A Terrible Vengeance

XIV

An extraordinary marvel appeared outside Kiev. All the nobles and the hetmans assembled to see the miracle: in all directions even the ends of the earth had become visible. Far off was the dark blue of the mouth of the Dnieper and beyond that the Black Sea. Men who had traveled recognized the Crimea jutting like a mountain out of the sea and the marshy Sivash. On the right could be seen the Galician land.

“And what is that?” people asked the old men, pointing to white and gray crests looming far away in the sky, looking more like clouds than anything else.

“Those are the Carpathian Mountains!” said the old men. “Among them are some that are forever covered with snow, and the clouds cling to them and hover there at night.”

Then a new miracle happened: the clouds vanished from the highest peak and on the top of it appeared a horseman, in full knightly armor, with his eyes closed, and he could be distinctly seen as though he were standing close to them.

Then among the marveling and fearful people, one leaped on a horse, and looking wildly about him as though to see whether he were pursued, hurriedly set his horse galloping at its utmost speed. It was the sorcerer. Why was he so panic-stricken? Looking in terror at the marvelous knight, he had recognized the face which had appeared to him when he was working his spells. He could not have said why his whole soul was thrown into confusion at this sight, and looking fearfully about him, he raced till he was overtaken by night and the stars began to come out. Then he turned homeward, perhaps to ask the Evil One what was meant by this marvel. He was just about to leap with his horse over a stream which lay across his path when his horse suddenly stopped in full gallop, looked around at him—and, marvelous to relate, laughed aloud! Two rows of white teeth gleamed horribly in the darkness. The sorcerer’s hair stood up on his head. He uttered a wild scream, wept like one frantic, and turned his horse straight for Kiev. He felt as though he were being pursued on all sides: the trees that surrounded him in the dark forest strove to strangle him, nodding their black beards and stretching out their long branches; the stars seemed to be racing ahead of him and pointing to the sinner; the very road seemed to be flying after him.

The desperate sorcerer fled to the holy places in Kiev.