The Cossacks galloped at the utmost speed of their horses to the cliff path, the pursuers were close at hand; and behold, there lies the cliff path curling round in zig-zags. "Well, comrades, let us take our chance," said they; then they stopped for a moment, lifted their whips, gave a whistle, and their Tartar horses, springing from the ground, stretched themselves like snakes in the air, flew over the abyss, and leaped straight into the Dniester. Only two riders missed the river, fell on the rocks and remained there for ever with their steeds, not having had even time to utter a shriek. And the Cossacks were already swimming with their horses and loosening the boats. The Poles stopped before the precipice, astounded at the unheard-of Cossack feat, and arguing whether they would jump or not? One young colonel, with hot boiling blood in his veins, the brother of the Polish beauty who had bewitched poor Andrew, did not remain long thinking, he leaped at once after the Cossacks. Thrice did he wheel round and round in the air with his horse, and fell upon the rocks. Tom to pieces by their sharp points, he disappeared in the abyss, and his brains, mingled with blood, splashed the bushes which grew on the uneven sides of the chasm.
When Tarass Boolba recovered from the blow, and looked on the Dniester, the Cossacks were already in the boats and rowing; bullets after bullets flew from above, but did not reach them. And the eyes of the old Ataman gleamed with joy.
"Fare ye well, comrades!" cried he to them; "Remember me and fail not to return here next spring and enjoy yourselves. How now, devil's Poles? do you think there is anything in the world than can affright a Cossack? Wait a bit; the time is coming when you shall know what the Russian faith is! Already do nations far and near forebode it. There shall arise a Czar in Russia, and there shall be no power on earth that shall not yield to his power"—
Meanwhile the flames rose from the pile and scorched his feet, and spread over the tree—but here in the world such flames, such torments, power as can overcome the strength of a Russian?
No small river is the Dniester, many are its inlets, its thick grown reeds, its shallows, and its gulfs. Its mirror-like surface glitters, re-echoing the ringing screams of the swans which proudly swim on its stream. Many are the divers coloured birds that dwell in its reeds and on its banks.
The Cossacks sailed fast in their two-ruddered boats, the oars splashed with measured stroke; they warily avoided the shoals, scaring the birds, and talked of their Ataman.
[1] The meads of Little Russia, Lithuania, and Poland are renowned for their flavour, which, like that of some wines, increases with being kept. They are very strong and act especially on the legs, so that sometimes a glass of mead is sufficient to deprive the most experienced drinker of the use of his legs, although his head may remain perfectly clear. Some ascribe the fact of so many Poles suffering from gout to nothing more than the immoderate use of mead.
[2] A sort of guitar peculiar to Little Russia.
[3] Union, in the Russian acceptation of the term, means the mixed religion, uniting the rites of the Greek Church with the dogmas of Popery, which was enforced by Poland upon Little Russia and Lithuania, and which gave the Poles occasion to commit the most abominable cruelties on the adherents of the Greek Church, and roused the vengeance of the latter. A correct and most strictly true picture of those struggles is to be found in this tale.