CHAPTER XXIX.

IT is easy to understand, how the prince received the
statement which Skshetuski made of the refusal of Osinski
and Koritski. Everything had so combined that it needed
such a great soul as that iron prince possessed, not to bend,
not to waver, or let his hands drop. In vain was he to spend
a colossal fortune on the maintenance of armies; in vain was
he to struggle like a lion in a net; in vain was he to tear off
one head of the rebellion after another, showing wonders of
bravery all for nothing. A time was coming in which he
must feel his own impotence, withdraw somewhere to a dis-
tance, to a quiet place, and remain a silent spectator of what
was being done in the Ukraine. And what was it that ren-
dered him powerless? Not the swords of the Cossacks, but
the ill-will of his own people. Was it not reasonable for
him to hope when he marched from the Trans-Dnieper in
May that when like an eagle from the sky he should strike
rebellion, when in the general dismay and confusion he
should first raise his sword over his head, the whole Com-
monwealth would come to his aid, and put its power and
its punishing sword in his hand? But what did happen?
The king was dead, and after his death the command was
put into other hands, and he, the prince, was passed by osten-
tatiously. That was the first concession to Hmelnitski.
The soul of the prince did not suffer for the office he had
lost; but it suffered at the thought that the insulted Com-
monwealth had fallen so low that it did not seek a death-
struggle, but drew back before one Cossack, and preferred
to restrain his insolent right hand by negotiations.

From the time of the victory at Makhnovka worse and
worse tidings were brought to the camp, -- first news of nego-
tiations sent through Pan Kisel; then news that Volynian
Polesia was covered with the waves of insurrection; then
the refusal of the colonels, showing clearly how far the com-
mander-in-chief, Prince Dominik Zaslavski-Ostrogski, was
hostile. During Skshetuski's absence Pan Korsh Zenkovich
came to camp with information that all Ovruch was on fire.
The people had been quiet, and not anxious for rebellion;
but the Cossacks, coming under Krechovski and Polksenjits,