moved men's hearts in England, and the midshipmen rejoiced at the
thought of striking a blow in so good a cause.

These were the reasons which, in talking the matter over, they
assigned to each other, but in reality their love of adventure and
excitement in no slight degree influenced them. To have taken part in
a real Polish insurrection, to join in guerilla attacks and fierce
onslaughts on Russian columns, to live a wild life in the woods, were
things that appealed strongly to the imagination of the midshipmen;
and in the morning they expressed to Stanislas Chernatony their
willingness to join him, and fight against the Russians until an
opportunity occurred for them to cross the frontier and rejoin the
forces before the Sebastopol.

"Good," the Pole said. "I am heartily glad to have two English
officers fighting under me. The warfare is of a kind very different to
that to which you are accustomed, but I can guarantee that you shall
see that we Poles, undisciplined, badly armed, and fighting a hopeless
battle, can yet die as bravely as your own trained soldiers in the
Crimea. We are now going back to the place we left the day before
yesterday, and which we regard as our headquarters. We had news that
the column we attacked was to set out, and as so far none of our bands
had visited this neighborhood, we thought we might take them by
surprise. We succeeded in doing them much damage, but our success was
not as great as that which we gained in our last fight, when we
succeeded in capturing two cannons. By the way," he said, "you as
marine officers, are accustomed to artillery."

"Yes," Dick replied, "we are drilled, not only with heavy ship's guns,
but with light field-pieces, of which every large vessel carries a few
to be used in case of a landing."

"Capital!" the Pole exclaimed. "We have not a man who has any idea of
artillery, and I will appoint you to the command of the guns. You
shall each pick out as many men as you require, and train them as
artillerymen. This will be an invaluable service to us."

Late at night they reached their halting-place. The guns had been
hidden in a thicket, every man having marched with his leader to the
attack of the column. The next morning thirty-six men were chosen,
eighteen to each gun, in order that the places of those who might be
killed could be filled at once, or, should some more pieces be taken,
men would be available already trained to the work.

For four days drill