Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/232

226 your own comrades?" But Andríi did not distinguish who stood before him, his comrades or strangers: he saw nothing. Curls, long, long curls were what he saw; and a bosom like that of a river swan, and a snowy neck and shoulders, and all that is created for wild kisses.

"Hey there, my lads! just lure him to the forest! Entice him to the forest for me!" shouted Taras. And instantly thirty of the smartest kazáks volunteered to entice him thither, and settling their tall caps firmly, they spurred their horses straight at a gap in the hussars. They attacked the front ranks from the flank, beat them down, separated them from the rear ranks, distributing a gift to one and another; but Golokopytenko struck Andríi on the back with his sword, and then immediately rode away from the hussars at the top of his speed. How furiously Andríi raged! How his young blood rebelled in his veins! Driving his sharp spurs into his horse's flanks, he flew at top speed after the kazák, never glancing back and not perceiving that only twenty men, at most, were following him; but the kazáks fled at full gallop, and directed their course straight for the forest. Andríi overtook them and was on the point of catching Golokopytenko, when a powerful hand grasped his horse's bridle. Andríi looked: before him stood Taras! He