Ogniem i mieczem. English Read online

  CHAPTER IX.

  Next morning Pan Yan woke up fresh, in good health, and cheerful. Theweather was wonderful. The widely overflowed waters were wrinkled intosmall ripples by the warm, light breeze. The banks were in a fog, andwere merged in the plain of waters in one indistinguishable level.

  Jendzian, when he woke, rubbed his eyes and was frightened. He lookedaround with astonishment, and seeing shore nowhere, cried out,--

  "Oh, for God's sake! my master, we must be out on the sea."

  "It is the swollen river, not the sea," answered Pan Yan; "you willfind the shores when the fog rises."

  "I think we shall be travelling before long in the Turkish land."

  "We shall travel there if we are ordered, but you see we are notsailing alone."

  And in the twinkle of an eye were to be seen many large boats and thenarrow Cossack craft, generally called chaiki, with bulrushes fastenedaround them. Some of these were going down the river, borne on by theswift current; others were being urged laboriously against the streamwith oars and sail. They were carrying fish, wax, salt, and driedcherries to towns along the river, or returning from inhabitedneighborhoods laden with provisions for Kudak, and goods which foundready sale in the bazaar at the Saitch. From the mouth of the Psel downthe banks of the Dnieper was a perfect desert, on which only here andthere wintering-posts of the Cossacks whitened. But the river formed ahighway connecting the Saitch with the rest of the world; thereforethere was a considerable movement on it, especially when the increaseof water made it easy for vessels, and when the Cataracts, with theexception of Nenasytets, were passable for craft going with thecurrent.

  The lieutenant looked with curiosity at that life on the river.Meanwhile his boats were speeding on quickly to Kudak. The fog rose,and the shore appeared in clear outline. Over the heads of thetravellers flew millions of water-birds,--pelicans, wild geese, storks,ducks, gulls, curlews, and mews. In the reeds at the side of the riverwas heard such an uproar, such a plashing of water, such a sound ofwings, that you would have said there was either a war or a council ofbirds. Beyond Kremenchug the shores became lower and open.

  "Oh, look, my master!" cried Jendzian, suddenly; "the sun is roasting,but snow lies on the fields."

  Skshetuski looked, and indeed on both sides of the river, as far as theeye could reach, some kind of a white covering glittered in the rays ofthe sun.

  "Hallo! what is that which looks white over there?" asked he of thepilot.

  "Cherry-trees!" answered the old man.

  In fact there were forests of dwarf cherry-trees, with which bothshores were covered from beyond the mouth of the Psel. In autumn thesweet and large fruit of these trees furnished food to birds andbeasts, as well as to people losing their way in the Wilderness. Thisfruit was also an article of commerce which was taken in boats to Kieffand beyond. When they went to the shore, to give the oarsmen time torest, the lieutenant landed with Jendzian, wishing to examine thebushes more closely. The two men were surrounded by such anintoxicating odor that they were scarcely able to breathe. Manybranches were lying on the ground. In places an impenetrable thicketwas formed. Among the cherry-trees were growing, also luxuriantly,small wild almond-trees covered with rose-colored blossoms, which gaveout a still more pungent odor. Myriads of black bees and yellow bees,with many-colored butterflies, were flitting over this variegated seaof blossoms, the end of which could not be seen.

  "Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful!" said Jendzian. "And why do notpeople live here? I see plenty of wild animals too."

  Among the cherry-trees gray and white rabbits were running, andcountless flocks of large blue-legged quails, some of which Jendzianshot; but to his great distress he learned from the pilot that theirflesh was poisonous. On the soft earth tracks of deer and wild goatswere to be seen, and from afar came sounds like the grunting of wildboars.

  When the travellers had sated their eyes and rested, they pushed onfarther. The shores were now high, now low, disclosing views of fineoak forests, fields, mounds, and spacious steppes. The surroundingcountry seemed so luxuriant that Skshetuski involuntarily repeated tohimself the question of Jendzian: "Why do not people live here?" Butfor this there was need of some second Yeremi Vishnyevetski to occupythose desert places, bring them to order, and defend them from attacksof Tartars and men from the lower country. At points the river madebreaches and bends, flooded ravines, struck its foaming wave againstcliffs on the shore, and filled with water dark caverns in the rocks.In such caverns and bends were the hiding-places and retreats of theCossacks. The mouths of rivers were covered with forests of rushes,reeds, and plants, which were black from the multitude of birds; in aword, a wild region, precipitous, in places sunken, but waste andmysterious, unrolled itself before the eyes of our travellers. Movementon the water became disagreeable; for by reason of the heat swarms ofmosquitoes and insects unknown in the dry steppe appeared,--some ofthem as large as a man's finger, and whose bite caused blood to flow ina stream.

