Ogniem i mieczem. English
Page 27
CHAPTER XXV.
After the nine days' march of which Mashkevich was the Xenophon, andthe three days' passage of the Desna, the army reached Chernigoff atlast. Skshetuski entered first of all with the Wallachians. The princeordered him to the place on purpose, so that he might inquire soonerabout the princess and Zagloba. But here, as in Lubni, neither in thetown nor the castle did he hear anything of them. They had vanishedsomewhere without a trace, like a stone in the water, and the knighthimself knew not what to think. Where could they have hiddenthemselves? Certainly not in Moscow, nor in the Crimea, nor in theSaitch. There remained only one hypothesis, that they had crossed theDnieper; but in such an event they would find themselves at once in themidst of the storm. On that side there were slaughter and swarms ofdrunken peasants, Zaporojians, and Tartars, from whom not even adisguise would protect Helena; for those wild Pagans were glad to takeboys captive, for whom they found a great demand in the markets ofStamboul. A terrible suspicion entered Skshetuski's head,--thatpossibly Zagloba had taken her to that side on purpose to sell her toTugai Bey, who might pay him more liberally than Bogun; and thisthought drove him to the very verge of madness. But Podbipienta, whohad known Zagloba longer than Skshetuski, quieted him considerably inthis respect.
"My dear brother," said he, "cast that thought out of your head! Thatnoble has done nothing of the sort. The Kurtsevichi had treasuresenough, which Bogun would have been willing to give him. Had he wishedto ruin the girl, he would not have exposed his life, and he would havemade his fortune."
"True," said the lieutenant; "but why has he fled with her across theDnieper, instead of going to Lubni or Chernigoff?"
"Well, quiet your mind, my dear fellow! I know that Zagloba. He drankwith me and borrowed money of me. He does not care for money,--eitherhis own or another man's. If he has his own he will spend it, and hewon't repay another's if he borrows; but that he would undertake such adeed I do not believe."
"He is a frivolous man," said Pan Yan.
"Frivolous he may be, but he is a trickster who will outwit any man,and slip out of every danger himself. And as the priest with propheticspirit said that God would give her back to you, so will it be; for itis just that every sincere affection should be rewarded. Consoleyourself with this hope, as I console myself."
Here Pan Longin began to sigh deeply, and after a while added: "Let usinquire once more at the castle. Maybe they passed by here."
They inquired everywhere, but to no purpose. There was not a trace evenof the passage of the fugitives. The castle was full of nobles withtheir wives and children, who had shut themselves in against theCossacks. The prince endeavored to persuade them to go with him, andwarned them that the Cossacks were following in his tracks. They didnot dare to attack the army, but it was likely they would attack thecastle and the town after his departure. The nobles in the castle,however, were strangely blinded.
"We are safe behind the forests," said they to the prince. "No one willcome to us here."
"But I have passed through these forests," said he.
"You have passed, but the rabble will not. These are not the forestsfor them."
The nobles refused to go, continuing in their blindness, for which theypaid dearly later on. After the passage of the prince the Cossacks camequickly. The castle was defended manfully for three weeks, then wascaptured and all in it were cut to pieces. The Cossacks committedterrible cruelties, and no one took vengeance on them.
When the prince arrived at Lubech on the Dnieper he disposed his armythere for rest, but went himself with the princess and court to Bragin,situated in the midst of forests and impassable swamps. A week laterthe army crossed over too. They marched then through Babitsa to Mozir,where, on the day of Corpus Christi, came the moment of separation; forthe princess with the court had to go to Turoff to the wife of thevoevoda of Vilna, her aunt, but the prince with the army into fire inthe Ukraine.
At the farewell dinner the prince and princess, the ladies in waiting,and most of the distinguished officers were present. But the usualanimation was not evident among the ladies and cavaliers, for more thanone soldier heart was cut by the thought that he would soon have toleave the chosen one, for whom he wished to live, fight, and die; morethan one pair of bright or dark maiden eyes were filled with tears ofsorrow because "_he_ is going to the war among bullets and swords,among Cossacks and wild Tartars,--is going and may not return."
When the prince began to speak in taking farewell of his wife andcourt, the young ladies fell to crying one after another as plaintivelyas kittens; but the knights, being of sterner stuff, rose from theirplaces, and seizing the hilts of their swords, shouted in unison,--
"We will conquer and return!"
