For the Right

by Karl Emil Franzos

So after all Mr. Kapronski started on his journey without the mandatar; not, however, without a numerous retinue. For no sooner had it become known that Captain Mihaly had not considered it possible to guarantee the safety of the town, than every citizen that had a chance of horses prepared for flight. And those who could not get away themselves were anxious to send, at least, wife and child and the best of their movables out of the town, which seemed doomed. The streets for some hours presented a picture of distress and unspeakable confusion, since the poor folk were hard driven for time if they wished to set out with the commissioner and his escort. At noon the sorrowful procession was ready to start, in the very centre of them all the commissioner on his car; but instead of two constables there were twenty of the hussars, which escort the governor had been prevailed upon to grant upon the sore entreaties of the fugitives.

But this was the only concession he made to the craven fear that had possessed the populace. Herr von Bauer proved in those days that, with all his comical weaknesses, he was a man indeed. He called together the citizens, suggesting that they should organise themselves into a body of special constables for the safety of the town. But that chicken-hearted population met his well-meant proposal with positive indignation. "We are not going to be brought to ruin," they cried. "We shall endeavour to conciliate Taras if he returns; maybe he will be satisfied with the heads of those who have offended him." Nay, worse than this. "We are not going to be butchered for the sake of a blackguard land-steward; if you do not rid the town of his presence we shall do it ourselves, and so thoroughly, we warrant, as will please even Taras." The district governor was by himself, facing the seething crowd; but his reply was as plucky and curt as possible. "You idiots! you cowards!" he cried; "I can't make men of you, of course, nor force you to defend yourselves; but be sure of this, I'll have every man of you shot that lifts a finger against the mandatar." In the consternation which followed he walked away quietly. But the very next hour showed that he was likely to be as good as his word, when, amid the beating of drums and the pealing of bells, martial law was proclaimed in the city and district of Colomea. The citizens were informed that they must keep within doors, that every gathering of mobs would be treated as open rebellion, and any attempt upon life or property punished with the gallows. The worst was thus staved off, and disorder within was not likely to join hands with any horrors from without.

At the same time couriers were despatched in all directions, not merely to the neighbouring military stations, but even to some of the larger villages of the plain, where the peasantry, eight years before, when the great Polish insurrection threatened to spread into Galicia, had volunteered their services for the safety of the town. And at sundown Herr von Bauer, worn out with the day's anxiety, had at least the comfort of knowing that he had done what was possible for the averting of trouble; if the night passed peaceably the town was saved.

And there was no disturbance, but the morning brought one batch of ill-news after another. The messengers came flocking back from the plain stating that the peasantry everywhere repudiated the idea of yielding assistance. "We are not going to turn against our own flesh and blood," they had said, "and we advise the men of the law to make their peace with Taras, for he is just." And more, it seemed as if the peasants round about, not satisfied with keeping neutral, were ready to side openly with the avenger. Every hour swelled the reports coming in from the mandatars, landlords, and parish priests of the district, all concurring that the peasantry were at the highest pitch of excitement; that the success which had accompanied Taras's first deed of vengeance had roused the spirit of opposition everywhere, and that the worst might happen unless Government carried matters with a high hand. But the most appalling news was this, coming in about noon, that in the past night the avenger had dealt justice elsewhere; that he had appeared about midnight in the village of Zadubrowce, setting free a number of peasants who were kept in gaol because of arrears of forced labour; that he had called upon the mandatar of the place to answer for his doings in the presence of all the people; and that after a careful trial he had decided to let him off a disgraced man with his head shorn, warning him at the same time that he would forfeit his life if he continued oppressing the people. But strangely enough--so ran the report--he gave the peasantry a similar warning, in case they should attempt any plundering of the manor. But if this latter piece of information contained any comfort, there was the fact to be set against it that the village in question was far out in the plain, bordering upon the Bukowina. It was beyond anything to be conceived that these outlaws had dared the distance, there was not a shadow of an explanation how they got thither, and no one knew whither they had vanished. It seemed but poor consolation that by the evening a troop of dragoons arrived from Stanislaw, especially as their captain brought the information along with him that further reinforcements must not be expected under a week. About midnight, however, the infantry returned from Zulawce, Captain Stanczuk having led back his men on his own responsibility, in consequence of what appeared to him certain information of a meditated attack upon the district town. Now this officer was a man whose judgment might be trusted, it being known that, having grown up among them, he understood the peasantry; and when he also reported an ominous excitement about the country, giving it as his opinion that the danger was not to be trifled with, it was resolved to keep together what forces so far were available--about five hundred men in all--for the protection of the town itself, and to deal with the disturbed state of the country only when further reinforcements could be obtained.

