Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/103

 IV

UT on the following day, Taras Bulba had a conference with the new Koshevói as to the best way of inciting the kazáks to some enterprise. The Koshevói was a wily and sagacious kazák, knew the Zaporozhtzi through and through, and said, at first: "Oaths cannot be violated; it's downright impossible." But, after a pause, he added: "No matter, it can be managed. We won't violate them, but let's devise something. Let the men assemble, not at my summons, but simply of their own accord. You know how to contrive it; and I'll hasten to the square instantly, with the chiefs, as though we knew nothing about it."

Not an hour had elapsed after their conversation when the kettle-drums thundered. Instantly the drunken and foolish kazáks made their appearance. A million kazák caps poured into the square. A murmur arose, "Why? What? Why was the assembly beaten?" No one answered. At last. In one quarter and another, it began to be rumoured about, "Behold, the kazák