His first sensation, when he came to himself, was the blood which was flowing from his nose, and a pain in his head, which had become much less powerful. ** It is my soul departing," he thought. — "What will it be like there f Lord, receive my soul in peace! — But one thing is strange," he thought, — "and that is that, though dying, I can still hear so plainly the footsteps of the soldiers and the report of the shots."
" Send some bearers... hey there... the captain is killed! " shouted a voice over his head, which he recognized as the voice of his drummer Ignatieff.
Some one grasped him by the shoulders. He made an effort to open his eyes, and saw overhead the dark blue heavens, the clusters of stars, and two bombs, which were flying over him, one after the other; he saw Ignatieff, the soldiers with the stretcher, the walls of the trench, and all at once he became convinced that he was not yet in the other world.
He had been slightly wounded in the head with a stone. His very first impression was one re-
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s sembling regret; he had so beautifully and so calmly prepared himself for transit yonder that a return to reality, with its bombs, its trenches, and its blood, produced a disagreeable effect on him; his second impression was an involuntary joy that he was alive, and the third a desire to leave the bastion as speedily as possible. The drummer bound up his commander's head with his handkerchief, and, taking him under the arm, he led him to the place where the bandaging was going on.
** But where am I going, and why? " thought the staff-captain, when he recovered his senses a little. — " It is my duty to remain with my men, — the more so as they will soon be out of range of the shots," some voice whispered to him.
" Never mind, brother," he said, pulling his arm away from the obliging drummer. " I will not go to the field-hospital; I will remain with my men."
And he turned back.
" You had better have your wound properly attended to. Your Honor," said Ignatieff. " In the heat of the moment, it seems as if it were a trifle; but it will be the worse if not attended to.
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There is some inflammation rising there... really, now, Your Honor."
Mikhailoff paused for a moment in indecision, and would have followed Ignatieff's advice, in all probability, had he not called to mind how many severely wounded men there must needs be at the field-hospital. *' Perhaps the doctor will smile at my scratch," thought the staff-captain, and he returned with decision to his men, wholly regardless of the drummer's admonitions.
"And where is Officer Praskukhin, who,. was walking with me t " he asked the lieutenant, who was leading the corps when they met.
"I don't know — killed, probably," replied the lieutenant, reluctantly.
*' How is it that you do not know whether he was killed or wounded } He was walking with us. And why have you not carried him with you } "
"How could it be done, brother^ when the place was so hot for us! "
"Ah, how could you do such a thing, Mikhail Ivanowitch! " said Mikhailoff, angrily. — "How could you abandon him if he was alive; and if he was dead, you should still have brought away his body."
" How could he be alive when, as I tell you, I went up to him and saw! " returned the lieutenant.— "As you like, however! Only, his own men might carry him off. Here, you dogs! the cannonade has abated," he added....
Mikhailoff sat down, and clasped his head, which the motion caused to pain him terribly.
" Yes, I must go and get him, without fail; perhaps he is still alive," said Mikhailoff. " It is our duty, Mikhail Ivanowitch! "
Mikhail Ivanowitch made no reply.
" He did not take him at the time, and now the soldiers must be sent alone — and how can they be sent } their lives may be sacrificed in vain, under that hot fire," thought Mikhailoff.
"Children! we must go back — and get the officer who was wounded there in the ditch," he said, in not too loud and commanding a tone, for he felt how unpleasant it would be to the soldiers to obey his order, — and, in fact, as he did not address any one in particular by name, no one set out to fulfil it.
" It is quite possible that he is already dead, and it is not worth luhile to subject the men to unnecessary danger; I alone am to blame for not
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