Father Kaminski had been a soldier in his youthful years and a
cavalier of great courage; he was now stationed at Ushytsa and
was reorganizing a parish. But as the church was in ruins, and
parishioners were lacking, this pastor without a flock visited
Hreptyoff, and remained there whole weeks, edifying the knights
with pious instruction. He listened with attention to the narrative
of Pan Mushalski, and spoke to the assembly a few evenings later as
follows:--
“I have always loved to hear narratives in which sad adventures
find a happy ending, for from them it is evident that whomever
God’s hand guides, it can free from the toils of the pursuer and
lead even from the Crimea to a peaceful roof. Therefore let each
one of you fix this in his mind: For the Lord there is nothing
impossible, and let no one of you even in direst necessity lose
trust in God’s mercy. This is the truth!
“It was praiseworthy in Pan Mushalski to love a common man with
brotherly affection. The Saviour Himself gave us an example when
He, though of royal blood, loved common people and made many of
them apostles and helped them to promotion, so that now they have
seats in the heavenly senate.
“But personal love is one thing, and general love--that of one
nation to another--is something different. The love which is
general, our Lord, the Redeemer, observed no less earnestly than
the other. And where do we find this love? When, O man, you look
through the world, there is such hatred in hearts everywhere, as if
people were obeying the commands of the Devil and not of the Lord.”
“It will be hard, your grace,” said Zagloba, “to persuade us to
love Turks, Tartars, or other barbarians whom the Lord God Himself
must despise thoroughly.”
“I am not persuading you to that, but I maintain this: that
children of the same mother should have love for one another; but
what do we see? From the days of Hmelnitski, or for thirty years,
no part of these regions is dried from blood.”
“But whose fault is it?”
“Whoso will confess his fault first, him will God pardon.”
“Your grace is wearing the robes of a priest to-day; but in youth
you slew rebels, as we have heard, not at all worse than others.”
“I slew them, for it was my duty as a soldier to do so; that was
not my sin, but this, that I hated them as a pestilence. I had
private reasons which I will not mention, for those are old times
and the wounds are healed now. I repent that I acted beyond my
duty. I had under my command one hundred men from the squadron
of Pan Nyevodovski; and going often independently with my men, I
burned, slaughtered, and hanged. You, gentlemen, know what times
those were. The Tartars, called in by Hmelnitski, burned and slew;
we burned and slew; the Cossacks left only land and water behind
them in all places, committing atrocities worse than ours and the
Tartars. There is nothing more terrible than civil war! What times
those were no man will ever describe; enough that we and they
fought more like mad dogs than men.
“Once news was sent to our command that ruffians had besieged
Pan Rushitski in his fortalice. I was sent with my troops to the
rescue. I came too late; the place was level with the ground. But
I fell upon the drunken peasants and cut them down notably; only
a part hid in the grain. I gave command to take these alive, to
hang them for an example. But where? It was easier to plan than to
execute; in the whole village there was not one tree remaining;
even the pear-trees standing on the boundaries between fields were
cut down. I had no time to make gibbets; a forest too, as that was
a steppe-land, was nowhere in view. What could I do? I took my
prisoners and marched on. ‘I shall find a forked oak somewhere,’
thought I. I went a mile, two miles,--steppe and steppe; you
might roll a ball over it. At last we found traces of a village;
that was toward evening. I gazed around; here and there a pile of
coals, and besides gray ashes, nothing more. On a small hillside
there was a cross, a firm oak one, evidently not long made, for
the wood was not dark yet and glittered in the twilight as if it
were afire. Christ was on it, cut out of tin plate and painted
in such a way that only when you came from one side and saw the
thinness of the plate could you know that not a real statue was
hanging there; but in front the face was as if living, somewhat
pale from pain; on the head a crown of thorns; the eyes were turned
upward with wonderful sadness and pity. When I saw that cross, the
thought flashed into my mind, ‘There is a tree for you; there is
no other,’ but straightway I was afraid. In the name of the Father
and the Son! I will not hang them on the cross. But I thought
that I should comfort the eyes of Christ if I gave command in His
presence to kill those who had spilled so much innocent blood, and
I spoke thus: ‘O dear Lord, let it seem to Thee that these men are
those Jews who nailed Thee to the cross, for these are not better
than those.’ Then I commanded my men to drag the prisoners one by
one to the mound under the cross. There were among them old men,
gray-haired peasants, and youths. The first whom they brought said,
‘By the Passion of the Lord, by that Christ, have mercy on me!’ And
I said in answer, ‘Off with his head!’ A dragoon slashed and cut
off his head. They brought another; the same thing happened: ‘By
that Merciful Christ, have pity on me!’ And I said again, ‘Off with
his head!’ the same with the third, the fourth, the fifth; there
were fourteen of them, and each implored me by Christ. Twilight was
ended when we finished. I gave command to place them in a circle
around the foot of the cross. Fool! I thought to delight the Only
Son with this spectacle. They quivered awhile yet,--one with his
hands, another with his feet, again one floundered like a fish
pulled out of water, but that was short; strength soon left their
bodies, and they lay quiet in a circle.
