With Fire and Sword · Chapter
Chapter L explained
The commissioners arrive in Pereyasláv to negotiate with Hmelnitski, who receives them with arrogance and threats.
What happens
The commissioners arrive in Pereyasláv to negotiate with Hmelnitski, who receives them with arrogance and threats. Skshetuski, seeking Bogun to challenge him for Helena, searches among the Cossack colonels but is warned not to ask questions. The chapter reveals Hmelnitski's pride and ambition, as he acts like a sovereign prince, while Skshetuski's plan to duel Bogun is frustrated.
Themes in this chapter
Leadership and Power
Hmelnitski's arrogance and self-aggrandizement are highlighted as he demands precedence over senators and acts as a sovereign prince, showing the corrupting influence of power.
War and Rebellion
The chapter illustrates the ongoing rebellion, with Hmelnitski's forces threatening the commissioners and the countryside reduced to a desert by war.
Love and Obsession
Skshetuski's relentless search for Bogun and his plan to duel him for Helena demonstrate his obsessive love and willingness to sacrifice himself.
Characters to notice
- Pan Skshetuski
Rides with the commissioners, searches for Bogun among the colonels, and plans to challenge him to a duel for Helena.
- Bogdan Hmelnitski
Receives the commissioners with pride, demands the right side of the sleigh, and acts as a sovereign ruler, threatening the envoys.
- Pan Kisel
As a senator, he represents the king and insists on protocol, but is humiliated by Hmelnitski's arrogance.
- Bogun
Sought by Skshetuski among the colonels but not found; he is the ataman whom Skshetuski hopes to challenge.
- Yashevski
An old acquaintance of Skshetuski from Lubni, now a Cossack colonel who warns Skshetuski not to ask questions under threat of death.
Key passages
“I am not mad, nor do I wish to threaten you; but there is an order from Hmelnitski that if any of you, even one of the commissioners, should ask a question, to kill him on the spot.”
Yashevski warns Skshetuski that Hmelnitski has ordered the execution of anyone who asks a question, even a private one.
Highlights the extreme control and intimidation Hmelnitski exerts over his domain.
“I represent the person of the king here!”
Kisel asserts his authority as the king's representative, demanding the right side of the sleigh.
Shows the tension between the Commonwealth's authority and Hmelnitski's defiance.
“In his own monstrous self-love he was destroying his own people and his own country; and now he brings in those commissioners to Pereyasláv with the thunder of cannon and the tolling of bells, as a separate ruler, as a hospodar, as a prince!”
The narrator condemns Hmelnitski's selfish ambition, which devastates the Ukraine while he revels in his own power.
Reflects the theme of leadership and power, critiquing Hmelnitski's destructive pride.