Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/221

Rh those kazáks there, and returned with his own to another group of the foe: and where the Nezamaikovtzi went there was a street! where they wheeled about there was a lane! And the ranks were visibly thinning, and the Lyakhs were falling in sheaves! And right beside the wagons was Vovtuzenko, and in front Cherevichenko, and by the more distant one Degtyarenko; and behind them was the atamán of the kurén, Vertykvist. Degtyarenko already had raised two Lyakhs upon his spear, and was now attacking the third, a stubborn fellow. Agile and strong was the Lyakh, with gorgeous accoutrements, and he was accompanied by fifty servitors. He fell fiercely upon Degtyarenko, beat him to the ground and, flourishing his sword above him, cried, "There's not one of you kazák dogs who would dare to oppose me!"

"Here's one!" said Mosii Shilo, stepping forward. He was a muscular kazák, who had often served as atamán on the sea, and had undergone many vicissitudes. The Turks had captured him and his men at Trebizond, and thrown them all, captives, into the galleys; they bound them hand and foot with iron chains, gave them no millet for a week at a time, and made them drink the repulsive sea water. The poor prisoners bore and suffered all things, if only they might not be forced to renounce their Orthodox Faith. Atamán Mosii