Ogniem i mieczem. English

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

  CHAPTER LIX.

  The Poles had to raise new ramparts to render the earthworks of theCossacks useless and make defence easier for their own reduced forces.They dug therefore all night after the storm. On this account theCossacks were not idle. Having approached quietly in the dark nightbetween Thursday and Friday, they threw up a second and much higherwall around the camp. All shouted at dawn, and began to fire at once,and four whole days and nights they continued firing. Much damage wasdone on both sides, for from both sides the best gunners emulated oneanother.

  From time to time masses of Cossacks and the mob rushed to attack, butdid not reach the ramparts. Only the musketry fire became hotter. Theenemy, having strong forces, changed the divisions in action, leadingsome to rest and others to fight. But in the Polish camp there were nomen for change; the same persons had to shoot, rush to the defence atany moment under danger of assaults, bury the dead, dig walls, andraise the ramparts for better defence. The besieged slept, or ratherdozed, on the ramparts under fire, while balls were flying so thicklythat every morning they could be swept from the square. For four daysno one removed his clothing. The men got wet in the rain, dry in thesun, were burning in the daytime and chilled at night. During four daysnot one of them had anything warm in his mouth; they drank gorailka,mixing powder with it for greater strength; they gnawed cakes, and torewith their teeth hard dried meat; and all this in the midst of smokeand fire, the whistling of balls and the thunder of cannon. It wasnothing to get struck on the head or body; a soldier tied a nasty bitof cloth around his bloody head and fought on. They were wonderfulmen,--with torn coats, rusty weapons, shattered muskets in their hands,eyes red from sleeplessness; ever on the alert, ever willing day andnight, wet weather or dry; always ready for battle.

  The soldiers were infatuated with their leader, with danger, withassaults, with wounds and death. A certain heroic exaltation seizedtheir souls; their hearts became haughty, their minds callous. Horrorbecame to them a delight. Different regiments strove for pre-eminencein enduring hunger, sleeplessness, toil, daring, and fury. This wascarried to such a degree that it was difficult to keep the soldiers onthe walls; they were breaking out against the enemy as wolves ravenousfrom hunger against sheep. In all the regiments reigned a kind of wildjoy. If a man were to mention surrender, he would be torn to pieces inthe twinkle of an eye. "We want to die!" was repeated by every mouth.

  Every command of the leader was carried out with lightning rapidity.Once it happened that the prince, in his evening tour of the ramparts,hearing that the fire of the quarter-regiment of Leshchinski wasweakening, came to the soldiers, and asked: "Why don't you fire?"

  "Our powder is gone; we have sent to the castle for more."

  "You have it nearer!" said the prince, pointing to the enemy's trench.

  He had scarcely spoken when the whole body sprang from the rampart,rushed to the enemy, and fell like a hurricane on the intrenchment. TheCossacks were clubbed with muskets and stabbed with pikes, four gunswere spiked; and after half an hour the soldiers, decimated butvictorious, returned with a considerable supply of powder in kegs andhunting-horns.

  Day followed day. The Cossack approaches enclosed the Polish rampartwith an ever-narrowing ring, and pushed into it like wedges into atree. The firing was so close that without counting the assaults tenmen a day fell in each battalion; the priests were unable to visit themwith the sacrament. The besieged sheltered themselves with wagons,tents, skins, and suspended clothing. In the night they buried the deadwherever they happened to lie; but the living fought the moredesperately over the graves of their comrades of the day before.Hmelnitski expended the blood of his people unsparingly, but each stormbrought him only greater loss. He was astonished himself at theresistance. He counted only on this,--that time would weaken the heartsand strength of the besieged. Time did pass, but they showed anincreasing contempt for death.

  The leaders gave the example to their men. Prince Yeremi slept on bareground at the rampart, drank gorailka, and ate dried horse-flesh,suffering changes of weather and toils beyond his lordly position.Konyetspolski and Sobieski led regiments to the sallies in person; intime of assault they exposed themselves without armor in the thickestrain of bullets. Even leaders who, like Ostrorog, were lacking inmilitary experience, and on whom the soldiers looked with distrust,appeared now, under the hand of Yeremi, to become different men. OldFirlei and Lantskoronski slept also at the ramparts; and Pshiyemski putguns in order during the day, and at night dug under the earth like amole, putting counter-mines beneath the mines of the enemy, throwingout approaches, or opening underground roads by which the soldiers camelike spirits of death among the sleeping Cossacks.

  Finally Hmelnitski determined to try negotiations, with the idea toothat in the mean while he might accomplish something by stratagem. Onthe evening of July 24 the Cossacks began to cry from the trenches tothe Poles to stop firing. The Zaporojians declared that the hetmanwanted to see old Zatsvilikhovski. After a short consultation thecommanders agreed to the proposition, and the old man went out of thecamp.

