The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Vol. 2 (of 2)

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

  CHAPTER XXXVII.

  Zagloba when he stood before the hetman did not answer his joyousgreeting, but put his hands behind his back, pouted his lips, andlooked on him like a just but stern judge. Sapyeha was pleased when hesaw that mien, for he expected some pleasantry and said,--

  "How are you, old rogue? Why twist your nose as if you had found someunvirtuous odor?"

  "In the whole camp of Sapyeha it smells of hashed meat and cabbage."

  "Why? Tell me."

  "Because the Swedes have cut up a great many cabbage-heads!"

  "There you are! You are already criticising us. It is a pity they didnot cut you up too."

  "I was with a leader under whom we are the cutters, not the cut."

  "The hangman take you! if they had even clipped your tongue!"

  "Then I should have nothing to proclaim Sapyeha's victory with."

  "Ah, lord brother, spare me! The majority already forget my service tothe country, and belittle me altogether. I know too that there are manywho make a great outcry against my person; still, had it not been forthat rabble of a general militia, affairs might have gone differently.They say that I have neglected the enemy for night feasting; but thewhole Commonwealth has not been able to resist that enemy."

  Zagloba was somewhat moved at the words of the hetman, and answered,--

  "Such is the custom with us, always to put the blame on the leader. Iam not the man to speak evil of feasting, for the longer the day, themore needful the feast. Pan Charnyetski is a great warrior; still,according to my head, he has this defect,--that he gives his troops forbreakfast, for dinner, and for supper nothing but Swedes' flesh. He isa better leader than cook; but he acts ill, for from such food war maysoon become disgusting to the best cavaliers."

  "Was Charnyetski very much enraged at me?"

  "No, not very! In the beginning he showed a great change; but when hediscovered that the army was unbroken, he said at once: 'The will ofGod, not the might of men! That is nothing! any general may lose abattle. If we had Sapyehas only in the land, we should have a countryin which every man would be an Aristides.'"

  "For Pan Charnyetski I would not spare my blood!" answered Sapyeha."Every other would have lowered me, so as to exalt himself and his ownglory, especially after a fresh victory; but he is not that kind ofman."

  "I will say nothing against him but this,--that I am too old for suchservice as he expects of soldiers, and especially for those baths whichhe gives the army."

  "Then are you glad to return to me?"

  "Glad and not glad, for I hear of feasting for an hour, but somehow Idon't see it."

  "We will sit down to the table this minute. But what is Charnyetskiundertaking now?"

  "He is going to Great Poland to help those poor people; from there hewill march against Steinbock and to Prussia, hoping to get cannon andinfantry from Dantzig."

  "The citizens of Dantzig are worthy people, and give a shining exampleto the whole Commonwealth. We shall meet Charnyetski at Warsaw, for Ishall march there, but will stop a little first around Lublin."

  "Then have the Swedes besieged Lublin again?"

  "Unhappy place! I know not how many times it has been in the hands ofthe enemy. There is a deputation here now from Lubelsk, and they willappear with a petition asking me to save them. But as I have letters todespatch to the king and the hetmans, they must wait awhile."

  "I will go gladly to Lublin, for there the fair heads are comely beyondmeasure, and sprightly. When a woman of that place is cutting bread,and puts the loaf against herself, the crust on the lifeless breadblushes from delight."

  "Oh, Turk!"

  "Your worthiness, as a man advanced in years, cannot understand this;but I, like May, must let my blood out yet."

  "But you are older than I."

  "Only in experience, not in years. I have been able _conservarejuventutem meam_ (to preserve my youth), and more than one man hasenvied me that power. Permit me, your worthiness, to receive theLubelsk deputation. I will promise to aid them at once; let the poormen comfort themselves before we comfort the poor women."

  "That is well," said the hetman; "then I will write the letters." Andhe went out.

  Immediately after were admitted the deputies from Lubelsk, whom Zaglobareceived with uncommon dignity and seriousness. He promised assistanceon condition that they would furnish the army with provisions,especially with every kind of drink. When the conditions were settled,he invited them in the name of the voevoda to supper. They were glad,for the army marched that night toward Lublin. The hetman himself wasactive beyond measure, for it was a question with him of effacing thememory of the Sandomir defeat by some military success.

