Pan Michael

"While they confine themselves to firing we shall hold out," answered the little knight; "but they will blow us out of here with mines, for they are making them."

"Are they really mining?" asked the starosta, in alarm.

"Seventy cannon are playing, and their thunder is almost unceasing; still, there are moments of quiet. When such a moment comes, put down your ear carefully and listen."

At that time it was not needful to wait long, especially as an accident came to their aid. One of the Turkish siege-guns burst; that caused a certain disorder. They sent from other intrenchments to inquire what had happened, and there was a lull in cannonading.

Pan Michael and the starosta approached the very end of one of the projections of the castle, and began to listen. After a certain time their ears caught clearly enough the resonant sound of hammers in the cliff.

"They are pounding," said the starosta.

"They are pounding," said the little knight.

Then they were silent. Great alarm appeared on the face of the starosta; he raised his hands and pressed his temples. Seeing this, Pan Michael said,--

"This is a usual thing in all sieges. At Zbaraj they were digging under us night and day."

The starosta raised his hand: "What did Prince Yeremi do?"

"He withdrew from intrenchments of wide circuit into narrower ones."

"But what should we do?"

"We should take the guns, and with them all that is movable, and transfer them to the old castle; for the old one is founded on rocks that the Turks cannot blow up with mines. I have thought always that the new castle would serve merely for the first resistance; after that we must blow it up with powder, and the real defence will begin in the old one."

A moment of silence followed; and the starosta bent his anxious head again.

"But if we heave to withdraw from the old castle, where shall we go?"

asked he, with a broken voice.

At that, the little knight straightened himself, and pointed with his finger to the earth: "I shall go there."

At that moment the guns roared again, and a whole flock of bombs began to fly to the castle; but as darkness was in the world, they could be seen perfectly. Pan Michael took leave of the general, and went along the walls. Going from one battery to another, he encouraged men everywhere, gave advice; at last, meeting with Ketling, he said,--

"Well, how is it?"

Ketling smiled pleasantly.

"It is clear as day from the bombs," said he, pressing the little knight's hand. "They do not spare fire on us."

"A good gun of theirs burst. Did you burst it?"

"I did."

"I am terribly sleepy."

"And I too, but there is no time."

"Ai," said Pan Michael; "and the little wives must be frightened; at thought of that, sleep goes away."

"They are praying for us," said Ketling, raising his eyes toward the flying bombs.

"G.o.d give them health!" said Pan Michael.

"Among earthly women," began Ketling, "there are none--"

But he did not finish, for the little knight, turning at that moment toward the interior of the castle, cried suddenly, in a loud voice,--

"For G.o.d's sake! Save us! What do I see?"

And he sprang forward.

Ketling looked around with astonishment. At a few paces distant, in the court of the castle, he saw Basia, with Zagloba and the Lithuanian, Pyentka.

"To the wall! to the wall!" cried the little knight, dragging them as quickly as possible to the cover of the battlements. "For G.o.d's sake!"

"Ha!" said Zagloba, with a broken voice, and panting; "help yourself

Here she is for you!"

Basia had fear in her face, and her brow was quivering as if before weeping. But it was not bombs that she feared, nor the whizzing of b.a.l.l.s, nor fragments of stones, but the anger of her husband. Therefore she clasped her hands like a child fearing punishment, and exclaimed, with sobbing voice,--

"I could not, Michael dear; as I love you, I could not. Be not angry, Michael. I cannot stay there when you are peris.h.i.+ng here. I cannot; I cannot!"

He had begun to be angry indeed, and had cried, "Basia, you have no fear of G.o.d!" but sudden tenderness seized him, his voice stuck in his throat; and only when that dearest bright head was resting on his breast, did he say,--

"You are my faithful friend until death;" and he embraced her.

But Zagloba, pressing up to the wall, said to Ketling: "And yours wished to come, but we deceived her, saying that we were not coming.

How could she come in such a condition? A general of artillery will be born to you. I'm a rogue if it will not be a general. Well, on the bridge from the town to the castle, the bombs are falling like peas. I thought I should burst,--from anger, not from fear. I slipped on sharp pieces of sh.e.l.l, and cut my skin. I shall not be able to sit down without pain for a week. The nuns will have to rub me, without minding modesty. Uf! But those rascals are shooting. May the thunderbolts shoot them away! Pan Pototski wants to yield the command to me. Give the soldiers a drink, or they will not hold out. See that bomb! It will fall somewhere near us. Hide yourself, Basia! As G.o.d lives, it will fall near!"

But the bomb fell far away, not near, for it fell on the roof of the Lutheran church in the old castle. Since the dome was very strong, ammunition had been carried in there; but this missile broke the dome, and set fire to the powder. A mighty explosion, louder than the thunder of cannon, shook the foundations of both castles. From the battlement, voices of terror were heard. Polish and Turkish cannon were silent.

Ketling left Zagloba, and Volodyovski left Basia. Both sprang to the walls with all the strength in their limbs. For a time it was heard how both gave commands with panting b.r.e.a.s.t.s; but the rattle of drums in the Turkish trenches drowned their commands.

"They will make an a.s.sault!" whispered Zagloba.

In fact, the Turks, hearing the explosion, imagined apparently that both castles were destroyed, the defenders partly buried in the ruins, and partly seized with fear. With that thought, they prepared for the storm. Fools! they knew not that only the Lutheran church had gone into the air. The explosion had produced no other effect than the shock; not even a gun had fallen from its carriage in the new castle. But in the intrenchments the rattle of drums grew more and more hurried. Crowds of janissaries pushed out of the intrenchments, and ran with quick steps toward the castle. Fires in the castle and in the Turkish trenches were quenched, it is true; but the night was clear, and in the light of the moon a dense ma.s.s of white caps were visible, sinking and rising in the rush, like waves stirred by wind. A number of thousands of janissaries and several hundred volunteers were running forward with rage and the hope of certain victory in their hearts; but many of them were never again to see the minarets of Stambul, the bright waters of the Bosphorus, and the dark cypresses of the cemeteries.

Pan Michael ran, like a spirit, along the walls. "Don't fire! Wait for the word!" cried he, at every gun.

The dragoons were lying flat at the battlements, panting with rage.

Silence followed; there was no sound but that of the quick tread of the janissaries, like low thunder. The nearer they came, the more certain they felt of taking both castles at a blow. Many thought that the remnant of the defenders had withdrawn to the town, and that the battlements were empty. When they had run to the fosse, they began to fill it with fascines and bundles of straw, and filled it in a twinkle.

On the walls, the stillness was unbroken.

But when the first ranks stood on the stuff with which the fosse had been filled, in one of the battlement openings a pistol-shot was heard; then a shrill voice shouted,--

"Fire!"

At the same time both bulwarks, and the prolongation joining them, gleamed with a long flash of flame. The thunder of cannon, the rattle of musketry, and the shouts of the a.s.sailants were mingled. When a dart, hurled by the hand of a strong beater, sinks half its length in the belly of a bear, he rolls himself into a bundle, roars, struggles, flounders, straightens, and again rolls himself; thus precisely did the throng of janissaries and volunteers. Not one shot of the defenders was wasted. Cannon loaded with grape laid men flat as a pavement, just as a fierce wind levels standing grain with one breath. Those who attacked the extension, joining the bulwarks, found themselves under three fires, and seized with terror, became a disordered ma.s.s in the centre, falling so thickly that they formed a quivering mound. Ketling poured grape-shot from two cannon into that group; at last, when they began to flee, he closed, with a rain of lead and iron, the narrow exit between the bulwarks.