Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/229

Rh us live better than we have lived; and may our Russian land, beloved of Christ, flourish forever!" and his young spirit fled. Angels took it, and, supporting it by the arms, bore it to heaven: there it will be well with him. "Sit down at my right hand, Kukubenko," Christ will say to him: "you never betrayed your comrades, you never committed a dishonourable act, you never sold a man into misery, you preserved and defended My Church!"

The death of Kukubenko saddened them all. The kazák ranks were already terribly thinned; many brave men were missing, but the kazáks still held their ground.

"How now, sir brothers!" cried Taras to the remaining kuréns: "is there still powder in your flasks? Your swords are not yet dulled? Are the kazák forces weary? Have the kazáks given way?"

"There is still plenty of powder, batko; our swords are still fit; the kazák forces are not weary, and the kazáks have not yielded."

And again the kazáks strained every nerve, as though they had suffered no losses whatsoever. Only three kurén atamáns still remained alive.