  The siege began, but advanced rather slowly. During this time Kmita waslearning from Volodyovski to work with the sabre, and made uncommonprogress. Pan Michael, knowing that his art was to be used againstBoguslav's neck, held back no secret. Often too they had betterpractice; for, approaching the castle, they challenged to single combatthe Swedes, many of whom they slew. Soon Kmita had made such advancethat he could meet Pan Yan on equal terms; no one in the whole army ofSapyeha could stand before him. Then such a desire to try Boguslavseized his soul that he was barely able to remain at Lublin, especiallysince the spring brought back to him strength and health. His woundshad healed, he ceased to spit blood, life played in him as of old, andfire gleamed in his eyes. At first the Lauda men looked at himfrowningly; but they dared in not attack, for Volodyovski held themwith iron hand; and later, when they considered his acts and his deeds,they were reconciled completely, and his most inveterate enemy, YuzvaButrym, said,--

  "Kmita is dead; Babinich is living, let him live."

  The Lubelsk garrison surrendered at last, to the great delight of thearmy; then Sapyeha moved his squadrons toward Warsaw. On the road theyreceived tidings that Yan Kazimir himself, with the hetmans and a fresharmy, was advancing to aid them. News came too from Charnyetski, whowas marching to the capital from Great Poland. The war, scatteredthrough the whole country, was gathering at Warsaw, as a cloudscattered in the sky gathers and thickens to give birth to a storm withthunders and lightnings.

  Sapyeha marched through Jelehi, Garvolin, and Minsk to the Syedletshighway, to join the general militia of Podlyasye. Pan Yan took commandof this multitude; for though living in Lubelsk, he was near theboundary of Podlyasye, and was known to all the nobles, and greatlyesteemed by them as one of the most famous knights in the Commonwealth.In fact, he soon changed that nobility, gallant by nature, into asquadron second in no way to regular troops.

  Meanwhile they moved from Minsk forward to Warsaw very hastily, so asto stop at Praga one day. Fair weather favored the march. From time totime May showers sped past, cooling the ground and settling the dust;but on the whole the weather was marvellously fair,--not too hot, nottoo cold. The eye saw far through the transparent air. From Minsk theywent mounted; the wagons and cannon were to follow next day. An immenseeagerness reigned in the regiments; the dense forests on both sides ofthe whole road were ringing with echoes of military songs, the horsesnodded as a good omen. The squadrons regularly and in order flowed on,one after the other, like a river shining and mighty; for Sapyeha ledtwelve thousand men, besides the general militia. The captains leadingthe regiments were gleaming in their polished cuirasses; the red flagswaved like gigantic flowers above the heads of the knights.

  The sun was well toward its setting when the first squadron, that ofLauda, marching in advance, beheld the towers of the capital. At sightof this, a joyful shout tore from the breasts of the soldiers.

  "Warsaw! Warsaw!"

  That shout flew like thunder through all the squadrons, and for sometime was to be heard over two miles of road the word, "Warsaw! Warsaw!"

  Many of Sapyeha's knights had never been in the capital; many of themhad never seen it; therefore the sight made an uncommon impression onthem. Involuntarily all reined in their horses; some removed theircaps, others made the sign of the cross; tears
streamed from the eyesof others, and they stood in silent emotion. All at once Sapyeha cameout from the rear ranks on a white horse, and began to fly along thesquadrons.

  "Gentlemen!" cried he, in a piercing voice, "we are here first! To usluck, to us honor! We will drive the Swedes out of the capital!"

  "We'll drive them! We'll drive them! We'll drive them!"

  And there rose a sound and a thunder. Some shouted continually, "We'lldrive them!" Others cried, "Strike, whoso has manhood!" Others,"Against them, the dog-brothers!" The rattle of sabres was mingled withthe shouts of the knights. Eyes flashed lightning, and from underfierce mustaches teeth were gleaming. Sapyeha himself was sputteringlike a pine torch. All at once he raised his baton, and cried,--

  "Follow me!"

