«Stop! stop!»
«Forward!» cried Kovalski.
«Yield!» was cried from the road.
«Fire!» commanded in answer Kovalski.
Dull silence followed,--not a single dragoon fired. Pan Roh was dumb for a moment; then he rushed as if wild on his own dragoons.
«Fire, dog-faiths!» roared he, with a terrible voice; and with one blow of his fist he knocked from his horse the nearest soldier.
Others began to draw back before the rage of the man, but no one obeyed the command. All at once they scattered, like a flock of frightened partridges, in the twinkle of an eye.
«Still I would have those soldiers shot!» muttered Mirski.
Meanwhile Kovalski, seeing that his own men had left him, turned his horse to the attacking ranks.
«For me death is there!» cried he, with a terrible voice.
And he sprang at them,
