Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/37

The following day, Tuesday, 7th October, the small army started, without waiting, either for reinforcements from Warsaw or Poninski's corps. The weather was beautiful; our soldiers were laughing and singing. We halted near Zelechow, a small town that had been laid waste by the Russians. Towards the evening we arrived at Korytnica, a village still more desolate. The house of the lord of the manor was appointed for our head-quarters. As the Cossacks had been there a few days before, everything was in a state of confusion; chairs hacked with swords, desks, chests of drawers smashed; books and papers, cut in pieces, strewed the floor. On the other side of the village there were two ranges of hills separated from each other by a deep ravine, covered with brushwood. Our little army took up its position on one of these ranges, having the ravine on its front, and its flanks covered by a wood. It rained heavily on the following morning, and towards twelve o'clock one of our patroles brought us ten hussars of Wol-