When near the village, the Lauda men slackened their speed, and saw a
broad street so lighted by flames that pins might be picked from the
ground; for on both sides a number of cottages were burning, and others
were catching fire from these gradually, for the wind was strong and
carried sparks, nay, whole clusters of them, like fiery birds, to the
adjoining roofs. On the street the flames illuminated greater and
smaller crowds of people moving quickly in various directions. The
cries of men were mingled with the sounds of the church-bells hidden
among trees, with the bellowing of cattle, the barking of dogs, and
with infrequent discharges of firearms.
After they had ridden nearer, Volodyovski's soldiers saw troopers
wearing round hats, not many men. Some were skirmishing with groups of
peasants, armed with scythes and forks; firing at them from pistols,
and pushing them beyond the cottages, into the gardens; others were
driving oxen, cows, and sheep to the road with rapiers; others, whom it
was barely possible to distinguish among whole clouds of feathers, had
covered themselves with poultry, with wings fluttering in the agonies
of death; some were holding horses, each man having two or three
belonging to officers who were occupied evidently in plundering the
cottages.
The road to the village descended somewhat from a hill in the midst of
a birch-grove; so that the Lauda men, without being seen themselves,
saw, as it were, a picture representing the enemy's attack on the
village, lighted up by flames, in the glare of which could be clearly
distinguished foreign soldiers, villagers, women dragged by troopers,
and men defending themselves in disordered groups. All were moving
violently, like puppets on springs, shouting, cursing, lamenting.
The conflagration shook a full mane of flame over the village, and
roared each moment more terribly.
Volodyovski led his men to the open gate, and ordered them to slacken
their pace. He might strike, and with one blow wipe out the invaders,
who were expecting nothing; but the little knight had determined "to
taste the Swedes" in open battle,--he had so arranged that they might
see him coming.
Some horsemen, standing near the gate, saw the approaching squadron
first. One of them sprang to an officer, who stood with drawn rapier in
the midst of a considerable group of horsemen, in the middle of the
road, and began to speak to him, pointing to where Volodyovski was
descending with his men. The officer shaded his eyes with his hand and
gazed for a time; then he gave a sign, and at once the sharp sound of a
trumpet was heard, mingled with various cries of men and beasts.
And here our knight could admire the regularity of the Swedish
soldiers; for barely were the first tones of the trumpet heard, when
some of the horsemen rushed out in hot haste from the cottages, others
left the plundered articles, the oxen and sheep, and ran to their
horses. In the twinkle of an eye they stood in regular line; at sight
of which the little knight's heart rose with wonder, so select were the
men. All were large, sturdy fellows, dressed in coats, with leather
straps over the shoulders, and black hats with rim raised on the left
side; all had matched bay horses, and stood in line with rapiers at
their shoulders, looking sharply, but calmly, at the road.
An officer stepped forth from the line with a trumpeter, wishing
apparently to inquire what sort of men were approaching so slowly.
Evidently they were thought to be one of Radzivill's squadrons, from
which no encounter was expected. The officer began to wave his rapier
and his hat; the trumpeter sounded continually, as a sign that they
wished to parley.
"Let some one fire at him," said the little knight, "so that he may
know what to expect from us."
The report sounded; but the shot did not reach, for the distance was
too great. Evidently the officer thought that there was some
misunderstanding, 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 too
hurriedly, 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 and
hung at their belts; but all at the same instant drew pistols from the
holsters, and rested them on the pommels of their saddles, holding the
muzzle upward.
"Finished soldiers!" muttered Volodyovski, seeing the rapidity of their
movements, which were simultaneous and almost mechanical. Then he
looked at his own men to see if the ranks were in order, straightened
himself in the saddle, and cried,--
"Forward!"
The Lauda men bent down to the necks of their horses, and rushed on
like a whirlwind.
The Swedes let them come near, and then gave a simultaneous discharge
from their pistols; but this did little harm to the Lauda men hidden
behind the heads of their horses; only a few dropped the reins and fell
backward, the rest rushed on and struck the horsemen, breast to breast.
The Lithuanian light squadrons used lances yet, which in the army of
the kingdom the hussars alone used; but Volodyovski expecting a battle
at close quarters, had ordered his men to plant their lances at the
roadside, therefore it came to sabres at once.
The first impetus was not sufficient to break the Swedes, but it pushed
them back, so that they began to retreat, cutting and thrusting with
their rapiers; but the Lauda men pushed them furiously along the road.
Bodies began to fall thickly. The throng grew denser each moment; the
clatter of sabres frightened the peasants out of the broad road, in
which the heat from the burning houses was unendurable, though the
houses were separated from the road and the fences by gardens.
The Swedes, pressed with increasing vigor, retreated gradually, but
still in good order. It was difficult moreover to scatter them, since
strong fences closed the road on both sides. At times they tried to
stop, but were unable to do so.
It was a wonderful battle, in which, by reason of the relatively narrow
place of meeting, only the first ranks fought, those next in order
could only push forward those standing in front of them; but just for
this reason the struggle was turned into a furious encounter.
Volodyovski, having previously requested the old colonels and Pan Yan
to look after the men during the attack, enjoyed himself to the full in
the first rank. And every moment some Swedish hat fell before him in
the 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 at
the same instant was heard the piercing cry of a man, and again a hat
fell; a second took its place, then a third the place of the second;
but Volodyovski pushed ever forward. His eyes glittered like two
ill-omened sparks, but he was not carried away and did not forget
himself; at moments, when he had no one at sword's length in front of
him, he turned his face and blade somewhat to the right or left, and
destroyed in the twinkle of an eye a horseman, with a movement
apparently trifling; and he was terrible through these slight and
lightning movements which were almost not human.
As a woman pulling hemp disappears in it and is hidden completely, but
by the falling stalks her road is known easily, so he vanished from the
eye for a time in the throng of large men; but where soldiers were
falling like stalks under the sickle of the harvester who cuts near the
ground, there was Pan Michael. Pan Stanislav and the gloomy Yuzva
Butrym, called Footless, followed hard in his track.
At length the Swedish rear ranks began to push out from between the
fences 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 the
officer, who wished evidently to bring all his men into action at once;
and the oblong rectangular body of horsemen stretched out, deployed in
the 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 not
imitate the Swede; he rushed forward with a dense column which,
striking the now weaker line, broke it, as if with a wedge, and turned
swiftly to the right toward the church, taking with this movement the
rear of one half of the Swedes, while on the other half Mirski and
Stankyevich sprang with the reserve in which were a part of the Lauda
men and all of Kovalski's dragoons.
Two battles now began; but they did not last long. The left wing, on
which Pan Yan had struck, was unable to form, and scattered first; the
right, in which was the commanding officer, resisted longer, but being
too much extended, it began to break, to fall into disorder, and at
last followed the example of the left wing.
The grass-plot was broad, but unfortunately was enclosed on all sides
by a lofty fence; and the church-servants closed and propped the
opposite gate when they saw what was taking place.
The scattered Swedes then ran around, but the Lauda men rushed after
them. In some places larger groups fought, a number at a time, with
sabres and rapiers; in other places the conflict was turned into a
series of duels, and man met man, the rapier crossed the sabre, and at
times the report of a pistol burst forth. Here and there a Swedish
horseman, 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 horse
and fell that moment under the blow of a weapon awaiting him.
Through the grass-plot terrified horses rushed about riderless, with
waving mane and nostrils distended from fear; some bit one another;
others, blinded from fright, turned their tails to the groups of
fighting men and kicked them.
Pan Volodyovski, hurling down Swedes as he went, searched the whole
place with his eyes for the officer in command; at last he saw him
defending 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 and
closed with the Swede, the horses of the two stood on their haunches.
The officer wished evidently to unhorse his opponent with a thrust; but
Volodyovski, interposing the hilt of his sabre, described a half-circle
like lightning, and the rapier flew away. The officer bent to his
holsters, but, cut through the cheek at that moment, he dropped the
reins from his left hand.
"Take him alive!" shouted Volodyovski to the Butryms.
The Lauda men seized the wounded officer and held him tottering in the
saddle; the little knight pushed on and rode farther against the
Swedes, quenching them before him like candles.
But the Swedes began to yield everywhere before the nobles, who were
more adroit in fencing and single combat. Some of the Swedes, seizing
their rapier blades, extended the hilts to their opponents; others
threw their weapons at their feet; the word "Pardon!" was heard more
and more frequently on the field. But no attention was paid to the
word, for Pan Michael had commanded to spare but few. The Swedes,
seeing this, rushed anew to the struggle, and died as became soldiers
after a desperate defence, redeeming richly with blood their own death.
An hour later the last of them were cut down. The peasants ran in
crowds from the village to the grass-plot to catch the horses, kill the
wounded, 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 the
wagon in which lay Pan Roh, was forced to hear the bitter reproach
that, though a relative, he had treated that young man shamefully.
"Uncle, you have ruined me utterly, for not only is a bullet in the
head waiting for me at Kyedani, but eternal infamy will fall on my
name. Henceforth whoso wants to say, 'Fool,' may say, 'Roh Kovalski!'"
