Meantime he heard the whistling and the crash of the balls in the rooms below, the voice of command, the shouts of rage of the officers and sergeants; the sharp cries of the wounded, and the noise of broken furniture and crumbling plaster.
“Courage! Valor!” he cried, his eyes following the drummer in the distance. “Forward! Run! Malediction! He stops! Ah, he is up again, forward!”
An officer out of breath comes to tell him that the enemy, without ceasing the fire, wave a white handkerchief, demanding their surrender.
“Let no one answer!” shouts the captain, without taking his eyes from the boy, who was now in the valley, but who no longer ran, and who seemed hopeless of reaching the regiment.
“Forward! Run!” cried the captain with teeth and fists clenched. “Bleed to death, die, unfortunate boy, but reach your destination!” Then he uttered a horrible oath. “Ah, the infamous idler has sat down!”
In fact, up to that moment the boy’s head, that could be seen above the wheat, now disappeared as if he had fallen. After a moment his head was again seen, then he was lost behind the wheat field, and the captain saw him no more.
Then he hastened down. The balls rained, the rooms were full of wounded, some of whom rolled over like drunken men, catching at the furniture: the walls and floors were covered with blood. Dead bodies lay across the threshold; the lieutenant’s arm was broken by a ball. Smoke and powder filled the rooms.
“Courage!” shouted the captain. “Stand to your post! Succor is coming! Courage a little longer!”
The Austrians had approached closer. Their disfigured faces could be seen through the smoke. Through the crash of balls could be heard the savage cries insulting them, demanding their surrender, and threatening to cut their throats. A soldier, terrified, withdrew from the window, and the sergeants again pushed him forward.
The fire of the besieged slackened. Discouragement showed on every face; resistance was no longer possible. The moment came when the Austrians redoubled their efforts, and a voice thundered, at first in German, then in Italian: