270 A JACOBITE EXILE

fire of the Cossacks, and feeling that the work had been
done he determined to make one effort to save the men
with him.

“Level your spears, and charge through them shoulder
to shoulder,” he said; “it is your only chance. Once
through, throw away your spears and break up in the dark-
ness; most of you may escape. Now!”

With a shout the Swedes rushed forward in a body;
horses and riders went down before them. There was a
tush from behind. Charlie shouted to the rear rank to
face about, but in the confusion and din his words were
unheard. There was a brief struggle in the darkness.
Charlie emptied his pistols and cut down more than one of
his opponents, then a sword fell on his shoulder, while at
the same moment he was ridden over by a Cossack, and was
stunned by the force of his fall. When he recovered con-
sciousness several men with torches were moving about
him, and at the orders of an officer were examining the
bodies of the fallen. He saw them pass their swords
through the bodies of three of his own men who were lying
near him, and as they came up to him he closed his eyes
expecting a similar fate.

“This is an officer, captain,” one of the torch-bearers
said in Russian.

“Very well; carry him to the camp, then. If he is alive
the general may want to question him.”

Seeing that he breathed, four of the Russian soldiers
took him upon their shoulders and carried him away. ‘The
pain of his wound, caused by the movement, was acute, but
he retained consciousness until, after what seemed to him a
journey of immense length he was again laid down on the
ground, close to a large fire. Several officers stood round
him, and he asked, first in Polish and then in Swedish, for
water, and at the orders of one who seemed of superior
rank to the others, some was at once brought to him.