"Aï! brave fellow, Vanya! That is what we must do! Ekh! you boys! You aren't Cossacks, but old women! Of course it was to catch sturgeon and to scare Tartar women; simply for that that I brought you hither. Don't you yourselves see? If we go back we shall be killed! If we row by, we shall be killed! If we stay here, we shall be killed! Where, then, shall we betake ourselves? First labor, then rest! Boys, you are like a healthy mare that my father had. When she was going downhill she would draw, and on level ground she would draw; but when it came to going uphill, she would balk and back and try to find something easier. Then my father took a stake, beat her and beat her with the stake. And the mare jumped around, and kicked and tipped over the cart. Then father took her out of the thills and put her through the mill. Now, if she had pulled, she would not have got the thrashing. So it is with you, boys. There's only one thing left for us,—to go straight for the Tartars." ….
The Cossacks laughed, and said:—
"It is plain that you are wiser than we are, Timofeïtch. We fools have no right to give advice. Take us wherever you wish. We can't die twice, but we must die once."[1]
And Yermak said:—
"Now listen, boys. This is the way that we must do it. They haven't yet seen the whole of us. We will divide ourselves into three bands. Those in the middle will march straight at them, and the other two divisions will make a flank movement to the right and left. Now when the middle division begins to engage them, they will think that we are all there—they will come out. And then we will give it to them from the flanks. That's the way, boys. And if we beat these, there will be nothing left to fear. We shall be tsars ourselves."
That was the way that they did.
As soon as the middle division went forward under Yermak, the Tartars began to yell and rushed out.
- ↑ Russian proverb.
