Silence was unbroken save by the noise of the horses" hoofs and the calling of one of the riders in front, who from time to time repeated his warning: "Slowly! carefully!"
At length he turned to his companion. "Horpyna, is it far yet?" he inquired.
The companion called Horpyna, who in reality was a gigantic young woman disguised as a Cossack, looked at the starry heavens and replied,--
"Not far. We shall be there before midnight. We shall pa.s.s the Enemy"s Mound, the Tartar Valley, and right there is the Devil"s Glen. Oh, it would be terrible to pa.s.s that place between midnight and c.o.c.kcrow!
It"s possible for me, but for you it would be terrible, terrible!"
The first rider shrugged his shoulders and said: "I know the devil is a brother to you, but there are weapons against the devil."
"Devil or not, there are no weapons," answered Horpyna. "If you, my falcon, had looked for a hiding-place through the whole world for your princess, you could not have found a better. No one will pa.s.s here after midnight unless with me, and in the glen no living man has yet put foot. If any one wants soothsaying, he waits in front of the glen till I come out. Never fear! Neither Pole nor Tartar will get there, nor any one, any one. The Devil"s Glen is terrible, you will see for yourself."
"Let it be terrible, but I say that I shall come as often as I like."
"If you come in the daytime."
"Whenever I please. And if the devil stands in my road, I"ll seize him by the horns."
"Oh, Bogun, Bogun!"
"Oh, Dontsovna, Dontsovna, don"t trouble yourself about me! Whether the devil takes me or not is no concern of yours; but I tell you this,--take council with your devils when you please, if only no harm comes to the princess; but if anything happens to her, then neither devils nor vampires will tear you from my grasp."
"Oh, they tried to drown me once when I lived with my brother on the Don, another time the executioner was going to cut my head off in Yampol,--I didn"t care for that. But this is another thing. I will guard her out of friendship for you, so that no spirit will make a hair of her head fall, and in my hands she is safe from men. She won"t escape you."
"And, you owl, if you talk this way, why do you prophesy evil? Why do you hoot in my ear, "Pole at her side! Pole at her side!""
"It was not I that spoke, but the spirits. But now perhaps there is a change. I will prophesy for you to-morrow on the water of the mill-wheel. On the water everything is clearly visible, but it is necessary to look a long time, you will see yourself. But you are a furious dog; if the truth is told, you are angry and wish to kill one."
Conversation was interrupted, and only the striking of the horses" feet against the stones was heard, and certain sounds from the direction of the river, like the chirping of crickets.
Bogun paid not the least attention to these sounds, though they might astonish one in the night. He raised his face to the moon and fell into deep thought.
"Horpyna!" said he, after a while.
"What?"
"You are a witch; you must know whether or not it is true that there is an herb of some kind that whoever drinks of it must fall in love,--lubystka, is it?"
"Yes, lubystka. But unfortunately for you, lubystka will not help. If the princess hadn"t fallen in love with some one else, then you might give it to her; but if she is in love, do you know what will happen?"
"What?"
"She will love the other man still more."
"Oh, perish with your lubystka! You know how to prophesy evil, but you don"t know how to help."
"Listen to me! I know other herbs which grow from the earth; whoever drinks them will be like a stump two days and two nights, knowing nothing of the world. I will give her those herbs, and then--"
The Cossack shuddered in his saddle, and fixed on the witch his eyes gleaming in the darkness. "What are you croaking about?" he asked.
"Then you can--" said the witch, and burst into loud laughter like the neighing of a mare. This laughter resounded with ill-omened echo through the windings of the glen.
"Wretch!" said Bogun.
Then the light of his eyes went out gradually; he dropped again into meditation, and at length began to speak as if to himself,--
"No, no! When we captured Bar, I rushed first to the monastery, so as to defend her from the drunken crowd and smash the head of any man who should come near her; but she stabbed herself with a knife, and now has no consciousness of G.o.d"s world. If I lay a finger on her, she will stab herself again, or jump into the river if you are not careful,--ill-fated that I am!"
"You are at heart a Pole, not a Cossack, if you will not constrain the girl in Cossack fashion--"
"That I were a Pole, that I were a Pole!" cried Bogun, grasping the cap on his head with both hands, for pain had seized him.
"The Polish woman must have bewitched you," muttered Horpyna.
"Ai! if she has not," answered he, sadly, "may the first bullet not pa.s.s me; may I finish my wretched life on the empaling stake! I love one in the world, and that one does not love me!"
"Fool!" cried Horpyna, with anger; "but you have got her!"
"Hold your tongue!" cried he, with rage. "If she lays hands on herself, then what? I"ll tear you apart and then myself. I"ll break my head against a rock, I"ll gnaw people like a dog. I would have given my soul for her, Cossack fame. I would have fled beyond the Yagorlik from the regiments to the end of the earth, to live with her, to die at her side. That"s what I would have done. But she stabbed herself with a knife, and through whom? Through me! She stabbed herself with a knife!
Do you hear?"
"That"s nothing. She will not die."
"If she dies, I will nail you to the door."
"You have no power over her."
"I have none, I have none. Would she had stabbed me,--it would have been better had she killed me!"
"Silly little Pole! She should have been kind to you. Where will she find your superior?"
"Arrange this, and I will give you a pot of ducats and another of pearls. In Bar we took booty not a little, and before that we took booty too."
"You are as rich as Prince Yeremi, and full of fame. They say Krivonos himself is afraid of you."
The Cossack waved his hand. "What is that to me if my heart is sore--"
And silence came again. The bank of the river grew wider and more desolate. The pale light of the moon lent fantastic forms to the trees and the rocks. At last Horpyna said,--
"This is the Enemy"s Mound. We must ride together."
"Why?"
"It is a bad place."
They reined in their horses, and after a while the party coming on behind joined them. Bogun rose in the stirrups and looked into the cradle.
"Is she asleep?" he asked.