"Well, also, has the Koschevoï spoken!" was heard in the ranks of the Zaporoghians. "Well spoken!" repeated others; and even the oldest, those with ash-coloured locks, nodded their heads, and twirling their mustachios, said, "Well spoken!"
"Now, hear me, gentlemen!" continued the Koschevoï; "it is neither proper for a Cossack, nor is it his business to take fortresses as German mercenaries do (may the fiend seize them!), climbing the walls and digging the ground. But, after all, what may be guessed is, that the enemy entered the town with no great store of provisions; there were not many waggons with them, the people in the fortress are starving, so all will be eaten up in no time; as for the horses —I do not know, unless some of their saints throw them hay from heaven; but this seems not highly probable, the more so, as their parsons are men of mere words. So, happen what will, not one of them must ever come out of the town. Divide yourselves into three parties, and take the three roads which lead to the three gates. Five koorens must take the high road before the main gate; before each of the others three koorens must stand. The Diadnivsky and the Korsoonsky koorens must lie in ambush. Colonel Tarass, with his regiment, must lie in ambush, also! The Tytarevskoï and the Toonnoshevsko? koorens in reserve, on the right flank of the baggage! The Stcherbinovskoï and the Upper Steblikovskoï on its left flank. Now, come forward those who are clever at teasing, and tease the enemy! Poles are empty-headed people and cannot bear jeering, and may be, even to-day, they will sally forth out of the gates. Let the atamans pass each kooren in review: those that have not their full complement must be filled up with the Cossacks remaining from the Percaslavskoï kooren. Then, review them once more I Let every Cossack have a loaf and a dram of brandy, to drive away the tipsiness out of his head. But, surely, every one got enough yesterday; for, to say the truth, you all had so much drink that I wonder nobody burst asunder in the night. One order more:—If any Jew, brandy-shop keeper, or any one else sell, were it but a single dram of brandy to a Cossack, I'll have a hog's ear nailed to his face, and I'll have him, the cursed dog, hung with his head downwards! Well, now to business, brothers!"
Thus ordered the Koschevoï, and all bowed to him, and with uncovered heads went to their waggons and to their camps, and only when they were at a distance did they put on their caps. They all made preparations; every one tried his sabre or his broadsword, poured powder from the bags into powder-horns, removed and placed the carts, and selected the horses.
On his way to his regiment Tarass thought, but could not imagine, what had happened to Andrew. Had he been made prisoner with the others, and had he been bound during his sleep?—but no, it could not be; Andrew was not the man to be made prisoner whilst alive. He was not, moreover, to be found among the slain Cossacks. Tarass was lost in thought, and went before his regiment without noticing that somebody had been for a long time calling him by his name. "Who wants me?" said he, at last recovering from his reverie. Yankel, the Jew, was standing before him.
"My lord colonel! My lord colonel!" said the Jew in a hasty and choked voice, as if he had some matter of no small importance to impart to him. "I have been in the town, my lord colonel!"
Tarass looked at the Jew, marvelling how he could have managed to find time already to go into the town. "And what devil took thee there?"
"I will tell you directly," said Yankel. "As soon as I heard the noise in the morning, and heard the Cossacks fire their guns, I caught up my coat and, without waiting to put it on, ran with all speed to the spot; by the way only I slipped on the sleeves, for I was in a hurry to know what the noise was, and why the Cossacks fired their guns so early in the morning. I got to the town gate just as the last of the troops entered the town. And, behold! before the soldiers, I saw the Ensign Galiandovitch. He is an acquaintance of mine; he has owed me, for more than two years now, a hundred ducats; so I came to him as if for the purpose of settling our accounts, and I went with him into the town."
"How so? thou wentest into the town, and still more, for the purpose of settling accounts!" said Boolba, "and he did not have thee hanged like a dog?"
"By Heavens, he wished to have me hanged," answered the Jew; "his servants had already got hold of me and thrown a rope round my neck; but I implored him to have mercy, said that I would wait for the debt as long as he might choose, and even promised to lend him more money as soon as he helps me to have my accounts settled with the other knights. Because that gentleman ensign—I'll tell the whole truth to the lord colonel—has not a single ducat in his pocket, although he has farms, and manors, and castles, and plenty of pasture land; but as for coins, he has no more of them than a Cossack. Even now, had not the Jews of Breslau equipped him, he could not have gone to the war. That was the very reason of his not having been at the Ssiem."[30] "What didst thou, then, in the town; hast thou seen any of ours?"
"Of course I did; there are many of ours:— Itska, Rakhoom, Ssamuïlo, Khaïvalkh, the Jew-farmer"—