CHAPTER XIX.
When near the village, the Lauda men slackened their speed, and saw abroad street so lighted by flames that pins might be picked from theground; for on both sides a number of cottages were burning, and otherswere catching fire from these gradually, for the wind was strong andcarried sparks, nay, whole clusters of them, like fiery birds, to theadjoining roofs. On the street the flames illuminated greater andsmaller crowds of people moving quickly in various directions. Thecries of men were mingled with the sounds of the church-bells hiddenamong trees, with the bellowing of cattle, the barking of dogs, andwith infrequent discharges of firearms.
After they had ridden nearer, Volodyovski's soldiers saw trooperswearing round hats, not many men. Some were skirmishing with groups ofpeasants, armed with scythes and forks; firing at them from pistols,and pushing them beyond the cottages, into the gardens; others weredriving oxen, cows, and sheep to the road with rapiers; others, whom itwas barely possible to distinguish among whole clouds of feathers, hadcovered themselves with poultry, with wings fluttering in the agoniesof death; some were holding horses, each man having two or threebelonging to officers who were occupied evidently in plundering thecottages.
The road to the village descended somewhat from a hill in the midst ofa birch-grove; so that the Lauda men, without being seen themselves,saw, as it were, a picture representing the enemy's attack on thevillage, lighted up by flames, in the glare of which could be clearlydistinguished foreign soldiers, villagers, women dragged by troopers,and men defending themselves in disordered groups. All were movingviolently, like puppets on springs, shouting, cursing, lamenting.
The conflagration shook a full mane of flame over the village, androared each moment more terribly.
Volodyovski led his men to the open gate, and ordered them to slackentheir pace. He might strike, and with one blow wipe out the invaders,who were expecting nothing; but the little knight had determined "totaste the Swedes" in open battle,--he had so arranged that they mightsee him coming.
Some horsemen, standing near the gate, saw the approaching squadronfirst. One of them sprang to an officer, who stood with drawn rapier inthe midst of a considerable group of horsemen, in the middle of theroad, and began to speak to him, pointing to where Volodyovski wasdescending with his men. The officer shaded his eyes with his hand andgazed for a time; then he gave a sign, and at once the sharp sound of atrumpet was heard, mingled with various cries of men and beasts.
And here our knight could admire the regularity of the Swedishsoldiers; for barely were the first tones of the trumpet heard, whensome of the horsemen rushed out in hot haste from the cottages, othersleft the plundered articles, the oxen and sheep, and ran to theirhorses. In the twinkle of an eye they stood in regular line; at sightof which the little knight's heart rose with wonder, so select were themen. All were large, sturdy fellows, dressed in coats, with leatherstraps over the shoulders, and black hats with rim raised on the leftside; all had matched bay horses, and stood in line with rapiers attheir shoulders, looking sharply, but calmly, at the road.
An officer stepped forth from the line with a trumpeter, wishingapparently to inquire what sort of men were approaching so slowly.Evidently they were thought to be one of Radzivill's squadrons, fromwhich no encounter was expected. The officer began to wave his rapierand his hat; the trumpeter sounded continually, as a sign that theywished to parley.
"Let some one fire at him," said the little knight, "so that he mayknow what to expect from us."
The report sounded; but the shot did not reach, for the distance wastoo great. Evidently the officer thought that there was somemisunderstanding, for he began to shout and to wave his hat.
"Let him have it a second time!" cried Volodyovski.
After the second discharge the officer turned and moved, though not toohurriedly, toward his own, who also approached him on a trot.
The first rank of Lauda men were now entering the gate.
The Swedish officer, riding up, shouted to his men; the rapiers,hitherto standing upright by the shoulders of the horsemen, dropped andhung at their belts; but all at the same instant drew pistols from theholsters, and rested them on the pommels of their saddles, holding themuzzle upward.
"Finished soldiers!" muttered Volodyovski, seeing the rapidity of theirmovements, which were simultaneous and almost mechanical. Then helooked at his own men to see if the ranks were in order, straightenedhimself in the saddle, and cried,--
"Forward!"
The Lauda men bent down to the necks of their horses, and rushed onlike a whirlwind.
