Part 19 (1/2)

'They'll never make it.'

'What did you say? Say that again! Hey, lads, listen to what this Russian's saying!'

'I didn't say anything!'

'Arrest him! Stop, thief!'

'Run through that gateway, Marusya, otherwise we'll never get through this crowd. They say Petlyura's in the square. Let's go and see him.'

'You fool, Petlyura's in the cathedral.'

'Fool yourself. They say he's riding on a white horse.'

'Hurrah for Petlyura! Hurrah for the Ukrainian People's Republic!'

Bong . . . bong . . . bong . . . tinkle - clang-clang . . . Bong-clang-bong . . . raged the bells.

'Have pity on an orphan, Christian people, good people ... A blind man ... A poor man . . .'

Dressed in black, his hindquarters encased in leather like a broken beetle, a legless man wriggled between the legs of the crowd, clutching at the trampled snow with his sleeves to pull himself along. Crippled beggars displayed the sores on their bruised s.h.i.+ns, shook their heads as though from tic douloureux tic douloureux or paralysis, rolled the whites of their eyes pretending to be blind. Tearing at the heart-strings of the crowd, reminding them of poverty, deceit, despair, hopelessness and sheer animal misery, creaking and groaning, they howled the refrain of the d.a.m.ned. or paralysis, rolled the whites of their eyes pretending to be blind. Tearing at the heart-strings of the crowd, reminding them of poverty, deceit, despair, hopelessness and sheer animal misery, creaking and groaning, they howled the refrain of the d.a.m.ned.

s.h.i.+vering dishevelled old women with crutches thrust out their desiccated, parchment-like hands as they moaned: 'G.o.d give you good health, handsome gentleman!'

'Have pity on a poor old woman . . .'

'Give to the poor, my dear, and G.o.d will be good to you . . .'

Capes, coats, bonnets with ear-flaps, peasants in sheepskin caps, red-cheeked girls, retired civil servants with a pale mark on their cap where the badge had been removed, elderly women with protruding bellies, nimble-footed children, cossacks in greatcoats and s.h.a.ggy fur hats with tops of different colors - blue, red, green, magenta with gold and silver piping, with ta.s.sels from the fringes of coffin-palls: they poured out on to the cathedral courtyard like a black sea, yet the cathedral doors still gave forth wave upon wave.

Heartened by the fresh air, the procession gathered its forces, rearranged itself, straightened up and glided off in an orderly and proper sequence of heads wearing check scarves, mitres, stovepipe hats, bareheaded deacons with their long flowing hair, skullcapp-ed monks, painted crosses on gilded poles, banners of Christ the Saviour and the Virgin and Child and a host of ikons in curved and wrought covers, gold, magenta, covered in Slavonic script.

Now like a gray snake winding its way through the City, now like brown turbulent rivers flowing along the old streets, the innumerable forces of Petlyura made their way to the parade on St Sophia's Square. First, shattering the frost with the roaring of trumpets and the clash of glittering cymbals, cutting through the black river of the crowd, marched the tight ranks of the Blue Division.

In blue greatcoats and blue-topped astrakhan caps set at a jaunty angle the Galicians marched past. Slanting forward between bared sabres two blue and yellow standards glided along behind a large bra.s.s band and after the standards, rhythmically stamping the crystalline snow, rank on rank of men marched jauntily along dressed in good, sound German cloth. After the first battalion ambled a body of men in long black cloaks belted at the waist with ropes, with German steel helmets on their heads, and the brown thicket of bayonets crept on parade like a bristling swarm.

In uncountable force marched the ragged gray regiments of Cossack riflemen and battalion on battalion of haidamak haidamak infantrymen; prancing high in the gaps between them rode the das.h.i.+ng regimental, battalion and company commanders. Bold, bra.s.sy, confident marches blared out like nuggets of gold in a bright, flas.h.i.+ng stream. infantrymen; prancing high in the gaps between them rode the das.h.i.+ng regimental, battalion and company commanders. Bold, bra.s.sy, confident marches blared out like nuggets of gold in a bright, flas.h.i.+ng stream.