  Near Praga the voevoda restrained the squadron and commanded a slowmarch. The capital rose more and more clearly out of the bluishdistance. Towers were outlined in a long line on the azure of the sky.The red many-storied roofs of the Old City were gleaming in the eveninglight. The Lithuanians had never seen anything more imposing in theirlives than those white lofty walls pierced with multitudes of narrowwindows; those walls standing like lofty swamp-reeds over the water.The houses seemed to grow some out of others, high and still higher;but above that dense and close mass of walls with windows and roofs,pointed towers pierced the sky. Those of the soldiers who had been inthe capital previously, either at an election or on private affairs,explained to the others what each pile meant and what name it bore.Zagloba especially, as a person of experience, told all to the Laudamen, and they listened to him eagerly, wondering at his words and thecity itself.

  "Look at that tower in the very centre of Warsaw! That is the citadelof the king. Oh that I could live as many years as I have eaten dinnersat the king's table! I would twist Methuselah into a ram's horn. Theking had no nearer confidant than me; I could choose amongstarostaships as among nuts, and give them away as easily as hob-nails.I have given promotion to multitudes of men, and when I came insenators used to bow to me to the girdle, in Cossack fashion. I foughtduels also in presence of the king, for he loved to see me at work; themarshal of the palace had to close his eyes."

  "That is a tremendous building!" said Roh Kovalski: "and to think thatthese dogs have it all in hand!"

  "And they plunder terribly," added Zagloba. "I hear that they even takecolumns out of the walls and send them to Sweden; these columns are ofmarble and other valuable stones. I shall not recognize the dearcorners; various writers justly describe this castle as the eighthwonder of the world. The King of France has a respectable palace, butit is a fool in comparison with this one."

  "And that other tower over there near it, on the right?"

  "That is St. Yan. There is a gallery from the castle to it. I had avision in that church, for I remained behind once after vespers; Iheard a voice from the arches, crying, 'Zagloba, there will be war withsuch a son the Swedish king, and great calamities will follow.' I wasrunning with all my breath to the king to tell him what I had heard,when the primate caught me by the neck with his crosier. 'Don't tellfollies,' said he; 'you were drunk!' That other church just at the sidebelongs to the Jesuit college; the third tower at a distance is the lawcourts; the fourth at the right is the marshals, and that green roof isthe Dominicans. I could not name them all, even if I could wield mytongue as well as I do my sabre."

  "It must be that there is not another such city in the world," said oneof the soldiers.

  "That is why all nations envy us!" answered Zagloba.

  "And that wonderful pile on the left of the castle?"

  "Behind the Bernardines?"

  "Yes."

  "That is the Radzeyovski Palace, formerly the Kazanovski. It isconsidered the ninth wonder of the world; but there is a plague on it,for in those walls began the misfortune of the Commonwealth."

  "How is that?" asked a number of voices.

  "When the vice-chancellor Radzeyovski began to dispute and quarrel withhis wife, the king took her part. You know, gentlemen, what people saidof this; and it is true that the vice-chancellor thought that his wifewas in love with the king, and the king with her; then afterward,through hatred, he fled to the Swedes, and war began. To tell thetruth, I was in the country at the moment, and did not see the end ofthe affair, I got it from hearsay; but I know this, that she made sweeteyes, not at the king, but at some one else."

  "At whom?"

  Zagloba began to twirl his mustaches: "At him to whom all are hurryinglike ants to honey; but it does not beseem me to mention his name, forI have always hated boastfulness. Besides, the man has grown old, andfrom sweeping out the enemy of the country, I am worn as a broom; butonce there was no greater beauty and love maker than I. Let RobKovalski--"

  Here Zagloba saw that by no means could Roh remember those times;therefore he waved his hand, and said,--

  "But what does he know of this affair?"

  Then he pointed out the palaces of Ossolinski and Konyetspolski,palaces which were in size almost equal to the Radzeyovski; finally thesplendid villa Regia; and then the sun went down, and the darkness ofnight began to fill the air.

  The thunder of guns was heard on the walls of Warsaw, and trumpets weresounded a considerable time and prolonged, in sign that the enemy wasapproaching.

