Pan Michael: An Historical Novel of Poland, the Ukraine, and Turkey

  CHAPTER XXVI.

  Father Kaminski had been a soldier in his youthful years and a cavalierof great courage; he was now stationed at Ushytsa and was reorganizinga parish. But as the church was in ruins, and parishioners werelacking, this pastor without a flock visited Hreptyoff, and remainedthere whole weeks, edifying the knights with pious instruction. Helistened with attention to the narrative of Pan Mushalski, and spoke tothe assembly a few evenings later as follows:--

  "I have always loved to hear narratives in which sad adventures find ahappy ending, for from them it is evident that whomever God's handguides, it can free from the toils of the pursuer and lead even fromthe Crimea to a peaceful roof. Therefore let each one of you fix thisin his mind: For the Lord there is nothing impossible, and let no oneof you even in direst necessity lose trust in God's mercy. This is thetruth!

  "It was praiseworthy in Pan Mushalski to love a common man withbrotherly affection. The Saviour Himself gave us an example when He,though of royal blood, loved common people and made many of themapostles and helped them to promotion, so that now they have seats inthe heavenly senate.

  "But personal love is one thing, and general love--that of one nationto another--is something different. The love which is general, ourLord, the Redeemer, observed no less earnestly than the other. Andwhere do we find this love? When, O man, you look through the world,there is such hatred in hearts everywhere, as if people were obeyingthe commands of the Devil and not of the Lord."

  "It will be hard, your grace," said Zagloba, "to persuade us to loveTurks, Tartars, or other barbarians whom the Lord God Himself mustdespise thoroughly."

  "I am not persuading you to that, but I maintain this: that children ofthe same mother should have love for one another; but what do we see?From the days of Hmelnitski, or for thirty years, no part of theseregions is dried from blood."

  "But whose fault is it?"

  "Whoso will confess his fault first, him will God pardon."

  "Your grace is wearing the robes of a priest to-day; but in youth youslew rebels, as we have heard, not at all worse than others."

  "I slew them, for it was my duty as a soldier to do so; that was not mysin, but this, that I hated them as a pestilence. I had private reasonswhich I will not mention, for those are old times and the wounds arehealed now. I repent that I acted beyond my duty. I had under mycommand one hundred men from the squadron of Pan Nyevodovski; and goingoften independently with my men, I burned, slaughtered, and hanged.You, gentlemen, know what times those were. The Tartars, called in byHmelnitski, burned and slew; we burned and slew; the Cossacks left onlyland and water behind them in all places, committing atrocities worsethan ours and the Tartars. There is nothing more terrible than civilwar! What times those were no man will ever describe; enough that weand they fought more like mad dogs than men.

  "Once news was sent to our command that ruffians had besieged PanRushitski in his fortalice. I was sent with my troops to the rescue. Icame too late; the place was level with the ground. But I fell upon thedrunken peasants and cut them down notably; only a part hid in thegrain. I gave command to take these alive, to hang them for an example.But where? It was easier to plan than to execute; in the whole villagethere was not one tree remaining; even the pear-trees standing on theboundaries between fields were cut down. I had no time to make gibbets;a forest too, as that was a steppe-land, was nowhere in view. Whatcould I do? I took my prisoners and marched on. 'I shall find a forkedoak somewhere,' thought I. I went a mile, two miles,--steppe andsteppe; you might roll a ball over it. At last we found traces of avillage; that was toward evening. I gazed around; here and there a pileof coals, and besides gray ashes, nothing more. On a small hillsidethere was a cross, a firm oak one, evidently not long made, for thewood was not dark yet and glittered in the twilight as if it wereafire. Christ was on it, cut out of tin plate and painted in such a waythat only when you came from one side and saw the thinness of the platecould you know that not a real statue was hanging there; but in frontthe face was as if living, somewhat pale from pain; on the head a crownof thorns; the eyes were turned upward with wonderful sadness and pity.When I saw that cross, the thought flashed into my mind, 'There is atree for you; there is no other,' but straightway I was afraid. In thename of the Father and the Son! I will not hang them on the cross. ButI thought that I should comfort the eyes of Christ if I gave command inHis presence to kill those who had spilled so much innocent blood, andI spoke thus: 'O dear Lord, let it seem to Thee that these men arethose Jews who nailed Thee to the cross, for these are not better thanthose.' Then I commanded my men to drag the prisoners one by one to themound under the cross. There were among them old men, gray-hairedpeasants, and youths. The first whom they brought said, 'By the Passionof the Lord, by that Christ, have mercy on me!' And I said in answer,'Off with his head!' A dragoon slashed and cut off his head. Theybrought another; the same thing happened: 'By that Merciful Christ,have pity on me!' And I said again, 'Off with his head!' the same withthe third, the fourth, the fifth; there were fourteen of them, and eachimplored me by Christ. Twilight was ended when we finished. I gavecommand to place them in a circle around the foot of the cross. Fool! Ithought to delight the Only Son with this spectacle. They quiveredawhile yet,--one with his hands, another with his feet, again onefloundered like a fish pulled out of water, but that was short;strength soon left their bodies, and they lay quiet in a circle.

