relieving force had already passed through the gate, and its rear
ranks fired upon the sleepy and only half-sober Zaporozhtzi who were
pressing in disorder upon them, and kept them back.

The Koschevoi ordered a general assembly; and when all stood in a ring
and had removed their caps and became quiet, he said: "See what
happened last night, brother gentles! See what drunkenness has led to!
See what shame the enemy has put upon us! It is evident that, if your
allowances are kindly doubled, then you are ready to stretch out at
full length, and the enemies of Christ can not only take your very
trousers off you, but sneeze in your faces without your hearing them!"

The Cossacks all stood with drooping heads, knowing that they were
guilty; only Kukubenko, the hetman of the Nezamisky kuren, answered
back. "Stop, father!" said he; "although it is not lawful to make a
retort when the Koschevoi speaks before the whole army, yet it is
necessary to say that that was not the state of the case. You have not
been quite just in your reprimand. The Cossacks would have been
guilty, and deserving of death, had they got drunk on the march, or
when engaged on heavy toilsome labour during war; but we have been
sitting here unoccupied, loitering in vain before the city. There was
no fast or other Christian restraint; how then could it be otherwise
than that a man should get drunk in idleness? There is no sin in that.
But we had better show them what it is to attack innocent people. They
first beat us well, and now we will beat them so that not half a dozen
of them will ever see home again."

The speech of the hetman of the kuren pleased the Cossacks. They
raised their drooping heads upright and many nodded approvingly,
muttering, "Kukubenko has spoken well!" And Taras Bulba, who stood not