  Sapyeha also announced his coming by firing from muskets, to givecourage to the inhabitants; and that night he began to transport hisarmy across the Vistula. First the Lauda squadron passed; second thesquadron of Pan Kotvich; then Kmita's Tartars; then Vankovich'ssquadron; after that, eight thousand men. In this way the Swedes, withtheir accumulated plunder, were surrounded and deprived ofcommunication; but nothing remained to Sapyeha except to wait tillCharnyetski from one side, and from the other Yan Kazimir with thehetmans of the kingdom, marched up, and meanwhile to see that noreinforcements stole through to the city.

  The first news came from Charnyetski, but not overfavorable, for hereported that his troops and horses were so exhausted that at thatmoment he could not take part in the siege. From the time of the battleof Varka, they were under fire day after day; and from the first monthsof the year they had fought twenty-one great battles with the Swedes,not counting the engagements of scouting-parties and the attacks onsmaller detachments. He had not obtained infantry in Pomerania, and hadnot been able to advance to Dantzig; he promised, at most, to hold incheck with the rest of his forces that Swedish army which under thebrother of the king, Radzivill, and Douglas, was stationed at Narev,and apparently was preparing to come to the aid of the besieged.

  The Swedes prepared for defence with the bravery and skill peculiar tothem. They burned Praga before the arrival of Sapyeha; they had begunalready to throw bombs into all the suburbs, such as the Cracow and theNovy-Sviat, and on the other side against the church of St. Yerzy andthe Virgin Mary. Then houses, great buildings, and churches flamed up.In the daytime smoke rolled over the city like clouds, thick and dark.At night those clouds became red, and bundles of sparks burst forthfrom them toward the sky. Outside the walls, crowds of people werewandering, without roofs over their heads, without bread; womensurrounded Sapyeha's camp, and cried for charity; people were seen asthin as pincers from hunger; children were dying for want of food, inthe arms of emaciated mothers; the suburbs were turned into a vale oftears and misery.

  Sapyeha, having neither infantry nor cannon, waited and waited for thecoming of the king. Meanwhile he aided the poor, sending them in groupsto the less injured neighborhoods, in which they might survive in someway. He was troubled not a little when he foresaw the difficulties ofthe siege, for the skilled engineers of Sweden had turned Warsaw into astrong fortress. Behind the walls were three thousand trained soldiers,led by able and experienced generals; on the whole, the Swedes passedas masters in besieging and defending great fortresses. To solace thistrouble, Sapyeha arranged daily feasts, during which the gobletscircled freely; for that worthy citizen and uncommon warrior had thisfailing,--he loved company and the clatter of glasses above all things,
and therefore neglected frequently service for pleasure.

  His diligence in the daytime he balanced by negligence at night. Tillsunset he worked faithfully, sent out scouts, despatched letters,inspected pickets himself, examined the informants brought in; but withthe first star even fiddles were heard in his quarters. And when oncehe felt joyous he permitted everything, sent for officers even thoughon guard or appointed to scouting expeditions, and was angry if any onefailed to appear, since for him there was no feast without a throng. Inthe morning Zagloba reproached him seriously, but in the night theservants bore Zagloba himself without consciousness to Volodyovski'squarters.

  "Sapyeha would make a saint fall," he explained next day to hisfriends; "and what must happen to me, who have been always fond ofsport? Besides, he has some kind of special passion to force goblets onme, and I, not wishing to seem rude, yield to his pressing; this I doto avoid offending the host. But I have made a vow that at the comingAdvent I shall have my back well covered with discipline (stripes), forI understand myself that this yielding cannot remain without penance;but now I have to keep on good terms with him, out of fear that I mightfall into worse company and indulge myself altogether."

  There were officers who without the eye of the hetman accomplishedtheir service; but some neglected it terribly in the evenings, asordinary soldiers do when they feel no iron hand above them.

  The enemy was not slow to take advantage of this. Two days before thecoming of the king and the hetmans, Sapyeha arranged his most splendidfeast, for he was rejoiced that all the troops were coming, and thatthe siege would begin in earnest. All the best known officers wereinvited; the hetman, ever in search of an opportunity, announced thatthat feast would be in honor of the king. To Kmita, Zagloba, Pan Yan,Pan Stanislav, and Kharlamp were sent special orders to come withoutfail, for the hetman wished to honor them particularly for their greatservices. Pan Andrei had just mounted his horse to go with a party, sothat the orderly found the Tartars outside the gate.

