KILLED ON THE SPOT.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 2502, 6 September 1890, Page 5

KILLED ON THE SPOT.

(riioai Tolstoi’s “ siege of Sebastopol.”) No sooner had Praskukhin, who had been walking beside Mikhailoff, taken leave of Kalugin, and betaking himself to a somewhat safer place, had begun to recover hi*. *.piriU somewhat, than lie caught sight cf a flash of lightning behind him flaring up vividly, heard the shout of the sentinel, “ Mortar !’* and the words of tho soldiers who wore marching behind, “ It,* a flying straight at the bastion !” Mikhailoff glanced round. The brilliant point- of the bomb seemed to be suspended directly over liia head iu such a position that it was absolutely impossible to determine its course. But this lusted only for a second. The bomb came faster uud faster, nearer and nearer; the sparks of the fiise were already visible, aud the fateful wliistfe was au&ibla, and it descended straight iu the middledf I ha battalion. “ Lie down !”shouted a veice.

Mikhailoff and Praskukhin threw themselves on the ground. Praskukhin shut his eyes, and only heard tho bomb crash against the hard earth somewhere in the vicinity. A second passed, which feenied au kour,~and the bomb had not buret. Praskukhin waa alarmed ; had he felt cowardly for nothing ? Perhaps the .bomb lind fallen at a distance, and it merely seemed to him that the fuse was hissing near him. He opened his and saw with satisfaction that Mikhailoff was lying motion!*-w ou the earth, at his very feet. But theu bis eye* encountered for a moment the glowing fuse of the bomb, which was twisting about at tbs distance of an arshin from him. A cold horror, which excluded every other thought and feeling, took possession of his whole being. lie covered E» race with his hands. Another second passed—a second ia ythieu a whole world of thoughts, feelings, hope*, aud memories flashed through his mind. “ Which will be killed, Mikhailoff or I ? Or both together? Ami if it is I, where will it strike ? If in the head, then all is ©ver with me ; but if in the leg, they will cut it ©ff» and I shall ask them to be sure to give me chloroform, and I may still remain among Che livibg. But perhaps uo one but Mikhail©ff will be killed ; then I will relate hew we were waSktqg along together, and how lie was Jtjll©d aud his blood spurted over me. No, it is nearer to me • . . it will kill me 1” Theu he remembered the twenty roubles which ho owed Mikhailoff, and recalled another debt iu Petersburg, which ©ught t© Rave been paid long ago ; the gipsy air which he had sung the previous evening recurred to him. The woman whom he loved appeared t© hia imagination in a cap with lilae ribbons, a man who had insulted linn five years before, aud whom he had not paid ©ff for his insult, came to his miud, though inextri«ahly interwoven with these and a thousand ether memories, the feeling of the moment—tho fear ©f death—never deserted him for an instant. “ But perhaps it will not burst,” ho thought, aud, with the decision of despair, he to open his eyes. But at that instant, through the crevice of his eyelids, hia eyes were smitten with a rod fire, and somet-hißg struck him in the centre of his breast with a frightful ei ash ; he ran off, he knew not whither, stumbled over his sword, which had got between his legs, aw’d fell over on his side. “ Thank God ! lam only bruised,’-’ was his first thought, and he tried to touch nis breast with his Hands ; but his aim* seemed fettered, aud pincers were pressing his head. The soldiers flitted before his eyes, and he an consciously counted them One, two, three soldiers; and there is an officer, wrapped upiu his cloak,” he thought. Then a flash pn»3ed lielV.ro liis eyes, and he thought that something had tieen fired off. Was It the mortars, or the cannon ? It must have been the cannon. And there was still another shot ; and there wets more soldiers—live, six, seven soldiers were passing by him. Then suddenly ho felt afraid that they would crueh him. He wanted to shout to them that he was braised, but hn mouth was so dry that his tongue clove to hi* palate, and lie was tortured by a frightful thirst. He felt that he was wet about the breast; this sensation of dampness reminded lum of water, and ho oven wanted fo drink this, whatever it was. “ I must have brought the blood when I fell,” he thought, and, beginning to give way more arol more to terror, lest tho soldiers who passed slould crush him, he collected all his strength, and tried to cry—- “ Take me with you !” but, instead of this. h« groaned so terribly that it frightened him to hear himself. Then m«re red fires flashed in his eyes, uud it seemed to him :i9 though the soldiers were laying stones upon liira : the fires danced more an*l morn rarely, tho stones which they piled on him ©ppresso.l him mote and more. He exerted all liis strength in order to cast off the etones ; he stretched hiuwdt’ out. and no longer saw or heard cr thought or felt anything. He had been kilted on the epo* by a splinter of shell in the middle cf the breast.