And, indeed, in spite of all his fear of Bogun, and maybe especially because of that, he had sworn that he would not yield himself alive. He was free from bonds, and he had a sabre in his hands,--he would defend himself. If they cut him to pieces, all right; but they wouldn"t take him alive.
The snorting and groaning of horses excessively road-weary drowned the sound of further conversation, and immediately gave a certain idea to Zagloba.
"If I could get through the wall," thought he, "and jump on horseback suddenly--it is night, and before they could see what happened I should be out of sight. It is hard enough to chase through the ravines and valleys by sunlight, but what must it be in the dark? G.o.d grant me an opportunity!"
But an opportunity was not to be obtained easily. It was necessary either to throw down the wall--and to do that he would have to be Pan Podbipienta--or to burrow under it like a fox; and then they would surely hear, discover, and seize the fugitive by the neck before he could touch the stirrup with his foot. A thousand stratagems crowded into Zagloba"s head; but for the very reason that they were a thousand no one of them presented itself clearly.
"It cannot be otherwise; only with my life can I pay," thought he.
Then he went toward the third wall. All at once he struck his head against something hard. He felt; it was a ladder. The stable was not for pigs, but for buffaloes, and half the length it had a loft for straw and hay. Zagloba without a moment"s hesitation climbed up. Then he sat down, drew breath, and began slowly to pull up the ladder after him.
"Well, now I am in a fortress!" he muttered. "Even if they should find another ladder, they couldn"t bring it here very quickly; and if I don"t split the forehead of the man who comes here, then I"ll give myself to be smoked into bacon. Oh, devil take it!" he burst out after a while, "in truth they cannot only smoke me, but fry and melt me into tallow. But let them burn the stable if they wish,--all right! They won"t get me alive; and it is all the same whether the crows eat me raw or roasted. If I only escape those robber hands, I don"t care for the rest; and I have hope that something will happen yet."
Zagloba pa.s.sed easily, it is evident, from the lowest despair to hope,--in fact, such hope entered him as if he were already in the camp of Prince Yeremi. But still his position had not improved much. He was sitting on the loft, and he had a sabre in his hand; he might ward off an attack for some time, but that was all. From the loft to freedom was a road like jumping from the stove on your forehead,--with this difference, that below the sabres and pikes of the Cossacks watching around the walls were waiting for him.
"Something will happen!" muttered Zagloba; and approaching the roof he began to separate quietly and remove the thatch, so as to gain for himself an outlook into the world. This was easily done, for the Cossacks talked continually under the walls, wishing to kill the tedium of watching; and besides there sprang up a rather strong breeze, which deadened with its movement among the neighboring trees the noise which was made in removing the bundles. After a time the aperture was ready.
Zagloba stuck his head through it and began to look around.
The night had already begun to wane, and on the eastern horizon appeared the first glimmer of day. By the pale light Zagloba saw the whole yard filled with horses; in front of the cottage rows of sleeping Cossacks, stretched out like long indefinite lines; farther on the well-sweep and the trough, in which water was glistening; and near it again a rank of sleeping men and a number of Cossacks with drawn sabres in their hands walking along that line.
"There are my men, bound with ropes," muttered Zagloba. "Bah!" he added after a while, "if they were mine! But they are the prince"s. I was a good leader to them; there is nothing to be said on that point. I led them into the mouth of the dog. It will be a shame to show my eyes if G.o.d returns me freedom. And through what was all this? Through love-making and drinking. What was it to me that trash were marrying? I had as much business at this wedding as at a dog"s wedding. I will renounce this traitorous mead, which crawls into the legs, not the head. All the evil in the world is from drinking; for if they had fallen upon us while sober, I should have gained the victory in a trice and shut Bogun up in this stable."
Zagloba"s gaze fell again on the cottage in which the chief was sleeping, and rested at its door.
"Sleep on, you scoundrel!" he muttered, "sleep! And may you dream that the devils are skinning you,--a thing which will not miss you in any case! You wanted to make a sieve out of my skin; try to crawl up to me here, and we shall see if I do not cut yours so that it wouldn"t do to make boots for a dog. If I could only get myself out of this place,--if I could only get out! But how?"