"God give you strength!" answered the princess.
Then there rose a shout that made the walls and windows tremble.
"Long life to the princess! Long life to our mother and benefactress!Long life to her! long life to her!"
The officers loved her for her love to them, for her greatness of soul,her liberality and kindness, for her care of their families. PrinceYeremi loved her above all things; for theirs were two natures createdas it were for each other, as much alike as two goblets of gold andbronze.
Then all went up to her, and each one knelt with his goblet before herchair, and she, embracing the head of each one, spoke some word ofkindness. But to Skshetuski she said,--
"It is likely that more than one knight here will receive a scapula ora ribbon at parting; and since you have not here the one from whom mostof all you would wish to receive a memento, take this from me as from amother."
While saying this, she removed a golden cross set with turquoise andhung it upon his neck. He kissed her hands with reverence.
It was evident that the prince was greatly pleased at this attentionshown Skshetuski; for of late he had given him increased affectionbecause in his mission to the Saitch he had upheld the dignity of theprince and refused to take letters from Hmelnitski. They rose from thetable. The young ladies, catching on the wing the words of the princessspoken to Pan Yan and receiving them as a sign of approval andpermission, began immediately to bring, one a scapula, another a scarf,a third a cross, which seeing, the knights present approached, if nothis chosen, at least his favorite one. Therefore Ponyatovski came toJitinska; Bykhovets to Bogovitinyanka, for recently he had grownpleasing to her; Roztvorovski to Jukovna; red Vershul to Skoropadska;Colonel Makhnitski, though old, to Zavyeska. Only Anusia BorzobogataKrasenska, though the most beautiful of all, stood under the windowdeserted and alone; her face was flushed, her eyes with drooping lidsshot from their corners glances full of anger and of a prayer not toput such an affront on her. Seeing this, the traitor Volodyovski cameup and said,--
"I too wished to beg Panna Anna for a memento, but I abandoned,resigned, my wish, thinking I should not be able to push my way to herthrough the dense throng."
Anusia's cheeks burned still more hotly, but without a moment'shesitation she answered,--
"You would like to get a keepsake from other hands than mine, but youwill not get it; for if it is not too crowded for you there, it is toohigh."
The blow was well directed and double, for in the first place it turnedthe sarcasm to the low stature of the knight, and in the second to hispassion for Princess Barbara Zbaraska. Pan Volodyovski fell in lovefirst with the elder sister Anna; but when she was betrothed herecovered from his pain and in silence made an offering of his heart toBarbara, thinking that no one suspected it. When therefore he heardthis from Anusia, though he was a champion of the first degree bothwith sword and tongue, he was so confused that he forgot his speech andmuttered something wide of the mark,--
"You are aiming high too, as high indeed as the head of PanPodbipienta."
"He is in truth higher than you in arms and in manners," said theresolute girl. "Thank you for reminding me!" Then she called to theLithuanian: "Will you come this way? I wish to have my knight too, andI do not know that I co
uld bind my scarf on a braver breast thanyours."
Pan Podbipienta stared as if uncertain whether he heard correctly;finally he cast himself on his knees, so that the floor trembled.
"My benefactress!"
Anusia fastened the scarf, and then her little hands disappearedentirely under the blond mustaches of Pan Longin. There was heard onlythe sound of kissing and muttering, hearing which Volodyovski said toLieutenant Migurski, "One would swear that a bear had broken into abee-hive and was eating the honey." Then he went away with a certainanger, for he felt Anusia's sting, and moreover he had been in lovewith her in his time.
But the prince had already begun to take farewell of the princess, andan hour later the court set out for Turoff, and the army for thePripet.
During the night at the crossing, while they were building rafts tocarry over the cannon, and the hussars were doing the work, Pan Longinsaid to Skshetuski,--
"Look here, brother, a misfortune!"
"What has happened?" asked the lieutenant.
"Why, the news from the Ukraine!"
"What news?"
"The Zaporojians tell me that Tugai Bey has gone with the horde to theCrimea."
"Well, what of that? You will not cry over that, I suppose."
