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

and helped me to flee. I am going to Lubni of my own will, for I don’t know where else to take refuge.”

“But avoid Rozlogi, for Bogun is there. He also wishes to join the rebellion.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, save us! In Chigirin they said that the peasants would rise immediately beyond the Dnieper!”

“Maybe! maybe! But go your own way wherever you please, for I have enough to do to think of my own skin.”

“That is what I’ll do,” said Pleshnyevski; and lashing his horse with the nagaika, he rushed on.

“But avoid Rozlogi!” called Zagloba after him. “Should you meet Bogun, don’t tell him that you have seen me. Do you hear?”

“I hear,” answered Pleshnyevski. “God be with you!” And he raced away as if hunted.

“Well, devil, here’s an overcoat for you! I’ve got out of many a trouble, but I have never been in anything like this. Hmelnitski in front, Bogun in the rear; and since this is so, I wouldn’t give a broken orta for either my front or rear, or my whole skin. I was a fool not to go to Lubni with you, but it is no time to talk of that now. Pshaw, pshaw! All my wit at the present moment isn’t fit to grease a pair of boots with. What is to be done? Where am I to go? In the whole Commonwealth it appears there is not a corner where a man can leave the world with his own death, and not have death given him. I would rather be excused from such presents; let others take them.”

“Most worthy sir,” said Helena, “I know that my cousins Yuri and Fedor are in Zólotonosha; maybe they could save us.”

“In Zólotonosha? Wait a moment! In Chigirin I knew Pan Unyejitski, who owns the estates of Krapivna and Chernobái, near Zólotonosha. But that place is far from here, farther than Cherkasi. What is to be done? If there is no other place, why, we will take refuge even there. But we must leave the highway; it is safer to go by the steppe and woods. If we hide somewhere a week, even in the woods, perhaps by that time the hetmans will finish with Hmelnitski, and it will be more peaceable in the Ukraine.”

“God did not save us from the hands of Bogun to let us perish. Have courage!”

“Wait a moment! Some spirit enters me anew. I have been in many a trouble. In a leisure hour I will tell you what happened to me in Galáts, and you will see at once that I was in a terrible place that time; still I slipped out by my own wit from those dangers and escaped in safety, though as you see my beard has grown gray a little. But we must leave the highway. Turn, my lady! You ride as well as the best Cossack. The grass is high, and no eye can see us.”

In fact, the grass became higher and higher as they entered the steppe, so that at last they were hidden in it entirely. But it was difficult for the horses to move through that thicket of stalks, both slender and heavy, and at times sharp and cutting. Soon they became so tired that they were completely exhausted.

“If we want these horses to serve us further, we must dismount, unsaddle them, and let them roll and eat awhile, otherwise they will not go on. I see that we shall reach the Kagamlik before long. I should like to be there now. There is no place to hide in like reeds; when you are in them the devil himself can’t find you. But we must not go astray.”

He dismounted and assisted Helena from the horse, then took off the saddles and produced a supply of provisions which he had prudently provided in Rozlogi.

“We must strengthen ourselves,” said he, “for the road is long; and do you make some vow to Saint Raphael for our safe passage. There is an old fortress in Zólotonosha, and perhaps there is some kind of garrison there now. Pleshnyevski said that beyond the Dnieper the peasants are rising. H’m! this may be true, for the people are quick at rebellion everywhere; but the hand of the prince is on the country behind them, and it is a devil of a hand for weight! Bogun has a strong neck; but if that hand should fall on it, the neck would bend to the earth⁠—which God grant, amen! But eat something, Princess!”

Zagloba took a little knife-case out of his bootleg and gave it to Helena; then he placed before her, on the saddle-cloth, roast beef and bread.

“Eat!” said he. “ ‘When there is nothing in the stomach, we have peas and cabbage for brains.’ ‘If you want to keep your head right, eat roast beef.’ But we have made fools of ourselves once, for apparently it would have been better to flee to Lubni; but the chance is gone now. The prince will surely move with his forces to the Dnieper, to assist the hetmans. We have lived to terrible times, when there is civil war, the worst of all evils. There will not be a corner for peaceable persons. It would have been better for me if I had joined the priesthood, for which I had a vocation, being a quiet and sober man; but fortune ordained otherwise. Oh, my God, my God! I should be canon of Krakow now, chanting my prayers, for I have a very beautiful voice. But what is to be done? From my youth up, girls pleased me! You wouldn’t believe what a handsome fellow I was; whenever I looked at a woman, it was as if lightning struck her. If I were twenty years younger now, Pan Skshetuski would have something on his hands. Ah, you are a splendid Cossack! No wonder young men are rushing after you, and battling to win you. Pan Skshetuski is no common warrior. I saw the punishment he gave