The Swedes let them come near, and then gave a simultaneous dischargefrom their pistols; but this did little harm to the Lauda men hiddenbehind the heads of their horses; only a few dropped the reins and fellbackward, the rest rushed on and struck the horsemen, breast to breast.
The Lithuanian light squadrons used lances yet, which in the army ofthe kingdom the hussars alone used; but Volodyovski expecting a battleat close quarters, had ordered his men to plant their lances at theroadside, therefore it came to sabres at once.
The first impetus was not sufficient to break the Swedes, but it pushedthem back, so that they began to retreat, cutting and thrusting withtheir rapiers; but the Lauda men pushed them furiously along the road.Bodies began to fall thickly. The throng grew denser each moment; theclatter of sabres frightened the peasants out of the broad road, inwhich the heat from the burning houses was unendurable, though thehouses were separated from the road and the fences by gardens.
The Swedes, pressed with increasing vigor, retreated gradually, butstill in good order. It was difficult moreover to scatter them, sincestrong fences closed the road on both sides. At times they tried tostop, but were unable to do so.
It was a wonderful battle, in which, by reason of the relatively narrowplace of meeting, only the first ranks fought, those next in ordercould only push forward those standing in front of them; but just forthis reason the struggle was turned into a furious encounter.
Volodyovski, having previously requested the old colonels and Pan Yanto look after the men during the attack, enjoyed himself to the full inthe first rank. And every moment some Swedish hat fell before him inthe throng, as if it had dived into the ground; sometimes a rapier,torn from the hand of a horseman, flew whistling above the rank, and atthe same instant was heard the piercing cry of a man, and again a hatfell; a second took its place, then a third the place of the second;but Volodyovski pushed ever forward. His eyes glittered like twoill-omened sparks, but he was not carried away and did not forgethimself; at moments, when he had no one at sword's length in front ofhim, he turned his face and blade somewhat to the right or left, anddestroyed in the twinkle of an eye a horseman, with a movementapparently trifling; and he was terrible through these slight andlightning movements which were almost not human.
As a woman pulling hemp disappears in it and is hidden completely, butby the falling stalks her road is known easily, so he vanished from theeye for a time in the throng of large men; but where soldiers werefalling like stalks under the sickle of the harvester who cuts near theground, there was Pan Michael. Pan Stanislav and the gloomy YuzvaButrym, called Footless, followed hard in his track.
At length the Swedish rear ranks began to push out from between thefences to the broad grass-plot before the church and the bell-tower,and after them came the front ranks. Now was heard the command of theofficer, who wished evidently to bring all his men into action at once;and the oblong rectangular body of horsemen stretched out, deployed inthe twinkle of an eye, into a long line to present its whole front.
But Pan Yan, who directed the battle and led the squadron, did notimitate the Swede; he rushed forward with a dense column which,striking the now weaker line, broke it, as if with a wedge, and turnedswiftly to the right toward the church, taking with this movement therear of one half of the Swedes, while on the other half Mirski andStankyevich sprang with the reserve in which were a part of the Laudamen and all
of Kovalski's dragoons.
Two battles now began; but they did not last long. The left wing, onwhich Pan Yan had struck, was unable to form, and scattered first; theright, in which was the commanding officer, resisted longer, but beingtoo much extended, it began to break, to fall into disorder, and atlast followed the example of the left wing.
The grass-plot was broad, but unfortunately was enclosed on all sidesby a lofty fence; and the church-servants closed and propped theopposite gate when they saw what was taking place.
The scattered Swedes then ran around, but the Lauda men rushed afterthem. In some places larger groups fought, a number at a time, withsabres and rapiers; in other places the conflict was turned into aseries of duels, and man met man, the rapier crossed the sabre, and attimes the report of a pistol burst forth. Here and there a Swedishhorseman, escaping from one sabre, ran, as if to a trap, under another.Here and there a Swede or a Lithuanian rose from under a fallen horseand fell that moment under the blow of a weapon awaiting him.
Through the grass-plot terrified horses rushed about riderless, withwaving mane and nostrils distended from fear; some bit one another;others, blinded from fright, turned their tails to the groups offighting men and kicked them.