“Since complete darkness had come, I determined to stay in that
spot for the night, though there was nothing to make a fire. God
gave a warm night, and my men lay down on horse-blankets; but I
went again under the cross to repeat the usual ‘Our Father’ at the
feet of Christ and commit myself to His mercy. I thought that my
prayer would be the more thankfully accepted, because the day had
passed in toil and in deeds of a kind that I accounted to myself as
a service.
“It happens frequently to a wearied soldier to fall asleep at his
evening prayers. It happened so to me. The dragoons, seeing how
I was kneeling with head resting on the cross, understood that I
was sunk in pious meditation, and no one wished to interrupt me;
my eyes closed at once, and a wonderful dream came down to me from
that cross. I do not say that I had a vision, for I was not and am
not worthy of that; but sleeping soundly, I saw as if I had been
awake the whole Passion of the Lord. At sight of the suffering
of the Innocent Lamb the heart was crushed in me, tears dropped
from my eyes, and measureless pity took hold of me. ‘O Lord,’ said
I, ‘I have a handful of good men. Dost Thou wish to see what our
cavalry can do? Only beckon with Thy head, and I will bear apart
on sabres in one twinkle those such sons, Thy executioners.’ I had
barely said this when all vanished from the eye; there remained
only the cross, and on it Christ, weeping tears of blood. I
embraced the foot of the holy tree then, and sobbed. How long this
lasted, I know not; but afterward, when I had grown calm somewhat,
I said again, ‘O Lord, O Lord! why didst Thou announce Thy holy
teaching among hardened Jews? Hadst Thou come from Palestine to our
Commonwealth, surely we should not have nailed Thee to the cross,
but would have received Thee splendidly, given Thee all manner of
gifts, and made Thee a noble for the greater increase of Thy divine
glory. Why didst Thou not do this, O Lord?’
“I raise my eyes,--this was all in a dream, you remember,
gentlemen,--and what do I see? Behold, our Lord looks on me
severely; He frowns, and suddenly speaks in a loud voice: ‘Cheap
is your nobility at this time; during war every low fellow may buy
it, but no more of this! You are worthy of each other, both you
and the ruffians; and each and the other of you are worse than
the Jews, for you nail me here to the cross every day. Have I not
enjoined love, even for enemies, and forgiveness of sins? But you
tear each other’s entrails like mad beasts. Wherefore I, seeing
this, suffer unendurable torment. You yourself, who wish to rescue
me, and invite me to the Commonwealth, what have you done? See,
corpses are lying here around my cross, and you have bespattered
the foot of it with blood; and still there were among them innocent
persons,--young boys, or blinded men, who, having care from no one,
followed others like foolish sheep. Had you mercy on them; did you
judge them before death? No! You gave command to slay them all for
my sake, and still thought that you were giving comfort to me. In
truth, it is one thing to punish and reprove as a father punishes a
son, or as an elder brother reproves a younger brother, and another
to seek revenge without judgment, without measure, in punishing
and without recognizing cruelty. It has gone so far in this land
that wolves are more merciful than men; that the grass is sweating
bloody dew; that the winds do not blow, but howl; that the rivers
flow in tears, and people stretch forth their hands to death,
saying, ”Oh, our refuge!”
“‘O Lord,’ cried I, ‘are they better than we? Who has committed the
greatest cruelty? Who brought in the Pagan?’
“‘Love them while chastising,’ said the Lord, ‘and then the beam
will fall from their eyes, hardness will leave their hearts, and
my mercy will be upon you. Otherwise the onrush of Tartars will
come, and they will lay bonds upon you and upon them, and you will
be forced to serve the enemy in suffering, in contempt, in tears,
till the day in which you love one another. But if you exceed the
measure in hatred, then there will not be mercy for one or the
other, and the Pagan will possess this land for the ages of ages.’