  The knights saw from a distance that caps were removed before him inthe trenches; for Zatsvilikhovski, during the short period that he wascommissioner, succeeded in gaining the good-will of the wildZaporojians, and Hmelnitski himself respected him. The firing ceased.The Cossacks with their approaches were close to the ramparts, and theknights went down to them. Both sides were on their guard, but therewas nothing unfriendly in those meetings. The nobles had alwaysesteemed the Cossacks more than the common herd, and now, knowing theirbravery and endurance in battle, they spoke with them on terms ofequality as cavaliers with cavaliers. The Cossacks examined with wonderthat impregnable nest of lions which checked all their power and thatof the Khan. They began to be friendly, therefore, to talk and complainthat so much Christian blood was flowing; finally they treated oneanother to tobacco and gorailka.

  "All, gentlemen," said the old Zaporojians, "if you had stood up likethis always, there would have been no Joltiya Vodi, Korsun, orPilavtsi. You are real devils, not men, such as we have not seen yet inthe world."

  "Come to-morrow and the day after; you will always find us the same."

  "We'll come; but thank God now for the breathing-spell! A power ofChristian blood is flowing; but, anyhow, hunger will conquer you."

  "The king will come before hunger; we have just eaten a hearty meal."

  "If provisions fail us, we will go to your tabors," said Zagloba, withhis hand on his hip.

  "God grant Father Zatsvilikhovski to make some agreement with ourhetman! If he doesn't, we shall have an assault this evening."

  "We are already tired of waiting for you."

  "The Khan has promised that you'll all get your 'fate.'"

  "And our prince has promised the Khan that he will drag him by thebeard at his horse's tail."

  "He is a wizard, but he can't do that."

  "Better for you to go with our prince against the Pagans than to raiseyour hands against the authorities."

  "H'm! with your prince! Nice work indeed!"

  "Why do you revolt? The king will come; fear the king. Prince Yeremiwas a father to you too--"

  "Such a father, as Death is mother. The plague has not killed so manybrave heroes as he."

  "He will be worse; you don't know him yet."

  "We don't want to know him. Our old men say that whatever Cossack lookshim in the eye is given to death."

  "It will be so with Hmelnitski."

  "God knows what will be. This is sure, that it is not for them both tolive in the white world. Our father says if you would give him upYeremi he would let you all go free, and bow down to the king with allof us."

  Here the soldiers began to frown and grit their teeth.

  "Be silent, or we'll draw our sabres!"

  "You Poles are angry, but you'll have your 'fate.'"

  And so they conversed, sometimes pleasantly and sometimes with threats,which, in spite of them, burst out like thunde
r-peals. In the afternoonZatsvilikhovski returned to the camp. There were no negotiations, and acessation of arms was not obtained. Hmelnitski put forth monstrousdemands,--that the prince and Konyetspolski should be given up to him.Finally he told over the wrongs of the Zaporojians, and began topersuade Zatsvilikhovski to remain with him for good; whereupon the oldknight was enraged, sprang up, and went away. In the evening followedan assault, which was repulsed with blood. The whole camp was in firefor two hours. The Cossacks were not only hurled from the walls, butthe infantry captured the first intrenchment, destroyed the embrasures,the shelters, and burned fourteen moving towers. Hmelnitski swore thatnight to the Khan that he would not withdraw while a man remained alivein the camp.

  The next day at dawn brought fresh musketry-firing, digging under theramparts, and a battle till evening with flails, scythes, sabres,stones, and clods of earth. The friendly feeling of the day before, andregret at the spilling of Christian blood gave way to still greaterobstinacy. Rain began to fall in the morning. That day half-rationswere issued to the soldiers, at which Zagloba complained greatly, butin general empty stomachs redoubled the rage of the Poles. They sworeto fall one after the other, and not to surrender to the last breath.The evening brought new assaults from the Cossacks, disguised as Turks,lasting, however, but a short time. A night full of uproar and criesfollowed, "a very quarrelsome night." Firing did not cease for amoment. Both sides challenged each other; they fought in groups andpairs. Pan Longin went out to the skirmish, but no one would standbefore him; they merely fired at him from a distance. But Stempovskicovered himself with great glory, and also Volodyovski, who in singlecombat killed the famous partisan Dundar.

  At last Zagloba himself came out, but only to encounters of the tongue."After killing Burlai," said he, "I cannot meet every common scrub!"But in the encounter of tongues he found no equal among the Cossacks,and he brought them to despair; when covered with a good embankment hecried, as if under the ground, with a stentorian voice,--

  "Sit here at Zbaraj, you clowns, but the Lithuanian soldiers are goingdown the Dnieper. They are saluting your wives and young women. Nextspring you will find crowds of little Botvinians in your cottages, ifyou find the cottages."

