to Warsaw. I must see him once more, at any cost, and say at least one word to him. Say a word to whom? To him, to Ostap, to my son.

Has not the noble lord heard that already? I know, I know all. They offer two thousand ducats on my head. They know its value, the fools. I'll give you five thousand. Here are two thousand on the spot. Bulba poured out two thousand ducats from a leather bag. And the rest you shall have when I return. The Jew instantly seized a towel and concealed the ducats under it. Aye, glorious money. Aye, good money, he said, twirling one of the gold pieces in his hand and testing it with his teeth.

I don't believe the man from whom the noble lord stole these fine gold pieces remained in the world an hour longer. He went straight to the river and drowned himself after the loss of such magnificent pieces. I wouldn't have asked you. I might possibly have found my own way to Warsaw. But someone might recognise me, and then the cursed Leax would capture me, for I'm not clever at making up plausible stories. But that's just what you Jews are created for.

You'd deceive the very devil. You know all the tricks. That's why I've come to you. And besides, I couldn't accomplish anything in Warsaw by myself. Harness up your cart instantly and drive me to Warsaw. And does the noble lord think that I can take the mare so? Out of hand and harness her and get up dapple? Does the noble lord think that I can take the noble lord just as he is without hiding him? Well, hide me then. Hide me any way you like.

How would a powder-cask answer? Aye, aye. And the noble lord thinks perhaps that he can be concealed in a powder-cask? Doesn't the noble lord know that every man thinks that every cask contains corn brandy? Well, let them think it's brandy. What? Let them think it's brandy? said the Jew, grasping his earlocks with both hands, then throwing up his arms. Well, why are you so frightened?

And doesn't the noble lord know that God has made brandy expressly for everyone to taste? They're all gluttons and fond of dainties there.

A Polish noble will run five versts after a cask. He'll bore a hole, and as soon as he sees that nothing runs out, he'll say, "The Jew isn't carrying a powder cask. There's certainly something wrong here. Seize the Jew. Bind the Jew. Take away all the Jew's money. Put the Jew in prison. Because everything that is evil is blamed on the Jew, and everyone takes a Jew for a dog, and they think he's not a man because he's a Jew." "Then lay me in the wagon with a load of fish."

"It can't be done, noble sir, it can't be done. All over Poland the people are as hungry as dogs now. They'll steal the fish and feel the noble lord." "Then take me in every devil's way you like, only take me!" "Listen, listen, noble sir," said the Jew, stripping up the cuffs of his sleeves and approaching him with arms outstretched. "This is what we'll do. They're building fortresses and castles everywhere.

French engineers have come from Germany, and so a great deal of brick and stone is being carted over the highways. Let the noble lord lie down in the bottom of the wagon, and over him I will pile bricks. The noble lord 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 so that I can feed the noble lord. Do what you will, only take me!' And in an hour a wagonload of bricks left Oumane, drawn by two sorry nags.

On one of them sat Tall Yankel, and his long curling earlocks fluttered from beneath his Jewish cap of felt. As long as a verse-post planted by the roadside, he bounced about on the horse.

At the time when the above described incidents took place, there were as yet in the frontier settlements no custom house officials and guards, those terrible menaces to enterprising people. Therefore, anyone could bring across anything he liked. If anyone made any search or inspection, he did it chiefly for his own pleasure, especially if there happened to be in the wagon objects attracted to the eye, and if his own hand possessed a certain weight and power.

But the bricks found no admirers, and they entered the principal gate of the city unmolested. Bulba in his narrow cage could only hear the noise, the shouts of the drivers, and nothing more. Yankul, bouncing away on his short, dust-covered trotter, turned, after taking several circuitous bends, into a dark, narrow street bearing the name of The Muddy, and also of the Jews' Street, because, as a matter of fact, Jews from nearly every quarter of Warsaw were to be found there.

This street greatly resembled a backyard turned wrong side out. The sun apparently never shone in there. The totally black wooden houses, with innumerable poles projecting from the windows, still further increased the gloom. Rarely did the brick wall gleam red among them, for it also in many places had turned quite black. Here and there, high up, a bitter stuccoed wall lighted by the sun shone with a whiteness intolerable to the eye. Everything there was extremely harsh,

pipes, rags, shells, broken and discarded tubs. Everyone flung into the street whatever was useless to him, thus affording the passer-by an opportunity to regale 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 the rather pretty face of a Jewess, adorned with blackened pearls peeped out of an ancient window.

