Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/45

Rh upon us at a great distance, and their large balls, passing through the brambles, and smashing the boughs of trees with dreadful noise, were falling among us. We had only three or four twelve-pounders, and as soon as the enemy were within the proper distance, we fired upon them, and with such effect, that we could see their columns wavering and panic spreading through their ranks. Our position was on a dry and elevated piece of ground, while the Russians were advancing over marshes, in which cannon and men were sinking at every step. During nearly three hours, we maintained so decided an advantage over them, that General Sierakowski, who was posted with his troops exactly opposite to the enemy, and before the brick-house, came to tell us that the Russians seemed to be on the point of giving up the attack and retreating. But it proved soon to be quite the contrary: the enemy, four times stronger than we, having a large park of artillery, and reckoning, besides, the life of their soldiers as nothing, and not discouraged by the