  "You cannot show the hetman disrespect, and return rudeness forkindness," said the officer.

  Kmita dismounted and went to ask advice of his comrades.

  "This is dreadfully awkward for me," said he. "I have heard that aconsiderable body of cavalry has appeared near Babitsi. The hetmanhimself commanded me to learn absolutely who they are, and now he asksme to the feast. What must I do?"

  "The hetman has sent an order to let Akbah Ulan go with thescouting-party," answered the officer.

  "An order is an order!" said Zagloba, "and whoso is a soldier mustobey. Be careful not to give an evil example; and besides it would notbe well for you to incur the ill-will of the hetman."

  "Say that I will come," said Kmita to the orderly.

  The officer went out. The Tartars rode off under Akbah Ulan; and Kmitabegan to dress a little, and while dressing said to his comrades,--

  "To-day there is a feast in honor of his Royal Grace; to-morrow therewill be one in honor of the hetmans of the kingdom, and so on to theend of the siege."

  "Only let the king come and this will be at an end," answeredVolodyovski; "for though our gracious lord is fond of amusing himselfin every trouble, still service must go on more diligently, since everyman, and among others Pan Sapyeha, will endeavor to show his zeal."

  "We have had too much of this, too much! There is no question on thatpoint," said Pan Yan. "Is it not a wonder to you that such a laboriousleader, such a virtuous man, such a worthy citizen, has this weakness?"

  "Just let night come and straightway he is another person, and from agrand hetman turns into a reveller."

  "But do you know why these banquets are not to my taste?" asked Kmita."It was the custom of Yanush Radzivill to have them almost everyevening. Imagine that, as if by some wonder, whenever there was abanquet, either some misfortune happened, some evil tidings came, orsome new treason of the hetman was published. I do not know whether itwas blind chance or an ordinance of God; but it is enough that evilnever came except in time of a banquet. I tell you that at last it wentso far that whenever they were setting the table the skin began tocreep on us."

  "True, as God is dear to me!" added Kharlamp. "But it came from this,that the prince hetman chose that time to announce his intrigues withthe enemy of the country."

  "Well," said Zagloba, "at least we have nothing to fear from the honestSapyeha. If he will ever be a traitor, I am of as much value as myboot-heel."

  "There is nothing to be said on that point. He is as honest as breadwithout a raw spot," put in Pan Michael.

  "And what he neglects in the evening he repairs in the day-time," addedKharlamp.

  "Then we will go," said Zagloba, "for to tell the truth I feel a voidin my stomach."

  They went out, mounted their horses, and rode off; for Sapyeha was onthe other side of the city and rather far away. When they arrived atthe hetman's quarters they found in the yard a multitude of horses, anda crowd of grooms, for whom a keg of beer had been set out, and who, asis usual, drinking without measure, had begun to quarrel; they grewquiet, however, at sight of the approaching knights, especially whenZagloba fell to striking with the side of his sabre those who were inhis way, and to crying with a stentorian voice: "To your horses,rascals, to your horses! You are not the persons invited to thebanquet."

  Sapyeha received the officers as usual, with open arms; and since hehad been drinking a little with his guests, he began at once to teaseZagloba.

  "With the forehead, Lord Commander!" said he.

  "With the forehead, Lord Kiper," answered Zagloba.

  "If you call me that," said Sapyeha, "I will give you wine which isworking yet."

  "Very good, if it will make a tippler of a hetman!"

  Some of the guests, hearing this, were alarmed; but Zagloba, when hesaw the hetman in good humor, permitted himself everything, and Sapyehahad such a weakness for Zagloba that he not only was not angry, but heheld his sides, and called those present to witness what he enduredfrom that noble.

  Then began a noisy and joyous banquet. Sapyeha drank to each guestseparately, raised toasts to the king, the hetmans, the armies of bothpeoples (Poland and Lithuania), Pan Charnyetski, the wholeCommonwealth. Pleasure increased, and with it noise and talk. Fromtoasts it came to songs. The room was filled with steam from the headsof the guests, and the odor of mead and wines. From outside the windowscame in no less of an uproar, and even the noise of steel. The servantshad begun to fight with sabres. Some nobles rushed out to restoreorder, but they increased the confusion.