A mob of Jew urchins, with torn and dirty garments and curly hair, screamed and rolled about in the mud. A red-haired Jew with freckles all over his face, which made him look like a sparrow's egg, was gazing out of a window. He instantly accosted Yankle in his unintelligible jargon, and Yankle immediately drove into the courtyard.

Another Jew who was coming along the street halted and entered into conversation, and when Bulba at last emerged from beneath the bricks, he beheld these three Jews talking with great heat. Yankul turned to him and said that everything would be done, that his Ostap was in the city jail, and that, 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 language.

Taras took a good look at each of them. Something seemed to have affected 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 lowest depths of despair. His aged heart began to beat violently, as though he were a youth. "'Hearken, Jews!' said he, and there was a ring of triumph in his words. "'You can do anything in the world, even to extracting things from the bottom of the sea!'

And it has long since passed into a proverb that a Jew will steal from himself if he takes a fancy to steal. Set my Ostap at liberty. Give him a chance to escape from their diabolical hands. I have promised this man 5,000 ducats. I add another 5,000.

"All that I have in the way of precious cups, buried gold, my houses, all, even to my last garment, I will sell. And I will enter into a contract with you for my whole life, to share with you, half and half, all the booty I may win in war." "Oh, it can't be done, dear noble lord. It's impossible." "No, it can't be done," chimed in another Jew. The three Jews exchanged glances. "We might try."

said the third with a timid glance at the other two perhaps god will favour us all three jews began to talk in german strain his ears as he might bulba could make nothing of it he only caught the word mardukai often repeated nothing more listen noble lord said yainkel we must consult with a man such as there never was before in all the world as wise as solomon he is and if he will do nothing then no one in the world can do anything

"Sit here. This is the key. Admit no one." Thereupon the Jews went out into the street. Taras locked the door and gazed from the tiny 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, "Mardukai! Mardukai!" The Jews kept glancing incessantly towards one side of the street.

at last at the end of it from behind a dirty house there emerged a foot in a jewish shoe and there was a brief glimpse of the fluttering skirts of a half kaftan ah mardukai mardukai exclaimed the jews with one voice a gaunt jew somewhat shorter than yainkel but even more wrinkled and with a huge upper lip approached the impatient group and all the jews made haste even interrupting one another to talk to him

During the recital, Mardukai cast several glances towards the little window, and Taris divined that the conversation concerned him. Mardukai waved his hands, listened, interrupted, spat frequently to one side, and pulling up the skirts of his half-kaftan, thrust his hand into his pocket and drew out some jingling object, showing his very dirty trousers in the operation.

Finally, all the Jews set up such a shout that the Jew who was standing on guard was forced to make a signal for silence, and Tarras began to fear for his own safety. But when he remembered that Jews cannot consult anywhere except 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. Mardukai approached Tarras, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, "'When we wish to act, then things will be as they should.'"

Tarras looked at this Solomon, such as the world had never known, and conceived some hope. In fact, his face might well inspire some confidence. His upper lip was simply an object of horror. Its thickness had doubtless been increased by adventitious circumstances. The beard of this Solomon consisted of only about fifteen hairs, and they were all on the left side. Solomon's face bore so many scars of battle, received for his audacity, that he had no doubt lost count of them long before, and grown accustomed to regarding them as birthmarks.

Mardukai departed, accompanied by his comrades who were filled with admiration for his wisdom. Bulba was left alone. He was in a strange, unaccustomed situation. For the first time in his life he felt uneasy. His soul was in a state of fever. He was no longer the man he had been, unbending, immovable, strong as an oak. He was faint-hearted now. Now he was weak. He trembled at every sound, at every new Jewish figure which showed itself at the end of the street.

in this condition he spent the whole day he neither ate nor drank and his eye never for a single moment quitted the tiny window which looked out on the street finally late at night mardukai and yainkel made their appearance taras's heart died within him what news are you successful he asked with the restiveness of a wild horse

But before the Jews had recovered breath to answer, Taras perceived that Mardukai no longer had his last lock, which, although very greasy, had fallen in rings from beneath his felt cap. It was evident that he wished to say something, but he began by uttering such nonsense that Taras understood nothing of it, and Yankul himself put his hand very often to his mouth, as though suffering from a cold. "'Oh, dear noble sir,' said Yankul, "'it is utterly impossible now.'

