The thought of his brother occurred to his mind for a single instant. "May God grant him the same good-fortune," he said to himself.
But the same fate did not await Volodya. He was listening to a tale which Vasin was in the act of relating to him, when there was a cry,--"The French are coming!" The blood fled for a moment to Volodya's heart, and he felt his cheeks turn cold and pale. For one second he remained motionless, but, on glancing about him, he perceived that the soldiers were buttoning up their coats with tolerable equanimity, and crawling out, one after the other. One even, probably Melnikoff, remarked, in a jesting way:--
"Go out and offer them the bread and salt of hospitality, children!"
Volodya, in company with Vlang, who never separated from him by so much as a step, crawled out of the bomb-proof, and ran to the battery.
There was no artillery firing whatever in progress on either side. It was not so much the sight of the soldiers' composure which aroused his courage as the pitiful and undisguised cowardice of Vlang. "Is it possible for me to be like him?" he said to himself, and he ran on gayly up to the breastworks, near which his mortars stood. It was clearly apparent to him that the French were making straight for him through an open space, and that masses of them, with their bayonets glittering in the sun, were moving in the nearest trenches.
One, a short, broad-shouldered fellow, in zouave uniform, and armed with a sword, ran on in front and leaped the ditch.
"Fire grape-shot!" shouted Volodya, hastening from the banquette; but the soldiers had already made their preparations without waiting for his orders, and the metallic sound of the grape-shot which they discharged shrieked over his head, first from one and then from the other mortar.
"First! second!" commanded Volodya, running from one mortar to the other, and utterly oblivious of danger.
On one side, and near at hand, the crash of musketry from our men under shelter, and anxious cries, were heard.
All at once a startling cry of despair, repeated by several voices, was heard on the left: "They are surrounding us! They are surrounding us!"
Volodya looked round at this shout. Twenty Frenchmen made their appearance in the rear. One of them, a handsome man with a black beard, was in front of all; but, after running up to within ten paces of the battery, he halted, and fired straight at Volodya, and then ran towards him once more.