With Fire And Sword Part 136

"For the love of G.o.d, what are you doing?" asked Volodyovski, "What does this mean? Why, you don't know service and discipline, that you interfere in the conversation of your superiors. The prince is a mild-mannered man, but in time of war there is no joking with him."

"Oh, that is nothing, Pan Michael! Konyetspolski, the father, was a fierce lion, and he depended greatly on my counsels; and may the wolves eat me up to-day, if it was not for that reason that he defeated Gustavus Adolphus twice. I know how to talk with magnates. Didn't you see now how the prince was astonished when I advised him to make a sally? If G.o.d gives a victory, whose service will it be,--whose? Will it be yours?"

At that moment Zatsvilikhovski came up. "What's this? They are rooting and rooting, like so many pigs!" said he, pointing to the field.

"I wish they were pigs," said Zagloba. "Pork sausage would be cheap, but their carrion is not fit for dogs. Today the soldiers had to dig a well in Firlei's quarters, for the water in the eastern pond was spoiled from the bodies. Toward morning the bile burst in the dog-brothers, and they all floated. Now next Friday we cannot use fish, because the fish have eaten their flesh."

"True," said Zatsvilikhovski; "I am an old soldier, but I have not seen so many bodies, unless at Khotim, at the a.s.sault of the janissaries on our camp."

"You will see more of them yet, I tell you."

"I think that this evening, or before evening, they will move to the storm again."

"But I say they will leave us in peace till to-morrow."

Scarcely had Zagloba finished speaking, when long white puffs of smoke blossomed out on the breastwork, and b.a.l.l.s flew over the intrenchment.

"There!" exclaimed Zatsvilikhovski.

"Oh, they know nothing of military art!" said Zagloba.

Old Zatsvilikhovski was right. Hmelnitski had began a regular siege. He had closed all roads and escapes, had taken away the pasture, made approaches and breastworks, had dug zigzags near the camp, but had not abandoned a.s.saults. He had resolved to give no rest to the besieged; to hara.s.s, to frighten, to keep them in continual sleeplessness, and press upon them till their arms should fall from their stiffened hands. In the evening, therefore, he struck upon the quarters of Vishnyevetski, with no better result than the day before, especially since the Cossacks did not advance with such alacrity. Next day firing did not cease for an instant. The zigzags were already so near that musketry fire reached the ramparts; the earthworks smoked like little volcanoes from morning till evening. It was not a general battle, but a continual fusillade. The besieged rushed out sometimes from the ramparts; then sabres, flails, scythes, and lances met in the conflict. But scarcely had a few Cossacks fallen in the ranks, when the gaps were immediately filled with new men. The soldiers had no rest for even a moment during the whole day; and when the desired sunset came, a new general a.s.sault was begun. A sally was not to be thought of.

On the night of the 16th of July two valiant colonels--Gladki and Nebaba--struck upon the quarters of the prince, and suffered a terrible defeat. Three thousand of the best Cossacks lay on the field; the rest, pursued by Sobieski, escaped to the tabor, throwing down their arms and powder-horns. An equally unfortunate result met Fedorenko, who, taking advantage of the thick fog, barely failed to capture the town at daybreak. Pan Korf repulsed him at the head of the Germans; then Sobieski and Konyetspolski cut the fugitives almost to pieces.

But this was nothing in comparison with the awful attack of July 19. On the previous night the Cossacks had raised in front of Vishnyevetski's quarters a lofty embankment, from which guns of large calibre vomited an uninterrupted fire. When the day had closed, and the first stars were in the sky, tens of thousands of men rushed to the attack. At the same time appeared some scores of terrible machines, like towers, which rolled slowly to the intrenchment. At their sides rose bridges, like monstrous wings, which were to be thrown over the ditches; and their tops were smoking, blazing, and roaring with discharges of small cannon, guns, and muskets. These towers moved on among the swarm of heads like giant commanders,--now reddening in the fire of guns, now disappearing in smoke and darkness.

The soldiers pointed them out to one another from a distance, whispering: "Those are the 'travelling towers.' We are the men that Hmelnitski is going to grind with those windmills."

"See how they roll, with a noise like thunder!"

"At them from the cannon! At them from the cannon!" cried some.

In fact the prince's gunners sent ball after ball, bomb after bomb, at those terrible machines; but since they were visible only when the discharges lighted the darkness, the b.a.l.l.s missed them most of the time.

Meanwhile the dense ma.s.s of Cossacks drew nearer and nearer, like a black wave flowing in the night from the distant expanse of the sea.

"Uf!" said Zagloba, in the cavalry near Skshetuski, "I am hot as never before in my life. The night is so sultry that there is not a dry thread on me. The devils invented those machines. G.o.d grant the ground to open under them, for those ruffians are like a bone in my throat,--amen! We can neither eat nor sleep. Dogs are in a better condition of life than we. Uf! how hot!"

It was really oppressive and sultry; besides, the air was saturated with exhalations from bodies decaying for several days over the whole field. The sky was covered with a black and low veil of clouds. A storm or tempest was hanging over Zbaraj. Sweat covered the bodies of soldiers under arms, and their b.r.e.a.s.t.s were panting from exertion. At that moment drums began to grumble in the darkness.

"They will attack immediately," said Skshetuski. "Do you hear the drum?"

"Yes. I wish the devils would drum them! It is pure desperation!"

"Cut! cut!" roared the crowds, rus.h.i.+ng to the ramparts.

