They soon found traces of Taras.

An army of a hundred and twenty thousand Cossacks appeared on the frontier of the Ukraine.

This was no small detachment sallying forth for plunder or in pursuit of the Tatars.
No: the whole nation had risen, for the measure of the people's patience was over-full; they had risen to avenge the disregard of their rights, the dishonourable humiliation of themselves, the insults to the faith of their fathers and their sacred customs, the outrages upon their church, the excesses of the foreign nobles, the disgraceful domination of the Jews on Christian soil, and all that had aroused and deepened the stern hatred of the Cossacks for a long time past.

Hetman Ostranitza, young, but firm in mind, led the vast Cossack force.

Beside him was seen his old and experienced friend and counsellor, Gunya.