God is my witness. It is impossible. Such vile people that one can only spit on their heads in disgust. And Mardukai here will tell you the same. Mardukai has done what no man in the world ever did, but it was not God's will that it should be so. Three thousand of the troops are stationed here, and tomorrow all the men are to be executed. Taras looked the Jews straight in the eye, but no longer with impatience or anger.

But if the noble lord wishes to see him, then it must be very early in the morning, before sunrise. The sentinels have agreed, and one jailer has promised. But may they have no happiness in the world, woe is me! What greedy people! Even among us there are none such. I had to give fifty ducats to each one, and to the jailer. "'Good! Take me to him!' exclaimed Taris with decision, and all the firmness returned to his spirit."

he agreed to yainkel's proposal 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 yainkel lay down upon the floor on a similar mattress

The red-haired Jew drank a small cup of liquor infusion, threw off his half-kaftan, and betook himself, looking in his shoes and stockings, a good deal like a chicken, with his Jewess to something resembling a cupboard. Two other Jews lay down on the floor beside the cupboard, like a couple of family dogs. But Tarras did not sleep. He sat motionless, drumming lightly on the table with his fingers. He kept his pipe in his mouth, and puffed out smoke which made the Jew sneeze, in a state of semi-waking, and wrap up his nose in his coverlet.

Scarcely was the sky tinged with the first faint gleams of dawn when he pushed Yankul with his foot. Rise, Jew, and give me your count's dress. In a moment he addressed himself. He blackened his moustache and eyebrows, put on his head a small dark cap, and not even the Cossacks who knew him best would have recognised him. To all appearance he was not more than five and thirty. A healthy colour played in his cheeks, and even his scars imparted to him an air of authority. The gold-embroidered costume was extremely well suited to him.

The streets were still asleep. Not a single mercantile person had yet shown himself in the city, basket on arm. Yankle and Bulba went to a building which had the appearance of a crouching stork. It was low, wide, huge and black, and on one side a tall slender tower projected, like a stork's neck, above which stuck out a bit of roof. This building served for a variety of purposes. It was a barrack, a jail and even the criminal court.

Our travellers entered the gate and found themselves in a vast room or covered courtyard. 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 scant heed to the newcomers, and merely turned their heads when Yankel said, "'Tis we, noble sirs. Do you hear? Tis 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 dark corridor which led them to a room of the same description, with small windows overhead. "Who goes there?" shouted several voices, and Taris beheld a number of warriors in full armour. "We've been ordered to admit no one." "Tis we!" cried Yankul. "We by heaven most illustrious sirs!" But no one would listen to them. Fortunately, at that moment a fat man came along who, from all the signs, appeared to be the commanding officer, for he cursed more loudly than all the rest.

noble sir tis we you know us and the sir count will thank you admit them a hundred devils and the devil's mother and admit no one else and no one is to take off his sword and no one is to quarrel on the floor like dogs the conclusion of the eloquent order our travellers did not hear tis we tis i tis your friends yainkel said to every one they met well can we enter now he inquired of one of the guards when at last they reached the end of the corridor

"'Yes, but I don't know whether you are to be admitted to the prison itself. "'Yann is not here now. "'Another man is standing guard in his place,' replied the sentinel. "'Aye, aye,' cried the Jew softly. "'This is bad, my dear sir.' "'Lead on,' said Tarras firmly. "'The Jew obeyed.' At the door of the underground cells, which ran to a peak at the top, stood a hay-duke with a three-storied moustache. The upper story ran back, the second straight forward, and the third downward, which made him greatly resemble a cat.'

The Jew shrank into nothing and sidled up to him almost sideways. "'Your High Excellency, high and illustrious Lord!'

