behold them once more, and to give them a last sight of their ataman
before death. But they had not yet extricated themselves from the wood,
as it was surrounded by the enemy's forces on all sides; and everywhere
among the trees were riders with sabres and spears. "Ostap, Ostap, do
not yield," cried Tarass, and then he himself, unsheathing hit sabre,
began to deal blows on all sides to those whom he first met with.
Meanwhile, six men had already sprung upon Ostap; but they found it no
lucky moment. The head of one flew off at once; another wheeled round
and turned back; the spear entered the ribs of a third; the fourth,
more daring, threw his head on one side to avoid a bullet. The bullet
entered his steed's breast, the infuriated animal threw itself back,
fell on the ground, and crushed its rider beneath its weight. "Well,
done, my boy; well done, Ostap!" shouted Tarass; "I am coming!" and
then himself repelled the assailants. Tarass fights and deals heavy
blows, first on one, then on the head of another, and all the while
looks forward at Ostap, and now sees that no less than eight are again
attacking him at once. "Ostap! Ostap! do not yield!" But Ostap is
already conquered; already an enemy has thrown the arkan round Ostap's
neck; already is Ostap bound; already is Ostap dragged away. "Ostap,
Ostap!" shouted Tarass, clearing his way towards him, and hewing away
at every one who crossed his path. "Ostap, Ostap!" But at the same
moment he seemed stunned by some heavy stone; everything wheeled and
turned round before his eyes. For a moment things glimmered confusedly
in his sight--heads, spears, smoke, flashes of fire, boughs of trees
with leaves. And down he went on the ground, like an oak hewn at its
root, and a cloud spread over his eyes.
X.
"How long I have slept!" said Tarass, awakening, as if after a heavy
drunken sleep, and endeavouring to make out the surrounding objects.
He felt a fearful weakness in all his limbs. Scarcely could his eyes
follow the outlines of the walls and corners of an unknown room. At
last he recognised Tovkach, who was sitting beside him, and seemed to
watch his every breath.
"Yes," thought Tovkach to himself, "thou hast all but had thy last
sleep!" He, however, said nothing, and held up his finger, to make
Tarass understand that he was to be silent.
"Tell me, where am I now?" asked Tarass, collecting his thoughts, and
endeavouring to bring back his recollection of the past.
"Hold thy tongue," said his comrade, sternly rebuking him. "What
wouldst thou know more? Dost thou not feel that thou art all mangled?
For the last fortnight we have been riding hard with thee, without ever
stopping, and thou all the time with fever and delirium. 'Tis now the
first time that thou hast had a quiet sleep. Hold thy tongue, if thou
wilt not bring woe upon thy head."
But Tarass still endeavoured to gather his thoughts, and to recollect
the past. "But how is it? I was quite taken and surrounded by the
Poles. I had no possibility of cutting my way through the crowd?"
"Hold thy tongue, I tell thee, devil's son!" angrily cried Tovkach,
as a nurse out of temper cries to a naughty child. "Of what use is it
for thee to know _how_ thou didst escape? Thou _hast_ escaped, that's
enough. There were men at hand who did not forsake thee; well, that is
all thou needest know. We have still many nights to ride hard together.
Dost thou think thou art worth no more than a common Cossack? Not so;
they have set a price of two thousand ducats on thy head."
"And what of Ostap?" suddenly cried Tarass, endeavouring to rise,
for he remembered all at once how Ostap had been caught and bound
before his eyes, and how he must now be in the hands of the Poles. And
grief rushed into his old head. He tore the bandages from his wounds,
threw them far away, and wished to say something aloud; but his mind
began to wander. Fever and delirium once more fell on him, and he
ejaculated raving sentences without any sense or connection. Meanwhile
his faithful comrade stood before him, grumbling and uttering without
interruption, scolding words, and gruff reproaches. At last he took
hold of his feet and hands, swaddled him round like a baby, set all the
bandages in order, packed him up in an ox-hide? bound him round with
sheets of bark, and then, tying him with a rope to his saddle, once
more galloped away.
"I'll bring thee home, shouldst thou even die by the way. I will not
let the Poles deride thy Cossack birth, tear thy body to pieces, and
cast them into the river. And if an eagle is to peck thine eyes out
of thy skull, it shall, at all events, be the eagle of our steppes,
and not the Polish eagle--no, not the one that comes from Poland!
Shouldst thou not be alive, it's the same thing. I'll bring thee over
to Ukraine."