After the infantry detachments came the cavalry regiments riding at a collected trot. The excited crowd was dazzled by rank on rank of crumpled, battered fur caps with blue, green and red tops and gold ta.s.sels. Looped on to the riders' right hands, their lances bobbed rhythmically like rows of needles. Jingling gaily, the bell-hung hetmen's standards jogged along among the ranks of hors.e.m.e.n and the horses of officers and trumpeters strained forward to the sound of martial music. Fat and jolly as a rubber ball, Colonel Bolbotun pranced ahead of his regiment, his low, sweating forehead and his jubilant, puffed-out cheeks thrusting forward into the frosty air. His chestnut mare, rolling her bloodshot eyes, champing at the bit and scattering flecks of foam, reared now and again on her hind legs, shaking even the 200-pound weight of Bolbotun and making his curved sabre rattle in its scabbard as the colonel lightly touched her nervous flanks with his spurs.

For our headmen are with us, Shoulder to shoulder Alongside as brothers . . .

chorused the bold haidamaks haidamaks as they trotted along, pigtails jogging. as they trotted along, pigtails jogging.

With their bullet-torn yellow-and-blue standard fluttering and accordions playing, rode the regiment of the dark, moustached Colonel Kozyr-Leshko mounted on a huge charger. The colonel looked grim, scowling and slas.h.i.+ng at the rump of his stallion with a whip. The colonel had cause to be angry - in the misty early hours of that morning the rifle-fire from Nai-Turs' detachment on the Brest-Litovsk highway had hit Kozyr's best troops hard and as the regiment trotted into the square its ranks had been closed up to conceal the gaps in them.

Behind Kozyr came the brave, hitherto unbeaten 'Hetman Mazeppa' regiment of cavalry. The name of the glorious hetman, who had almost destroyed Peter the Great at the battle of Poltava, glittered in gold letters on a sky-blue silk standard.

Streams of people flowed around the gray and yellow walls, people pushed forward and climbed on to advertis.e.m.e.nt-h.o.a.rdings, little boys clambered up the lamp-posts and sat on the crossbars, stood on rooftops, whistled and shouted hurrah . . .

'Hurrah! Hurrah!' they shouted from the sidewalks.

Faces crowded behind gla.s.sed-in balconies and window-panes.

Cab-drivers climbed unsteadily on to the boxes of the sleighs, waving their whips.

'They said Petlyura's troops were just a rabble . . . Some rabble. Hurrah!'

'Hurrah! Hurrah for Petlyura! Hurrah for our Leader!'

'Hurrah!'

'Look, Manya, look! There's Petlyura himself, look, on the grayhorse. Isn't he handsome . . .'

'That's not Petlyura, ma'am, that's a colonel.'

'Oh, really? Then where is Petlyura?'

'Petlyura's at the palace receiving the French emissaries fromOdessa.'

'What's the matter with you, mister, gone crazy? What emissaries?'

'Pyotr Vasilievich, they say Petlyura (whisper) is in Paris, did you know?'

'Some rabble . . . there's a million men in this army.'

'Where's Petlyura? If they'd only give us one look at him.'

'Petlyura, madam, is on the square at this moment taking the salute as the parade marches past.'

'Nothing of the sort. Petlyura's in Berlin at the moment meeting the president to sign a treaty.'

'What president? Are you trying to spread rumors, mister?'

'The president of Germany. Didn't you know? Germany's been declared a republic.'

'Did you see him? Did you see him? He looked splendid .. . He's just driven down Rylsky Street in a coach and six horses.'

'But will they recognise the Orthodox Church?'

'I don't know. Work it out for yourself . . .'

'The fact is that the priests are praying for him, anyway . . .'

'He'll be stronger if he keeps the priests on his side . . .'

'Petlyura. Petlyura. Petlyura. Petlyura . . .'

There was a fearsome rumbling of heavy wheels and rattling limbers and after the ten regiments of cavalry rolled an endless stream of artillery. Blunt-muzzled, fat mortars, small-caliber howitzers; the crews sat on the limbers, cheerful, well-fed, victorious, the drivers riding calmly and sedately. Straining and creaking, the six-inch guns rumbled past, hauled by teams of powerful, well-fed, big-rumped horses and smaller hard-working peasant ponies that looked like pregnant fleas. The light mountain artillery clattered briskly along, the little guns bouncing up and down between their jaunty crews.