A Terrible Vengeance

XI

“Take comfort, my dear sister!” said old Captain Gorobets. “Rarely do dreams come true!”

“Lie down, sister,” said his young daughter-in-law. “I will fetch a wise woman; no evil power can stand against her; she will help you.”

“Fear nothing!” said his son, touching his sword. “No one shall harm you!”

Gloomily and with dull eyes Katerina looked at them all and found no word to say.

“I myself brought about my ruin: I let him out!” she said at last. “He gives me no peace! Here I have been ten days with you in Kiev and my sorrow is no less. I thought that at least I could bring up my son to avenge… I dreamed of him, looking terrible! God forbid that you should ever see him like that! My heart is still throbbing. ‘I will kill your child, Katerina,’ he shouted, ‘if you do not marry me…’ “And she flung herself sobbing on the cradle; and the frightened child stretched out its little hands and cried.

The Captain’s son was boiling with anger as he heard such words.

The Captain himself was roused.” Let him try coming here, the accursed Antichrist; he will learn whether there is still strength in the old Cossack’s arm. God sees,” he said, turning his keen eyes to heaven, “whether I did not hasten to give a hand to brother Danilo. It was His holy will! I found him lying on the cold bed upon which so many, many Cossacks have been laid. But what a funeral feast we had for him! We did not leave a single Pole alive! Be comforted, my child. No one shall dare to harm you, so long as I or my son live.”

As he finished speaking the old Cossack captain approached the cradle, and the child saw hanging from a strap his red pipe set in silver and the pouch with the shiny flints, and stretched out its arms toward him and laughed. “He takes after his father,” said the old captain, unfastening the pipe and giving it to the child. “He is not out of the cradle, but he is thinking of a pipe already!”

Katerina heaved a sigh and fell to rocking the cradle. They agreed to spend the night together and soon afterward they were all asleep; Katerina, too, fell asleep.

All was quiet in the courtyard; everyone slept but the Cossacks who were keeping watch. Suddenly Katerina woke with a scream, and the others woke too. “He is slain, he is murdered!” she cried, and flew to the cradle. All surrounded the cradle and were numb with horror when they saw that the child in it was dead. None uttered a sound, not knowing what to think of so horrible a crime.