Thus spoke the faithful comrade, and riding day and night, without
ever taking repose, he brought the still unconscious Tarass to the
Zaporoghian Ssiecha. There he untiringly treated him with simples
and poultices; he found a knowing Jewess, who, during a whole month,
administered different medicines to Tarass; and at last Tarass
improved. Perhaps the medicines took effect, and perhaps simply his
own iron strength saved him; but in six weeks he was on his feet again,
his wounds healed, and the sabre scars alone showed how deep they had
been. However, he had grown evidently sullen and sorrowful. Three deep
furrows crossed his brow, and never again left it. He looked about
him, all were new in the Ssiecha; the old comrades had all died away.
Not one remained of those who had stood up for the good cause, for
faith and brotherhood. Those who went with the Koschevoï to pursue the
Tartars, they, too, were long since no more--every one had perished,
every one had met his end; some were killed in glorious fight, some
had died in the Crimean salt-marshes of hunger and thirst, some had
pined to death, not being able to endure the shame of captivity; the
Koschevoï was also long ago no more of this world, like all the old
comrades, and the grass was already growing over the bodies of those in
whose veins once boiled the Cossack's valour.
In vain were attempts made to divert and enliven Tarass; in vain
bearded gray-haired bards came in bands of two or three at a time to
sing the praises of his Cossack feats; his features retained a harsh
indifferent expression, and an unquenchable sorrow was seen on them,
as, with his head bent down he murmured in a subdued voice, "My son! My
Ostap!"
The Zaporoghians prepared for a sea campaign. Two hundred boats sailed
down the Dnieper, and Asia Minor saw their shaven and crown-tufted
heads, while they put everything on its blooming coast to fire and
sword; it saw the turbans of its Mahometan inhabitants, like numberless
flowers, strewn about on its fields soaked in blood, or floating near
its shores. It saw not a few tar-besmeared Zaporoghian trowsers, and
sinewy arms with black nagaïkas.[40] The Zaporoghians devoured and
destroyed all the vineyards; left heaps of dirt in the Mosques; used
costly Persian shawls instead of belts, and girded their dirty coats
with them. Long afterwards, were the short Zaporoghian pipes to be
found in these places. The Zaporoghians started gaily on their return;
a ten-gun Turkish brig gave chase to them, and with a volley from its
broadside dispersed their boats like birds; one-third of the Cossacks
were drowned in the deep sea; but the remainder joined once more
together and came into the mouth of the Dnieper, bringing with them
twelve barrels full of sequins.
But all this no longer diverted Tarass. He went into the fields and
into the steppes as if to hunt, but his gun remained unfired, and
with a sorrowful heart he laid it down, and sat by the sea-shore. He
remained there long with drooping head, saying all the time, "My Ostap!
My Ostap!" Bright and wide was the Black Sea before him, the gull
shrieked in the distant reeds, his white mustachios glistened like
silver, and one tear rolled after another.
At last Tarass could bear it no longer: "Happen what will! I'll go and
ascertain what has befallen him. Is he still alive? is he in his tomb?
or is nothing left of him even in his tomb? I'll ascertain it at all
events!"
And a week had hardly passed when he made his appearance in the town
of Ooman, armed from head to foot, on horseback, with spear, with
sabre, with a traveller's cask tied to his saddle, a pot of flour,
cartridge box, horse shackles, and all other travelling implements.
He rode straight towards a dirty cottage whose small smutty windows
could hardly be distinguished, a rug was stuck into the chimney, and
the dilapidated roof was covered with sparrows; a heap of all sorts
of filth lay close to the entrance door. The head of a Jewess, in a
head-dress with tarnished false pearls, was seen looking out of one of
the windows.
"Is thy husband at home?" said Boolba, dismounting, and tying his
horse's bridle to an iron hook beside the door.
"Yes," answered the Jewess, hastily coming out, with a scoop of wheat
for the horse and a cup of beer for the rider.
"Where is thy Jew, then?"
"He is in the further room, praying," said the Jewess, bowing and
wishing health to Boolba, as he carried the cup to his lips.
"Remain here, feed my horse, and give him some drink. I'll go and have
a talk with your husband alone, I have business with him."
The Jew was our acquaintance Yankel. He had become a farmer and
a brandy-shop keeper, had by degrees got into his power all the
neighbouring lords and gentlemen, had by degrees sucked out almost all
the money in the district, and had left strong marks of his Jewish
presence in the country. For three hours' journey all around, no
cottage remained which was not falling into ruins, everything went
wrong, every one looked older, all had become drunkards, and all had
become beggars clad in rags. The whole district seemed to have suffered
from a fire or a plague. And had Yankel remained there but some ten
years longer, the whole voevodship would certainly have undergone the
same fate.
