![]() Taras Bulba ![]() Not an hour had elapsed after their conversation, when the drums again
thundered. The drunken and senseless Kozaks assembled. A myriad Kozak
caps were sprinkled over the square. A murmur arose, "Why? What? Why was the
assembly beaten?" No one answered. At length, in one quarter and another, it
began to be rumoured about, "Behold, the Kozak strength is being vainly
wasted: there is no war! Behold, our leaders have become as marmots, every
one; their eyes swim in fat! Plainly, there is no justice in the world!" The
other Kozaks listened at first, and then began themselves to say, "In
truth, there is no justice in the world!" Their leaders seemed surprised at
these utterances. Finally the Koschevoi stepped forward: "Permit me,
Kozaks, to address you."
"Do so!"
"Touching the matter in question, gentles, none know better than
yourselves that many Zaporozhtzi have run in debt to the Jew ale-house
keepers and to their brethren, so that now they have not an atom of credit.
Again, touching the matter in question, there are many young fellows who
have no idea of what war is like, although you know, gentles, that without
war a young man cannot exist. How make a Zaporozhetz out of him if he has
never killed a Muslim?"
"He speaks well," thought Bulba.
"Think not, however, gentles, that I speak thus in order to break the
truce; God forbid! I merely mention it. Besides, it is a shame to see what
sort of church we have for our God. Not only has the church remained without
exterior decoration during all the years which by God's mercy the Sich has
stood, but up to this day even the holy pictures have no adornments. No one
has even thought of making them a silver frame; they have only received what
some Kozaks have left them in their wills; and these gifts were poor,
since they had drunk up nearly all they had during their lifetime. I am
making you this speech, therefore, not in order to stir up a war against the
Muslims; we have promised the Sultan peace, and it would be a great sin
in us to break this promise, for we swore it on our law."
"What is he mixing things up like that for?" said Bulba to himself.
"So you see, gentles, that war cannot be begun; honour does not permit
it. But according to my poor opinion, we might, I think, send out a few
young men in boats and let them plunder the coasts of Anatolia a little.
What do you think, gentles?" "Lead us, lead us all!" shouted the crowd on all sides. "We are ready to
lay down our lives for our faith."
The Koschevoi was alarmed. He by no means wished to stir up all
Zaporozhe; a breach of the truce appeared to him on this occasion
unsuitable. "Permit me, gentles, to address you further."
"Enough!" yelled the Kozaks; "you can say nothing better."
"If it must be so, then let it be so. I am the slave of your will. We
know, and from Scripture too, 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 lies the difficulty; you know, gentles, that the Sultan
will not permit that which delights our young men to go unpunished. We
should be prepared at such a time, and our forces should be fresh, and then
we should fear no one. But during their absence the Tatars may assemble
fresh forces; the dogs do not show themselves in sight and dare not come
while the master is at home, but they can bite his heels from behind, and
bite painfully too. And if I must tell you the truth, we have not boats
enough, nor powder ready in sufficient quantity, for all to go. But I am
ready, if you please; I am the slave of your will."
The cunning hetman was silent. The various groups began to discuss the
matter, and the hetmans of the kuréns to take counsel together; few were
drunk fortunately, so they decided to listen to reason.
A number of men set out at once for the opposite shore of the Dnieper, to
the treasury of the army, where in strictest secrecy, under water and among
the reeds, lay concealed the army chest and a portion 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 with axes in their hands. Old, weatherbeaten, broad-shouldered,
strong-legged Zaporozhtzi, with black or silvered moustaches, rolled up
their trousers, waded up to their knees in water, and dragged the boats on
to the shore with stout ropes; others brought seasoned timber and all sorts
of wood. The boats were freshly planked, turned bottom upwards, caulked and
tarred, and then bound together side by side after Kozak fashion, with
long strands of reeds, so that the swell of the waves might not sink them.
Far along the shore they built fires and heated tar in copper cauldrons to
smear the boats. The old and the experienced instructed the young. The blows
and shouts of the workers rose all over the neighbourhood; the bank shook
and moved about.
About this time a large ferry-boat began to near the shore. The mass of
people standing in it began to wave their hands from a distance. They were
Kozaks in torn, ragged gaberdines. Their disordered garments, for many had
on nothing but their shirts, with a short pipe in their mouths, showed that
they had either escaped from some disaster or had caroused to such an extent
that they had drunk up all they had on their bodies. A short,
broad-shouldered Kozak of about fifty stepped out from the midst of them
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 cries and hammering
of the workmen.
"Whence come you!" asked the Koschevoi, as the boat touched the shore.
All the workers paused in their labours, and, raising their axes and
chisels, looked on expectantly.
"From a misfortune!" shouted the short Kozak.
"From what?"
"Permit me, noble Zaporozhtzi, to address you."
"Speak!"
"Or would you prefer to assemble a council?"
