From all sides other Cossacks were advancing.
He noticed only now that there were some lying concealed behind the fence on the straw in a confused mass.
He shuddered; thick drops of perspiration stood on his forehead. The beating of his heart filled his head like the noise of a hammer, it seemed to fill everything. In spite of the feeling that he was being forced to do this thing, he again heard the voice calling: 'Yakob, Yakob!'
Up the hillock where Gregor's cottage stood, they advanced on all fours.
He clambered upwards, thinking of his wife, and of the cow he had loosed. Fear veiled his eyes, he saw black spots dancing.
Gregor's cottage was empty as a graveyard. It had been abandoned; the open doors creaked on their hinges. Under the window stood a cradle, covered with snow.
Silently the soldiers surrounded the cottage, and Yakob went with them, as though mesmerized by terror, mute and miserable.
They had hardly got round, when a red glow shot up from the other side of the village. The soldiers threw themselves down in the snow.
The thundering of guns began on all sides; blood-red lights came flying overhead. An appalling noise broke out, reinforced by the echo from the mountains, as though the whole world were going to perish. The Cossacks advanced, trembling.
Yakob advanced with them, for the captain had hit him across the head. He saw stars when he received the blow, gesticulated wildly, and staggered along the road.