"Oh, Taras!" cried Leo, "what a heart was yours, and to come to such an end!"
"Nay," said Taras, "I am poor and sinful, and my pride was great; yet I always longed for the Right, and to see it done was my heart's desire. The Judge of men, I trust, will be merciful to me."
"Amen!" said Leo, with stifled voice, and he began to say the prayers, Taras repeating the words after him fervently. They reached the glen. The sentence was read, and the priest resumed prayers.
Taras stood up. The soldiers fired, and he was struck to the heart. He lay still in death, and his face bore an expression of deep content.
They buried him where he fell. There is no cross to show his grave, but the place to this day is known to the people as "the Glen of Taras."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1]: These mountaineers, like the Tirolese, know but one pronoun in addressing high or low, the "Thou" being used throughout the story in the original; but their straightforward simplicity may be sufficiently apparent, though substituting the English "You."
[Footnote 2]: Forced labour, a reminiscence of villanage, surviving in Slavonic countries.
[Footnote 3]: One of a church choir.
[Footnote 4]: Soldiers.