Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/182

176 killed one, and flung his lasso round the neck of the other, tied him to his saddle, and dragged him all over the plain, after having taken from him his sword with a rich hilt, and removed from his girdle a whole coin-bag of ducats.

Kobita, a good kazák, and still very young, engaged one of the bravest men in the Polish army in single combat, and they fought long together. They had come to fisticuffs, and the kazák had nearly conquered his foe, and, throwing him down, stabbed him in the breast with his sharp Turkish knife. But he did not guard himself properly: at that moment a hot bullet struck him on the temple. The man who struck him down was the most distinguished of the nobles, the handsomest knight of an ancient and princely race. Like a stately column he bestrode his light bay steed. And many deeds of daring did this boyar perform: he clove two kazáks in twain; Feodor Korzh, the brave kazák, he overthrew together with his horse; then he shot the horse and picked the kazák off the animal with his spear; many heads and hands did he hew off; and he slew kazák Kobita, sending a bullet through his temple.

"There's the man I'd like to measure forces with!" shouted Kukubenko, the atamán of the Nezamaikovsky kurén. Spurring on his horse, he flew straight at his back, and shouted loudly, so