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"Yes; it has taken the place of the M regiment. Go to the field-hospital; some of our men are there, and they will show you the way."
" Well, and are my quarters on the Morskaya still intact.?"
** Why, my good fellow, they were smashed to bits long ago by the bombs. You will not recognize Sevastopol now; there's not a single woman there now, nor any inns nor music; the last establishment took its departure yesterday. It has become horribly dismal there now.... Farewell! "
And the officer rode on his way at a trot.
All at once, Volodya became terribly frightened; it seemed to him as though a cannon-ball or a splinter of bomb would fly in their direction, and strike him directly on the head. This damp darkness, all these sounds, especially the angry splashing of the waves, seemed to be saying to him that he ought not to go any farther, that nothing good awaited him yonder, that he would never again set foot on the ground upon this side of the bay, that he must turn about at once, and flee somewhere or other, as far as possible from this terrible haunt of death. *' But j perhaps it is too late now, everything is settled," thought he, trembling partly at this thought and partly because the water had soaked through his boots and wet his feet.
Volodya heaved a deep sigh, and went a little apart from his brother.
" Lord, will they kill me — me in particular? Lord, have mercy on me! " said he, in a whisper, and he crossed himself.
" Come, Volodya, let us go on! " said the elder brother, when their litile c^rt had driven upon the bridge. " Did you see that bomb? "
On the bridge, the brothers met wagons filled with the wounded, with gabions, and one loaded with furniture, which was driven by a woman. On the further side no one detained them.
Clinging instinctively to the walls of the Nikolaevsky battery, the brothers listened in silence to the noise of the bombs, exploding overhead, and to the roar of the fragments, showering down from above, and came to that spot in the battery where the image was. There they learned that the fifth light battery, to which Volodya had been assigned, was stationed on the Korabelnaya, and they decided that he should go, in spite of
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the danger, and pass the night with the elder in the fifth bastion, and that he should from there join his battery the next-day. They turned into the corridor, stepping over the legs of the sleeping soldiers, who were lying all along the walls of the battery, and at last they arrived at the place where the wounded were attended to.
X.
As they entered the first room, surrounded with cots on which lay the wounded, and permeated with that frightful and disgusting hospital odor, they met two Sisters of Mercy, who were coming to meet them.
One woman, of fifty, with black eyes, and a stern expression of countenance, was carrying bandages and lint, and was giving strict orders to a young fellow, an assistant surgeon, who was following her; the other, a very pretty girl of twenty, with a pale and delicate little fair face, gazed in an amiably helpless way from beneath her white cap, held her hands in the pockets of her apron, as she walked beside the elder woman, and seemed to be afraid to quit her side.
Kozeltzoff addressed to them the question whether they knew where Martzoff was — the man whose leg had been torn off on the day before.
*' He belonged to the P regiment, did he not? " inquired the elder. ** Is he a relative of yours? "
"No, a comrade."
*'Show them the way," said she, in French, to the young sister. " Here, this way," and she approached a wounded man, in company with the assistant.
" Come along; what are you staring at } " said Kozeltzoff to Volodya, who, with uplifted eyebrows and somewhat suffering expression of countenance, could not tear himself away, but continued to stare at the wounded. ''Come, let us go."
Volodya went off with his brother, still continuing to gaze about him, however, and repeating unconsciously: —
" Ah, my God! Ah, my God! "
" He has probably not been here long } " inquired the sister of Kozeltzoff, pointing at Volodya, who, groaning and sighing, followed them through the corridor.
" He has but just arrived."
The pretty little sister glanced at Volodya, and suddenly burst out crying. " My God! my God! when will there be an end to all this } " she said, with the accents of despair. They entered the
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