"The truth is that not many will be found to contradict him," answered
Zagloba; "and the best proof of your folly is that you wonder at being
hung 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 you
take me and other men of importance to Birji, and throw us, the
ornaments 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 is
infamy from which you must purify yourself, or I will renounce you and
all 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 lowest
thing."
"I was serving the hetman."
"And the hetman the devil. There you have it! You are a fool, Roh: get
that into your head once and forever, dispute not, but hold to my
skirts, and a man will come of you yet; for know this, that advancement
has met more than one personage through me."
The rattle of shots interrupted further conversation, for the battle
was just beginning in the village. Then the discharges stopped, but the
noise continued, and shouts reached that retreat in the birch-grove.
"Ah, Pan Michael is working," said Zagloba. "He is not big, but he
bites like a viper. They are shelling out those devils from over the
sea like peas. I would rather be there than here, and through you I
must listen here. Is this your gratitude? Is this the act of a
respectable relative?"
"What have I to be grateful for?" asked Roh.
"For this, that a traitor is not ploughing with you, as with an
ox,--though you are grandly fitted for ploughing, since you are stupid
and 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 a
pasture."
Here Zagloba became serious, for he was a little disturbed; on a sudden
he 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 blood
to 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 for the future, and not to serve
him, 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 breathed
deeply, as if a great burden had fallen from his breast.
Zagloba was equally well satisfied, for he had his own views concerning
Kovalski. They began then to listen in harmony to the sounds of the
battle which came to them, and listened about an hour longer, until all
was silent.
Zagloba was more and more alarmed. "If they have not succeeded?" asked
he.
"Uncle, you an old warrior and can say such things! If they were beaten
they 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 have
cut 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 in
his hand, and moved forward. Soon he saw before him a dark mass moving
slowly along the road; at the same time noise of conversation reached
him.
In front rode a number of men talking with one another loudly; soon the
well-known voice of Pan Michael struck the ear of Zagloba. "They are
good men! I don't know what kind of infantry they have, but the cavalry
is 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 no
one wounded?"
"All are sound, praise to God; but we have lost more than twenty good
soldiers."
"And the Swedes?"
"We laid them down like a pavement."
"Pan Michael, you must have enjoyed yourself as a dog in a spring. But
was it a decent thing to leave me, an old man, on guard? The soul came
near going out of me, so much did I want Swedish meat. Oh, I should
have gnawed them!"
"You may have a roast now if you like, for a number of them are in the
fire."
"Let the dogs eat them. And were prisoners taken?"
"A captain, and seven soldiers."
"What do you think to do with them?"
"I would have them hanged, for like robbers they fell on an innocent
village and were killing the people. Yan says, however, that that will
not do."
"Listen to me, gentlemen, hear what has come to my head just now: there
is no good in hanging them; on the contrary, let them go to Birji as
soon as possible."
"What for?"
"You know me as a soldier, know me now as a statesman. We will let the
Swedes go, but we will not tell them who we are. We will say that we
are Radzivill's men, that we have cut off this detachment at command of
the hetman, and in future will cut off whom we meet, for the hetman
only pretended, through strategy, to join the Swedes. They will break
their heads over this, and thus we will undermine the hetman's credit
terribly. Just think, this hits the Swedes and hits Radzivill too.
Kyedani is far from Birji, and Radzivill is still farther from Pontus
de la Gardie. Before they explain to each other what has happened and
how, they will be ready to fight. We will set the traitor against the
invaders; and who will gain by this, if not the Commonwealth?"
"This is excellent counsel, and quite worth the victory. May the
bullets strike him!" said Stankyevich.
"You have the mind of a chancellor," added Mirski, "for this will
disturb their plans."
"Surely we should act thus," said Pan Michael. "I will set them free
to-morrow; but to-day I do not wish to know of anything, for I am
dreadfully wearied. It was as hot in the village as in an oven! Uf! my
arms are paralyzed completely. The officer could not go to-day in any
case, for his face is cut."
"But in what language shall we tell them all this? What is your
counsel, father?" asked Pan Yan.
"I have been thinking of that too," answered Zagloba. "Kovalski told me
that there are two Prussians among his dragoons who know how to jabber
German, and are sharp fellows. Let them tell in German,--which the
Swedes 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 will
have no small profit from him."
"Well done!" said Volodyovski. "Will some of you, gentlemen, be so kind
as to see to this, for I have no voice in my throat from weariness? I
have told the men that we shall stay in this grove till morning. The
villagers will bring us food, and now to sleep! My lieutenant will see
to 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 the
birches; let us go to the stack, we shall sleep like susliks, and to
the road on the morrow. We shall not come back to this country, unless
with Pan Sapyeha against Radzivill."