The battle raged along the whole length of the rampart. They struck at the same time on Vishnyevetski, Lantskoronski, Firlei, and Ostrorog, so that one could not give aid to the other. The Cossacks, excited with gorailka, went still more ragingly than during the previous a.s.saults, but they met a still more valiant resistance. The heroic spirit of their leader gave life to the soldiers. The terrible quarter infantry, formed of Mazovians, fought with the Cossacks, so that they became thoroughly intermingled with them. They fought with gun-stocks, fists, and teeth. Under the blows of the stubborn Mazovians several hundred of the splendid Zaporojian infantry fell. The battle grew more and more desperate along the whole line. The musket-barrels burned the hands of the soldiers; breath failed them; the voices of the commanders died in their throats from shouting. Sobieski and Skshetuski fell with their cavalry upon the Cossack flank, trampling whole regiments.

Hour followed hour, but the a.s.sault relaxed not; for Hmelnitski filled the great gaps of the Cossack ranks, in the twinkle of an eye, with new men. The Tartars increased the uproar, at the same time sending clouds of arrows on the defending soldiers; men from behind drove the mob to the a.s.sault with clubs and rawhide whips. Rage contended with rage, breast struck breast, man closed with man in the grip of death. They struggled, as the raging waves of the sea struggle with an island cliff.

Suddenly the earth trembled; the whole heavens were in blue flames, as if G.o.d could no longer witness the horrors of men. An awful crash silenced the shouts of combatants and the roar of cannon. The artillery of heaven then began its more awful discharges. Thunders rolled on every side, from the east to the west. It seemed as though the sky had burst, together with the cloud, and was rolling on to the heads of the combatants. At moments the whole world seemed like one flame; at moments all were blind in the darkness, and again ruddy zigzags of lightning rent the black veil. A whirlwind struck once and again, tore away thousands of caps, streamers, and flags, and swept them in the twinkle of an eye over the battle-field. Thunders began to roll, one after another; then followed a chaos of peals, flashes, whirlwind, fire, and darkness; the heavens were as mad as the men.

The unheard-of tempest raged over the town, the castle, the trenches, and the tabor. The battle was stopped. At last the flood-gates of heaven were open, and not streams, but rivers of rain poured down upon the earth. The deluge hid the light; nothing could be seen a step in advance. Bodies were swimming in the ditch. The Cossack regiments, abandoning the a.s.sault, fled one after the other to the tabor; going at random, they stumbled against one another, and thinking that the enemy was pursuing, scattered in the darkness; guns and ammunition wagons followed them, sticking and getting overturned on the way. Water washed down the Cossack earthworks, roared in the ditches and zigzags, filled the covered places, though provided with ditches, and ran roaring over the plain as if pursuing the Cossacks.

The rain increased every moment. The infantry in the trenches left the ramparts, seeking shelter under the tents. But for the cavalry of Sobieski and Skshetuski there came no order to withdraw; they stood one by the other as if in a lake, and shook the water from their shoulders.

The tempest began gradually to slacken. After midnight the rain stopped entirely. Through the rents in the clouds here and there the stars glittered. Still an hour pa.s.sed, and the water had fallen a little.

Then before Skshetuski's squadron appeared the prince himself unexpectedly.

"Gentlemen," inquired he, "your pouches are not wet?"

"Dry, serene prince!" answered Skshetuski.

"That's right! dismount for me, advance through the water to those machines, put powder to them and fire them. Go quietly! Sobieski will go with you."

"According to orders!" replied Skshetuski.

The prince now caught sight of the drenched Zagloba. "You asked to go out on a sally; go now with these," said he.

"Ah, devil, here is an overcoat for you!" muttered Zagloba. "This is all that was wanting."

Half an hour later, two divisions of knights, two hundred and fifty men, wading to their waists in the water with sabres in hand, hastened to those terrible moving towers of the Cossacks, standing about half a furlong from the trench. One division was led by that "lion of lions,"

Marek Sobieski, starosta of Krasnostav, who would not hear of remaining in the trench; the other by Skshetuski. Attendants followed the knights with buckets of tar, torches, and powder. They went as quietly as wolves stealing in the dark night to a sheepfold.

Volodyovski went, as a volunteer with Skshetuski, for Pan Michael loved such expeditions more than life. He tripped along through the water, joy in his heart and sabre in hand. At his side was Podbipienta, with his drawn sword, conspicuous above all, for he was two heads higher than the tallest. Among them Zagloba pushed on panting, while he muttered with vexation and imitated the words of the prince,--

"'You asked to go on a sally; go now with these.' All right! A dog wouldn't go to a wedding through such water as this. If ever I advise a sally in such weather may I never drink anything but water while I live! I am not a duck, and my belly isn't a boat. I have always held water in horror, and what kind of water is this in which peasant carrion is steeping?"

"Quiet!" said Volodyovski.

"Quiet yourself! You are not bigger than a gudgeon, and you know how to swim, it is easy for you. I say even that it is unhandsome on the part of the prince to give me no peace. After the killing of Burlai, Zagloba has done enough; let every one do as much, and let Zagloba have peace, for you will be a pretty-looking crowd when he is gone. For G.o.d's sake, if I fall into a hole, pull me out by the ears, for I shall fill with water at once."

"Quiet!" said Skshetuski. "The Cossacks are sitting in those dark shelters; they will hear you."

"Where? What do you tell me?"

"There in those hillocks, under the sods."

"That is all that was wanting! May the bright lightning smash--"

Volodyovski stopped the remaining words by putting his hand on Zagloba's mouth, for the shelters were barely fifty yards distant. The knights went silently indeed, but the water spattered under their feet; happily rain began to fall again, and the patter deadened the noise of their steps.

The guards were not at the shelters. Who could have expected a sally after an a.s.sault in such a tempest, when the combatants were divided by something like a lake?

Volodyovski and Pan Longin sprang ahead and reached the shelter first.

Volodyovski let his sabre drop, put his hand to his mouth and began to cry: "Hei, men!"

"What?" answered from within the voices of Cossacks, evidently convinced that some one from the Cossack tabor was coming.