When the Cossacks raided Ropezica, according to the Cracow _Nova
Reforma_, they robbed the house in which a Polish girl was
housekeeper. The girl hurried to the commander of the Cossacks, who
lived at a hotel.
"I told him my trouble," she said, "whereupon he asked me: 'Are you
a Pole or a Jew?' I replied that I was a Pole. 'Well, then, I shall
go and see these fellows myself.'
"He took a nagaika (whip) and accompanied me to the house of my
employer.
"Then he called to the Cossacks, who had in the meantime broken open
a trunk and were just in the act of taking various things away, to
come upstairs and showed every one what position he was to take,
after which he whipped their faces and chests until they began to
bleed. I screamed with horror. He repeated the procedure. Then he
asked me:
"'Do you want these fellows shot?' to which I naturally answered
'No.'
"Thereupon he took the Cossacks to a room, where he whipped them
once more.
"In the evening he sent for me, and asked me what articles had been
ruined and what stolen, whereupon he commanded the Cossacks to
return all articles they had stolen. In order to prevent another
theft, he gave me a Cossack, who watched the house until the next
morning. What would have been the fate of the house had I been a
Jewess I dare not imagine."