  In the evening they arrived at the island of Romanovka, the fires ofwhich were visible from a distance, and there they remained for thenight. The fishermen who had hurried up to look at the escort of thelieutenant had their shirts, their faces, and their hands entirelycovered with tar to save them from insect bites. These were men of rudehabits and wild. In spring they assembled here in crowds to catch anddry fish, which afterward they took to Chigirin, Cherkasi, Pereyaslav,and Kieff. Their occupation was difficult, but profitable, by reason ofthe multitude of fish that in the summer became a misfortune to thatregion; for, dying from lack of water in the bays and so-called "quietcorners," they infected the air with putrefaction.

  The lieutenant learned that all the Zaporojians occupied there infishing had left the island some days before and returned at the callof the koshevoi ataman. Every night, too, from the island were seenfires kindled on the steppe by people hastening to the Saitch. Thefishermen knew that an expedition against the Poles was in preparation,and they made no secret of this from the lieutenant. Skshetuski sawthat his journey might indeed be too late; perhaps before he couldreach the Saitch the Cossack regiments would be moving to the north;but he had been ordered to go, and like a true soldier he did notargue, but resolved to push on, even to the centre of the Zaporojiancamp.

  Early next morning they kept on their way. They passed the wonderfulTarenski Corner, Sukhaya Gora, and Konski Ostrog, famous for its swampsand myriads of insects, which rendered it unfit for habitation.Everything about them--the wildness of the region, the increased rushof the water--announced the vicinity of the Cataracts. At last thetower of Kudak was outlined on the horizon; the first part of theirjourney was ended.

  The lieutenant, however, did not reach the castle that night; for PanGrodzitski had established the order that after the change of guard,just before sunset, no one would be permitted to enter the fortress orleave it. Even if the king himself were to arrive after that hour, hewould be obliged to pass the night in the village under the walls ofthe castle.

  And this is what the lieutenant did. His lodgings were not verycommodious; for the cabins in the village, of which there were aboutsixty, built of clay, were so small that it was necessary to crawl intosome of them on hands and knees. It was not worth while to build anyother; for the fortress reduced them to ruins at every Tartar attack,so as not to give the assailants shelter or safe approach to the walls.In that village dwelt "incomers,"--that is, wanderers from Poland,Russia, the Crimea, and Wallachia. Almost every man had a faith of hisown, but of that no one raised a question. They cultivated no landbecause of danger from the horde. They lived on fish and grain broughtfrom the Ukraine; they drank spirits distilled from millet, and workedat handicraft for which they were esteemed at Kudak.

  The lieutenant was scarcely able to close his eyes that night from theodor of horse-skins, of which straps were made in the village. Nextmorning at daybreak, as soon as the bell rang and the tattoo wassounded, he gave notice at the fortress that an envoy of the prince
hadarrived.

  Grodzitski, who had the visit of the prince fresh in mind, went out tomeet him in person. He was a man fifty years of age, one-eyed like aCyclops, sullen; for, seated in a desert at the end of the world andnot seeing people, he had become wild, and in exercising unlimitedpower had grown stern and harsh. Besides, his face was pitted withsmall-pox, and adorned with sabre-cuts and scars from Tartar arrows,like white spots on a tawny skin. But he was a genuine soldier,watchful as a stork; he kept his eye strained in the direction ofTartars and Cossacks. He drank only water, and slept but seven hours intwenty-four; often he would spring up in the night to see if the guardswere watching the walls properly, and for the least carelessnesscondemned soldiers to death. Though terrible, he was indulgent to theCossacks, and acquired their respect. When in winter they were short ofprovisions in the Saitch, he helped them with grain. He was a Russianlike those who in their day campaigned in the steppes with Psheslav,Lantskoronski, and Samek Zborovski.

  "Then you are going to the Saitch?" asked he of Skshetuski, conductinghim first to the castle and treating him hospitably.

  "To the Saitch. What news have you from there?"

  "War! The koshevoi ataman is concentrating the Cossacks from all themeadows, streams, and islands. Fugitives are coming from the Ukraine,whom I stop when I can. There are thirty thousand men or more in theSaitch at present. When they move on the Ukraine and when the townCossacks and the crowd join them, there will be a hundred thousand."

  "And Hmelnitski?"

