Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/125

Rh measure in advance his own strength and the enemy's. He found in battle a mad delight and intoxication; he perceived something festal in the moments when a man's brain burns, when everything waves and flutters before his eyes, heads fly off, horses fall to the earth with a sound of thunder, while he rides on like a drunken man, amid the whistling of bullets and the flashing of swords, dealing blows to all, and heeding not those dealt to him. More than once the father marvelled, also, at Andríi, when he beheld him, incited only by a passionate impulse, hurl himself at something which a sensible man in cold blood would never have attempted, and, by the sheer force of his mad onslaught accomplish such wonders as could not but amaze men old in battle. Old Taras admired, and said: "And he, too, will be a good warrior (if the enemy does not capture him). He's not Ostap, but he's a fine, a grand warrior, nevertheless."

The army decided to march straight to the city of Dubno, where, so rumour asserted, there were many treasures and wealthy inhabitants. The journey was accomplished in a day and a half, and the Zaporozhtzi made their appearance before the city. The inhabitants resolved to defend themselves to the utmost extent of their power, to the last extremity, and preferred to die in their