Page:Taras Bulba. A Tale of the Cossacks. 1916.djvu/66

60 frightfully wide pockets to his full trousers, that he could stow away the entire contents of a slothful huckstress's stall. These students constituted an entirely separate world by themselves: they were not admitted to the highest circles, composed of Polish and Russian nobles. Even the Voevod, Adam Kisel, in spite of the patronage he bestowed upon the academy, did not introduce them into society, and gave orders that they were to be ruled as strictly as possible. This command was entirely superfluous, for neither the Rector nor the monk-professors spared the rod or the whip; and the lictors sometimes, by their orders, whipped their monitors so severely that the latter rubbed their trousers for weeks afterwards. This was a mere nothing to many of them, and seemed only a little stronger than good vodka with pepper; others, at last, grew thoroughly tired of such constant thrashings, and ran away to Zaporozhe, if they could find the road, and if they were not caught on the way. Ostap Bulba, although he began to study logic and even theology with much zeal, did not escape the merciless rod. Naturally, all this was bound in some degree to embitter his character, and impart to it that firmness which distinguishes the kazáks. Ostap was always regarded as one of the best students.

He rarely led the others into audacious