Agile and strong was the Lyakh, with glittering arms, and accompanied by fifty followers.

He fell fiercely upon Degtyarenko, struck him to the earth, and, flourishing his sword above him, cried, "There is not one of you Cossack dogs who has dared to oppose me." "Here is one," said Mosiy Schilo, and stepped forward.

He was a muscular Cossack, who had often commanded at sea, and undergone many vicissitudes.

The Turks had once seized him and his men at Trebizond, and borne them captives to the galleys, where they bound them hand and foot with iron chains, gave them no food for a week at a time, and made them drink sea-water.

The poor prisoners endured and suffered all, but would not renounce their orthodox faith.