Tarass stepped into the room; the Jew was praying, his head covered
with a tolerably dirty piece of linen, and he had just turned, in order
to spit for the last time, according to the Jewish ritual, when his
eyes suddenly met the figure of Boolba, who stood behind him. The two
thousand ducats offered for Boolba's head rushed at once into the Jew's
remembrance, but he felt ashamed of the thought, and endeavoured to get
the better of this love of gold, which, like a worm, is always twining
itself round every Jew's heart.
"Harkee, Yankel!" said Tarass to the Jew, who began bowing to him, and
warily shut the door behind him, in order that nobody should see them.
"I saved thy life; the Zaporoghians would have torn thee to pieces like
a dog--now thy turn is come, now thou must render me a service!"
The Jew's face expressed some uneasiness: "What service? If it be such
a service as one may render, why not render it?"
"_No_ talking! Take me to Warsaw!"
"To Warsaw? How so, to Warsaw?" said Yankel, with eyebrows and
shoulders elevated in amazement.
"No talking! Take me to Warsaw. Come what will, I must see him once
more! I must say, be it but one word to him."
"One word to whom?"
"To him, to Ostap, to my son!"
"Does not my lord know, then, that"--
"I know it, I know all. They have set a price of two thousand ducats
upon my head. The fools, they did not even know its worth! I'll give
five thousand ducats to thee. Here thou hast two thousand on the spot,"
and Boolba produced from his leathern bag two thousand ducats. "The
rest when I come back."
The Jew took at once a piece of linen and covered the ducats with it.
"Fine coins, these! beautiful coins!" said he, turning a ducat in his
fingers and trying it with his teeth. "Methinks the man from whom my
lord took such fine ducats, did not live an hour more, but just leaped
into the water and drowned himself, after having lost these magnificent
ducats."
"I would not have asked thee--I might perhaps have found my way to
Warsaw by myself; but the cursed Poles may chance to recognise and
seize me; I have no turn for contrivances, and you, Jews, you seem to
have been made for them. You could cheat the devil himself; you know
all kinds of such tricks, and this is the reason why I came to thee.
The more so, as I could do nothing in Warsaw by myself. Go at once, put
the horse to thy cart, and take me."
"And does my lord think there is nothing more to be done than to put
the horse to the cart and cry, 'Gee up,' and away? Does my lord think
that he can be taken just as he is, without concealing his lordship?"
"Well, then, conceal me, conceal me as thou knowest how; put me into an
empty cask, if thou think it best."
"And does my lord think that he can be concealed in an empty cask? Does
my lord not consider that every one will think that there is brandy in
the cask?"
"Well, let them think so!"
"How so--let them think that there is brandy?" said the Jew, pulling
his curls, and then lifting his hands above his head.
"Well, what frightens thee now?"
"And does my lord not know that brandy is made on purpose that every
one may taste it? There are all along the road men fond of dainties and
of drink; there is not one Polish gentleman who would not run for hours
behind the cask, in order to make a hole in it, and if he sees that no
brandy flows out of it, he will directly say, c A Jew would not bring
an empty cask; there must be something in it! Let the Jew be arrested,
let the Jew be bound, let the Jew give up all his money, let the Jew be
thrown into prison!' Because everything disagreeable is done to a Jew,
because every one takes a Jew for nothing better than a dog, because
nobody holds a Jew to be even a man!"
"Well, then, put me into a cart with fish."
"It is impossible, my lord, by Heaven it is; all over Poland men are
now as hungry as dogs; they will steal the fish and discover my lord."
"Well, then, put me anywhere, be it even on the devil's back--only
bring me to Warsaw."
"Hear me, hear me, my lord!" said the Jew, pulling up the cuffs of
his sleeves, and stepping nearer to Boolba, with his arms thrown wide
open: "We will do thus: they are now everywhere building fortresses
and castles; French engineers are come from foreign lands, and for
this reason many bricks and stones are carried along the highways. My
lord may lie down at the bottom of the cart, and I will cover him with
bricks. My lord seems strong and healthy, so he will be able to bear
it, even if it does prove somewhat heavy. And I will make a hole in the
cart from underneath, and will feed my lord through it."
"Do as thou wilt, only get me there."
In an hour's time a cart loaded with bricks and drawn by a pair of
miserable-looking horses, was seen on its way out of Ooman. On the
back of one of the horses rode the tall Yankel, the jolting of his
horse causing his long side-ringlets to wave from beneath his Jewish
skull-cap, and his lanky figure making him look like the signposts
which stood by the way-side.