"Speak, we are all here."
The people all pressed together in one mass.
"Have you then heard nothing of what has been going on in the hetman's
dominions?"
"What is it?" inquired one of the kurén hetmans.
"Eh! what! Evidently the Tatars have plastered up your ears so that you
might hear nothing."
"Tell us then; what has been 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 pledged to the Jews. If the Jew is not first paid, there can be
no mass."
"What are you saying?"
"And if the dog of a Jew does not make a sign with his unclean hand over
the holy Easter-bread, it cannot be consecrated."
"He lies, brother gentles. It cannot be that an unclean Jew puts his mark
upon the holy Easter-bread."
"Listen! I have not yet told all. Catholic priests are going about all
over the Ukraine in carts. The harm lies not in the carts, but in the fact
that not horses, but orthodox Christians, are harnessed to them. Listen!
I have not yet told all. They say that the Jewesses are making themselves
petticoats out of our popes' vestments. Such are the deeds that are taking
place in the Ukraine, gentles! And you sit here revelling in Zaporozhe; and
evidently the Tatars have so scared you that you have no eyes, no ears, no
anything, and know 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 Zaporozhtzi, who, on important
occasions, never yielded to their first impulse, but kept silence, and
meanwhile concentrated inwardly all the power of their indignation. "Stop! I
also have a word to say. But what were you about? When your father the devil
was raging thus, what were you doing yourselves? Had you no swords? How came
you to permit such lawlessness?"
"Eh! how did we come to permit such lawlessness? You would have tried
when there were fifty thousand of the Lyakhs, an opprobrious name for the Poles.
alone; yes, and it is a
shame not to be concealed, when there are also dogs among us who have
already accepted their faith."
"But your hetman and your leaders, what have they done?"
"God preserve any one from such deeds as our leaders performed!"
"How so?"
"Our hetman, roasted in a brazen ox, now lies in Warsaw; and the heads
and hands of our leaders are being carried to all the fairs as a spectacle
for the people. That is what our leaders did."
The whole throng became wildly excited. At first silence reigned all
along the shore, like that which precedes a tempest; and then suddenly
voices were raised and all the shore spoke:--
"What! The Jews hold the Christian churches in pledge! Roman Catholic
priests have harnessed and beaten orthodox Christians! What! such torture
has been permitted on Russian soil by the cursed unbelievers! And they have
done such things to the leaders and the hetman? Nay, this shall not be, it
shall not be." Such words came from all quarters. The Zaporozhtzi were
moved, and knew their power. It was not the excitement of a giddy-minded
folk. All who were thus agitated were strong, firm characters, not easily
aroused, but, once aroused, preserving their inward heat long and
obstinately. "Hang all the Jews!" rang through the crowd. "They shall not
make petticoats for their Jewesses out of popes' vestments! They shall not
place their signs upon the holy wafers! Drown all the heathens in the
Dnieper!" These words uttered by some one 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 in
any case courageous, hid themselves in empty brandy-casks, in ovens, and
even crawled under the skirts of their Jewesses; but the Kozaks found them
wherever they were.
"Gracious nobles!" shrieked one Jew, tall and thin as a stick, thrusting
his sorry visage, distorted with terror, from among a group of his comrades,
"gracious nobles! 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.
"Gracious nobles," exclaimed the Jew, "such nobles were never seen, by
heavens, never! Such good, kind, and brave men there never were in the world
before!" His voice died away and quivered with fear. "How was it possible
that we should think any evil of the Zaporozhtzi? Those men are not of us at
all, those who have taken pledges in the Ukraine. By heavens, they are not
of us! They are not Jews at all. The evil one alone knows what they are;
they are only fit to be spit upon and cast aside. Behold, my brethren, say
the same! Is it not true, Schloma? is it not true, Schmul?"
"By heavens, it is true!" replied Schloma and Schmul, from among the
crowd, both pale as clay, in their ragged caps.
"We never yet," continued the tall Jew, "have had any secret intercourse
with your enemies, and we will have nothing to do with Catholics; may the
evil one fly away with them! We are like own brothers to the Zaporozhtzi."
"What! the Zaporozhtzi are brothers to you!" exclaimed some one in the
crowd. "Don't wait! the cursed Jews! Into the Dnieper with them, gentles!
Drown all the unbelievers!"
These words were the signal. They seized the Jews by the arms and began
to hurl them into the waves. Pitiful cries resounded on all sides; but the
stern Zaporozhtzi only laughed when they saw the Jewish legs, cased in shoes
and stockings, struggling in the air. The poor orator who had called down
destruction upon himself jumped out of the caftan, by which they had seized
him, and in his scant parti-coloured under waistcoat clasped Bulba's legs,
and cried, in piteous tones, "Great lord! gracious noble! I knew your
brother, the late Doroscha. He was a warrior who was an ornament to all
knighthood. I gave him eight hundred sequins when he was obliged to ransom
himself from the Turks."