Indeed the problem was not to be solved. The whole yard was so packed with men and horses that even if Zagloba had got out of the stable, even if he had pushed through the thatch and sprung on one of the horses that stood right there, he could in no wise have pushed to the gate; and then how was he to get beyond the gate? Still, it seemed to him that he had solved more than half the problem. He was free, armed, and he sat in the loft as in a fortress.
"What the devil good is there," thought he, "in getting out of the rope if you are to be hanged with it afterward?" And again stratagems began to bustle in his head; but there were so many of them that he could not choose.
Meanwhile the light increased, the places around the cottage began to emerge from the shadow; the thatch of the cottage was covered as if by silver. Zagloba could distinguish accurately particular groups; he could see the red uniforms of his men, who were lying around the well, and the sheepskin coats under which the Cossacks were sleeping near the cottage.
Then suddenly some figure rose from the rank of the sleepers and began to pa.s.s with slow step through the yard, halting here and there near men and horses, speaking for a moment with the Cossacks who were guarding the prisoners, and at last approached the stable. Zagloba supposed at first that it was Bogun, for he saw that the guards spoke to that figure as subordinates to a superior.
"Eh!" he muttered, "if I had a musket now, I would show you how to cover yourself with your feet."
At this moment the figure raised its head, and on its face fell the gray light of the morning. It was not Bogun, but the sotnik Golody, whom Zagloba recognized at once, for he knew Golody well from the time of his own intimacy with Bogun in Chigirin.
"Well, boys, you are not asleep?" said Golody.
"No, father, though we should like to sleep. It is about time to change guard."
"It will be changed immediately. And that devil"s imp has not got away?"
"No, no!--unless the soul has gone out of him, father, for he hasn"t moved."
"Ah! he is an old fox. But look, see what he is doing, for he would go through the ground."
"This minute!" answered a number of Cossacks, going to the door of the stable.
"Throw out hay from the mow! Rub the horses! We will start at sunrise."
"All right, father!"
Zagloba, leaving at once his lookout in the opening of the thatch, crawled to the hole in the floor. At the same moment he heard the creak of the wooden hinges and the rustling of the straw under the feet of the Cossacks. His heart beat like a hammer in his breast, and he pressed the hilt of the sabre in his hand, renewing in his soul the oath that he would resign himself to be burned with the stable or be cut to pieces rather than be taken alive. He expected every moment that the Cossacks would raise a fearful uproar, but he was deceived. For a time he heard them walking more and more quickly through the whole stable. At last one said,--
"What the devil is the matter? I can"t find him. We threw him in here."
"He isn"t a werewolf, is he? Strike a light, Va.s.sily; it is as dark here as in a forest."
A moment of silence followed. Evidently Va.s.sily was looking for flint and tinder, while the other Cossacks began to call in a low voice: "Where are you?"
"Kiss the dog"s ear!" muttered Zagloba.
Steel struck flint, a cl.u.s.ter of sparks flashed forth and lighted the dark interior of the stable and the heads of the Cossacks in their caps, then deeper darkness came down again.
"He is not here! he is not here!" cried excited voices.
That moment one sprang to the door. "Father Golody! Father Golody!"
"What"s the matter?" cried the sotnik, approaching the door.
"There is no Pole."
"How, no Pole?"
"He has gone into the ground; he isn"t anywhere. O G.o.d, have mercy on us! We struck fire; he is not here."
"Impossible! Oh, you will catch it from the ataman! Has he escaped, or how is it? You have been asleep."
"No, father, we have not slept. He didn"t get out of the stable on our side."
"Be quiet! don"t wake the ataman. If he hasn"t gone out, then he must be here. Have you looked everywhere?"
"Everywhere."
"On the loft too?"
"How could he crawl on the loft when he was bound?"
"You fool! If he hadn"t unbound himself, he would be here. Look on the loft! Strike a light!"
Sparks flashed again. The news flew in a moment among all the guards.
They began to crowd to the stable with the haste usual on sudden occasions; hurried steps were heard, hurried questions and still more hurried answers. Advices crossed one another like swords in battle.
"To the loft! to the loft!"
"But watch outside!"