“I grew terrified hearing such commands, and long I was unable to
speak till, throwing myself on my face, I asked, ‘O Lord, what have
I to do to wash away my sins?’ To this the Lord said, ‘Go, repeat
my words; proclaim love.’ After that my dream ended.
“As night in summer is short, I woke up about dawn, all covered
with dew. I looked; the heads were lying in a circle about the
cross, but already they were blue. A wonderful thing,--yesterday
that sight delighted me; to-day terror took hold of me, especially
at sight of one youth, perhaps seventeen years of age, who was
exceedingly beautiful. I ordered the soldiers to bury the bodies
decently under that cross; from that day forth I was not the same
man.
“At first I thought to myself, the dream is an illusion; but still
it was thrust into my memory, and, as it were, took possession of
my whole existence. I did not dare to suppose that the Lord Himself
talked with me, for, as I have said, I did not feel myself worthy
of that; but it might be that conscience, hidden in my soul in time
of war, like a Tartar in the grass, spoke up suddenly, announcing
God’s will. I went to confession; the priest confirmed that
supposition. ‘It is,’ said he, ‘the evident will and forewarning of
God; obey, or it will be ill with thee.’
“Thenceforth I began to proclaim love. But the officers laughed
at me to my eyes. ‘What!’ said they, ‘is this a priest to give
us instruction? Is it little insult that these dog brothers have
worked upon God? Are the churches that they have burned few in
number; are the crosses that they have insulted not many? Are we to
love them for this?’ In one word, no one would listen to me.
“After Berestechko I put on these priestly robes so as to announce
with greater weight the word and the will of God. For more than
twenty years I have done this without rest. God is merciful; He
will not punish me, because thus far my voice is a voice crying in
the wilderness.
“Gracious gentlemen, love your enemies, punish them as a father,
reprimand them as an elder brother, otherwise woe to them, but woe
to you also, woe to the whole Commonwealth!
“Look around; what is the result of this war and the animosity of
brother against brother? This land has become a desert; I have
graves in Ushytsa instead of parishioners; churches, towns, and
villages are in ruins; the Pagan power is rising and growing over
us like a sea, which is ready to swallow even thee, O rock of
Kamenyets.”
Pan Nyenashinyets listened with great emotion to the speech of the
priest, so that the sweat came out on his forehead; then he spoke
thus, amid general silence:--
“That among Cossacks there are worthy cavaliers, a proof is here
present in Pan Motovidlo, whom we all love and respect. But when it
comes to the general love, of which Father Kaminski has spoken so
eloquently, I confess that I have lived in grievous sin hitherto,
for that love was not in me, and I have not striven to gain it.
Now his grace has opened my eyes somewhat. Without special favor
from God I shall not find such love in my heart, because I bear
there the memory of a cruel injustice, which I will relate to you
briefly.”
“Let us drink something warm,” said Zagloba.
“Throw horn-beam on the fire,” said Basia to the attendants.
And soon after the broad room was bright again with light, and
before each of the knights an attendant placed a quart of heated
beer. All moistened their mustaches in it willingly; and when they
had taken one and a second draught, Pan Nyenashinyets collected his
voice again, and spoke as if a wagon were rumbling,--
“My mother when dying committed to my care a sister; Halshka was
her name. I had no wife nor children, therefore I loved that girl
as the apple of my eye. She was twenty years younger than I, and
I had carried her in my arms, I looked on her simply as my own
child. Later I went on a campaign, and the horde took her captive.
When I came home I beat my head against the wall. My property
had vanished in time of the invasion; but I sold what I had, put
my last saddle on a horse, and went with Armenians to ransom my
sister. I found her in Bagchesarai. She was attached to the harem,
not in the harem, for she was only twelve years of age then. I
shall never forget the hour when I found thee, O Halshka. How thou
didst embrace my neck! how thou didst kiss me in the eyes! But
what! It turned out that the money I had brought was too little.
