The Polish Cossacks

Scarcely had Firley taken up his position and completed his entrenchments, when the Cossack and Tatar armies surrounded him on all sides: instead, however, of tamely surrendering, he resolved to defend \ himself to the last extremity. Khmielnitski and the Tatar Khan glanced in anticipated triumph from the aspect of the immense forces at their command to the comparatively insignificant strength of the small Polish army before them; and with a smile of disdain made certain of destroying the latter in the course of an hour's engagement. Too confident of victory, Khmielnitski, willing to prevent the effusion of blood, summoned Firley to surrender, assuring him of kind treatment, and of the highest regard for his courage, which he held to be unimpeachable. Firley returned for answer, that he had only to come and take them; upon which several columns of infantry were instantly set in motion, fifty pieces of cannon opened their fire upon the Polish camp, and 60,000 Cossacks, commanded by Khmielnitski in person, and led by skilful and experienced officers, mounted to the assault. They were, however, repulsed with considerable loss. The Tatars and Don-Cossacks now followed in their turn but with no better success, and their dead bodies choked up the ditches. Khmielnitski, anxious to avoid the protracted delays of a siege in form, and to animate his troops by the excitement of a victory, gave orders to resume the assault. Column after column pressed forward to attack the entrenchment, but the incessant and well-directed fire of the besieged rendered unavailing every effort of the assailants, whose dense masses were every moment thinned by the terrific discharges of grape-shot and musketry brought to bear upon them by Firley, upon whom these repeated onslaughts failed to make the slightest impression. Irritated and exasperated rather than discouraged, Khmielnitski now issued orders to concentrate the principal attack in the direction of the pond, a point of the Polish camp which appeared less strongly defended than other portions of the entrenched position, and where, consequently, a breach seemed more practicable. Eighty-five pieces of cannon were sent forward to cover this attack; by the combined fire from these, the artillery of Firley was dismounted. Scaling-ladders were now everywhere applied, but a fearful discharge of musketry from the besieged, joined to the havoc caused by the explosion of a shower of shells and ignited hand-grenades hurled by them amongst their assailants, occasioned such great loss and confusion in the ranks of the latter, that the assault was once more repelled; Khmielnitski himself, from motives of commiseration, giving the order to retreat, after having suffered in seventeen successive assaults enormous loss. The night passed off quietly. On the following day, a number of general assaults were attempted; and the attack was pushed with so much vigour and pertinacity, that already the Cossacks were on the very point of carrying both the camp and town, when, at this critical juncture, Prince Visniovietski cried aloud to spare the Tatars, since they had brought, by messengers from their khan, words of peace and goodwill, and were about to turn their arms against the Cossacks. This stratagem had the desired effect; it revived the drooping courage of the besieged, and damped the ardour of the assailants; the Poles made a last desperate effort, and the enemy were repulsed. Khmielnitski, perceiving that his army began to murmur, and that it would be dangerous, for the moment at least, to renew the assault openly, had recourse to treachery, and despatched three secret emissaries, disguised in the Polish uniform, into Zbaraz, to sow discord in the camp, and to assassinate Firley: the attempt however failed, the plot was discovered, and the three spies quartered. He was compelled, therefore, to undergo all the delays and procrastinations of a regular siege. In a short time, immense works, directed by foreign officers and engineers, had brought the Cossacks into close proximity to the town. Formidable batteries were erected; in addition to which Khmielnitski gave orders to divert the course of a small river that fed the pond, in order to cut off the supply of water to the Polish army, and thereby deprive the besieged of a resource indispensable to their very existence. This project was not altogether impracticable, considering the then prevailing heat of the summer season; but it required time for its accomplishment, which, on the other hand, was not unattended with serious difficulties. Firley, who began already to feel the absolute necessity of economising his means of subsistence, was obliged to expel from the town all the women, children, and old men. The rest of the inhabitants, even to the boys of the age of thirteen years, were armed and organized for the defence of Zbaraz. Scarcely had this wretched crowd of helpless beings quitted the entrenchments, when a brutal and ungovernable soldiery fell upon the women, whom they first maltreated; and afterwards, together with all that left Zbaraz, pitilessly and indiscriminately massacred, without regard to age or sex. At the sight of this atrocity, cries of rage and execration arose from within the ramparts; but it was already too late to afford succour to the miserable sufferers, and they all perished.