CHAPTER L.
The fugitive Tartars carried news to the Belgrod horde of the disaster.Couriers from them took the news to the Ordu i Humayun,--that is, tothe Sultan's camp,--where it made an uncommon impression.
Pan Adam had no need, it is true, to flee too hurriedly with his bootyto the Commonwealth, for not only did no one pursue him at the firstmoment, but not even for the two succeeding days. The Sultan was soastonished that he knew not what to think. He sent Belgrod and Dobrudjachambuls at once to discover what troops were in the vicinity. Theywent unwillingly, for with them it was a question of their own skins.Meanwhile the tidings, given from mouth to mouth, grew to be theaccount of a considerable overthrow. Men inhabiting the depth of Asiaor Africa, who had not gone hitherto with war to Lehistan, and whoheard from narratives of the terrible cavalry of the unbelievers, wereseized with fright at the thought that they were already in presence ofthat enemy who did not wait for them within his own boundaries, butsought them in the very dominions of the Padishah; the grand vizirhimself, and the "future sun of war," the kaimakan, Kara Mustafa, didnot know either what to think of the attack. How that Commonwealth, ofwhose weakness they had the minutest accounts, could assume all at oncethe offensive, no Turkish head could explain. It is enough thathenceforth the march seemed less secure, and less like a triumph. Atthe council of war the Sultan received the vizir and the kaimakan witha terrible countenance.
"You have deceived me," said he. "The Poles cannot be so weak, sincethey seek us even here. You told me that Sobieski would not defendKamenyets, and now he is surely in front of us, with his whole army."
The vizir and kaimakan tried to explain to their lord that this mightbe some detached band of robbers; but in view of the muskets and ofstraps, in which there were dragoon jackets, they did not believe thatthemselves. The recent expedition of Sobieski to the Ukraine, daringbeyond every measure, but for all that victorious, permitted thesupposition that the terrible leader intended to anticipate the enemythis time as well as the other.
"He has no troops," said the grand vizir to the kaimakan, while comingout from the council; "but there is a lion in him which knows nothingof fear. If he has collected even a few thousand, and is here, we shallmarch in blood to Hotin."
"I should like to measure strength with him," said young Kara Mustafa.
"May God avert from you misfortune!" answered the grand vizir.
By degrees, however, the Belgrod and Dobrudja chambuls convincedthemselves that there were not only no large bodies of troops, but notroops at all in the neighborhood. They discovered the trail of adetachment numbering about three hundred horse, which moved hurriedlytoward the Dniester. The Tartars, remembering the fate of Azya's men,made no pursuit, out of fear of an ambush. The attack remained assomething astonishing and unexplained; but quiet came back by degreesto the Ordu i Humayun, and the armies of the Padishah began again toadvance like an inundation.
Meanwhile, Pan Adam was returning safely with his living booty toRashkoff. He went hurriedly, but as experienced scouts learned on thesecond day that there was no pursuit, he advanced, notwithstanding hishaste, at a gait not to weary the horses over-much. Azya, fastened withcords to the back of the horse, was always between Pan Adam and Lusnia.He had two ribs broken, and had become wonderfully weak, for even thewound given him by Basia in the face opened from his struggle with PanAdam and from riding with head hanging down. The terrible sergeant wascareful that he should not die before reaching Rashkoff, and thusbaffle revenge. The young Tartar wanted to die. Knowing what awaitedhim, he determined first of all to kill himself with hunger, and wouldnot take food; but Lusnia opened his set teeth with a knife, and forcedinto his mouth gorailka and Moldavian wine, in which biscuits, rubbedto dust, had been mixed. At the places of halting, they threw water onhis face, lest the wounds of his eye and his nose, on which flies andgnats had settled thickly during the journey, should mortify, and bringpremature death to the ill-fated man.
Pan Adam did not speak to him on the road. Once only, at the beginningof the journey, when Azya, at the price of his freedom and life,offered to return Zosia and Eva, did the lieutenant say to him,--
"Thou liest, dog! Both were sold by thee to a merchant of Stambul, whowill sell them again in the bazaar."
And straightway they brought Eliashevich, who said in presence ofall,--
"It is so, Effendi. You sold her without knowing to whom; and Adurovichsold the bagadyr's[30] sister, though she was with child by him."
After these words, it seemed for a while to Azya that Novoveski wouldcrush him at once in his terrible grasp. Afterwards, when he had lostall hope, he resolved to bring the young giant to kill him in atransport of rage, and in that way spare himself future torment; sinceNovoveski, unwilling to let his captive out of sight, rode always nearhim, Azya began to boast beyond measure and shamelessly of all that hehad done. He told how he had killed old Novoveski, how he had keptZosia Boski in the tent, how he gloated over her innocence, how he hadtorn her body with rods, and kicked her. The sweat rolled off the paleface of Pan Adam in thick drops. He listened; he had not the power, hehad not the wish to go away. He listened eagerly, his hands quivered,his body shook convulsively; still he mastered himself, and did notkill.
