'About such things, father-in-law, you should ask me, not her! The husband is answerable, not the wife. That's how it is with us, meaning no offense to you!' said Danilo, without quitting his occupation. 'Maybe there, in infidel lands, it's different-I wouldn't know.'
Color came to the father-in-law's stern face, and his eyes glinted savagely.
'Who, if not a father, is to look after his daughter!' he muttered to himself. 'I ask you, then: Where were you dragging about till late in the night?'
'Now you're talking, dear father-in-law! To that I will tell you that I'm long past the age of being swaddled by women. I can seat a horse. I can wield a sharp saber with my hand. I can do a thing or two besides… I can answer to no one for what I do.'
'I see, Danilo, I know, you want a quarrel! Whoever hides himself must have evil things on his mind.'
'Think what you like,' said Danilo, 'and I'll think, too. Thank God, I've never yet been part of any dishonorable thing; I've always stood for the Orthodox faith and the fatherland-not like some vagabonds who drag about God knows where while Orthodox people are fighting to the death, and then come down to reap where they haven't sown. They're not even like the Uniates 5: they never peek inside a church of God. It's they who should be questioned properly about where they drag about.'
'Eh, Cossack! you know… I'm a bad shot: from a mere two hundred yards my bullet pierces the heart. I'm an unenviable swordsman: what I leave of a man is smaller than the grains they cook for porridge.'
'I'm ready,' said Master Danilo, briskly passing his saber through the air, as though he knew what he had been sharpening it for.
'Danilo!' Katerina cried loudly, seizing his arm and clinging to it. 'Bethink yourself, madman! Look who you are raising your hand against! Father, your hair is white as snow, yet you flare up like a senseless boy!'
'Wife!' Master Danilo cried menacingly, 'you know I don't like that. Mind your woman's business!'
The sabers clanged terribly; iron cut against iron, and sparks poured down like dust over the Cossacks. Weeping, Katerina went to her own room, threw herself down on the bed, and stopped her ears so as not to hear the saber blows. But the Cossacks did not fight so poorly that she could stifle the blows. Her heart was about to burst asunder. She felt the sound go through her whole body: clang, clang. 'No, I can't bear it, I can't bear it… Maybe the red blood already spurts from his white body. Maybe my dear one is weakening now-and I lie here!' All pale, scarcely breathing, she went out to the room.
Steadily and terribly the Cossacks fought. Neither one could overpower the other. Now Katerina s father attacks-Master Danilo retreats. Master Danilo attacks-the stern father retreats, and again they are even. The pitch of battle. They swing… ough! the sabers clang… and the blades fly clattering aside.
'God be thanked!' said Katerina, but she cried out again when she saw the Cossacks take hold of muskets. They checked the flints, cocked the hammers.
Master Danilo shot-and missed. The father aimed… He is old, his sight is not so keen as the young man's, yet his hand does not tremble. A shot rang out… Master Danilo staggered. Red blood stained the left sleeve of his Cossack jacket.
'No!' he cried, 'I won't sell myself so cheaply. Not the left arm but the right is the chief. I have a Turkish pistol hanging on the wall; never once in my life has it betrayed me. Come down from the wall, old friend! do me service!' Danilo reached out.
'Danilo!' Katerina cried in despair, seizing his hands and throwing herself at his feet. 'I do not plead for myself. There is only one end for me: unworthy is the wife who lives on after her husband. The Dnieper, the cold Dnieper will be my grave… But look at your son, Danilo, look at your son! Who will shelter the poor child? Who will care for him? Who will teach him to fly on a black steed, to fight for freedom and the faith, to drink and carouse like a Cossack? Perish, my son, perish! Your father does not want to know you! Look how he turns his face away. Oh! I know you now! you're a beast, not a man! you have the heart of a wolf and the soul of a sly vermin. I thought you had a drop of pity in you, that human feeling burned in your stony body. Madly was I mistaken. It will bring you joy. Your bones will dance for joy in your coffin when they hear the impious Polack beasts throw your son into the flames, when your son screams under knives and scalding water. Oh, I know you! You will be glad to rise from your coffin and fan the fire raging under him with your hat!'
'Enough, Katerina! Come, my beloved Ivan, I will kiss you! No, my child, no one will touch even one hair on your head. You will grow up to be the glory of your fatherland; like the wind you will fly in the forefront of the Cossacks, a velvet hat on your head, a sharp saber in your hand. Father, give me your hand! Let us forget what has happened between us. Whatever wrong I did you, the fault was mine. Why won't you give me your hand?' Danilo said to Katerina's father, who stood in one spot, his face expressing neither anger nor reconciliation.
'Father!' Katerina cried out, embracing and kissing him. 'Do not be implacable. Forgive Danilo: he will not upset you anymore!'
'For your sake only do I forgive him, my daughter!' he said, kissing her, with a strange glint in his eyes. Katerina gave a slight start: the kiss seemed odd to her, as did the strange glint in his eyes. She leaned her elbow on the table, at which Master Danilo sat bandaging his wounded arm and thinking now that it was wrong and not like a Cossack to ask forgiveness when one was not guilty of anything.
IV There was a glimmer of daylight but no sun: the sky was louring and a fine rain sprinkled the fields, the forests, the wide Dnieper. Mistress Katerina woke up, but not joyfully: tears in her eyes, and all of her confused and troubled.
'My beloved husband, dear husband, I had a strange dream!'
'What dream, my sweet mistress Katerina?'
'I dreamed-it was truly strange, and so alive, as if I was awake-I dreamed that my father is that same monster we saw at the captain's. But I beg you, don't believe in dreams. One can see all sorts of foolishness! It was as if I was standing before him, trembling all over, frightened, and every word he said made all my fibers groan. If only you had heard what he said…'
'What was it he said, my golden Katerina?'
'He said, 'Look at me, Katerina, I am handsome! People should not say I am ugly. I will make you a fine husband. See what a look is in my eyes!' Here he aimed his fiery eyes at me, I gave a cry and woke up.'
'Yes, dreams tell much truth. However, do you know that things are not so quiet behind the hill? It seems the