Pan Volodyovski, hurling down Swedes as he went, searched the wholeplace with his eyes for the officer in command; at last he saw himdefending himself against two Butryms, and he sprang toward him.
"Aside!" cried he to the Butryms, "aside!"
The obedient soldiers sprang aside, the little knight rushed on andclosed with the Swede, the horses of the two stood on their haunches.
The officer wished evidently to unhorse his opponent with a thrust; butVolodyovski, interposing the hilt of his sabre, described a half-circlelike lightning, and the rapier flew away. The officer bent to hisholsters, but, cut through the cheek at that moment, he dropped thereins from his left hand.
"Take him alive!" shouted Volodyovski to the Butryms.
The Lauda men seized the wounded officer and held him tottering in thesaddle; the little knight pushed on and rode farther against theSwedes, quenching them before him like candles.
But the Swedes began to yield everywhere before the nobles, who weremore adroit in fencing and single combat. Some of the Swedes, seizingtheir rapier blades, extended the hilts to their opponents; othersthrew their weapons at their feet; the word "Pardon!" was heard moreand more frequently on the field. But no attention was paid to theword, for Pan Michael had commanded to spare but few. The Swedes,seeing this, rushed anew to the struggle, and died as became soldiersafter a desperate defence, redeeming richly with blood their own death.
An hour later the last of them were cut down. The peasants ran incrowds from the village to the grass-plot to catch the horses, kill thewounded, and plunder the dead.
Such was the end of the first encounter of Lithuanians with Swedes.
Meanwhile Zagloba, stationed at a distance in the birch-grove with thewagon in which lay Pan Roh, was forced to hear the bitter reproachthat, though a relative, he had treated that young man shamefully.
"Uncle, you have ruined me utterly, for not only is a bullet in thehead waiting for me at Kyedani, but eternal infamy will fall on myname. Henceforth whoso wants to say, 'Fool,' may say, 'Roh Kovalski!'"
"The truth is that not many will be found to contradict him," answeredZagloba; "and the best proof of your folly is that you wonder at beinghung on a hook by me who moved the Khan of the Crimea as a puppet.Well, did you think to yourself, worthless fellow, that I would let youtake me and other men of importance to Birji, and throw us, theornaments of the Commonwealth, into the jaws of the Swedes?"
"I was not taking you of my own will."
"But you were the servant of an executioner, and that for a noble isinfamy from which you must purify yourself, or I will renounce you andall the Kovalskis. To be a traitor is worse than to be a crabmonger,but to be the servant of some one worse than a crabmonger is the lowestthing."
"I was serving the hetman."
"And the hetman the devil. There you have it! You are a fool, Roh: getthat into your head once and forever, dispute not, but hold to myskirts, and a man will come of you yet; for know this, that advancementhas met more than one personage through me."
The rattle of shots interrupted further conversation, for the battlewas just beginning in the village. Then the discharges stopped, but thenoise continued, and shouts reached that retreat in the birch-grove.
"Ah, Pan Michael is working," said Zagloba. "He is not big, but hebites like a viper. They are shelling out those devils from over thesea like peas. I would rather be there than here, and through you Imust listen here. Is this your gratitude? Is this the act of arespectable relative?"
"What have I to be grateful for?" asked Roh.
"For this, that a traitor is not ploughing with you, as with anox,--though you are grandly fitted for ploughing, since you are stupidand strong. Understand me? Ai! it is getting hotter and hotter there.Do you hear? That must be the Swedes who are bawling like calves in apasture."
Here Zagloba became serious, for he was a little disturbed; on a suddenhe asked, looking quickly into Pan Roh's eyes,--
"To whom do you wish victory?"
"To ours, of course."
"See that! And why not to the Swedes?"
"I would rather pound them. Who are ours, are ours!"
"Conscience is waking up in you. But how could you take your own bloodto the Swedes?"
"For I had an order."
"But now you have no order?"
"True."
"Your superior is now Pan Volodyovski, no one else."
"Well, that seems to be true."
"You must do what Pan Volodyovski commands."
"I must."
"He commands you now to renounce Radzivill future, and not to servehim, but the country."
"How is that?" asked Pan Roh, scratching his head.
"A command!" cried Zagloba.
"I obey!" said Kovalski.