"'Are you speaking to me, Jew?' "'To you, illustrious lord.' "'Hm. But I'm merely a hay-duke,' said the merry-eyed man with the three-storied moustache. "'And I thought it was the voivode himself, God is my witness, I did. Aye, aye, aye.' Thereupon the Jew wagged his head and spread out his fingers. "'Aye, what an imposing aspect. A colonel, as God is my witness. A regular colonel. Another finger's breadth and he'd be a colonel. The noble lord ought to mount a stallion, one as fleet as a fly, and drill the regiments.'

the heyduke arranged the lower story of his moustache and his eyes grew very merry what a warlike people went on the jew ah woe is me what a fine race all cords and metal discs they shine like the sun and the pretty girls whenever they behold warriors aye aye again the jew wagged his head the heyduke twirled his upper moustache and uttered a sound which somewhat resembled the neigh of a horse i pray the noble lord to do us a service exclaimed the jew

here is a prince who has come hither from a foreign land to get a look at the cossacks he has never in all his life seen what sort of men 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 asiatic corner of europe they regarded moscow and the ukraine as situated in asia so the heyduke bowed low and thought it fit to put in a few words of his own

i do not know your excellency said he why you should desire to see them they are dogs not men and their faith is such as no one respects you lie you son of the devil said bulba you're a dog yourself how dare you say that our faith is not respected it's your heretical faith which is not respected

"'Ooh,' said the hay-duke. "'Well, I know who you are, my friend. "'You're one of those who are under my charge. "'So wait, I'll summon our men.' "'Tarras perceived his indiscretion, "'but vexation and obstinacy prevented his devising a means of remedying it. "'Fortunately, Yankle managed to interpose at this moment. "'Most illustrious sir!'

how was it possible that the count should be a cossack and if he were a cossack where could he have obtained such a dress and such a count like mien oh go talk to yourself and the heijouk had already opened his wide mouth to shout your royal highness silence silence for god's sake cried

"Silence! We will pay for it in a way you have never dreamed of. We will give you two golden ducats." "Oh! Two ducats!" "I can't do anything with two ducats. I give my barber two ducats for shaving only the half of my beard. Give a hundred ducats, Jew." Here the hay-duke twirled his upper moustache. "And if you don't give a hundred ducats, I'll give the alarm on the spot." "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 hay-duke could not count above one hundred. "Noble sir, noble sir, let us depart quickly. See the evil people yonder," said Yankel, noticing that the hay-duke 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 hay-duke?" said Bulba. "You've taken our money, and don't mean to show us the men?" "Yes, you must let us see them. Since you've taken the money, you have no right to refuse."

"'Get out! Go to the devil! And if you don't, I'll give the alarm this very minute. And you'll—' "'Take yourselves off and be quick about it. That's all I have to say. Sir! Noble sir! Let us go! In God's name, let us go!' "'Curse him! May he dream of such horrible things that he will have to spit in disgust!' cried poor Yankel. Bulba turned slowly, with drooping head, and went back, followed by the reproaches of Yankel, who was devoured with grief at the thought of the wasted ducats.'

And why must you need stir him up? Why didn't you let the dog go on cursing? That race can't help cursing. Oh, woe is me! What luck God does send to some folks! A hundred ducats merely for driving us off! And our brother, they'll tear off his earlocks and they'll do something dreadful to his face so that you can't bear to look at it and no one will give him a hundred ducats. Oh my God, merciful God!

But this failure made a much more profound impression upon Bulba, which was expressed by a devouring flame in his eyes. "Come along," he said suddenly, as though shaking himself. "Let's go to the square. I want to see how they will torture him." "Oh, noble sir, why go? That won't do any good now." "Come along," said Bulba obstinately, and sighing, the Jew followed him as a nurse follows a child. The square on which the execution was to take place was not difficult to find.

People were thronging thither from all directions. In that savage age, an execution constituted one of the most interesting of spectacles, not only for the populace, but also for the higher classes. A multitude of the most pious old women, a throng of young girls and women of the most cowardly sort, who had dreamed the whole night afterwards of bloody corpses, and who shrieked as loudly in their sleep as a drunken hussar, missed no opportunity, nevertheless, to gratify their curiosity.

ah what torture many of them would exclaim hysterically covering their eyes and turning away but they would stand their ground for quite a while nevertheless many a one with gaping mouth and outstretched arms would have liked to jump upon the heads of the populace 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 monosyllabic words with the gunsmith whom he called Gossip because he had once got drunk in the same dram-shop with him on a holiday. Some entered into warm discussions, others even laid wagers, but the majority were of the sort who, all the world over, look on at the world and at everything that goes on in it and merely pick at their noses.

