With Fire and Sword · Chapter
LIX explained
The siege of Zbaraj intensifies with relentless assaults, cannonading, and musketry fire.
What happens
The siege of Zbaraj intensifies with relentless assaults, cannonading, and musketry fire. The Polish defenders, though exhausted and starving, display heroic determination under Prince Yeremi's leadership. Negotiations with Hmelnitski fail as he demands the surrender of the prince and Konyetspolski. Skirmishes and verbal duels continue, with Zagloba taunting the Cossacks. The besieged refuse to surrender, digging new ramparts and countermining the enemy's works.
Themes in this chapter
War and Rebellion
The chapter depicts the brutal and unrelenting siege warfare, with both sides showing extreme determination and savagery.
Leadership and Power
Prince Yeremi's personal example of endurance and command inspires the defenders, while Hmelnitski's strategic demands and negotiations highlight his authority.
Honor and Betrayal
Zatsvilikhovski's refusal to defect despite Hmelnitski's persuasion underscores the theme of honor, while the Cossack attempts at treachery in negotiations reflect betrayal.
Characters to notice
- Pan Zagloba
Complains about half-rations but engages in verbal duels with the Cossacks, taunting them about the Lithuanian army and his killing of Burlai.
- Pan Longin Podbipienta
Goes out to skirmish, but no one will stand before him; they only fire at him from a distance.
- Pan Volodyovski
Covers himself with glory and kills the famous partisan Dundar in single combat.
- Prince Yeremi Vishnyevetski
Leads by example, sleeping on bare ground at the rampart, drinking gorailka, and eating dried horseflesh, enduring toils beyond his lordly position.
- Pan Zatsvilikhovski
Sent to negotiate with Hmelnitski; returns after Hmelnitski puts forth monstrous demands and tries to persuade him to defect.
- Bogdan Hmelnitski
Puts forth monstrous demands for the surrender of Prince Yeremi and Konyetspolski; swears to the Khan he will not withdraw while a man remains alive in the camp.
- Young Konyetspolski
Leads regiments to sallies in person and exposes himself without armor in the thickest rain of bullets.
- Pan Marek Sobieski
Leads regiments to sallies in person and exposes himself without armor in the thickest rain of bullets.
Key passages
““All, gentlemen,” said the old Zaporojians, “if you had stood up like this always, there would have been no Jóltiya Vodi, Korsún, or Pilavtsi. You are real devils, not men, such as we have not seen yet in the world.””
The old Zaporojian Cossacks admitted that if the Poles had always fought with such ferocity, they would never have lost the earlier battles. They called the Polish defenders 'real devils, not men.'
The Cossacks express grudging admiration for the Polish resistance, acknowledging their previous victories were due to Polish weakness rather than Cossack strength.
““We want to die!” was repeated by every mouth.”
Every soldier in the Polish camp declared that they would rather die than surrender.
This phrase captures the suicidal determination and heroic exaltation that seized the besieged Polish forces.
““Sit here at Zbaraj, you clowns, but the Lithuanian soldiers are going down the Dnieper. They are saluting your wives and young women. Next spring you will find crowds of little Botvinians in your cottages, if you find the cottages.””
Zagloba taunted the Cossacks by claiming that while they were stuck at Zbaraj, the Lithuanian army was ravaging their homes and violating their women, and that by spring their cottages would be full of Lithuanian bastards.
Zagloba uses psychological warfare, mocking the Cossacks and threatening their families to provoke them into reckless action.
