On his way to his regiment Tarass thought, but could not imagine, what had happened to Andrew. Had he been made prisoner with the others, and had he been bound during his sleep?--but no, it could not be; Andrew was not the man to be made prisoner whilst alive. He was not, moreover, to be found among the slain Cossacks. Tarass was lost in thought, and went before his regiment without noticing that somebody had been for a long time calling him by his name. "Who wants me?" said he, at last recovering from his reverie. Yankel, the Jew, was standing before him. "My lord colonel! My lord colonel!" said the Jew in a hasty and choked voice, as if he had some matter of no small importance to impart to him. "I have been in the town, my lord colonel!" Tarass looked at the Jew, marvelling how he could have managed to find time already to go into the town. "And what devil took thee there?" "I will tell you directly," said Yankel. "As soon as I heard the noise in the morning, and heard the Cossacks fire their guns, I caught up my coat and, without waiting to put it on, ran with all speed to the spot; by the way only I slipped on the sleeves, for I was in a hurry to know what the noise was, and why the Cossacks fired their guns so early in the morning. I got to the town gate just as the last of the troops entered the town. And, behold! before the soldiers, I saw the Ensign Galiandovitch. He is an acquaintance of mine; he has owed me, for more than two years now, a hundred ducats; so I came to him as if for the purpose of settling our accounts, and I went with him into the town." "How so? thou wentest into the town, and still more, for the purpose of settling accounts!" said Boolba, "and he did not have thee hanged like a dog?" "By Heavens, he wished to have me hanged," answered the Jew; "his servants had already got hold of me and thrown a rope round my neck; but I implored him to have mercy, said that I would wait for the debt as long as he might choose, and even promised to lend him more money as soon as he helps me to have my accounts settled with the other knights. Because that gentleman ensign--I'll tell the whole truth to the lord colonel--has not a single ducat in his pocket, although he has farms, and manors, and castles, and plenty of pasture land; but as for coins, he has no more of them than a Cossack. Even now, had not the Jews of Breslau equipped him, he could not have gone to the war. That was the very reason of his not having been at the _Ssiem_."[30] "What didst thou, then, in the town; hast thou seen any of ours?" "Of course I did; there are many of ours:--Itska, Rakhoom, Ssamuïlo, Khaïvalkh, the Jew-farmer"-- "Curses on them, unbelieving dogs!" shrieked Tarass, growing angry; "why art thou calling over to me thy Jewish stock! I ask thee about our Zaporoghians." "I've not seen our Zaporoghians. I've only seen my lord Andrew."