They looked: the path wound and twisted, and made many detours to one side.

"Comrades, we are trapped!" said they.

All halted for an instant, raised their whips, whistled, and their Tatar horses rose from the ground, clove the air like serpents, flew over the precipice, and plunged straight into the Dniester.

Two only did not alight in the river, but thundered down from the height upon the stones, and perished there with their horses without uttering a cry.

But the Cossacks had already swum shoreward from their horses, and unfastened the boats, when the Lyakhs halted on the brink of the precipice, astounded by this wonderful feat, and thinking, "Shall we jump down to them, or not ?" One young colonel, a lively, hot-blooded soldier, own brother to the beautiful Pole who had seduced poor Andrii, did not reflect long, but leaped with his horse after the Cossacks.