In the foreground, close to the bearded city guards, stood a young noble, or one who appeared to be such, in warlike garb, who had donned literally everything he owned, so that nothing but a ragged shirt and his old shoes were left in his quarters. Two chains, one on top of the other, hung around his neck, with some ducats or other depending from them. He stood with his mistress, Yuzisya, and kept glancing around incessantly to make sure that no one soiled her silken gown.

He explained everything to her so perfectly that no one could have added a single word. "'All these people, my dear Eusisya,' he said, "'whom you behold, have come hither to see the criminals executed. "'And that man yonder, my love, who holds an axe and other instruments in his hands, "'is the executioner, and he will dispatch them. "'And when he begins to break them on the wheel, and to torch them in other ways, "'the criminal will still be alive.'

But when he cuts off his head, then, my love, he will die at once. Before that, he will cry out and move about. But just as soon as his head is cut off, it will be impossible for him to cry out, or to eat, or to drink. Because, my dear, he will no longer have any head. And Eurystheus listened to it all with terror and curiosity. The roofs of the houses were dotted with people.

From the dormer windows peered very strange faces with beards and something resembling caps. Upon the balconies beneath awnings sat the aristocracy. The lovely little hands of a smiling young lady, gleaming like white sugar, clasped the railing. Illustrious nobles, all decidedly stout of figure, looked on with an air of importance. A servitor, in brilliant garb, with backward-flowing sleeves, carried round diverse beverages and viands.

Sometimes a black-eyed rogue would take her cakes or fruit and fling them among the crowd with her own noble little hand. The throng of hungry knights held up their caps to catch it, and some tall noble, in faded scarlet jacket and discoloured braid, thrusting his head above the throng, was the first to grasp it with the aid of his long arms, and kissed his booty, pressed it to his heart, and finally put it in his mouth. A hawk, suspended beneath the balcony in a gilded cage, was also a spectator.

With beak inclined to one side and one foot raised, he also watched the people attentively. But suddenly a murmur ran through the crowd and a rumour spread: "They're coming! They're coming! The Cossacks!" The Cossacks walked with uncovered heads and their long scalp-locks floating. Their beards had grown. They walked neither timidly nor surlily, but with a certain haughtiness.

Their garments of handsome cloth were threadbare and hung about them in tatters. They neither looked at nor saluted the populace. 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 among the crowd and lost not a single one of his movements. The men had already approached the place of execution. Ostap halted. He was to be the first to quaff the bitter cup.

He glanced at his comrades, raised his hand and said in a loud voice: "God grant that none of the heretics who stand here may hear, impious wretches, how Christians suffer! Let none of us utter a single word!" Then he walked up to the scaffold. "Well done, son, well done," said Bulba softly and bowed his grey head. The executioner tore off Ostap's old rags.

They fastened his arms and legs in stocks, expressly prepared, and "We will not harrow the reader with a picture of the hellish tortures which would make his hair rise upright on his head." They were the offspring of that coarse, wild age when men still led the bloody life of warlike expeditions only, and hardened their souls within them until no sense of humanity remained. In vain did some, a few who were exceptions in that age, oppose such terrible measures.

In vain did the king and many knights, enlightened in mind and soul, demonstrate that such severity of punishment could only fan the flame of vengeance in the Cossack nation. But the power of the king and the opinion of the wise were as nothing in comparison with the savage will of the magnates of the kingdom who, by their thoughtlessness and incomprehensible lack of all far-sighted policy, their childish self-love and petty pride converted the diet into a satire on government.

Ostap endured the tortures and torments like a giant. Not a cry, not a groan was audible, even when they began to break the bones in his arms and legs, when the horrible cracking could be heard by the most remote spectators amid the death-like stillness of the throng, when even the young ladies turned aside their eyes, nothing even resembling a groan escaped his lips, nor did his face quiver.

Tarras stood in the crowd with bowed head, but at the same time, raising his eyes proudly, he said with approbation, Well done, son, well done. But when they took him to the last deadly tortures, it seemed as though his strength were on the point of failing, and he turned his eyes about him on all sides. Oh God, all strangers, all unknown faces, if only some one of his near relatives were present at his death.

He would not have wished to hear the sobs and anguish of his feeble mother, or the unreasoning shrieks of a wife tearing her hair and beating her white breast. He would have liked to see a strong man who could refresh him with a wise word and cheer him at the end. And his strength failed him, and he cried aloud in the weakness of his soul, "Father, where are you? Do you hear it all?"