But Azya, while tormenting his enemy, tormented himself, for hisnarratives brought to his mind his present misfortune. Not long before,he was commanding men, living in luxury, a murza, a favorite of theyoung kaimakan; now, lashed to the back of a horse, and eaten alive byflies, he was travelling on to a terrible death. Relief came to himwhen, from the pain of his wounds, and from suffering, he fainted. Thishappened with growing frequency, so that Lusnia began to fear that hemight not bring him alive. But they travelled night and day, givingonly as much rest to the horses as was absolutely needful, and Rashkoffwas ever nearer and nearer. Still the horned soul of the Tartar wouldnot leave the afflicted body. But during the last days he was in acontinual fever, and at times he fell into an oppressive sleep. Morethan once in that fever or sleep he dreamed that he was still inHreptyoff, that he had to go with Volodyovski to a great war; againthat he was conducting Basia to Rashkoff; again that he had borne heraway, and hidden her in his tent; at times in the fever he saw battlesand slaughter, in which, as hetman of the Polish Tartars, he was givingorders from under his bunchuk. But awakening came, and with itconsciousness. Opening his eyes, he saw the face of Novoveski, the faceof Lusnia, the helmets of the dragoons, who had thrown aside thesheepskin caps of the horseherds; and all that reality was so dreadfulthat it seemed to him a genuine nightmare. Every movement of the horsetortured him; his wounds burned him increasingly; and again he fainted.Pierced with pain, he recovered consciousness, to fall into a fever,and with it into a dream, to wake up again.
There were moments in which it seemed to him impossible that he, such awretched man, could be Azya, the son of Tugai Bey; that his life, whichwas full of uncommon events, and which seemed to promise a greatdestiny, was to end with such suddenness, and so terribly.
At times too it came to his head that after torments and death he wouldgo straightway to paradise; but because once he had professedChristianity, and had lived long among Christians, fear seized him atthe thought of Christ. Christ would have no pity on him; if the Prophethad been mightier than Christ, he would not have given him into thehands of Pan Adam. Perhaps, however, the Prophet would show pity yet,and take the soul out of him before Pan Adam would kill him withtorture.
Meanwhile, Rashkoff was at hand. They entered a country of cliffs,which indicated the vicinity of the Dniester. Azya in the evening fellinto a condition half feverish, half conscious, in which illusions weremingled with reality. It seemed to him that they had arrived, that theyhad stopped, that he heard around him the words "Rashkoff! Rashkoff!"Next it seemed to him that he heard the noise of axes cutting wood.
Then he felt that men were dashing cold water on his head, and then fora long time they were pouring gorailka into his mouth. After that herecovered
entirely. Above him was a starry night, and around him manytorches were gleaming. To his ears came the words,--
"Is he conscious?"
"Conscious. He seems in his mind."
And that moment he saw above him the face of Lusnia.
"Well, brother," said the sergeant, in a calm voice, "the hour is onthee!"
Azya was lying on his back and breathing freely, for his arms werestretched upward at both sides of his head, by reason of which hisexpanded breast moved more freely and received more air than when hewas lying lashed to the back of the horse. But he could not move hishands, for they were tied above his head to an oak staff which wasplaced at right angles to his shoulders, and were bound with strawsteeped in tar. Azya divined in a moment why this was done; but at thatmoment he saw other preparations also, which announced that his torturewould be long and ghastly. He was undressed from his waist to his feet;and raising his head somewhat, he saw between his naked knees a freshlytrimmed, pointed stake, the larger end of which was placed against thebutt of a tree. From each of his feet there went a rope ending with awhiffletree, to which a horse was attached. By the light of the torchesAzya could see only the rumps of the horses and two men, standingsomewhat farther on, who evidently were holding the horses by the head.
The hapless man took in these preparations at a glance; then, lookingat the heavens, it is unknown why, he saw stars and the gleamingcrescent of the moon.
"They will draw me on," thought he.
And at once he closed his teeth so firmly that a spasm seized his jaws.Sweat came out on his forehead, and at the same time his face becamecold, for the blood rushed away from it. Then it seemed to him that theearth was fleeing from under his shoulders, that his body was flyingand flying into some fathomless abyss. For a while he lostconsciousness of time, of place, and of what they were doing to him.The sergeant opened Azya's mouth with a knife, and poured in moregorailka.
He coughed and spat out the burning liquor, but was forced to swallowsome of it. Then he fell into a wonderful condition: he was not drunk;on the contrary, his mind had never been clearer, nor his thoughtquicker. He saw what they were doing, he understood everything; but anuncommon excitement seized him, as it were,--impatience that all waslasting so long, and that nothing was beginning yet.
