At the same moment the Tartar ran into the room with the joyful exclamation, "Rescued! rescued!" cried she, beside herself with joy: "_our own_ have come into the town; they have brought with them, bread, millet, flour, and Zaporoghian prisoners!" But neither of the two understood who "_our own_" were who had come into the town, what they had brought, or what they had to do with the Zaporoghians. Full of feelings not to be enjoyed on earth, Andrew impressed a kiss on her fragrant lips; they returned the kiss, and in that mutual, melting embrace each of them felt all that man can feel but once in his lifetime.
Then lost was the Cossack for ever! lost to all Cossack knighthood! Never again will he see the Ssiecha: the farms of his father: the church of God. Ukraine will never again see the bravest of her children who went forth for its defence. Old Tarass will tear from his head a lock of his grey hair, and curse the day and the hour when such a son was born to bring shame upon him!
The whole of the Zaporoghian camp was in an uproar. At first nobody could ascertain how it had come to pass that the Polish reinforcement had entered the city. It was afterwards found out that all the Cossacks of the kooren of Percaslavl, encamped before one of the side gates of the city, were dead drunk; so no wonder if half of them were killed, and the remainder bound and made prisoners, before any one could discover what was the matter. While the other koorens, awakened by the noise, had but time to snatch up their arms, the Poles had already made their way through the gate, and their rear-ranks alone fired on the Zaporoghians who, not yet wholly recovered from their slumbers and their tipsiness, had in disorder rushed upon them. The Koschevoï gave the order for all to assemble, and when all stood in a circle and kept silence, their caps off, he spoke thus:--
"Do you see, gentlemen brothers, what has happened this night? You see now the result of drunkenness? You see the shame that the foe has brought upon us? It seems to be part of your habits, that, if your allowance is doubled, you think yourselves entitled to go on drinking till you bring yourselves into such a state that the foe of Christian soldiers may not only pull off your trowsers, but even spit in your face before you are aware of it!"