CHAPTER 1.

THE year 1647 was that wonderful year in which mani-
fold signs in the heavens and on the earth announced mis-
fortunes of some kind and unusual events. Contemporary
chroniclers relate that beginning with spring-time myriads
of locusts swarmed from the Wilderness, destroying the
grain and the grass; this was a forerunner of Tartar
raids. In the summer there was a great eclipse of the
sun, and soon after a comet appeared in the sky. In
Warsaw a tomb was seen over the city, and a fiery cross in
the clouds; fasts were held and alms given, for some men
declared that a plague would come on the land and destroy
the people. Finally, so mild a winter set in, that the oldest
inhabitants could not remember the like of it. In the
southern provinces ice did not confine the rivers, which,
swollen by the daily melting of snows, left their courses
and flooded the banks. Rainfalls were frequent. The
steppe was drenched, and became an immense slough.
The sun was so warm in the south that, wonder of won-
ders! in Bratslav and the Wilderness a green fleece cov-
ered the steppes and plains in the middle of December,
The swarms in the beehives began to buzz and bustle;
cattle were bellowing in the fields. Since such an order of
things appeared altogether unnatural, all men in Russia
who were waiting or looking for unusual events turned
their excited minds and eyes especially to the Wilderness,
from which rather than anywhere else danger might show
itself.

At that time there was nothing unusual in the Wilder-
ness,--no struggles there, nor encounters, beyond those