none other than the owner of the house, the arrogant boyar, Tuhar Wolf.
“Our boyar! Our boyar!” cried some of the guards whose sincerity Maxim had doubted and to whom he had for that reason assigned places among his Tukholians.
“Yes, that is your boyar, all right, an informer, traitor to his fatherland! After this, would you still wish to serve him faithfully?”
“No, no!” cried all the guards together. “Death to the traitor! We will disperse the ranks of the enemy or ourselves perish in the attempt to defend our country!”
Pleased by this revelation, Maxim replied, “Forgive me brothers. For a moment I misjudged you, thinking that perhaps you had intrigued against us with your boyar. But I can see now that I had judged you unfairly. Let us stay together, close to the walls so they cannot surround us in the open and let us try to inflict as many losses among them as possible. The Mongols, as I have heard, are not expert in besieging, especially such a small division of them. We should be entirely successful in repelling their attack.”
Poor Maxim, he tried to instill in others the hope which began to wane in himself from the first moment he had seen the Mongols and particularly now when their superior force spread itself before the eyes of the defenders. However, he had the gift of inspiring his men with confidence both in him and their own ability to meet the enemy successfully. His comrades had occasion to witness more than once his keen, inexhaustible faculty of resource, his perception and judgment in situations of great danger. Blindly trusting his words and his commands each took care to guard his place as long as he could assured that the one next him would be equally well protected.
And now the Mongols in a wide circle three rows deep, besieged the boyar’s house and held sharp stone-tipped arrows within their bows ready to aim at the brave young men who
117
