Play piquet

Valentin was shaking like a leaf just he realized that he would be in the first flight of a battle.

"We will advance here," the Moscow voivode did not listen to Valentin's arguments at all. "Lithuanian partners have already been warned, the plan has been confirmed."

But the attack failed from the very beginning. The horses were drowning in the mud along with the riders, the wheels of the cannons fell off. Offensive remarks and shots from crossbows came from the fortress. Swearing were torrenting over the field, each captain considered the other to be guilty.

Finally, without an order, we began to retreat (rather to crawl out) back.

***

"The war is a job of carrying heavy loads," Valentin said when Nicolas and I was dragging pischals up the hill. "Be patient, it's a war."

We started fortifying a piquet.

"If he says, the war is a digging, I shall hit him with a shovel over his blunt head," Nicolas said to me.

Lithuanian service Tatars staged a trick ride in front of our fortifications in the evening. It got on my nerves, I trembled with fear and tried to shoot at them. But Nicolas was as calm as northern snow.

"Don't worry, they won't come here today, they're afraid of themselves," he said yawning.

"Piquet! Piquet! We built a piquet! Piquet! Piquet! We played piquet!" Nicolas hummed the old Breton song.

***

Next morning Valentin missed the enemy attack because he was using his naked eyes. They had shown up all of a sudden early in the morning and started the cruel attack. Our encounter with the enemy was ended very quickly, we fled from them. Nicodemus was killed.

"Scoundrels! Scoundrels!" shouted Valentin shaking his fists. "Lithuanian pigs, you will kiss my fat Astrakhan ass!"

"You don't seem to get it, we just got our butt kicked!" Nicholas told him angrily.