s of the
Russians, keeping up a constant fire, until they joined the main body
in their attack on the Russian rear.

In the battery now they could see little of what was going forward.
The woods were full of dense smoke. The whole Russian column as it
fell back was maintaining a wild fire at random into the bushes around
them.

But though the lads could see nothing, the road in front afforded them
a sure guide for their aim, and ceaselessly the guns kept up their
fire into the retreating mass of Russians.

For half an hour the roar of guns continued unabated, and then, as it
died away, the triumphant shouts of the Pole told them that the
victory was won, and that the Russian column, defeated and shattered,
had retired from the forest and gained the open country beyond. Then
the defenders of the battery raised an answering cheer to their
friends in the distance, and, exhausted with their exertions, threw
themselves on the ground.

Of those working the guns but three had been wounded by rifle bullets
which had passed through the embrasures.

Several of the riflemen had fallen shot through the head, as they
fired over the top of the battery, while thirty or forty lay killed
and wounded behind the abattis.

After a few minutes' rest the party advanced, and soon joined their
friends, who saluted them with loud acclamations. The victory had been
a complete one. The whole of the spare ammunition and stores had
fallen into the hands of the victors, upon overpowering the
rear-guard, had cut the traces and carried off the horses. The column
had made a sturdy resistance at this point, and although the desperate
onslaughts of the scythe-armed Poles had several times broken their
ranks and carried slaughter among them, they had yet stood firm, and
it was only the crushing of the head of the column, and its subsequent
retreat, which had at last decided the day.

For some hundred yards in front of the guns the ground was covered
with Russian dead. Most of the artillery horses had fallen, and but
two of the guns had been carried off the field. The loss of the enemy
in killed and wounded left upon the ground amounted to nearly 800, and
the wounded were all killed as soon as discovered by the infuriated
peasants.

Of the Poles some 250 had been put _hors-de-combat_. The delight of
the insurgents was unbounded. It was by far the most important victory
which they had won. They had now come into possession of sufficient
muskets