  "Since complete darkness had come, I determined to stay in that spotfor the night, though there was nothing to make a fire. God gave a warmnight, and my men lay down on horse-blankets; but I went again underthe cross to repeat the usual 'Our Father' at the feet of Christ andcommit myself to His mercy. I thought that my prayer would be the morethankfully accepted, because the day had passed in toil and in deeds ofa kind that I accounted to myself as a service.

  "It happens frequently to a wearied soldier to fall asleep at hisevening prayers. It happened so to me. The dragoons, seeing how I waskneeling with head resting on the cross, understood that I was sunk inpious meditation, and no one wished to interrupt me; my eyes closed atonce, and a wonderful dream came down to me from that cross. I do notsay that I had a vision, for I was not and am not worthy of that; butsleeping soundly, I saw as if I had been awake the whole Passion of theLord. At sight of the suffering of the Innocent Lamb the heart wascrushed in me, tears dropped from my eyes, and measureless pity tookhold of me. 'O Lord,' said I, 'I have a handful of good men. Dost Thouwish to see what our cavalry can do? Only beckon with Thy head, and Iwill bear apart on sabres in one twinkle those such sons, Thyexecutioners.' I had barely said this when all vanished from the eye;there remained only the cross, and on it Christ, weeping tears ofblood. I embraced the foot of the holy tree then, and sobbed. How longthis lasted, I know not; but afterward, when I had grown calm somewhat,I said again, 'O Lord, O Lord! why didst Thou announce Thy holyteaching among hardened Jews? Hadst Thou come from Palestine to ourCommonwealth, surely we should not have nailed Thee to the cross, butwould have received Thee splendidly, given Thee all manner of gifts,and made Thee a noble for the greater increase of Thy divine glory. Whydidst Thou not do this, O Lord?'

  "I raise my eyes,--this was all in a dream, you remember,gentlemen,--and what do I see? Behold, our Lord looks on me severely;He frowns, and suddenly speaks in a loud voice: 'Cheap is your nobilityat this time; during war every low fellow may buy it, but no more ofthis! You are worthy of each other, both you and the ruffians; and eachand the other of you are worse than the Jews, for you nail me here tothe cross every day. Have I not enjoined love, even for enemies, andforgiveness of sins? But you tear each other's entrails like madbeasts. Wherefore I, seeing this, suffer unendurable torment. Youyourself, who wish to rescue me, and invite me to the Commonwealth,what have you done? See, corpses are lying here around my cross, andyou have bespattered the foot of it with blood; and still there wereamong them innocent persons,--young boys, or blinded men, who, havingcare from no one, followed others like fool
ish sheep. Had you mercy onthem; did you judge them before death? No! You gave command to slaythem all for my sake, and still thought that you were giving comfort tome. In truth, it is one thing to punish and reprove as a fatherpunishes a son, or as an elder brother reproves a younger brother, andanother to seek revenge without judgment, without measure, in punishingand without recognizing cruelty. It has gone so far in this land thatwolves are more merciful than men; that the grass is sweating bloodydew; that the winds do not blow, but howl; that the rivers flow intears, and people stretch forth their hands to death, saying, "Oh, ourrefuge!"'

  "'O Lord,' cried I, 'are they better than we? Who has committed thegreatest cruelty? Who brought in the Pagan?'

  "'Love them while chastising,' said the Lord, 'and then the beam willfall from their eyes, hardness will leave their hearts, and my mercywill be upon you. Otherwise the onrush of Tartars will come, and theywill lay bonds upon you and upon them, and you will be forced to servethe enemy in suffering, in contempt, in tears, till the day in whichyou love one another. But if you exceed the measure in hatred, thenthere will not be mercy for one or the other, and the Pagan willpossess this land for the ages of ages.'