"You knew my brother?" asked Taras.
"By heavens, I knew him. He was a magnificent nobleman."
"And what is your name?"
"Yankel."
"Good," said Taras; and after reflecting, he turned to the Kozaks and
spoke as follows: "There will always be plenty of time to hang the Jew, if
it proves necessary; but for today give him to me."
So saying, Taras led him to his wagon, beside which stood his Kozaks.
"Crawl under the wagon; lie down, and do not move. And you, brothers, do
not surrender this Jew."
So saying, he returned to the square, for the whole crowd had long since
collected there. All had at once abandoned the shore and the preparation of
the boats; for a land-journey now awaited them, and not a sea-voyage, and
they needed horses and wagons, not ships. All, both young and old, wanted
to go on the expedition; and it was decided, on the advice of the chiefs,
the hetmans of the kuréns, and the Koschevoi, and with the approbation of
the whole Zaporozhtzian army, to march straight to Poland, to avenge the
injury and disgrace to their faith and to Kozak renown, to seize booty
from the cities, to burn villages and grain, and spread their glory far over
the steppe. All at once girded and armed themselves. The Koschevoi grew a
whole foot taller. He was no longer the timid executor of the restless
wishes of a free people, but their untrammelled master. He was a despot, who
know only to command. All the independent and pleasure-loving warriors stood
in an orderly line, with respectfully bowed heads, not venturing to raise
their eyes, when the Koschevoi gave his orders. He gave these quietly,
without shouting and without haste, but with pauses between, like an
experienced man deeply learned in Kozak affairs, and carrying into
execution, not for the first time, a wisely matured enterprise.
"Examine yourselves, look well to yourselves; examine all your equipments
thoroughly," he said; "put your teams and your wagon axil-tar-boxes in order; test
your weapons. Take not many clothes with you: a shirt and a couple of pairs
of trousers to each Kozak, and a pot of oatmeal and millet apiece--let no
one take any more. There will be plenty of provisions, all that is needed,
in the wagons. Let every Kozak have two horses. And two hundred yoke of
oxen must be taken, for we shall require them at the fords and marshy
places. Keep order, gentles, above all things. I know that there are some
among you whom God has made so greedy that they would like to tear up silk
and velvet for foot-cloths. Leave off such devilish habits; reject all
garments as plunder, and take only weapons: though if valuables offer
themselves, ducats or silver, they are useful in any case. I tell you this
beforehand, gentles, if any one gets drunk on the expedition, he will have a
short shrift: I will have him dragged by the neck like a dog behind the
baggage wagons, no matter who he may be, even were he the most heroic
Kozak in the whole army; he shall be shot on the spot like a dog, and
flung out, without sepulture, to be torn by the birds of prey, for a
drunkard on the march deserves no 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, attach no importance to such trifles. Mix a charge of powder in
a cup of brandy, quaff it heartily, and all will pass off--you will not even
have any fever; and if the wound is large, put simple earth upon it, mixing
it first with spittle in your palm, and that will dry it up. And now to
work, to work, lads, and look well to all, and without haste."
So spoke the Koschevoi; and no sooner had he finished his speech than all
the Kozaks at once set to work. All the Sich grew sober. Nowhere was a
single drunken man to be found, it was as though there never had been such a
thing among the Kozaks. Some attended to the tyres of the wheels, others
changed the axles of the wagons; some carried sacks of provisions to them
or leaded them with arms; others again drove up the horses and oxen. On all
sides resounded the tramp of horses' hoofs, test-shots from the guns, the
clank of swords, the lowing of oxen, the screech of rolling wagons,
talking, sharp cries and urging-on of cattle. Soon the Kozak force spread
far over all the plain; and he who might have undertaken to run from its van
to its rear would have had a long course. In the little wooden church the
priest was offering up prayers and sprinkling all worshippers with holy
water. All kissed the cross. When the camp broke up and the army moved out
of the Sich, all the Zaporozhtzi turned their heads back. "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, Yankel,
had already erected a sort of booth with an awning, and was selling flint,
screwdrivers, powder, and all sorts of military stores needed on the road,
even to rolls and bread. "What devils these Jews are!" thought Taras; and
riding up to him, he said, "Fool, why are you sitting here? do you want to
be shot like a crow?"
Yankel in reply approached nearer, and making a sign with both hands, as
though wishing to impart some secret, said, "Let the noble lord but keep
silence and say nothing to any one. Among the Kozak wagons is a wagon of
mine. I am carrying all sorts of needful stores for the Kozaks, and on the
journey I will furnish every sort of provisions at a lower price than any
Jew ever sold at before. 'Tis so, by heavens! by heavens, 'tis so!"
Taras Bulba shrugged his shoulders in amazement at the Jewish nature, and
went on to the camp.
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