  Suddenly there rose a shout so great that the banqueters in the hallbecame silent.

  "What is that?" asked one of the colonels. "The grooms cannot make suchan uproar as that."

  "Silence, gentlemen!" said the hetman, disturbed.

  "Those are not ordinary shouts!"

  All at once the windows shook from the thunder of cannon and dischargesof musketry.

  "A sortie!" cried Volodyovski; "the enemy is advancing!"

  "To horse! To sabres!"

  All sprang to their feet. There was a throng at the door; then a crowdof officers rushed to the yard, calling to their grooms for horses.

  But in the disturbance it was not easy for each one to find his own.Meanwhile from beyond the yard alarmed voices began to shout in thedarkness,--

  "The enemy is advancing! Pan Kotvich is under fire!"

  All rushed with what breath was in their horses to their squadrons,jumping over fences and breaking their necks in the darkness. An alarmbegan in the whole camp. Not all the squadrons had horses at hand, andthose who had not began the uproar first of all. Throngs of soldiers onfoot and on horseback struck against one another, not being able tocome to order, not knowing who was a friend and who an enemy, shoutingand roaring in the middle of the dark night. Some cried that the Kingof Sweden was advancing with his whole army.

  The Swedish sortie had really struck with a mighty impetus on Kotvich'smen. Fortunately, being sick, he was not at the banquet, and thereforecould offer some kind
of immediate resistance; still it was not a longone, for he was attacked by superior numbers and covered with musketryfire, hence was forced to retreat. Oskyerko came first to hisassistance with his dragoons. They answered musketry fire with musketryfire. But neither could Oskyerko's dragoons withstand the pressure, andin a moment they began to withdraw more and more hastily, leaving theground covered with corpses. Twice did Oskyerko endeavor to bring themto order, and twice was he beaten back, so that the soldiers could onlycover their retreat by firing in groups. At last they scatteredcompletely; but the Swedes pressed on like an irrepressible torrenttoward the hetman's quarters. More and more regiments issued from thecity to the field; after the infantry came cavalry; they brought outeven field-guns. It looked like a general battle, and it seemed asthough the enemy sought one.

  Volodyovski, rushing from the hetman's quarters, met his own squadron,which was always in readiness, half way, going toward the sound of thealarm and the shots. It was led by Roh Kovalski, who, like Kotvich, wasnot at the banquet; but Roh was not there because he had not beeninvited. Volodyovski gave orders to set fire with all speed to a coupleof sheds, so as to light up the field, and he hurried to the battle. Onthe road he was joined by Kmita with his terrible volunteers, and thathalf of the Tartars which had not gone on the scouting expedition. Bothcame just in time to save Kotvich and Oskyerko from utter disaster.

  The sheds had now blazed up so well that everything could be seen as atnoontide. In this light the Lauda men, aided by Kmita, struck theinfantry regiments, and passing through their fire took them on sabres.The Swedish cavalry sprang to assist their own men, and closed mightilywith the Lauda squadron. For a certain time they struggled exactly liketwo wrestlers who seizing each other by the bodies use their laststrength,--now this one bends the other, and now the other bends this;but men fell so frequently in their ranks that at last the Swedes beganto be confused. Kmita with his fighters rushed into the thick of thestruggle. Volodyovski as usual cleared an opening; near him the twogigantic Skshetuskis fought, and Kharlamp with Roh Kovalski; the Laudamen emulated Kmita's fighters,--some shouting terribly, others, as theButryms, rolling on in a body and in silence.

  New regiments rushed forward to the aid of the broken Swedes; butVankovich, whose quarters were near Volodyovski's and Kmita's, was alittle later than they and supported them. At last the hetman led allthe troops to the engagement, and began to advance in order. A fiercebattle sprang up along the whole line from Mokotov to the Vistula.

  Then Akbah Ulan, who had gone with the scouts, appeared on a foaminghorse before the hetman.

  "Effendi!" cried he; "a chambul of cavalry is marching from Babitsi tothe city, and convoying wagons; they wish to enter the gates."

