第26章

He looked intently at her once more, and suddenly exclaimed at the top of his voice, "You are the Tatar! the servant of the lady, the Waiwode's daughter!""Sh!" cried the Tatar, clasping her hands with a supplicating glance, trembling all over, and turning her head round in order to see whether any one had been awakened by Andrii's loud exclamation.

"Tell me, tell me, why are you here?" said Andrii almost breathlessly, in a whisper, interrupted every moment by inward emotion."Where is the lady? is she alive?""She is now in the city."

"In the city!" he exclaimed, again almost in a shriek, and feeling all the blood suddenly rush to his heart."Why is she in the city?""Because the old lord himself is in the city: he has been Waiwode of Dubno for the last year and a half.""Is she married? How strange you are! Tell me about her.""She has eaten nothing for two days."

"What!"

"And not one of the inhabitants has had a morsel of bread for a long while; all have long been eating earth."Andrii was astounded.

"The lady saw you from the city wall, among the Zaporozhtzi.She said to me, 'Go tell the warrior: if he remembers me, let him come to me;and do not forget to make him give you a bit of bread for my aged mother, for I do not wish to see my mother die before my very eyes.

Better that I should die first, and she afterwards! Beseech him; clasp his knees, his feet: he also has an aged mother, let him give you the bread for her sake!'"Many feelings awoke in the young Cossack's breast.

"But how came you here? how did you get here?""By an underground passage."

"Is there an underground passage?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"You will not betray it, warrior?"

"I swear it by the holy cross!"

"You descend into a hole, and cross the brook, yonder among the reeds.""And it leads into the city?"

"Straight into the monastery."

"Let us go, let us go at once."

"A bit of bread, in the name of Christ and of His holy mother!""Good, so be it.Stand here beside the waggon, or, better still, lie down in it: no one will see you, all are asleep.I will return at once."And he set off for the baggage waggons, which contained the provisions belonging to their kuren.His heart beat.All the past, all that had been extinguished by the Cossack bivouacks, and by the stern battle of life, flamed out at once on the surface and drowned the present in its turn.Again, as from the dark depths of the sea, the noble lady rose before him: again there gleamed in his memory her beautiful arms, her eyes, her laughing mouth, her thick dark-chestnut hair, falling in curls upon her shoulders, and the firm, well-rounded limbs of her maiden form.No, they had not been extinguished in his breast, they had not vanished, they had simply been laid aside, in order, for a time, to make way for other strong emotions; but often, very often, the young Cossack's deep slumber had been troubled by them, and often he had lain sleepless on his couch, without being able to explain the cause.