XI.
At the time when the events which are now described took place, there
were no custom officers or horse patrols on the frontiers--so that
men of enterprising spirit had nothing to dread, and every one could
bring with him what he chose. Even if anybody happened to search the
travellers, or to inspect their luggage, he did so chiefly for his own
pleasure, particularly when some part of the luggage had attractions
for his eyes, and when his own arm was strong and heavy.
But the sight of bricks had attractions for none, and they passed
without impediment through the great town-gate. Boolba in his narrow
place of concealment could hear nothing but the noise and shouts of the
coachmen. Yankel, bumping up and down on his diminutive dust-covered
steed, after many turnings, went at last into a dark narrow lane, which
was called the Dirty or Jewish street, because in fact it was inhabited
by all the Jews of Warsaw. This lane was very much like a back yard
turned inside out. The sun never seemed to come there. Wooden houses,
quite black from age, with a number of poles sticking out of the
windows, made the lane look still darker. At rare intervals, red brick
walls might be observed here and there, but even they in many places
had turned quite black. Still more rarely did a portion of some high
plastered wall glimmer in the sun with a white gleam intolerable to
the eyes. Everything here bore the most striking appearance--chimneys,
rags, scales, broken tubs. Every one threw into the street whatever was
of no use to him, and the passers-by had every opportunity of finding
employment for all their senses in the midst of this rubbish. The rider
on his horse could often almost reach with his hand the poles which
stuck across the street from one house to the other, and on which hung
Jewish stockings, short trowsers, or a smoked goose. At times might
be seen at some decayed window the face of a pretty Jewess, her head
adorned with discoloured false pearls; a crowd of curly-headed Jewish
boys, dirty and ragged, screamed and rolled in the mud. A redhaired
Jew, with a face all covered with freckles, which made it resemble a
sparrow's egg, looked out of a window, and began at once to talk with
Yankel in his unintelligible gibberish, and Yankel presently drove into
a yard. Another Jew going along the street, stopped and also entered
into the conversation, and when Boolba at last crawled from under the
bricks, he saw three Jews who were talking with great vehemence.
Yankel addressed him, saying that everything should be done, that his
Ostap was now lying in prison, and that, though it would be difficult
to prevail upon the sentries, yet he hoped to obtain an interview for
him.
Boolba entered the room together with the three Jews. They began again
to speak in their unintelligible language. Tarass looked by turns at
each of them. He seemed to labour under some strong excitement; his
hard indifferent features seemed to light up with some unusual flame
of hope, of that hope which sometimes enters the heart of him who is
reduced to the lowest degree of despair. His old heart beat high, like
that of a young man.
"Hear me, Jews!" said he, and his voice had something enthusiastic in
it, "you can do everything, you can find anything, be it from under
the bottom of the sea; and even the proverb has long ago told us that
a Jew can steal his own self, if he only chooses to steal. Set me my
Ostap free! give him the opportunity of escaping from the hands of
these incarnate devils. Here is the man to whom I have promised twelve
thousand ducats--twelve thousand more do I give now; I will give you
all the costly cups, all the gold that I have hidden underground, my
own house, my coat from my back--all do I give unto you; and I will
make a covenant with you for all my life long that you shall have half
of whatever I acquire in war!"
"Oh! impossible, my dear lord! 'tis impossible!" said Yankel, with a
sigh.
"No, no, it is impossible!" said the other Jews.
The three Jews looked at each other.
"Let us, nevertheless, try it," said the third, timorously peering into
the faces of the others; "may be Heaven will help us."
The three Jews again began talking in the Jewish tongue. Boolba in vain
endeavoured to catch the meaning of their speech, he could only hear
the word "Mardokhaï" often repeated, but could make out nothing more.
"Hear me, my lord!" said Yankel; "we must have the advice of a man the
like of whom has never yet been in the world. Oh! oh! he is as wise
as Solomon; and if he can do nothing, nobody on earth can. Stay here!
there's the key, and let none enter."
The Jews went out into the street.
Tarass shut the door, and looked through the window into the dirty
Jewish lane. The three Jews stopped in the very middle of the street,
and began talking with great vehemence. They were soon joined by a
fourth, then by a fifth. Tarass heard them again repeat "Mardokhaï!
