The commissioners bowed and went out. Donyéts with the Cossacks was waiting at the door.
"O God! O God! O God!" whispered Kisel, quietly, raising his hands to his face.
The party moved in silence to the quarters of the commissioners. But it appeared that they were not to stop near one another. Hmelnitski had assigned them purposely quarters in different parts of the town, so that they could not meet and counsel easily.
Kisel, suffering, exhausted, barely able to stand, went to bed immediately, and permitted no one to see him till the following day; then before noon he ordered Pan Yan to be called.
"Have you acted wisely?" asked he. "What have you done? You might have exposed our lives and your own to destruction."
"Serene voevoda, mea culpa! but delirium carried me away, and I preferred to perish a hundred times rather than behold such things."
"Hmelnitski saw the slight put on him, and I was barely able to pacify the wild beast and explain your act. He will be with me to-day, and will undoubtedly ask for you. Then tell him that you had an order from me to lead away the soldiers."
"From to-day forth Bjozovski takes the command, for he is well."
"That is better; you are too stubborn for these times. It is difficult to blame you for anything in this act except lack of caution; but it is evident that you are young and cannot bear the pain that is in your breast."
"I am accustomed to pain, serene voevoda, but I cannot endure disgrace."