Next heavy steps were heard near by, and before him stood Pan Adam. Atsight of him all the veins in the Tartar quivered. Lusnia he did notfear; he despised him too much. But Pan Adam he did not despise;indeed, he had no reason to despise him; on the contrary, every look ofhis face filled Azya's soul with a certain superstitious dread andrepulsion. He thought to himself at that moment, "I am in his power; Ifear him!" and that was such a terrible feeling that under itsinfluence the hair stiffened on the head of Tugai Bey's son.
"For what thou hast done, thou wilt perish in torment," said Pan Adam.
The Tartar gave no answer, but began to pant audibly.
Novoveski withdrew, and then followed a silence which was broken byLusnia.
"Thou didst raise thy hand on the lady," said he, with a hoarse voice;"but now the lady is at home with her husband, and thou art in ourhands. Thy hour has come!"
With those words the act of torture began for Azya. That terrible manlearned at the hour of his death that his treason and cruelty hadprofited nothing. If even Basia had died on the road, he would have hadthe consolation that though not in his, she would not be in any man's,possession; and that solace was taken from him just then, when thepoint of the stake was at an ell's length from his body. All had beenin vain. So many treasons, so much blood, so much impending punishmentfor nothing,--for nothing whatever!
Lusnia did not know how grievous those words had made death to Azya;had he known, he would have repeated them during the whole journey.
But there was no time for regrets then; everything must give way beforethe execution. Lusnia stooped down, and taking Azya's hips in both hishands to give them direction, called to the men holding the horses,--
"Move! but slowly and together!"
The horses moved; the straightened ropes pulled Azya's legs. In atwinkle his body was drawn along the earth and met the point of thestake. Then the point commenced to sink in him, and something dreadfulbegan,--something repugnant to nature and the feelings of man. Thebones of the unfortunate moved apart from one another; his body gaveway in two directions; pain indescribable, so awful that it almostbounds on some monstrous delight, penetrated his being. The stake sankmore and more deeply. Azya fixed his jaws, but he could not endure; histeeth were bared in a ghastly grin, and out of his throat came the cry,"A! a! a!" like the croaking of a raven.
"Slowly!" commanded the sergeant.
Azya repeated his terrible cry more and more quickly.
"Art croaking?" inquired the sergeant.
Then he called to the men,--
"Stop! together! There, it is done," said he, turning to Azya, who hadgrown silent at once, and in whose throat only a deep rattling washeard.
The horses were taken out quickly; then men raised the stake, plantedthe large end of it in a hole prepared purposely, and packed eartharound it. The son of Tugai Bey looked from above on that work. He wasconscious. That hideous species of punishment is in this the moredreadful, that victims drawn on to the stake live sometimes three days.Azya's head was hanging on his breast; his lips were moving, smacking,as if he were chewing something and tasting it. He felt then a greatfaintness, and saw before him, as it were, a boundless, whitish mist,which, it is unknown wherefore, seemed to him terrible; but in thatmist he recognized the faces of the sergeant and the dragoons, he sawthat he was on the stake, that the weight of his body was sinking himdeeper and deeper. Then he began to grow numb from the feet, and beganto be less and less sensitive to pain.
At times darkness hid from him that whitish mist; then he blinked withhis one seeing eye, wishing to see and behold everything till death.His gaze passed with particular persistence from torch to torch, for itseemed to him that around each flame there was a rainbow circle.
But his torture was not ended; after a while the sergeant approachedthe stake with an auger in his hand, and cried to those standingnear,--
"Lift me up."
Two strong men raised him aloft. Azya began to look at him closely,blinking, as if he wished to know what kind of man was climbing up tohis height. Then the sergeant said,--
"The lady knocked out one eye, and I promised myself to bore out theother."
When he had said this, he put the point into the pupil, twisted onceand a second time, and when the lid and delicate skin surrounding theeye were wound around the spiral of the auger, he jerked.
Then from the two eye-sockets of Azya two streams of blood flowed, andthey flowed like two streams of tears down his face. His face itselfgrew pale and still paler. The dragoons extinguished the torches insilence, as if in shame that light had shone on a deed of suchghastliness; and from the crescent of the moon alone fell silverythough not very bright rays on the body of Azya. His head fell entirelyon his breast; but his hands, bound to the oak staff, and enveloped instraw steeped in tar, were pointing toward the sky, as if that son ofthe Orient were calling the vengeance of the Turkish crescent on hisexecutioners.
"To horse!" was heard from Pan Adam.
Before mounting the sergeant ignited, with the last torch, thoseuplifted hands of the Tartar; and the detachment moved toward Yampol.Amid the ruins of Rashkoff, in the night and the desert, Azya, the sonof Tugai Bey, remained on the lofty stake, and he gleamed there a longtime.
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