Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/51

Rh the beer-sellers threw away their casks, the brewers destroyed their barrels; the mechanic and the merchant sent trade and shop to the devil, smashed the pots in their houses, and, every man jack of them, mounted his horse. In short, the Russian character here acquired a broad, mighty scope, a powerful exterior.

Taras was one of the band of old, original Colonels; he was born for warlike emotions, and was noted for the rough uprightness of his character. At that period the influence of Poland was beginning to make itself felt among the Russian nobility. Many had already adopted Polish customs, had introduced luxury, splendid staffs of servants, hawks, huntsmen, dinners and palaces. This was not to the taste of Taras. He liked the simple life of the kazáks, and quarrelled with those of his comrades who inclined to the Warsaw party, calling them the serfs of the Polish nobles. Ever turbulent, he regarded himself as a legal defender of the Faith. He would enter arbitrarily into villages where the sole complaint was with regard to the oppression of the revenue farmers, and the imposition of fresh taxes on each hearth. He and his kazáks would execute justice on them; and he laid down the rule for himself, that in three cases it was always proper to have recourse to the sword: namely, when