the voice of Thaddeus, who was galloping forward repeating the
command. At the entrance of the wood they were stopped by a few
Russian stragglers, who had formed themselves into a body. These men
withstood the first onset of the Poles with considerable steadiness;
but after a short skirmish, they fled, or, perhaps, seemed to fly, a
second time, and took refuge in the bushes, where, still regardless
of orders, their enemies followed. Kosciusko, foreseeing the
consequence of this rashness, ordered Thaddeus to dismount a part of
his squadron, and march after these headstrong men into the forest.
He came up with them on the edge of a heathy tract of land, just as
they were closing in with a band of the enemy's arquebusiers, who,
having kept up a quick running fire as they retreated, had drawn
their pursuers thus far into the thickets. Heedless of anything but
giving their enemy a complete defeat, the Polanders went on, never
looking to the left nor to the right, till at once they found
themselves encompassed by two thousand Muscovite horse, several
battalions of chasseurs, and in front of fourteen pieces of cannon,
which this dreadful ambuscade opened upon them.

Thaddeus threw himself into the midst of his countrymen, and taking
the place of their unfortunate conductor, who had been killed in the
first sweep of the artillery, prepared the men for a desperate stand.
He gave his orders with intrepid coolness--though under a shower of
musketry and a cannonade which carried death in every round--that
they should draw off towards the flank of the battery. He thought not
of himself; and in a few minutes the scattered soldiers were
consolidated into a close body, squared with pikemen, who stood like
a grove of pines in a day of tempest, only moving their heads and
arms. Many of the Russian horse impaled themselves on the sides of
this little phalanx, which they vainly attempted to shake, although