having seen to it. I will go myself and learn whether he is alive. It is my duty," said Mikhatloff to himself.
" Mikhail Ivanowitch! Lead the men forward, and I will overtake you," he said, and, pulling up his cloak with one hand, and with the other constantly touching the image of Saint Mitrofaniy, in which he cherished a special faith, he set off on a run along the trench.
Having convinced himself that Praskukhin was dead, he dragged himself back, panting, and supporting with his hand the loosened bandage and his head, which began to pain him severely. The battalion had already reached the foot of the hill, and a place almost out of range of shots, when Mikhailoff overtook it. I say, almost out of range, because some stray bombs struck here and there.
" At all events, I must go to the hospital tomorrow, and put down my name," thought the staff-captain, as the medical student assisting the doctors bound his wound.
XIV.
Hundreds of bodies, freshly smeared with blood, of men who two hours previous had been filled with divers lofty or petty hopes and desires, now lay, with stiffened limbs, in the dewy, flowery valley which separated the bastion from the trench, and on the level floor of the chapel for the dead in Sevastopol; hundreds of men crawled, twisted, and groaned, with curses and prayers on their parched lips, some amid the corpses in the flower-strewn vale, others on stretchers, on cots, and on the blood-stained floor of the hospital.
And still, as on the days preceding, the dawn glowed, over Sapun Mountain, the twinkling stars paled, the white mist spread abroad from the dark sounding sea, the red glow illuminated the east, long crimson cloudlets darted across the blue horizon j and still, as on days preceding, the powerful, all-beautiful sun rose up, giving promise of joy, love, and happiness to all who dwell in the world.
no SEVAS TO POL IN MA Y.
XV..
On the following day, the band of the chasseurs was playing again on the boulevard, and again officers, cadets, soldiers, and young women were promenading in festive guise about the pavilion and through the low-hanging alleys of fragrant white acacias in bloom.
Kalugin, Prince Galtsin, and some colonel or other were walking arm-in-arm near the pavilion, and discussing the engagement of the day before. As always happens in such cases, the chief governing thread of the conversation was not the engagement itself, but the part which those who were narrating the story of the affair took in it.
Their faces and the sound of their voices had a serious, almost melancholy expression, as though the loss of the preceding day had touched and saddened them deeply; but, to tell the truth, as none of them had lost any one very near to him, this expression of sorrow was an official expres-
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
sion, which they merely felt it to be their duty to exhibit.
On the contrary, Kalugin and the colonel were ready to see an engagement of the same sort every day, provided that they might receive a gold sword or the rank of major-general — notwithstanding the fact that they were very fine fellows.
I like it when any warrior who destroys millions to gratify his ambition is called a monster. Only question any Lieutenant Petrushkoff, and Sub-Lieutenant Antonoff, and so on, on their word of honor, and every one of them is a petty Napoleon, a petty monster, and ready to bring on a battle on the instant, to murder a hundred men, merely for the sake of receiving an extra cross or an increase of a third in his pay.
"No, excuse me," said the colonel; "it began first on the left flank. I was there myself''
"Possibly," answered Kalugin. ** I was farther on the right; I went there twice. Onee I was in search of the general y and the second time I tvefzt merely to ijtspect the lodgements. It zvas a hot place:'
" Yes, of course, Kalugin knows," said Prince
Galtsin to the colonel. " You know that V. told me to-day that you were a brave fellow...."
** But the losses, the losses were terrible," said the colonel. **/ lost four hundred men fro7n my regiment. It's a zvonder that I escaped from tJiere alive.'^
At this moment, the figure of Mikha'i'loff, with his head bandaged, appeared at the other extremity of the boulevard, coming to meet these gentlemen.
" What, are you wounded, captain? " said Kalugin.
"Yes, slightly, with a stone," replied Mikha'floff.
** Has the flag been lowered yet.? " * inquired Prince Galtsin, gazing over the staff-captain*s cap, and addressing himself to no one in particular.