Hmelnitski ordered the firing of a cannon. After it, was heard a second, a third,--a tenth; and when the usual “correspondence” of camp with camp had begun. Pan Yan said to Zakhar, his Cossack guardian: “Take me out on the rampart, that I may see what is passing.”
Zakhar was curious himself, and therefore made no opposition. They mounted a lofty bastion, whence could be seen, as if on the palm of the hand, the somewhat sunken valley in the steppe, the swamp of Jóltiya Vodi, and both armies. But Pan Yan had barely given a glance when, seizing his head, he cried,--
“As God is living! it is the advance guard,--nothing more!”
In fact, the ramparts of the Cossack camp extended almost a mile and a quarter, while the Polish intrenchment looked like a little ditch in comparison with it. The dis
