" Count! I am wounded in my right hand" (and he showed his bleeding hand with a handkerchief tied round it) "and I remained at the front.

I held my sword in my left hand, Count.

All our family--the von Bergs--have been knights!" He said something more, but Rostov did not wait to hear it and rode away.

Having passed the Guards and traversed an empty space, Rostov, to avoid again getting in front of the first line as he had done when the Horse Guards charged, followed the line of reserves, going far round the place where the hottest musket fire and cannonade were heard.

Suddenly he heard musket fire quite close in front of him and behind our troops, where he could never have expected the enemy to be.