CHAPTER VI.

OVER the whole Ukraine and beyond the Dnieper strange
sounds began to spread like the heralds of a coming tem-
pest; certain wonderful tidings flew from village to village,
from farmhouse to farmhouse, --- like those plants which
the breezes of spring push along the steppes, and which
the people call field-rollers. In the towns there were whis-
pers of some great war, though no man knew who was
going to make war, nor against whom. Still the tidings
were told. The faces of people became unquiet. The til-
ler of the soil went with his plough to the field unwillingly,
though the spring had come early, mild and warm, and long
since the larks had been singing over the steppes. Every
evening people gathered in crowds in the villages, and
standing on the road, talked in undertones of terrible things.
Blind men wandering around with lyres and songs were
asked for news. Some persons thought they saw in the
night-time reflections in the sky, and that a moon redder
than usual rose from behind the pine woods. Disaster or
the death of the king was predicted. And all this was
the more wonderful, since fear found no easy approach
to those lands, long accustomed to disturbances, conflicts,
and raids. Some exceptionally ominous currents must
have been playing in the air, since the alarm had become
universal.

It was the more oppressive and stifling, because no one
was able to point out the danger. But among the signs of
evil omen, two especially seemed to show that really some-
thing was impending. First, an unheard-of multitude of
old minstrels appeared in all the villages and towns, and
among them were forms strange, and known to no one;
these, it was whispered, were counterfeit minstrels. These
men, strolling about everywhere, told with an air of mys-
tery that the day of God's judgment and anger was near.
Secondly, the men of the lower country began to drink:
with all their might.

The second sign was the more serious. The Saitch, con-
fined within too narrow limits, was unable to feed all its in-
habitants; expeditions were not always successful; besides,