Not in vain had Taras prophesied: all came to pass as he had foretold.

A little later, after the treacherous attack at Kaneva, the hetman's head was mounted on a stake, together with those of many of his officers.
And what of Taras?
Taras made raids all over Poland with his band, burned eighteen towns and nearly forty churches, and reached Cracow.
He killed many nobles, and plundered some of the richest and finest castles.

The Cossacks emptied on the ground the century-old mead and wine, carefully hoarded up in lordly cellars; they cut and burned the rich garments and equipments which they found in the wardrobes.
"Spare nothing," was the order of Taras.

The Cossacks spared not the black-browed gentlewomen, the brilliant, white-bosomed maidens: these could not save themselves even at the altar, for Taras burned them with the altar itself.

Snowy hands were raised to heaven from amid fiery flames, with piteous shrieks which would have moved the damp earth itself to pity and caused the steppe-grass to bend with compassion at their fate.