  The Lithuanian army was really descending the Dnieper, under Kadzivil,burning and destroying, leaving only land and water. The Cossacksknowing this fell into a rage, and in answer hailed bullets on Zagloba,as a man shakes pears from a tree. But Zagloba took good care of hishead behind the embankment, and cried again,--

  "You have missed, you dog-spirits, but I didn't miss Burlai. I am alonehere; come to a duel with me! You know me! Come on, you clowns! shooton while you have a chance, for next winter you'll be taking care ofyoung Tartars in the Crimea, or making dams on the Dnieper. Come on,come on! I'll give a copper for the head of your Hmel. Give him a whackon the snout from me, from Zagloba, do you hear? Hei! you filthy fools,is it little of your carrion that lies on the field smelling like deaddogs? The plague sends her respects to you. To your forks, to yourploughs, to your boats, you scurvy villains! It is for you to tug saltand dried cherries against the current of the Dnieper, not to stand inour way."

  The Cossacks had their laugh too at the "Panowie[21] who have onebiscuit for three," and they were asked why they did not collect theirtaxes and tithes. But Zagloba got the upper hand in the disputes. Theseconversations rattled on, interrupted by curses and wild outbursts oflaughter for whole nights, under fire and with more or less fighting.Then Pan Yanitski went out to negotiate with the Khan, who repeatedagain that all would meet their "fate," till the impatient envoy said:"You promised that long ago, but nothing has happened to us yet!Whoever comes for our heads will leave his own!" The Khan asked PrinceYeremi to meet his vizier in the field; but that was simply treachery,which was discovered, and the negotiations were finally broken off. Allthis time there was no intermission in the struggle,--assaults in theevening, during the day cannonading and musketry fire, sallies from theramparts, encounters, hand-to-hand conflict of battalions, and wildattacks of cavalry.

  A certain mad desire of fighting, of blood, and danger upheld thesoldiers. They went to battle with songs, as if to a wedding. They hadindeed become so accustomed to uproar and tumult that those divisionswhich were detailed to sleep slept soundly under fire, amidst thicklyfalling bullets. Provisions decreased every day, for the commanders hadnot supplied the camp sufficiently before the coming of the prince. Theprice of everything was enormously high, but those who had money andbought bread or gorailka shared it gladly with others. No one cared forthe morrow, knowing that one of two things would not miss them,--eithersuccor from the king, or death! They were equally ready for either, butmore ready for battle. An unheard-of case in history, tens meetingthousands with such resistance and such rage that each assault was anew defeat for the Cossacks! Besides, there was no day in which therewere not several attacks from the ramparts on the enemy in his owntrenches. Those evenings when Hmelnitski thought that weariness mustovercome the most enduring and was quietly preparing an assault, joyfulsongs would come to his ears. Then he struck his hands on his legs withwonder, and thought, "In truth Yeremi is a greater wizard than any inthe Cossack camp." Then he was furious, hurried to the fight, andpoured out a sea of blood; for he saw that his star was beginning topale before the star of the terrible prince.

  In the tabor they sang songs about Yeremi, or in a low voice relatedthings of him, which made the hair stand on the heads of the Cossacks.They said that he would appear at times in the night on the ramparts,and would grow up before one till his head was higher than the towersof Zbaraj; that his eyes were then like two moons, and the sword in hishand like that star of ill omen which God sometimes sends out in thesky for the destruction of men. It was said that when he shouted,the Poles who had fallen in battle rose up with clanking armor andtook their places in the ranks with the living. Yeremi was in everymouth,--they sang about him, minstrels spoke of him, the oldZaporojians, the ignorant mob, and the Tartars; and in thoseconversations, in that hatred, in that superstitious terror there was acertain wild love with which that people of the steppes loved theirbloody destroyer. Hmelnitski paled before him, not only in the eyes ofthe Khan and the Tartars, but in the eyes of his own people; and he sawthat he must take Zbaraj, or the spell which he exercised would bedissipated, like darkness before the morning dawn,--he must tramplethat lion, or perish himself.

  But the lion not only defended himself, but each day he issued moreterrible from his lair. Neither stratagem, nor treachery, nor evidentpreponderance availed. Meanwhile the mob and the Cossacks began tomurmur. It was difficult for them to sit in smoke and fire, in a rainof bullets, with the odor of corpses, in rain, in heat, before the faceof death. But the valiant Cossacks did not fear toil, nor bad weather,nor storms with fire and blood and death; they feared "Yarema."