Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/122

116 rode on without overburdening or heating their horses; the foot-soldiers marched soberly behind the wagons; and the whole camp moved only by night, resting during the day, and selecting for this purpose the wilderness, uninhabited places, and the forests, of which there was then an abundance. Spies and scouts were sent ahead to ferret out the where, the what, and the how. And often they made their appearance suddenly in the places where they were least expected—and then every one bade farewell to life; the villages were burned; the horses and cattle which were not driven off behind the army, were killed on the spot. They seemed to be revelling, rather than carrying out a raid. Our hair would rise on end nowadays, at the horrible exhibitions of savagery of that fierce, half-civilised age, which the Zaporozhtzi everywhere displayed. Children slain, women's breasts cut off, the skin flayed from the feet up to the knees of victims who were then set at liberty: in a word, the kazáks paid old debts in coin of full weight. The Prelate of one monastery, on hearing of their approach, despatched two monks to say that they were not behaving as they should; that an agreement existed between the Zaporozhtzi and the Government; that they were breaking faith with the King, and all international right. "Tell your Bishop, from me and from all the