Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/204

198 once more to their comrades, they quickly followed the transports. The cavalry, with dignity, without shouts or whistling at the horses, tramped lightly after the foot-soldiers; and all speedily vanished in the darkness. The only sound was the dull thud of horses' hoofs, or the creaking of some wheel which had not got into working order, or had not been properly greased, because of the darkness of the night.

Their comrades stood for a long time waving their hands to them from afar, though nothing could be seen. But when they returned to their places, when they perceived, by the light of the brightly gleaming stars, that half the carts were gone, and many, many of their comrades, then every man's heart grew sad; and all involuntarily became pensive, and their pleasure-loving heads drooped towards the earth.

Taras saw how troubled the kazáks had become, and that sadness, unfitting for brave men, had begun quietly to overmaster their heads; but he remained silent. He wished to give them all time to become accustomed to the melancholy caused by their parting from their comrades; but meantime, he was quietly preparing to arouse them suddenly, and all at once, by a loud war-whoop, in kazák fashion, in order that there might return