Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/270

264 would stand their ground for quite a while, nevertheless. Many a one, with gaping mouth and outstretched arms, would have liked to jump upon the heads of the populace to get a better view. Above the mass of small, narrow, commonplace heads, towered the large head of a butcher, admiring the whole process with the air of a connoisseur, and exchanging monosyllabic words with a gunsmith whom he called "Gossip" because he had once got drunk in the same dram-shop with him on a holiday. Some entered into warm discussions, others even laid wagers. But the majority were of the sort who, all the world over, look on at the world and at everything that goes on in it, and merely pick at their noses.

In the foreground, close to the bearded city guards, stood a young noble, or one who appeared to be such, in warlike garb, who had donned literally everything he owned, so that nothing but a ragged shirt and his old shoes were left in his quarters. Two chains, one on top of the other, hung around his neck, with some ducats or other depending from them. He stood with his mistress Yusysya, and kept glancing round incessantly, to make sure that no one soiled her silken gown. He explained everything to her so perfectly that no one could have added a single word.—"All these people, my dear Yusysya," he said, "whom