set off an hour
before daylight, and just as the dawn began, arrived at the spot where
the struggle was to take place.

They selected a point where a rise of six feet afforded a view of the
road far in advance, and placed the guns just so far behind the trees
that while they would sweep the road, their muzzles only could be seen
by an advancing foe. Two large trees felled and stripped of their
boughs were placed across the road in front of the guns, being, when
placed, just high enough for the gunners to look over them. A strong
party were then set to work to cut sods, and with these an earthwork
was thrown up across the road, four feet high. Embrasures were left
for the guns, and these were made very narrow, as the fire would be
directly in front. On either side trees were felled with their boughs
outward, so as to form a chevaux-de-frise, extending at an angle on
each side of the road for fifty yards in advance of the guns.

Fifty of the men were to remain in the road in the rear of the guns,
in readiness to man the earthwork, should the Russians advance to take
it by storm, while the rest were to lie down behind the
chevaux-de-frise and to open fire upon both flanks of the advancing
column. A few green boughs were scattered on the road in front of the
battery, and the lads, going along the roads by which the Russians
would advance, were pleased to see that at a distance the work was
scarcely noticeable. Just as they had finished their preparations
Stanislas with the main body arrived, and all were greatly pleased at
the position which the boys had constructed. The guns and ammunition
wagons had been dragged along by ropes to which hundreds of the
peasants had harnessed themselves.

The Poles now took up the positions assigned to them for the attack.
Stanislas and his principal officers held a consultation with the
midshipmen, and it was agreed that the Russian column should be
allowed to approach near to the guns before these opened fire, and
that their doing so should be the signal for the general attack upon
the column. Half an hour later a peasant who had been placed near the
edge of the wood announced that the Russian column was in sight, that
so far as he could judge from his observations made from a tree-top,
it numbered about 2000 infantry, with a battery of artillery.

"That is just a fair match for us," Stanislaus said. "The 500 men
extra do not count for much, and their superiority of arms will be
cou