ere calling to
it: "Where are you going, blind man! get to the right!" and if it was
going straight, they encouraged it: "good, good!" and so they spoke to it
until it fell right in the middle of the enemy line and then they were
applauding it.

I don't know now, how many hours that cannonade lasted. Although we passed
each other feverishly beside the cannon, in the same way this play lasted
too long, to not wish for nightfall. The Russian artillery had an obvious
advantage over us, both in numbers, and in cannon gauge. They had already
hit a few of our people, many were wounded, but everyone, although
extremely tired, equally didn't sink in spirits and nobody even thought
about retreat.

Suddenly from the left cannons roared horribly. The Muscovites had placed
a new battery right there, which fired at us from the side. We turned two
of our cannons against this new threat, with whom we needed to chat; but
our position was becoming more and more unpleasant, because six field
cannons to answer twenty heavy gauge cannons is no small matter! Our
soldiers, at the sight of this imbalance of power, seemed to be stirred.
Now their movements weakened, now our shots happened less frequently, and
what's more the anecdotes and jokes ceased completely.

It seems that our commander was waiting until the Muscovites separated
their forces, in order to profit from that moment and strike them; I
suppose, although they aren't tempting themselves to debate the battle
plan. I only know that at the most critical moment we heard from the left
a horse's hoofbeat, rushing at a gallop and a few minutes later that
second battery went silent, when it was conquered.

Our commander turned around and dashed to the main strength of our troops,
calling: "Forward at a trot! everyone forward!" And our entire cavalry,
drawn up in two rows, moved out, passing our battery. "They're going to
charge!" cried our gunners and at once we ceased firing. How did it look?
The young lancers with eager gaze, fevered face, burst impatiently
forward, but advised or unadvised they still needed to obey the strict
orders of the commander, who still repeated: "Trot! forward! trot!" You
could see from the movement of the flags, how feverishly the soldiers'
hands were twitching. In the end the trumpets sounded, flags descended and
now they kicked themselves off towards the enemy. "Forward! Gallop!
everyone forward!"

They took off--we stayed by our cannons, doing nothin