  "I grew terrified hearing such commands, and long I was unable to speaktill, throwing myself on my face, I asked, 'O Lord, what have I to doto wash away my sins?' To this the Lord said, 'Go, repeat my words;proclaim love.' After that my dream ended.

  "As night in summer is short, I woke up about dawn, all covered withdew. I looked; the heads were lying in a circle about the cross, butalready they were blue. A wonderful thing,--yesterday that sightdelighted me; to-day terror took hold of me, especially at sight of oneyouth, perhaps seventeen years of age, who was exceedingly beautiful. Iordered the soldiers to bury the bodies decently under that cross; fromthat day forth I was not the same man.

  "At first I thought to myself, the dream is an illusion; but still itwas thrust into my memory, and, as it were, took possession of my wholeexistence. I did not dare to suppose that the Lord Himself talked withme, for, as I have said, I did not feel myself worthy of that; but itmight be that conscience, hidden in my soul in time of war, like aTartar in the grass, spoke up suddenly, announcing God's will. I wentto confession; the priest confirmed that supposition. 'It is,' said he,'the evident will and forewarning of God; obey, or it will be ill withthee.'

  "Thenceforth I began to proclaim love. But the officers laughed at meto my eyes. 'What!' said they, 'is this a priest to give usinstruction? Is it little insult that these dog brothers have workedupon God? Are the churches that they have burned few in number; are thecrosses that they have insulted not many? Are we to love them forthis?' In one word, no one would listen to me.

  "After Berestechko I put on these priestly robes so as to announce withgreater weight the word and the will of God. For more than twenty yearsI have done this without rest. God is merciful; He will not punish me,because thus far my voice is a voice crying in the wilderness.

  "Gracious gentlemen, love your enemies, punish them as a father,reprimand them as an elder brother, otherwise woe to them, but woe toyou also, woe to the whole Commonwealth!

  "Look around; what is the result of this war and the animosity ofbrother against brother? This land has become a desert; I have gravesin Ushytsa instead of parishioners; churches, towns, and villages arein ruins; the Pagan power is rising and growing over us like a sea,which is ready to swallow even thee, O rock of Kamenyets."

  Pan Nyenashinyets listened with great emotion to the speech of thepriest, so that the sweat came out on his forehead; then he spoke thus,amid general silence:--

  "That among Cossacks there are worthy cavaliers, a proof is herepresent in Pan Motovidlo, whom we all love and respect. But when itcomes to the general love, of which Father Kaminski has spoken soeloquently, I confess that I have lived in grievous sin hitherto, forthat love was not in me, and I have not striven to gain it. Now hisgrace has opened my eyes somewhat. Without special favor from God Ishall not find such love in my heart, because I bear there the memoryof a cruel injustice, which I will relate to you briefly."

  "Let us drink something warm," said Zagloba.

  "Throw horn-beam on the fire," said Basia to the attendants.

  And soon after the broad room was bright again with light, and beforeeach of the knights an attendant placed a quart of heated beer. Allmoistened their mustaches in it willingly; and when they had taken oneand a second draught. Pan Nyenashinyets collected his voice again, andspoke as if a wagon were rumbling,--

  "My mother when dying committed to my care a sister; Halshka was hername. I had no wife nor children, therefore I loved that girl as theapple of my eye. She was twenty years younger than I, and I had carriedher in my arms, I looked on her simply as my own child. Later I went ona campaign, and the horde took her captive. When I came home I beat myhead against the wall. My property had vanished in time of theinvasion; but I sold what I had, put my last saddle on a horse, andwent with Armenians to ransom my sister. I found her in Bagchesarai.She was attached to the harem, not in the harem, for she was onlytwelve years of age then. I shall never forget the hour when I foundthee, O Halshka. How thou didst embrace my neck! how thou didst kiss mein the eyes! But what! It turned out that the money I had brought wastoo little. The girl was beautiful. Yehu Aga, who carried her away,asked three times as much for her. I offered to give myself inaddition, but that did not help. She was bought in the market before myeyes by Tugai Bey, that famous enemy of ours, who wished to keep herthree years in his harem and then make her his wife. I returned,tearing my hair. On the road home I discovered that in a Tartar villageby the sea one of Tugai Bey's wives was dwelling with his favorite sonAzya. Tugai Bey had wives in all the towns and in many villages, so asto have everywhere a resting-place under his own roof. Hearing of thisson, I thought that God would show me the last means of salvation forHalshka. At once I determined to bear away that son, and then exchangehim for my sister; but I could not do this alone. It was necessary toassemble a band in the Ukraine, or the Wilderness, which was noteasy,--first, because the name of Tugai Bey was terrible in all Russia,and secondly, he was helping the Cossacks against us. But not a fewheroes were wandering through the steppes,--men looking to their ownprofit only and ready to go anywhere for plunder. I collected a notableparty of those. What we passed through before our boats came out on thesea tongue cannot tell, for we had to hide before the Cossackcommanders. But God blessed us. I stole Azya, and with him splendidbooty. We returned to the Wilderness in safety. I wished to go thenceto Kamenyets and commence negotiations with merchants of that place.

