Into the mouth of the pass we rushed, so close to the great boulders that we could distinctly see the muzzles of the black guns.
"Forward!" cried the colonel, waving his sword.
"Forward!" echoed Rakoczy, still smiling; and we ran with such speed that the first discharge checked only those who fell.
The second threw us into some disorder. The colonel was killed outright by a cannon-ball, but Rakoczy took command and led us on gallantly.
We had, however, lost many men; and when, for the third time, the iron balls tore through our ranks, the survivors would have no more of it.
Back they went helter-skelter, tumbling over one another in their eagerness to seek shelter, Rakoczy's orders being unheeded in the stampede.
The attack had hopelessly failed, and it was plain to all that the bravest troops would only be thrown back crushed and bleeding from that lane of death.
The check was a serious one. To turn the position by another pass would cause a delay of several days, which might ruin the whole cause, for we did not know that Windischgratz was still in Pesth.
The artillery duel began again, while we re-formed our ranks and looked about us gloomily.
On our right and left huge precipices, covered with ice and snow, towered skyward.