Pan Michael

knew passing well the Crimea, in which he had been twice as a captive, and, ransomed by the hetman, had been afterward an envoy; he knew the court of Bagchesarai; he knew the hordes living from the Don to the Dobrudja; he knew that in winter many villages were depopulated by hunger; he knew that the despotism and rapacity of the Khan’s baskaks were disgusting to the murzas; that in the Crimea itself it came often to rebellion; he understood at once, then, that rich lands and privileges would entice without fail all those for whom it was evil, narrow, or dangerous in their old homesteads. They would be enticed most surely if the son of Tugai Bey raised the call. He alone could do this⁠—no other. He, through the renown of his father, might rouse villages, involve one half of the Crimea against the other half, bring in the wild horde of Belgrod, and shake the whole power of the Khan⁠—nay, even that of the Sultan. Should the hetman desire to take advantage of the occasion, he might consider Tugai Bey’s son as a man sent by Providence itself.

Pan Bogush began then to look with another eye on Azya, and to wonder more and more how such thoughts could be hatched in his head. And the sweat was in drops like pearl on the forehead of the knight, so immense did those thoughts seem to him. Still, doubt remained yet in his soul; therefore he said, after a while⁠—

“And do you know that there would have to be war with Turkey over such a question?”

“There will be war as it is. Why did they command the horde to march to Adrianople? There will be war unless dissensions rise in the Sultan’s dominions; and if it comes to taking the field, half the horde will be on our side.”

“For every point the rogue has an argument,” thought Pan Bogush. “It turns one’s head,” said he, after a while, “You see, Azya, in every case it is not an easy thing. What would the king say, what the chancellor, the estates, and all the nobles, for the greater part hostile to the hetman?”

“I need only the permission of the hetman on paper; and when we are once here, let them drive us out! Who will drive us out, and with what? You would be glad to squeeze the Zaporojians out of the Saitch, but you cannot in any way.”

“The hetman will dread the responsibility.”

“Behind the hetman will be fifty thousand sabres of the horde, besides the troops which he has in hand.”

“But the Cossacks? Do you forget the Cossacks? They will begin opposition at once.”

“We are needed here specially to keep a sword hanging over the Cossack neck. Through whom has Doroshenko support? Through the Tartars! Let me take the Tartars in hand, Doroshenko must beat with his forehead to the hetman.”

Here Azya stretched out his palm and opened his fingers like the talons of an eagle; then he grasped after the hilt of his sabre. “This is the way we will show the Cossacks law! They will become serfs, and we will hold the Ukraine. Do you hear, Pan Bogush? You think that I am a small man; but I am not so small as it seems to Novoveski, the commandant of this place, and you, Pan Bogush. Behold, I have been thinking over this day and night, till I have grown thin, till my face is sunken. Look at it, your grace; it has grown black. But what I have thought out, I have thought out well; and therefore I tell you that in me there are resources and power. You see yourself that these are great things. Go to the hetman, but go quickly. Lay the question before him; let him give me a letter touching this matter, and I shall not care about the estates. The hetman has a great soul; the hetman will know that this is power and resource. Tell the hetman that I am Tugai Bey’s son; that I alone can do this. Lay it before him, let him consent to it; but in God’s name, let it be done in time, while there is snow on the steppe, before spring, for in spring there will be war! Go at once and return at once, so that I may know quickly what I am to do.”

Pan Bogush did not observe even that Azya spoke in a tone of command, as if he were a hetman giving instructions to his officer. “Tomorrow I will rest,” said he; “and after tomorrow I will set out. God grant me to find the hetman in Yavorov! Decision is quick with him, and soon you will have an answer.”

“What does your grace think⁠—will the hetman consent?”

“Perhaps he will command you to come to him; do not go to Rashkoff, then, at present⁠—you can go more quickly to Yavorov from this place. Whether he will agree, I know not; but he will take the matter under prompt consideration, for you present powerful reasons. By the living God, I did not expect this of you; but I see now that you are an uncommon man, and that the Lord God predestined you to greatness. Well, Azya, Azya! Lieutenant in a Tartar squadron, nothing more, and such things are in his head that fear seizes a man! Now I shall not wonder even if I see a heron-feather in your cap, and a bunchuk above you. I believe now what you tell me⁠—that these thoughts have been burning you in the nighttime. I will go at once, the day after tomorrow; but I will rest a little. Now I will leave you, for it is late, and my head is as noisy as a sawmill. Be with God, Azya! My temples are aching as if I had been drunk. Be with God, Azya, son of Tugai Bey!”

Here Pan Bogush pressed the thin hand of the Tartar,