His thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of Tugai Bey. The eyes of the Tartar were blazing with rage; his face was pale, and his teeth glittered from behind his lips, unhidden by mustaches.
"Where is the booty, where the prisoners, where the heads of the leaders,--where is victory?" asked he, in a hoarse voice.
Hmelnitski sprang from his place. "There!" answered he loudly, pointing to the Polish camp.
"Go there, then!" roared Tugai Bey; "and if you don't go, I will drag you by a rope to the Crimea."
"I will go," said Hmelnitski,--"I will go to-day! I will take booty and prisoners; but you shall give answer to the Khan, for you want booty and you avoid battle."
"Dog!" howled Tugai Bey, "you are destroying the army of the Khan!"
For a moment they stood snorting in front of each other. Hmelnitski regained his composure first.
"Tugai Bey," said he, "be not disturbed! Rain interrupted the battle, just as Krechovski was breaking the dragoons. I know them! They will fight with less fury to-morrow. The steppe will be mud to the bottom. The hussars will be beaten. To-morrow everything will be ours."
"That's your word!" blurted out Tugai Bey.
"And I will keep it. Tugai Bey, my friend, the Khan sent you for my assistance, not for my misfortune."