Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/230

224 Their red blood flowed everywhere in crimson streams; kazák corpses, and those of the enemy, were piled high in layers. Taras looked up to the sky, and there, already, was outstretched a long file of vultures. Well, there will be booty for some one. And yonder they were raising Meteltzya on their spears and the head of the second Pisarenko, as it went spinning round, opened and shut its eyes; and the mangled body of Okhrim Guska broke apart, and fell upon the ground in four pieces. "Now!" said Taras, and waved a kerchief. Ostap understood the signal, and dashing quickly from his ambush, attacked sharply. The Lyakhs could not withstand this violent onslaught; and he drove them back, chasing them straight to the spot where the stakes and fragments of spears were embedded in the earth. The horses began to stumble and fall, and the Lyakhs to fly over their heads. At that moment, the Korsuntzy, who had remained until the last behind the transport-wagons, perceived that they still had some bullets left, and suddenly fired off their arquebuses. The Lyakhs all fell into confusion, and lost their presence of mind; and the kazáks took courage. "Here's our victory!" rang out kazák voices on all sides; the trumpets began to blare, and the standard of victory was unfurled. The defeated Lyakhs dispersed in all directions, and hid