"But, my brother, you told me--and you were right, were you not?--thatI could not count Cossacks' heads, and if the Tartars are gone where amI to get the three Pagan heads? Where should I look for them? and oh,how much I need them!"
Skshetuski, though suffering himself, laughed, and answered: "Iunderstand what the matter is, for I saw how you were made a knightto-day."
"That is true. Why hide it longer? I have fallen in love,brother,--fallen in love. That is the misfortune."
"Don't torment yourself. I do not believe that Tugai Bey has gone, andbesides you will meet as many Pagans as there are mosquitoes over ourheads."
In fact, whole clouds of mosquitoes swept over the horses and men; forthe troops went into a country of impassable morasses, swampy forests,soft meadows, rivers, creeks, and streams,--into an empty, gloomy land,one howling wilderness, concerning the inhabitants of which it was saidin those times,--
"Nobleman Nakedness (Holota[11]) Gave with his daughter Two kegs of wagon grease, One wreath of mushrooms, One jar of mud-fish, And one ridge of swamp."
In this swamp, however, there grew not only mushrooms, but, in spite ofthe above sarcasm, great lordly fortunes. But at this time the prince'smen, who, for the greater part had been reared on the lofty dry steppesof the Trans-Dnieper, could not believe their own eyes. True, therewere swamps in their country and forests in places, but here the wholeregion seemed to be one swamp. The nights were clear and bright. As faras the eye could see by the light of the moon not two yards of dryground were visible. Only tufts of earth looked black above the water,the trees appeared to grow out of the water, water spattered from underthe feet of the horses, water sprinkled the wheels of the wagons andthe cannon.
Vurtsel fell into despair: "A wonderful march!" said he; "nearChernigoff we were in danger from fire, and now water is drowning us."
Indeed the earth, in contradiction to its nature, did not give a firmsupport to the foot, but bent and trembled as if wishing to open andswallow those who moved upon it.
The troops were four days passing the Pripet; then they had to crossalmost every day rivers and streams flowing through shaky ground. Andnowhere was there a bridge. All the people crossed in boats. After afew days fog and rain began. The men did their utmost to get out ofthose enchanted regions at last, and the prince urged and pushed themon. The soldiers, seeing too that he did not spare himself,--he was onhorseback from dawn till dark, leading the army and overseeing itsadvance, directing everything in person,--did not dare to murmur,though really they labored beyond their strength. To toil from morningtill night and in the water was the common lot of all. The horses beganto lose their hoofs; many of the artillery horses died, so that theinfantry and Volodyovski's dragoons drew cannon themselves. The pickedregiments, such as Skshetuski's and Zatsvilikhovski's hussars, and thearmored regiments took their axes to make roads. It was a famous march,in cold and water and hunger, in which the will of the leader and theardor of the soldiers broke through every barrier. No one hitherto haddared to lead an army through that country during the high water ofspring. Happily the march was not interrupted by any accident. Thepeople were peaceable and without thought of rebellion; thoughafterward roused by the Cossacks and incited by example, they did notwish to rally to the banners of sedition. They looked with sleepy eyeson the passing legions, who issued from the pine woods and swamps as ifenchanted, and passed on like a dream; they furnished guides, and didquietly and obediently all that was asked of them.
In view of this the prince punished severely every military license,and the army was not followed by groans, curses, and complaints; andwhen after the passage of the army it was learned in some smoky villagethat Prince Yeremi had passed, the people shook their heads, and saidquietly, "Why, he is good-natured."
At last, after twenty days of superhuman toil and effort, the forces ofthe prince appeared in the region of revolt. "Yarema is coming! Yaremais coming!" was heard over the whole Ukraine, to the Wilderness, toChigirin and Yagorlik. "Yarema is coming!" was heard in the towns,villages, farms, and clearings; and at the report the scythes, forks,and knives dropped from the hands of the peasants, faces grew pale,wild bands hurried toward the south in the night, like wolves at thesound of the hunter's horn; the Tartar, wandering around for plunder,sprang from his horse and put his ear to the ground from time to time;in the castles and fortresses that were still uncaptured, bells weresounded and "Te Deum laudamus" was sung.
And that terrible lion laid himself down on the threshold of arebellious land and rested. He was gathering his strength.
[Illustration; BOGDAN HMELNITSKI.}