Nicholas pointed his revolver full in the man’s face and fired, but his aim was unsteady. He had missed. Again he pulled the trigger, but it had been the last shot. The man sprang upon him. The report, however, had attracted the notice of a picket of Russian soldiers, who, well aware of the deeds of foul villainy that are practised by the followers of an army on battle-fields at night, immediately rushed up and secured the three men.
“They are murderers,” exclaimed Nicholas in reply to a question from the sergeant in command.
“Lead them out,” said the sergeant promptly.
The men were bound and set up in a row.
“Ready—present!”
A volley rang out in the night air, and three more corpses were added to the death-roll of the day.
It was summary justice, but richly deserved. Thereafter the soldiers made a rough-and-ready stretcher of muskets, on which Nicholas, who had fainted, was carefully laid and borne from the field.