“By that time the hetman will help us. But come what may, you and I are bound by oath,” said the little knight.
At that moment they looked into each other’s eyes, and Pan Michael asked in a lower voice, “And have you done what I told you?”
“All is ready,” whispered Ketling, in answer; “but I think it will not come to that, for we may hold out very long here, and have many such days as the present.”
“God grant us such a morrow!”
“Amen!” answered Ketling, raising his eyes to heaven.
The thunder of cannon interrupted further conversation. Bombs began to fly against the castle again. Many of them burst in the air, however, and went out like summer lightning.
Ketling looked with the eye of a judge. “At that trench over there from which they are firing,” said he, “the matches have too much sulphur.”
“It is beginning to smoke on other trenches,” said Volodyovski.
And, in fact, it was. As, when one dog barks in the middle of a still night, others begin to accompany, and at last the whole village is filled with barking, so one cannon in the Turkish trenches roused all the neighboring guns, and a crown of bombs encircled the besieged place. This time, however, the enemy fired at the town, not the castle; but from three sides was heard the piercing of mines. Though the mighty rock had almost baffled the efforts of miners, it was clear that the Turks had determined at all cost to blow that rocky nest into the air.
At the command of Ketling and Pan Michael, the defenders began to hurl hand-grenades again, guided by the noise of the hammers. But at night it was impossible to know whether that means of defence caused any damage. Besides, all turned their eyes and attention to the town, against which were flying whole flocks of flaming birds. Some missiles burst in the air; but others, describing a fiery circle in the sky, fell on the roofs of houses. At once a reddish conflagration broke the darkness in a number of places. The Church of St. Catherine was burning, also the Church of St. George in the Russian quarter, and soon the Armenian Cathedral was burning; this, however, had been set on fire during the day; it was merely ignited again by the bombs. The fire increased every moment and lighted up all the neighborhood. The outcry from the town reached the old castle. One might suppose that the whole town was burning.