I hear! rang through the universal silence, and all that million of people shuddered in concert. A detachment of mounted soldiers hastened anxiously to scan the throng of people. Yankle turned pale as death, and when the horseman arrived within a short distance of him, he turned round in terror to look at Taris. But Taris was no longer beside him. Every trace of him was lost. End of chapter 11 Chapter 12 of Taris Bulba by Gogol

Translated by Isabel Hapgood. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Traces of Taras made themselves apparent. 120,000 Cossacks descended upon the border marches 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 full to overflowing.

They had risen to avenge the mockery of their rights, the dishonourable humiliation of their characters, the insults to the faith of their ancestors and their sacred customs, the dishonouring of their church, the dissolute excesses of the foreign nobles, the union, the disgraceful domination of Judum on Christian soil, and all that had excited and doubled the stern hatred which the Cossacks had cherished for ages.

Hetman Ostranitsa, young but strong in spirit, led the entire innumerable Cossack forces. By his side could be seen his very aged and experienced friend and counsellor, Gunja. Eight colonels led regiments of 12,000 each. Two Yasuls general and a chief bearer of the hetman's mace of office rode behind the hetman. A cornet general carried the principal standard. Many other standards and banners floated afar. The assistance of the hetman's mace bearer bore the hetman's staff.

There were also many other officials of the regiment, of the transport wagons and of the general army, and regimental scribes and with them detachments of foot soldiers and of cavalry. There were almost as many free Cossacks and volunteers as there were registered Cossacks. The Cossacks had risen up everywhere: in Chigurh, from Pereyaslav, from Baturin, from Glukhov, from the regions of the lower Dnieper, from the whole of its upper course and from the islands.

Innumerable horses and countless camps of carts stretched across the plain. And among all these Cossacks, among all those eight regiments, one regiment was the flower of them all, and it was led by Taras Bulba. Everything contributed to give him weight over the others. His advanced years, his experience and skill in directing his troops, and his hatred of the foe, which surpassed that of all the rest,

His grey head dreamed of nothing but fire and the halter, and his utterances in the councils of war breathed nothing short of annihilation. It is not worthwhile to describe all the battles in which the Cossacks distinguished themselves, or the gradual course of the campaign. All that is set down in the Chronicles of old. Everyone knows what an army raised on Russian soil for the faith is like. There is no power stronger than faith.

It is menacing and invincible as a rock not made by human hands amid the stormy, ever-changing sea. From the very heart of the depths of the sea it lifts its impregnable walls to heaven, all built of a single compact stone. It is visible from every side, and looks the waves straight in the eye as they roll past, and woe to the vessel which is dashed against it.

The rigging flies into splinters, everything in it sinks and is crushed into dust, and the startled air reverberates with the cries of the drowning. The pages of the Chronicles contain a minute description of how the Polish garrisons fled from the liberated towns, how the unscrupulous Jewish revenue farmers were hung,

how weak was the royal hetman nikolai potoski 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 besieged him in the small town of polom

and how driven to extremities the Polish hetman promised, under oath, full satisfaction for everything in the name of his king and the government officials and the restitution of all their former rights and privileges. But the Cossacks were not the men to be tricked by all that. They already knew full well the value of a Polish oath.

And Potosky would never more have pranced on his six-thousand-ducket racehorse of the Kabada, attracting the glances of distinguished ladies and the envy of the nobility. He would never more have cut a figure in the Diet, giving luxurious feasts to senators, if the Russian priests who were in the little town had not saved him. When all the clergy in their brilliant gold vestments, with the bishop himself,

cross in hand and Episcopal mitre on head, went out to meet the Cossacks, bearing the holy pictures and the cross, all the Cossacks bowed their heads and doffed their caps. No one lower than the king himself would they have respected at such an hour. But their boldness subsided before the church of Christ, and they paid respect to their priesthood.

The hetman and the colonels agreed to release Potosky, after having extracted from him a solemn oath to leave all the Christian churches at liberty, to lay aside the ancient enmity and to do no injury to the Cossack army. One colonel alone would not agree to such a peace. That 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 Leacs. The dogs will betray you."

When the regimental scribe presented the agreement, and the hetman set his powerful hand to it, Taras drew out his genuine Damascus blade, a rich Turkish sabre of the finest steel, broke it in twain like a reed, and flung the two fragments far away from him on either side, saying, "'Farewell, as the two pieces of this sword will never reunite and form one sword again, so we, comrades, shall never more behold one another in this world. Remember my parting words.'

Here his voice rose higher and higher and acquired a hitherto unknown power, and his prophetic utterances troubled them all. "Before your death hour you will remember me! Do you think that you have purchased peace and quiet? Do you think that you are going to reign like Polish lords? You will reign like Polish lords, but after quite another fashion!"

They will flay the skin from your head, Hetman. They will stuff it with bran, and long will it be exhibited at all the fairs, and neither will you retain your heads, noble sirs. You will perish in damp dungeons, walled about with stone, if they do not boil you alive in kettles as they boil sheep. And you, my men, he went on, turning to his followers, which of you wants to die a proper death?

not through sorrows and womanish longing, nor drunk under a hedge alongside of the dram shop, but an honourable Cossack death, all in one bed, like bride and groom. Or perhaps you would like to go back home and turn infidels and carry Polish Catholic priests on your backs. We'll follow you, Sir Colonel, we'll follow you, shouted his whole regiment, and many others joined them.

If you mean to follow me, then come on, said Tarras, pulling his cap further down on his brows and throwing a menacing glance at the others. He walked to his horse and shouted to his men, Let no one reproach us with any insulting speeches. Now, hey there, my lads, we'll go and pay a visit to the Catholics.

Thereupon he lashed his horse, and there followed him a camp of a hundred carts, and with them many cavalry and foot-soldiers; and turning, he threatened with his glance all who remained behind, and wrath was in his eye. The regiment marched off in full view of the whole army, and Tarras continued long to turn and glower. The hetman and the colonels were disquieted. All grew thoughtful and remained long silent, as though oppressed by some heavy foreboding.

Not in vain did Taras prophesy. All came to pass as he had foretold. A little while afterwards, after the treacherous attack at Kanev, the hetman's head was mounted on a stake, together with the heads of many among his principal officers. And what of Taras? Taras roamed all over Poland with his regiment, burned 18 towns and nearly 40 churches, and reached Krakow.

He slew many nobles of all degrees and plundered the richest and finest castles. The Cossacks opened and poured out on the ground the century-old mead and wine, carefully hoarded up in the noblemen's cellars. They cut and burned rich cloths, garments and utensils, which they found in the storerooms. "'Spare nothing!' Taras kept repeating. "'Only that.'

The Cossacks spared not the black-browed gentlewoman, the brilliant white-bosomed maidens. They could not save themselves, not even at the altar itself. Taras burned them together with the altar.

Many were the snowy hands upraised to heaven from amid the fiery flames, accompanied by piteous shrieks, which would have moved the damp earth itself to pity and caused the steppe grass to bend low with compassion at their fate. But the ruthless Cossacks paid no heed, and picking up the children in the streets upon their lances, they cast them also into the flames. "This is in commemoration of Ostap, you devilish Leax!" was all that Taras said.

And such commemorations for Ostap he arranged in every village, until the Polish government perceived that Taras's raids were more than ordinary expeditions for plunder. And that same Potoski was given five regiments and ordered to capture Taras without fail. Six days did the Cossacks retreat along the country lanes before the pursuit. Their horses barely endured this excessive flight, but they saved the Cossacks. But this time Potoski was equal to the task entrusted to him.

Unwearily he followed them, and reached the bank of the Dnieper, where Taras had taken possession of a ruined and abandoned castle for the purpose of resting. On the very brink of the Dnieper it could be seen, with its shattered ramparts and the ruined remains of its walls. The summit of the cliff was strewn with rubbish and broken bricks, ready at any moment to detach themselves and fly to the bottom. The royal hetman Potosky surrounded it on the two sides which faced the plain.

Four days did the Cossacks fight and struggle, defending themselves with bricks and stones, but their provisions and their strength became exhausted, and Taras resolved to cut his way through the ranks. And the Cossacks would have cut 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 devilish Leacs have my pipe!'

