"I depart. But I shall come back again.
"If in the interval you dare to stir, I will extirpate you from the face of the earth; and then, that the seed of the Serbs may be extinct, I, the last of them, will shoot myself."
The success of this first attempt so encouraged the General, that, after much persuasion, he gave a solemn promise to make a speech to his army when next they went into action.
On the eve of the battle, Dámjánics felt his spirits extraordinarily low.
"Strange," thought he to himself, "never yet have I trembled at the approach of a fight, but now I feel as if I had no stomach for it." And he sought within himself the cause of this unaccustomed mood, but all in vain.
Presently, however, one of his staff-officers came to remind him that, before the next day's battle, they expected to hear the speech he had promised them.
"Devil take it!" cried the General. "That was what made me shake in my boots. But never fear, it shall be done—I will venture it—the speech you shall have."
He had drawn out his plan of battle in a quarter of an hour. But morning dawned whilst he was still hammering at his speech.
The troops stood in order of battle. Dámjánics rode along the front of the line. Everybody knew he was to make a speech, and what a cruel task it was to him.
Before the colours of the ninth battalion he halted, raised his hat and spoke: