With Fire and Sword Henryk Sienkiewicz (different e readers .TXT) 📖

bands that had gathered around the rear of the forces of the commander-in-chief. At Volochisk they stopped for the night.

But they had barely begun a pleasant sleep after the long road, when they were roused by an alarm, and the guards informed them that cavalry detachments were approaching. Immediately came the news that it was Vershul’s Tartar squadron, therefore their own men. Zagloba, Pan Longin, and Volodyovski met at once in Skshetuski’s room; and right after them rushed in, like a storm, an officer of the light cavalry, breathless and covered with mud. When he had looked at him, Skshetuski cried out: “Vershul!”

“Yes, it is I,” said the newly arrived, unable to catch his breath.

“From the prince?”

“Yes. Oh for breath, breath!”

“What news? All over with Hmelnitski?”

“All⁠—over with⁠—the Commonwealth!”

“By the wounds of Christ, what do you say? Defeat!”

“Defeat, disgrace, shame!⁠—without a battle⁠—a panic⁠—oh! oh!”

Skshetuski could not believe his ears. “But speak! speak, in the name of the living God! The commanders⁠—”

“Ran away.”

“Where is our prince?”

“Retreating⁠—without an army⁠—I am here from the prince⁠—the order to Lvoff⁠—at once⁠—they are pursuing us⁠—”

“Who? Vershul, Vershul, come to your senses, man! Who is pursuing?”

“Hmelnitski and the Tartars.”

“In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” cried Zagloba. “The earth is opening.”

But Skshetuski understood already what the matter was. “Questions later on; now to horse!”

“To horse! to horse!”

The hoofs of the horses under Vershul’s Tartars were clattering by the windows. The townspeople, roused by the arrival of troops, burst from their houses with lanterns and torches in their hands. The news flew through the town like lightning. The alarm was sounded. The town, silent a moment before, was filled with yells, tramping of horses, shouting of orders, and wailing of Jews. The inhabitants wishing to leave with the troops got ready wagons, in which they put their wives and children, with featherbeds. The mayor, at the head of a number of citizens, came to beg Skshetuski not to depart at once, but to convoy the inhabitants even to Tarnopol. Skshetuski would not listen; for the order received was explicit, to go to Lvoff as fast as his breath would let him. They hurried away therefore; and on the road Vershul, recovering breath, told what had happened, and how.

“Since the Commonwealth has been a commonwealth,” said he, “never has it borne such a defeat. Tsetsora, Jóltiya Vodi, Korsún, are nothing in comparison.”

Skshetuski, Volodyovski, and Pan Longin bent down to the necks of their horses, now grasping their own heads, now raising their hands to heaven. “The thing passes human belief,” said they. “But where was the prince?”

“Deserted by all, thrust aside on purpose; he did not command, in fact, his own division.”

“Who had command?”

“No man, and all men. I have been long in service, I have eaten my teeth in war, and yet up to this day I have not seen such armies and such leaders.”

Zagloba, who had no great love for Vershul and knew him but little, began to shake his head and smack his lips; at last he said⁠—

“My dear sir, either your vision is confused, or you have taken some partial defeat for a general one; for what you relate passes imagination completely.”

“That it passes imagination, I confess; and I’ll say more to you⁠—that I should gladly give my head to be severed if by some miracle it should appear that I am mistaken.”

“But how did you get to Volochisk first after the defeat? For I don’t wish to admit that you were the first to run away. Where, then, are the forces in flight? In what direction are they fleeing? What has happened to them? Why didn’t the fugitives get ahead of you? To all these questions I seek an answer in vain.”

Vershul at any other time would not have permitted such questions, but at that moment he could think of nothing but the defeat; therefore he merely answered⁠—

“I came first to Volochisk, for the others are retreating to Ojigovtsi, and the prince hurried me off on purpose toward the place in which he thought you were, so the avalanche might not catch you through hearing the news too late; and secondly, because the five hundred horse which you have are no small comfort to him, for the greater part of his division is killed or in flight.”

“Wonderful things!” said Zagloba.

“It’s a terror to think of! Desperation seizes one, the heart is cut, tears flow,” said Volodyovski, wringing his hands. “The country destroyed; disgrace after death⁠—such forces dispersed, lost. It cannot be that there is anything but the end of the world and the approach of the last judgment.”

“Don’t interrupt him,” said Skshetuski; “let him tell all.”

Vershul was silent for a time, as if collecting his strength; nothing was heard but the plashing of hoofs in the mud, for rain was falling. It was still the depth of night, and very dark, because cloudy; and in that darkness and rain the words of Vershul, who began thus to speak, had a wonderful sound of ill-omen⁠—

“If I had not expected to fall in battle, I should have lost my reason. You speak of the last judgment⁠—and I think it will come soon, for everything is going to pieces; wickedness rises above virtue, and antichrist is walking through the world. You have not seen what took place; but if you are not able to bear even the story of it, how is it with me, who saw with my own eyes the defeat and measureless disgrace? God gave us a happy beginning in this war. Our prince, after getting satisfaction at Cholganski Kamen from Pan Lashch, gave the rest to oblivion, and made peace with Prince Dominik. We were all pleased with this concord⁠—really a blessing of God. The prince gained a second victory at Konstantinoff, and took the place; for the enemy left it after the first storm. Then we marched to Pilavtsi, though the prince did not advise going there. But immediately on the road various machinations were manifest against him⁠—ill-will, envy, and