The girl was beautiful. Yehu Aga, who carried her away, asked three
times as much for her. I offered to give myself in addition, but
that did not help. She was bought in the market before my eyes by
Tugai Bey, that famous enemy of ours, who wished to keep her three
years in his harem and then make her his wife. I returned, tearing
my hair. On the road home I discovered that in a Tartar village by
the sea one of Tugai Bey’s wives was dwelling with his favorite son
Azya. Tugai Bey had wives in all the towns and in many villages, so
as to have everywhere a resting-place under his own roof. Hearing
of this son, I thought that God would show me the last means of
salvation for Halshka. At once I determined to bear away that
son, and then exchange him for my sister; but I could not do this
alone. It was necessary to assemble a band in the Ukraine, or the
Wilderness, which was not easy,--first, because the name of Tugai
Bey was terrible in all Russia, and secondly, he was helping the
Cossacks against us. But not a few heroes were wandering through
the steppes,--men looking to their own profit only and ready to go
anywhere for plunder. I collected a notable party of those. What we
passed through before our boats came out on the sea tongue cannot
tell, for we had to hide before the Cossack commanders. But God
blessed us. I stole Azya, and with him splendid booty. We returned
to the Wilderness in safety. I wished to go thence to Kamenyets and
commence negotiations with merchants of that place.
“I divided all the booty among my heroes, reserving for myself
Tugai Bey’s whelp alone; and since I had acted with such
liberality, since I had suffered so many dangers with those men,
had endured hunger with them, and risked my life for them, I
thought that each one would spring into the fire for me, that I had
won their hearts for the ages.
“I had reason to repent of that bitterly and soon. It had not come
to my head that they tear their own ataman to pieces, to divide
his plunder between themselves afterward; I forgot that among them
there are no men of faith, virtue, gratitude, or conscience. Near
Kamenyets the hope of a rich ransom for Azya tempted my followers.
They fell on me in the nighttime like wolves, throttled me with a
rope, cut my body with knives, and at last, thinking me dead, threw
me aside in the desert and fled with the boy.
“God sent me rescue and gave back my health; but my Halshka is gone
forever. Maybe she is living there yet somewhere; maybe after the
death of Tugai Bey another Pagan took her; maybe she has received
the faith of Mohammed; maybe she has forgotten her brother; maybe
her son will shed my blood sometime. That is my history.”
Here Pan Nyenashinyets stopped speaking and looked on the ground
gloomily.
“What streams of our blood and tears have flowed for these
regions!” said Pan Mushalski.
“Thou shalt love thine enemies,” put in Father Kaminski.
“And when you came to health did you not look for that whelp?”
asked Zagloba.
“As I learned afterward,” answered Pan Nyenashinyets, “another band
fell on my robbers and cut them to pieces; they must have taken the
child with the booty. I searched everywhere, but he vanished as a
stone dropped into water.”
“Maybe you met him afterward, but could not recognize him,” said
Basia.
“I do not know whether the child was as old as three years. I
barely learned that his name was Azya. But I should have recognized
him, for he had tattooed over each breast a fish in blue.”
All at once Mellehovich, who had sat in silence hitherto, spoke
with a strange voice from the corner of the room, “You would not
have known him by the fish, for many Tartars bear the same sign,
especially those who live near the water.”
“Not true,” answered the hoary Pan Hromyka; “after Berestechko we
examined the carrion of Tugai Bey,--for it remained on the field;
and I know that he had fish on his breast, and all the other slain
Tartars had different marks.”
“But I tell you that many wear fish.”
“True; but they are of the devilish Tugai Bey stock.”
Further conversation was stopped by the entrance of Pan Lelchyts,
whom Pan Michael had sent on a reconnoissance that morning, and who
had returned just then.
“Pan Commandant,” said he in the door, “at Sirotski Brod, on the
Moldavian side, there is some sort of band moving toward us.”
“What kind of people are they?” asked Pan Michael.
“Robbers. There are a few Wallachians, a few Hungarians; most of
them are men detached from the horde, altogether about two hundred
in number.”
“Those are the same of whom I have tidings that they are plundering
on the Moldavian side,” said Volodyovski, “The perkulab must have
made it hot for them there, hence they are escaping toward us;
but of the horde alone there will be about two hundred. They will
cross in the night, and at daylight we shall intercept them. Pan
Motovidlo and Mellehovich will be ready at midnight. Drive forward
a small herd of bullocks to entice them, and now to your quarters.”
The soldiers began to separate, but not all had left the room yet
when Basia ran up to her husband, threw her arms around his neck,
and began to whisper in his ear. He laughed, and shook his head
repeatedly; evidently she was insisting, while pressing her arms
around his neck with more vigor. Seeing this, Zagloba said,--
“Give her this pleasure once; if you do, I, old man, will clatter
on with you.”