第46章

And the latter meanwhile, enveloped in the dust and heat of battle, eager to deserve the scarf which had been bound as a gift upon his arm, flew on like a greyhound; the handsomest, most agile, and youngest of all the band.The experienced huntsman urges on the greyhound, and he springs forward, tossing up the snow, and a score of times outrunning the hare, in the ardour of his course.And so it was with Andrii.Old Taras paused and observed how he cleared a path before him, hewing away and dealing blows to the right and the left.

Taras could not restrain himself, but shouted: "Your comrades! your comrades! you devil's brat, would you kill your own comrades?" But Andrii distinguished not who stood before him, comrades or strangers;he saw nothing.Curls, 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 rapturous kisses.

"Hey there, lads! only draw him to the forest, entice him to the forest for me!" shouted Taras.Instantly thirty of the smartest Cossacks volunteered to entice him thither; and setting their tall caps firmly spurred their horses straight at a gap in the hussars.

They attacked the front ranks in flank, beat them down, cut them off from the rear ranks, and slew many of them.Golopuitenko struck Andrii on the back with his sword, and immediately set out to ride away at the top of his speed.How Andrii flew after him! How his young blood coursed through all his veins! Driving his sharp spurs into his horse's flanks, he tore along after the Cossacks, never glancing back, and not perceiving that only twenty men at the most were following him.The Cossacks fled at full gallop, and directed their course straight for the forest.Andrii overtook them, and was on the point of catching Golopuitenko, when a powerful hand seized his horse's bridle.

Andrii looked; before him stood Taras! He trembled all over, and turned suddenly pale, like a student who, receiving a blow on the forehead with a ruler, flushes up like fire, springs in wrath from his seat to chase his comrade, and suddenly encounters his teacher entering the classroom; in the instant his wrathful impulse calms down and his futile anger vanishes.In this wise, in an instant, Andrii's wrath was as if it had never existed.And he beheld before him only his terrible father.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" said Taras, looking him straight in the eyes.But Andrii could make no reply to this, and stood with his eyes fixed on the ground.

"Well, son; did your Lyakhs help you?"

Andrii made no answer.

"To think that you should be such a traitor! that you should betray your faith! betray your comrades! Dismount from your horse!"Obedient as a child, he dismounted, and stood before Taras more dead than alive.

"Stand still, do not move! I gave you life, I will also kill you!"said Taras, and, retreating a step backwards, he brought his gun up to his shoulder.Andrii was white as a sheet; his lips moved gently, and he uttered a name; but it was not the name of his native land, nor of his mother, nor his brother; it was the name of the beautiful Pole.

Taras fired.

Like the ear of corn cut down by the reaping-hook, like the young lamb when it feels the deadly steel in its heart, he hung his head and rolled upon the grass without uttering a word.