Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/123

 were coming in a tempest; the rooms were encumbered with the wounded, some of whom were whirling round like drunken men, and clutching at the furniture; the walls and the floor were bespattered with blood; corpses lay across the doorways; the lieutenant had had his arm shattered by a ball; smoke and clouds of dust enveloped everything.

“Courage!” shouted the captain. “Stand firm at your post! Relief is on the way! Courage for a little while longer!”

The Austrians had approached still nearer: their contorted faces were already visible through the smoke; and amid the crash of the firing their furious shouts were heard, uttering insults, suggesting a surrender, and threatening slaughter. Some of the soldiers were terrified, and withdrew from the windows; the sergeants drove them forward again. But the fire of the defence weakened; discouragement was seen on all faces. It was not possible to resist much longer.

Then the fire of the Austrians slackened, and a thundering voice shouted, first in German and then in Italian, “Surrender!”

“No!” shouted the captain from the window.

And the firing recommenced more fast and furious on both sides. More soldiers fell. Already more than one window was without defenders. The fatal moment was near at hand. The captain muttered through his teeth, in a strangled voice, “They are not coming! they are not coming!” and rushed wildly about, twisting his sword in his convulsively clenched