  "He is looked for every day from the Crimea with the Tartars; he mayhave come already. To tell the truth, it is not necessary for you to goto the Saitch; in a little while you will see them here, for they willnot avoid Kudak, nor leave it behind them."

  "But will you defend yourself?"

  Grodzitski looked gloomily at the lieutenant and said with a calm,emphatic voice: "I will not defend myself."

  "How is that?"

  "I have no powder. I sent twenty boats for even a little; none has beensent me. I don't know whether the messengers were intercepted orwhether there is none. I only know that so far none has come. I havepowder for two weeks,--no longer. If I had powder enough, I should blowKudak and myself into the air before a Cossack foot should enter. I amcommanded to lie here,--I lie; commanded to watch,--I watch; commandedto be defiant,--I am defiant; and if it comes to dying, since my mothergave me birth, I shall know how to die too."

  "And can't you make powder yourself?"

  "For two months the Cossacks have been unwilling to let me havesaltpetre, which must be brought from the Black Sea. No matter! if needbe I will die!"

  "We can all learn of you old soldiers. And if you were to go for thepowder yourself?"

  "I will not and cannot leave Kudak; here was life for me, let my deathbe here. Don't you think, either, that you are going to banquets andlordly receptions, like those with which they welcome envoys in otherplaces, or that the office of envoy will protect you there. They killtheir own atamans; and since I have been here I don't remember that anyof them has died a natural death. And you will perish also."

  Skshetuski was silent.

  "I see that your courage is dying out; you would better not go."

  "My dear sir," said the lieutenant, angrily, "think of something morefitted to frighten me, for I have heard what you have told me tentimes, and if you counsel me not to go I shall see that in my place youwould not go. Consider, therefore, if powder is the only thing youneed, and not bravery too, in the defence of Kudak."

  Grodzitski, instead of growing angry, looked with clear eyes at thelieutenant.

  "You are a biting dog!" muttered he in Russian. "Pardon me. From youranswer I see that you are able to uphold the dignity of the prince andthe rank of noble. I'll give you a couple of Cossack boats, for withyour own you will not be able to pass the Cataracts."

  "I wished to ask you for them."

  "At Nenasytets you will have them drawn overland; for although thewater is deep, it is never possible to pass,--scarcely can some kind ofsmall boat slip through. And when you are on the lower waters guardagainst surprise, and remember that iron and lead are more eloquentthan words. There they respect none but the daring. The boats will beready in the morning; but I will order a second rudder to be put oneach, for one is not enough on the Cataracts."

  Grodzitski now conducted the lieutenant from the room, to show him thefortress and its arrangements. It was a model of order and disciplinethroughout. Night and day guards standing close to one another watchedthe walls, which Tartar captives were forced to strengthen and repaircontinually.

  "Every year I add one ell to the height of the walls," said Grodzitski,"and they are now so strong that if I had powder enough even a hundredthousand men could do nothing against me; but without ammunition Ican't defend myself when superior force appears."

  The fortress was really impregnable; for besides the guns it wasdefended by the precipices of the Dnieper and inaccessible cliffsrising sheer from the water, and did not require a great garrison.Therefore there were not more than six hundred men in the fortress; butthey were the very choicest soldiers, armed with muskets. The Dnieper,flowing in that place in a compressed bed, was so narrow that an arrowshot from the walls went far on to the other bank. The guns of thefortress commanded both shores and the whole neighborhood. Besides,about two miles and a half from the fortress was a lofty tower, fromwhich everything was visible for forty miles around, and in which wereone hundred soldiers whom Pan Grodzitski visited every day. Wheneverthey saw people in the neighborhood they gave signal to the fortressimmediately, the alarm was rung, and the whole garrison stood underarms at once.

  "In truth," said Grodzitski, "there is no week without an alarm; forthe Tartars, sometimes several thousands strong, wander around likewolves. We strike them as well as we can with the guns, and many timeswild horses are mistaken for Tartars."

  "And are you not weary of living in such a wild place?" askedSkshetuski.

  "Even if a place were given me in the chambers of the king, I would nottake it. I see more of the world from this place than the king doesfrom his windows in Warsaw."

  In truth, from the walls an immense stretch of steppes was to be seen,which at that time seemed one sea of green,--to the north the mouth ofthe Samara; and on the south the whole bank of the Dnieper, rocks,precipices, forests, as far as the foam of the second Cataract, theSur.