  Sapyeha understood in one moment what that sortie in the direction ofMokotov meant. The enemy wished to draw away troops on the meadow road,so that that auxiliary cavalry and a provision train might enter thegates.

  "Run to Volodyovski!" cried the hetman to Akbah Ulan; "let the Laudasquadron, Kmita, and Vankovich stop the road. I will send themreinforcements at once."

  Akbah Ulan put spurs to his horse; after him flew one, and a second,and a third orderly. All rushed to Volodyovski and repeated the orderof the hetman.

  Volodyovski turned his squadron immediately; Kmita and the Tartarscaught up with him; going across the field, they shot on together, andVankovich after them.

  But they arrived too late. Nearly two hundred wagons had entered thegate; a splendid detachment of cavalry following them was almost withinradius of the fortress. Only the rearguard, composed of about onehundred men, had not come yet under cover of the artillery. But thesetoo were going with all speed. The officer, riding behind, urged themon.

  Kmita, seeing them by the light of the burning shed, gave forth such apiercing and terrible shout, that the horses at his side werefrightened; he recognized Boguslav's cavalry, that same which hadridden over him and his Tartars at Yanov.

  Mindful of nothing, he rushed like a madman toward them, passed his ownmen, and fell first blindly among their ranks. Fortunately the twoKyemliches, Kosma and Damian, sitting on the foremost horses, rode withhim. At that moment Volodyovski struck the flank like lightning, andwith this one blow cut off the rearguard from the main body.

  Cannon began to thunder from the walls; but the main division,sacrificing their comrades, rushed in with all speed after the wagons.Then the Lauda men and Kmita's forces surrounded the rearguard as witha ring, and a merciless slaughter began.

  But it was of short duration. Boguslav's men, seeing that there was norescue on any side, sprang from their horses in a moment, threw downtheir weapons, and shouted with sky-piercing voices, heard in thethrong and the uproar, that they surrendered.

  Neither the volunteers nor the Tartars regarded their shouts, but hewedon. At this moment was heard the threatening and shrill voice ofVolodyovski, who wanted informants,--

  "Stop! stop! take them alive!"

  "Take them alive!" cried Kmita.

  The biting of steel ceased. The Tartars were commanded to bind theenemy, and with the skill peculiar to them they did this in a twinkle;then the squadrons pushed back hastily from the cannon-fire. Thecolonels marched toward the sheds,--the Lauda men in advance, Vankovichin the rear, and Kmita, with the prisoners, in the centre, all inperfect readiness to repulse attack should it come. Some of the Tartarsled prisoners on leashes; others of them led captured horses. Kmita,when he came near the sheds, looked carefully into the faces of theprisoners to see if Boguslav was among them; for though one of them hadsworn under a sword-point that the prince was not in the detachment,still Kmita thought that perhaps they were hiding him purposely. Thensome voice from under the stirrup of a Tartar cried to him,--

  "Pan Kmita! Colonel! Rescue an acquaintance! Give command to free mefrom the rope on parole."

  "Hassling!" cried Kmita.

  Hassling was a Scot, formerly an officer in the cavalry of the voevodaof Vilna, whom Kmita knew in Kyedani, and in his time loved much.

  "Let the prisoner go free!" cried he to the Tartar, "and down from thehorse yourself!"

  The Tartar sprang from the saddle as if the wind had carried him off,for he knew the danger of loitering when the "bagadyr" commanded.

  Hassling, groaning, climbed into the Tartar's lofty saddle. Kmita thencaught him above the palm, and pressing his hand as if he wished tocrush it, began to ask insistently,--

  "Whence do you come? Tell me quickly, whence do you come? For God'ssake, tell quickly!"

  "From Taurogi," answered the officer.

  Kmita pressed him still more.

  "But--Panna Billevich--is she there?"

  "She is."

  Pan Andrei spoke with still greater difficulty, for he pressed histeeth still more closely.

  "And--what has the prince done with her?"

  "He has not succeeded in doing anything."

  Silence followed; after a while Kmita removed his lynxskin cap, drewhis hand over his forehead and said,--

  "I was struck in the battle; blood is leaving me, and I have grownweak."