And the old Ataman bent down and searched in the grass for his pipe full of tobacco, his inseparable companion on all his expeditions on sea and land and at home. But in the meantime, a band of Leaks suddenly dashed up and seized him by his mighty shoulders. He tried to struggle with all his limbs, but he failed to scatter the haydukes over the ground as he had been wont to do. Oh, old age, old age, he said. And the stalwart old Cossack wept.

But it was not his age that was to blame. Nearly thirty men were hanging on his arms and legs. "The raven is caught!" shouted the Leax. "Now it is only necessary to think how we can best show him honour, the dog!" And they decided, with the permission of the hetman, to burn him alive in the sight of everyone. Nearby stood a naked tree, whose crest had been blasted by lightning. They bound him with iron chains to the trunk of the tree, driving nails through his hands and raising him as high as possible.

that the old cossack might be everywhere visible and they immediately began to build a pyre of faggots at the foot of the tree but taras did not look at the pyre nor did he think of the fire with which they were preparing to burn him he gazed anxiously the great-hearted man in the direction whence the cossacks were firing from his lofty post of observation he could see everything as in the palm of his hand

take possession my lads take possession quickly he shouted of the hillock behind the forest they can't approach it but the wind did not carry his words to them they'll perish perish for nothing he said in despair and glanced down to where the dnieper gleamed joy shone in his eyes

He descried the sterns of four boats peeping out from behind the bushes, and he gathered together all the strength of his voice and shouted in a ringing tone, To the shore! To the shore, my lads! Descend the path on the left, under the cliff! There are boats on the strand! Seize them all that the foe may not catch you! This time the breeze blew from the other quarter, and all his words were audible to the Cossacks.

But for this council he received a blow on the head with the butt-end of an axe, which made everything dance before his eyes. The Cossacks rode down the cliff path at full speed, but the pursuers were at their heels. They looked. The path wound and twisted and made many curves aside.

"Ah, comrades, luck's against us!" said they all, then halted for an instant, raised their whips, and their Tatar horses rose from the ground, clove air like serpents, flew over the precipice, and plunged straight into the Dnieper. Two only failed to land in the river, and thundered from the height upon the stones, and perished there with their steeds, before they could even utter a cry. But the rest of the Cossacks were already swimming with their horses and unfastening the boats.

The Leacs halted on the brink of the precipice, astounded at this wonderful feat of the Cossacks, and thinking, shall we leap down to them or not? One young colonel, a lively, hot-blooded fellow, own brother to the beautiful Pole, who had seduced poor Andri, did not reflect long, but hurled himself and his horse after the Cossacks with all his might. He turned three somersaults in the air with his steed and landed heavily on the jagged cliffs.

The sharp stones tore him in pieces as he fell into the abyss, and his brains mingled with blood bespattered the shrubs which grew on the uneven walls of the precipice. When Taras Bulba recovered from the blow and glanced at the Dnieper, the Cossacks were already in the skiffs and were rowing away. Bullets showered upon them from above but did not reach them, and the old Ataman's eyes sparkled with joy. "Farewell, comrades!" he shouted to them from above.

"'Remember me, and come hither again next spring to make merry. "'What if ye have captured me, ye devilishly acts? "'Think ye that there is anything in the world which the Cossack fears? "'Wait! The time will come when ye shall learn what the orthodox Russian faith is like. "'Already the peoples far and near are beginning to understand it. "'A czar shall arise from the Russian soil, "'and there shall not be a power in the world which shall not submit itself to him.'

But the fire had already risen above the faggots. It was lapping his feet, and the flames spread to the tree. But can any fire, flames, or power be found on earth capable of overpowering Russian strength? Not small is the river Dnieper, and in it are many deep pools, dense reed beds, shallows, and little bays.

Its watery mirror gleams brightly, resounding with the ringing plaint of the swan, and the proud wild goose glides swiftly over it, and many other woodcocks, tawny-throated grouse, and various other sorts of birds to be found among the reeds and along its shores. The Cossacks floated swiftly on in the narrow double-rutted boats, rowed stoutly, carefully shunning the reefs, cleaving the ranks of the birds which rose on the wing, and talked of their Ataman.

End of chapter 12. End of Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol. Translated by Isabel Hapgood. They said to get a respected degree, I'd have to go to a big state university. But WGU offers online degree programs that employers value and even have alumni working at some of the largest companies in the world. Plus, because the program is online, I didn't even have to quit my job.

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