Meanwhile his faithful comrade stood beside him, scolding and showering harsh, reproachful words upon him without stint.

Finally, he seized him by the arms and legs, wrapped him up like a child, arranged all his bandages, rolled him in an ox-hide, bound him with bast, and, fastening him with ropes to his saddle, rode with him again at full speed along the road.
"I'll get you there, even if it be not alive! I will not abandon your body for the Lyakhs to make merry over you, and cut your body in twain and fling it into the water.

Let the eagle tear out your eyes if it must be so; but let it be our eagle of the steppe and not a Polish eagle, not one which has flown hither from Polish soil.

I will bring you, though it be a corpse, to the Ukraine!" Thus spoke his faithful companion.

He rode without drawing rein, day and night, and brought Taras still insensible into the Zaporozhian Setch itself.