Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/179

Rh bound your men?—Bring out the Zaporozhtzi on the ramparts for them to see!"

And the Zaporozhtzi were led out, pinioned with ropes.

At their head stood the atamán of the barrack, Khlib, without his trousers and outward adornments, exactly as they had captured him in his drunken sleep. And the atamán bowed his head earthward in shame before the kazáks, at his nakedness, and at having been taken prisoner like a dog while asleep. His powerful head had turned grey over night.

"Grieve not, Khlib! we'll rescue you!" shouted the kazáks from below.

"Grieve not, dear friend!" shouted Atamán Borodaty. "It's not your fault that they caught you naked: that's a misfortune which may happen to any man. But it's a disgrace to them that they have exposed you to dishonour, and not covered your nakedness decently."

"You seem to be a brave army when you catch people asleep," remarked Golokopytenko, glancing at the ramparts.

"Wait, we'll clip your top-knots for you!"

"I'd like to see them clip our scalp-locks! " said Popovich, prancing about before them on his horse; then, glancing at his comrades, he said: