guarded it. Their leader had not yet given the signal to shoot. It seemed that he wanted to try persuasion first, for he advanced from the ranks towards the main group of defenders and said: “Unfaithful serfs and louts! It seems that your courage is as illimitable as your stupidity, that you would dare to raise arms against the army of the great Jinghis Khan, today the unquestionable ruler of all Rus? Surrender yourselves to him and he may forgive you. But those who try to resist his force will be unmercifully crushed, like worms beneath wagon wheels.”
To this speech Maxim replied brusquely and stoutly, “Boyarin! At a very inopportune time have you called us, the sons of free citizens, serfs! Look at yourself! Perhaps such a name applies to you much more than to us. Up until now you were the slave of a king and today you are the slave of the great Jinghis Khan and probably have lapped the milk spilled on the horse’s back of one of his behadirs. If you savored its flavor it does not necessarily prove that we would also be tempted by it. The great force of the powerful Jinghis Khan we do not fear. It may lay us dead but it shan’t make us slaves. But of you, Boyarin, all the power of the great Jinghis Khan will make neither a free nor an honorable man.”
Caustic and abrupt was Maxim’s speech. At another time he would have minded that before him stood the father of Peace-Renown, but now he saw only an enemy, more, a traitor, a man who trampled under his own honor and good name, to whom because of that no respect was due.
His comrades applauded his speech boisterously. The boyar foamed at the mouth from wrath.
“Execrable youth!” cried he. “Just wait and I will show you that you have boasted of your freedom far too soon. This very day the chains shall click about your wrists and ankles. Today yet, you will crawl in the dust at the feet of the Mongolian army’s commander!”
118