  Toward evening they visited the tower again, since Skshetuski, seeingfor the first time that fortress in the steppe, was curious abouteverything. Meanwhile in the village boats were being prepared for him,which, provided with rudders at both ends, could be turned more easily.He was to start early in the morning; yet during the night he did notlie down to sleep at all, but pondered what was to be done in face ofthe inevitable destruction with which his mission to the terribleSaitch was threatened. Life smiled on him indeed; for he was young andin love, and a future at the side of a loved one was promised him.Still honor and glory were dearer. But he remembered that war was near;that Helena, waiting for him in Rozlogi, might be seized by the mostterrible misfortune,--exposed to the violence, not of Bogun alone, butof the wild and unbridled mob. Alarm for her and pain had seized hisspirits. The steppes must have become dry already; it was surelypossible to go from Rozlogi to Lubni. But he had told Helena and theold princess to wait for him; for he had not expected that the stormwould burst so soon, he did not know the danger in the journey to theSaitch. He walked therefore with quick steps in his room in thefortress, twisted his beard, and wrung his hands. What was he to do?How was he to act? In his mind he saw Rozlogi already in flames,surrounded by a howling mob, more like devils than men. His own stepswere answered by a gloomy echo under the vault of the castle; and itseemed to him that an evil power was already approaching Helena. On thewalls the quenching of the lights was signalled, and that seemed to himthe echo of Bogun's horn. He gnashed his teeth, and grasped after thehilt of his sword. Oh! why did he insist on this expedition, and get itaway from Bykho
vets?

  Jendzian, who was sleeping on the threshold, noticed the change in hismaster, rose therefore, wiped his eyes, snuffed the torch burning inthe iron candlestick, and began to walk around in the room, wishing toarrest the attention of his master.

  But the lieutenant, buried completely in his own painful thoughts, keptwalking on, rousing with his steps the slumbering echoes.

  "Oh, my master!" said Jendzian.

  Skshetuski gazed at him with a glassy look. Suddenly he woke up fromhis revery.

  "Jendzian, are you afraid of death?" asked he.

  "How death? What are you saying?"

  "For who goes to the Saitch does not return."

  "Then why do you go?"

  "That is my affair; do not meddle with it. But I am sorry for you; youare a stripling, and though a cunning fellow, cunning cannot save youin the Saitch. Return to Chigirin, and then to Lubni."

  Jendzian began to scratch his head.

  "My master, I fear death; for whoever would not fear death would notfear God; for it is his will either to keep a man alive or to put himto death. But if you run to death of your own will, then it is your sinas a master, not mine as a servant. I will not leave you; for I am nota serf, but a nobleman; though poor, still I am not without pride."

  "I see that you are a good fellow; but I will tell you, if you do notwish to go willingly, you will go by command, since it cannot beotherwise."

  "Though you were to kill me, I will not go. Do you think that I am aJudas, to give you up to death?"

  Here Jendzian raised his hands to his eyes, and began to sob audibly.Skshetuski saw that he could not reach him in that way, and he did notwish to command him threateningly, for he was sorry for the lad.

  "Listen!" said he to him. "You can give me no assistance, and I shallnot put my head under the sword voluntarily. You will take letters toRozlogi, which are of more importance to me than my own life. You willtell the old princess to take the young lady to Lubni at once, withoutthe least delay, otherwise rebellion will catch them; and do you watchto see they go. I give you an important mission, worthy of a friend,not a servant."

  "You can send somebody else with the letter,--anybody will go."

  "And what trusted person have I here? Have you lost your senses? Irepeat to you: Doubly save my life, and still you do not wish to renderme such service, while I am living in torment, thinking what mayhappen, and my skin is sweating from pain."

  "Well, as God lives, I see I must go! But I grieve for you; so if youwere even to give me that spotted belt, I should take no comfort in itat all."

  "You shall have the belt; but do your work well."

  "I do not want the belt, if you will only let me go with you."

  "To-morrow you will return with the boat which Pan Grodzitski issending to Chigirin. From there you will go, without delay or rest,straight to Rozlogi. Here is a purse for the road. I will write lettersimmediately."

  Jendzian fell at the feet of the lieutenant, "Oh, my master, shall Inever see you again?"

  "As God gives, as God gives," said Skshetuski, raising him up. "Butshow a glad face in Rozlogi. Now go to sleep."

  The remainder of the night passed for Skshetuski in writing letters andardent prayer, after which the angel of rest came to him. Meanwhile thenight was growing pale; light whitened the narrow windows from theeast; day was coming. Then rosy gleams stole into the room; on thetower and fortress they began to play the morning "tattoo." Shortlyafter Grodzitski appeared in the room.

  "The boats are ready."

  "And I am ready," said Skshetuski, calmly.