Gonta

The main body of the Haidamaques still remained at Houmagne under Gonta and Zelezniaque, when a detachment of Don Cossacks under Goloriva, and a body of Russian infantry under KretchetnikofiT, appeared in the vicinity of the town. Both these officers had received secret instructions to observe the Haidamaques, and to gain the confidence of their chiefs. Goloriva visited these officers, gave them counsel. and performed his mission with considerable ability. When the troops headed by Nekrassa began to defeat and pursue the Haidamaques in every direction, Gonta with his chiefs went to visit Goloriva, who received them with courtesy and marked politeness. Then, having secured their horses so as to prevent their escape, he suddenly changed his tone, and threw them into irons. He then attacked and routed the Haidamaques conjointly with the Poles, who surrounded them on all sides, and delivered up Gonta with eighteen hundred of the rebels to General Branetzki by the orders of Kretchetnikoff. Branetzki found means to convey a secret message to Gonta, to assure him that if he would observe strict silence and make no oral declaration, he would save him from impending death; but the same messenger was charged with an especial order to Goloriva that he should command hia Cossacks to cut out the tongue and chop off the right hand of Gonta, under some frivolous pretext, in order to prevent him divulging state secrets. It is to be remarked, that after the murder of his two boys, Gonta's mind was partly deranged. He could never sleep nor take any rest; he constantly fancied he saw the ghosts of his children and of his mother cursing him. He spoke often to them in the dead of the night; and before his execution, which took place in November, he bore already all the weight of the punishment of his horrible crimes. When one of the Haidamaques K covered the son of Mladanovicz, a boy of ten years to of age who escaped death by accident, and conducted him to Gonta, the latter, moved by pity, not only saved his life but took care of him, paid him the greatest possible attention, and seems to have been particularly fond of that child, who, well acquainted with him, constantly asked what became of his father with tears and lamentations. He twice escaped almost certain death, and was only wrested from Gonta's arms half-an-hour before his execution. It is also to be remarked that, after the rout of the Haidamaques, when Gonta entered a small cottage near Serby, he discovered in it a female whom he had seduced in his youth, and who had predicted to him, captivity and a terrible death. She was a natural daughter of a Turkish prisoner, and a Bohemian woman. She had received a good education and possessed great accomplishments, and was for a long time the acknowledged mistress of General Branetzki> who, even after his marriage with the niece of Potemkin, secretly visited her. This woman (Marylka) had a tame fox which followed her everywhere and of which she was very fond. General Branetzki passing accidentally through the village saw the well-known fox entering the barn; he soon concluded that his mistress must be there, and followed it; but found Gonta kneeling at the feet of his former affection. From that time he felt for him an intense hatred, which was never abated. Marylka had a child, which was carried off by the Tatars, and not being able to recover it, she fell into deep melancholy, disappeared, and in- habited for many years tinder another name, an isolated dwelling on the banks of the Dniester. She had the reputation in the neighbourhood of having connexion with evil spirits. (See Memoirs of Colonel Lagawski). Goloriva acted in strict conformity with the instructions he had received. Gonta was condemned at Serby, with every necessary formality, to undergo publicly the terrible punishment of the hooks, of mutilation, and death; and he was executed in the presence of a great many eye-witnesses at the head-quarters of Branetski. The severity of the punishment he underwent was augmented by incredible barbarities, and the survivors of his family were sent into perpetual banishment in Siberia. The booty carried off by the Haidamaques (November, 1768), which amounted to a considerable sum, was divided for the most part between Branetski and Kretchetnikoff and some of the inferior officers. Although Branetski appeared to be devoted to Russia, and although he had married the niece of Potemkin, a marriage which brought him great riches, all accounts agree more or less in ascribing his apparent zeal to his desire to usurp the throne of Poniatowski, while he detested the Russians in his heart. For whenever intoxication unlocked the secrets of his breast, he rarely concealed the antipathy he had against them. Doubtless he was not free from dissimulation, but he was certainly endowed with considerable talent, and if he had ascended the throne of Poland he would likely have saved that unhappy country. But Russia well knew with what sort K of a man she would have had to deal, and Branetski remained without further promotion. After the death of Gonta, the Haidamaques being routed everywhere, were executed by thousands in all the southern parts of Poland. They were hanged, they were quartered, they were beheaded, during the space of several months. The greatest number of them suffered at Leopold, Lysianka, Berdyczew, Zytomirz, Kodnia.