  "I divided all the booty among my heroes, reserving for myself TugaiBey's whelp alone; and since I had acted with such liberality, since Ihad suffered so many dangers with those men, had endured hunger withthem, and risked my life for them, I thought that each one would springinto the fire for me, that I had won their hearts for the ages.

  "I had reason to repent of that bitterly and soon. It had not come tomy head that they tear their own ataman to pieces, to divide hisplunder between themselves afterward; I forgot that among them thereare no men of faith, virtue, gratitude, or conscience. Near Kamenyetsthe hope of a rich ransom for Azya tempted my followers. They fell onme in the night-time like wolves, throttled me with a rope, cut my bodywith knives, and at last, thinking me dead, threw me aside in thedesert and fled with the boy.

  "God sent me rescue and gave back my health; but my Halshka is goneforever. Maybe she is living there yet somewhere; maybe after the deathof Tugai Bey another Pagan took her; maybe she has received the faithof Mohammed; maybe she has forgotten her brother; maybe her son willshed my blood sometime. That is my history."

  Here Pan Nyenashinyets stopped speaking and looked on the groundgloomily.

  "What streams of our blood and tears have flowed for these regions!"said Pan Mushalski.

  "Thou shalt love thine enemies," put in Father Kaminski.

  "And when you came to health did you not look for that whelp?" askedZagl
oba.

  "As I learned afterward," answered Pan Nyenashinyets, "another bandfell on my robbers and cut them to pieces; they must have taken thechild with the booty. I searched everywhere, but he vanished as a stonedropped into water."

  "Maybe you met him afterward, but could not recognize him," said Basia.

  "I do not know whether the child was as old as three years. I barelylearned that his name was Azya. But I should have recognized him, forhe had tattooed over each breast a fish in blue."

  All at once Mellehovich, who had sat in silence hitherto, spoke with astrange voice from the corner of the room, "You would not have knownhim by the fish, for many Tartars bear the same sign, especially thosewho live near the water."

  "Not true," answered the hoary Pan Hromyka; "after Berestechko weexamined the carrion of Tugai Bey,--for it remained on the field; and Iknow that he had fish on his breast, and all the other slain Tartarshad different marks."

  "But I tell you that many wear fish."

  "True; but they are of the devilish Tugai Bey stock."

  Further conversation was stopped by the entrance of Pan Lelchyts, whomPan Michael had sent on a reconnoissance that morning, and who hadreturned just then.

  "Pan Commandant," said he in the door, "at Sirotski Brod, on theMoldavian side, there is some sort of band moving toward us."

  "What kind of people are they?" asked Pan Michael.

  "Robbers. There are a few Wallachians, a few Hungarians; most of themare men detached from the horde, altogether about two hundred innumber."

  "Those are the same of whom I have tidings that they are plundering onthe Moldavian side," said Volodyovski, "The perkulab must have made ithot for them there, hence they are escaping toward us; but of the hordealone there will be about two hundred. They will cross in the night,and at daylight we shall intercept them. Pan Motovidlo and Mellehovichwill be ready at midnight. Drive forward a small herd of bullocks toentice them, and now to your quarters."

  The soldiers began to separate, but not all had left the room yet whenBasia ran up to her husband, threw her arms around his neck, and beganto whisper in his ear. He laughed, and shook his head repeatedly;evidently she was insisting, while pressing her arms around his neckwith more vigor. Seeing this, Zagloba said,--

  "Give her this pleasure once; if you do, I, old man, will clatter onwith you."