Mardokhaï!" The Jews every moment looked towards one end of the
street; at last there was seen emerging from a decayed house a foot
in a Jewish slipper; then came fluttering the skirts of a coat. "Ah,
Mardokhaï, Mardokhaï!" A thin Jew, a little shorter than Yankel, but
with many more wrinkles on his face, with an enormous upper lip, came
near the impatient group; and every one of the Jews hastened to give
him information. During the narrative, Mardokhaï looked repeatedly up
towards the small window, and Tarass guessed that they were speaking
about him. Mardokhaï waved his hands in the most violent manner,
listened to what others said, stopped them in their speech, frequently
spat aside, and lifting up the skirts of his long coat, thrust his hand
into his pocket, and produced from it some rubbish, in doing which he
exposed to view his disgustingly dirty trowsers. At last, all the Jews
got to screaming so loudly that the Jew who stood on the watch had to
give them repeated signals to be quieter, and Tarass began to fear for
his safety; but he was soon tranquillised by the thought that Jews can
nowhere hold their discourse but in the open street, and that the Devil
himself could not understand their gibberish.
About two minutes later all the Jews came up together into his room.
Mardokhaï approached Tarass, gently slapped him on the shoulder, and
said, "If we are willing to do a thing, well then, that thing shall be
done as we wish it to be done."
Tarass looked at the Solomon, the like of whom had never yet been in
the world, and felt some hope. In fact, the appearance of the Jew
was calculated to inspire confidence. His upper lip was of frightful
dimensions, there could be no doubt that its thickness had been
increased by particular reasons. The Solomon's beard boasted no more
than some fifteen hairs, and those were on the left side only. The
Solomon's features bore such numerous traces of blows received for his
tricks, that he certainly had long ceased counting them, and had grown
accustomed to take them for moles.
Mardokhaï left the room with his comrades, who were full of
astonishment at his wisdom. Boolba remained alone, he felt a strange
sensation, till then unknown to him; for the first time in his life
he experienced anxiety. His heart beat feverishly--he was no more the
Boolba of old, undaunted, steady, and strong as an oak; he had grown
pusillanimous, he had grown weak. He shuddered at every noise, at the
sight of every new Jewish figure, making its appearance at the end
of the street. Thus did he feel all the day long, he neither ate nor
drank, and not for one minute did he remove his eyes from the small
window which looked into the street. At last at a late hour in the
evening, came Mardokhaï and Yankel. Tarass felt his heart sink within
him.
"What now? did you succeed?" asked he, with the impatience of a wild
horse.
But even before the Jews had collected their senses to give him
an answer, Tarass noticed that Mardokhaï had no longer his last
temple-lock, which, though dirty, had yet before curled in ringlets
from beneath his cap. It was to be seen that he had something to
communicate, but he talked so incoherently that Tarass could not
understand a word. Yankel, too, was every moment pressing his hand to
his mouth, as if suffering from a bad cold.
"Oh? my dear lord," said Yankel, "now it is impossible; by Heavens,
impossible! The people there are so very bad, that one ought to spit
upon their very heads. Here, I take Mardokhaï to witness: Mardokhaï did
what no man has yet done in this world; but Heaven forbids it to be as
we wish. There are three thousand soldiers Under arms, and to-morrow
the execution is to take place."
Tarass gazed steadfastly into the faces of the Jews; but no anger, no
impatience was any--longer in his look.
"If my lord still wishes to see his son, the interview must take place
to-morrow, early in the morning, before sunrise; the sentries have
given their assent, and one of the officers has agreed to it. But may
they know no happiness in the next world! Woe is me! what grasping
people they are! there are none such, even among us! To every one of
the sentries have I given fifty ducats, and to the officer"--
"Be it so; take me to him;" said Tarass, resolutely, and all his
firmness at once returned to his heart. He assented to Yankel's
proposal of assuming the dress of a German count; the dress being
already brought by the far-seeing Jew.
It was now night. The master of the house--the above-mentioned
red-haired freckly-faced Jew--produced a thin mattress, covered with
a mat, and stretched it for Boolba on a bench. Yankel lay on the
floor on a similar mattress. The redhaired Jew drank a small cup of
some infusion, took off his coat, and, after having presented in his
stockings and slippers an appearance something like that of a chicken,
went with his Jewess into a kind of closet. Two Jewish boys lay down
on the floor near the closet, as if they had been puppies. But Tarass
slept not; he remained motionless, drumming on the table with his
fingers. He had his pipe in his mouth, and puffed away the smoke,
which made the Jew sneeze in his slumbers, and bury his nose under his
coverlet. Scarcely was the sky tinted by the first pale gleam of the
morning dawn, when Tarass pushed Yankel with his foot.
"Up, Jew! give me thy count's dress!"