Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/224

218 disappeared amid the smoke of the powder. On all sides rose the clash of arquebuses. Shilo reeled, and knew that his wound was mortal. He fell, with his hand upon his wound, and said, turning to his comrades: "Farewell, sir brothers, my comrades! May the holy Russian land stand forever, and may it have eternal honour!" Then he closed his failing eyes, and the kazák soul took flight from the grim body. And then Zadorozhny came forward with his men, Vertykhvist broke the ranks, and Balaban stepped forward.

"What now, noble sirs?" said Taras, calling to the atamáns by name: "is there yet powder in the powder-flasks? The kazák force is not weakened, is it? The kazáks do not yield?"

"There is yet powder in the flasks, batko; the kazák force is not yet weakened; the kazáks do not yield!"

And the kazáks pressed vigorously on: the ranks were all in confusion. The little colonel had the assembly beaten, and ordered eight painted standards to be flung out, to collect his men, who were scattered far over all the plain. All the Lyakhs hastened to the standards. But they had not yet succeeded in ranging themselves in order, when Atamán Kukubenko attacked again with his Nezamaikovtzi, in their centre, and fell