CHAPTER VIII.

IN Chigirin, Skshetuski found, the old man Zatsvilikhovski
in great excitement and fever. He looked impatiently at
the prince's envoy, for tidings more and more terrible kept
coming from the Saitch. There was no doubt that Hmel-
nitski was preparing to demand with armed hand justice
for himself and the ancient rights of the Cossacks. Zats-
vilikhovski had news that he had been with the Khan in
the Crimea to beg Tartar aid, with which he was expected
every day in the Saitch. Then there would be a general
campaign from the lower country against the Common-
wealth, which with Tartar assistance might be destruc-
tive. The storm drew nearer and nearer, more definite
and more terrible. It was no longer vague undefined
alarm that swept over the Ukraine, but clear certainty of
slaughter and war. The Grand Hetman, who at first had
made light of the whole affair, was pushing forward with
his troops to Cherkasi. The advance guard of the royal
armies was advancing mainly to prevent desertion; for the
Cossacks of the towns, and the mob had begun, to flee to
the Saitch in masses. The nobility assembled in the towns.
It was said that the general militia were to be called out in
the southern provinces. Some, not waiting for the call, sent
their wives and children to castles, and assembled in person
at Cherkasi. The ill-fated Ukraine was divided into two
parties,--one of these hastened to the Saitch, the other to
the royal camp; one declared for the existing order of affairs,
the other for wild freedom; one desired to keep posses-
sion of that which was the fruit of ages of labor, the other
desired to deprive these possessors of that property. Both
were to imbrue fraternal hands in the blood of each other.
The terrible dispute, before it found religious rallying-
cries which were completely foreign to the lower country,
was breaking out as a social war.

But though black clouds were gathering on the heaven of
the Ukraine, though a dark and ominous night was descend-
ing from these clouds, though within them it rumbled and
roared and thunder-claps rolled from horizon to horizon,
people still could not tell to what degree the storm would