"That is right! At the first chance you will thrash the Swedes."
"If it is the order, it is the order!" answered Kovalski, and breatheddeeply, as if a great burden had fallen from his breast.
Zagloba was equally well satisfied, for he had his own views concerningKovalski. They began then to listen in harmony to the sounds of thebattle which came to them, and listened about an hour longer, until allwas silent.
Zagloba was more and more alarmed. "If they have not succeeded?" askedhe.
"Uncle, you an old warrior and can say such things! If they were beatenthey would come back to us in small groups."
"True! I see thy wit will be of service."
"Do you hear the tramp, Uncle? They are riding slowly. They must havecut the Swedes to pieces."
"Oi, if they are only ours! Shall I go forward, or not?"
Saying this, Zagloba dropped his sabre at his side, took his pistol inhis hand, and moved forward. Soon he saw before him a dark mass movingslowly along the road; at the same time noise of conversation reachedhim.
In front rode a number of men talking with one another loudly; soon thewell-known voice of Pan Michael struck the ear of Zagloba. "They aregood men! I don't know what kind of infantry they have, but the cavalryis perfect."
Zagloba touched his horse with the spurs. "Ah! how is it, how is it?Oh, impatience was tearing me, I wanted to fly into the fire! But is noone wounded?"
"All are sound, praise to God; but we have lost more than twenty goodsoldiers."
"And the Swedes?"
"We laid them down like a pavement."
"Pan Michael, you must have enjoyed yourself as a dog in a spring. Butwas it a decent thing to leave me, an old man, on guard? The soul camenear going out of me, so much did I want Swedish meat. Oh, I shouldhave gnawed them!"
"You may have a roast now if you like, for a number of them are in thefire."
"Let the dogs eat them. And were prisoners taken?"
"A captain, and seven soldiers."
r /> "What do you think to do with them?"
"I would have them hanged, for like robbers they fell on an innocentvillage and were killing the people. Yan says, however, that that willnot do."
"Listen to me, gentlemen, hear what has come to my head just now: thereis no good in hanging them; on the contrary, let them go to Birji assoon as possible."
"What for?"
"You know me as a soldier, know me now as a statesman. We will let theSwedes go, but we will not tell them who we are. We will say that weare Radzivill's men, that we have cut off this detachment at command ofthe hetman, and in future will cut off whom we meet, for the hetmanonly pretended, through strategy, to join the Swedes. They will breaktheir heads over this, and thus we will undermine the hetman's creditterribly. Just think, this hits the Swedes and hits Radzivill too.Kyedani is far from Birji, and Radzivill is still farther from Pontusde la Gardie. Before they explain to each other what has happened andhow, they will be ready to fight. We will set the traitor against theinvaders; and who will gain by this, if not the Commonwealth?"
"This is excellent counsel, and quite worth the victory. May thebullets strike him!" said Stankyevich.
"You have the mind of a chancellor," added Mirski, "for this willdisturb their plans."
"Surely we should act thus," said Pan Michael. "I will set them freeto-morrow; but to-day I do not wish to know of anything, for I amdreadfully wearied. It was as hot in the village as in an oven! Uf! myarms are paralyzed completely. The officer could not go to-day in anycase, for his face is cut."
"But in what language shall we tell them all this? What is yourcounsel, father?" asked Pan Yan.
"I have been thinking of that too," answered Zagloba. "Kovalski told methat there are two Prussians among his dragoons who know how to jabberGerman, and are sharp fellows. Let them tell in German,--which theSwedes know of course, after fighting so many years in Germany.Kovalski is ours, soul and body. He is a man in a hundred, and we willhave no small profit from him."
"Well done!" said Volodyovski. "Will some of you, gentlemen, be so kindas to see to this, for I have no voice in my throat from weariness? Ihave told the men that we shall stay in this grove till morning. Thevillagers will bring us food, and now to sleep! My lieutenant will seeto the watch. 'Pon my word, I cannot see you, for my eyes are closing."
"Gentlemen," said Zagloba, "there is a stack of hay just outside thebirches; let us go to the stack, we shall sleep like susliks, and tothe road on the morrow. We shall not come back to this country, unlesswith Pan Sapyeha against Radzivill."