April merged into May, but there was no further attack upon the town, although nightly expected, and the remainder of the garrison at Kossowince arrived safely at Colomea; but there was a constant feeling of the proximity of Taras's band, and the reports pouring in proved that this man, for good or for evil, swayed the minds of the peasantry throughout that part of the province. For, incredible as it seemed, it had to be accepted as a fact that Taras, whatever might be thought of his 'judgments,' exercised his influence in a marked degree for actual good. The governor, with a grim smile, had entered that account of events at Zadubrowce along with the "charges against Taras and followers"; but almost every day since had brought fresh proof that Taras really had forbidden the peasantry under pain of death to have recourse to plunder, or even to seek their rights for themselves, and, more remarkable still, that he insisted on their yielding every just tribute. And this information did not proceed from any of his adherents, but from the mandatars, the landlords, and the parish priests, who hated this "avenger" as their natural enemy, and would have been only too glad to see him taken up as a malefactor. For if the influence of this strangest of bandits for good could not be denied, neither was there any gainsaying that he exercised it in a terrible degree for ill almost daily. That steward of Kossowince had found some companions in his grief, who with the loss of their hair had been "disgraced" and obliged to make amends to the people they had wronged; while two landlords of the plain, not far from Horodenko, had fared worse: Taras had ordered them to be shot, and their dwellings levelled with the ground. But the man whom these accounts might well have dismayed first and foremost knew nothing about them. Wenceslas Hajek, lying in a raging fever, was mercifully saved from the shock of such news. Taras's "judgments," indeed, were appalling, and within three weeks no less than ten distinct cases were registered against him. And they resembled each other closely. He arrived suddenly with his band, cut off every retreat, took up the accused, tried him, and if he denied the charges, called witnesses, had him convicted, and the sentence was carried out on the spot. It was a remarkable fact that he carried out his judgments with the bullet only, none of his victims coming by their death by means of the rope; another feature was that any money that was found he invariably made over to the community for whose sake the deed was done. In short the cases were so like each other, and followed one another so rapidly, that the district governor quite got into a routine of filing charges against Taras.

Not till the end of May was the pressure on the minds of the citizens somewhat relieved. A battalion of infantry had been sent from Stanislaw, a regiment of dragoons from the Bukowina, and a regiment of hussars besides. With these troops there arrived also a lieutenant-general to take the entire command, and he forthwith called a council of war, to which, besides the military chiefs, were admitted the district governor, the burgomaster, and Dr. Starkowski as legal adviser.

Now while this council was sitting round the green baize table of the district court, a special messenger arrived with a letter from Hankowce, addressed to the Governor. "From Hankowce," exclaimed Herr von Bauer dismayed, "alas, poor Zborowski!... but no, he can't be killed," he corrected himself, "for it is his own handwriting!"

He tore open the missive, read it, and, pushing the letter from him, he burst from his seat with a crimson countenance, striking both his fists on the table.

"Gentlemen," he cried, "this is beyond anything ever heard of; enough to madden the Chief Justice himself. There, read for yourselves, and tell me if it is not simply maddening!"

The gentlemen made haste to comply, and what they read in that letter certainly was startling. The lord of the manor of Hankowce, Baron Alfred Zborowski, one of the most respected noblemen of the district, had written to his friend, the governor, with all the haste of one reporting a most unusual occurrence, for Starkowski had some trouble in making out the shaky handwriting. The letter ran as follows: