He left the intrenchment, and all the officers followed him.
"For the love of God, what are you doing?" asked Volodyovski, "What does this mean? Why, you don't know service and discipline, that you interfere in the conversation of your superiors. The prince is a mild-mannered man, but in time of war there is no joking with him."
"Oh, that is nothing, Pan Michael! Konyetspolski, the father, was a fierce lion, and he depended greatly on my counsels; and may the wolves eat me up to-day, if it was not for that reason that he defeated Gustavus Adolphus twice. I know how to talk with magnates. Didn't you see now how the prince was astonished when I advised him to make a sally? If God gives a victory, whose service will it be,--whose? Will it be yours?"
At that moment Zatsvilikhovski came up. "What's this? They are rooting and rooting, like so many pigs!" said he, pointing to the field.
"I wish they were pigs," said Zagloba. "Pork sausage would be cheap, but their carrion is not fit for dogs. Today the soldiers had to dig a well in Firlei's quarters, for the water in the eastern pond was spoiled from the bodies. Toward morning the bile burst in the dog-brothers, and they all floated. Now next Friday we cannot use fish, because the fish have eaten their flesh."
"True," said Zatsvilikhovski; "I am an old soldier, but I have not seen so many bodies, unless at Khotím, at the assault of the janissaries on our camp."
"You will see more of them yet, I tell you."
"I think that this evening, or before evening, they will move to the storm again."
"But I say they will leave us in peace till to-morrow."
Scarcely had Zagloba finished speaking, when long white puffs of smoke blossomed out on the breastwork, and balls flew over the intrenchment.