Just as they had finished their preparations Stanislas with the main body arrived, and all were greatly pleased at the position which the boys had constructed.

The guns and ammunition wagons had been dragged along by ropes to which hundreds of the peasants had harnessed themselves.
The Poles now took up the positions assigned to them for the attack.
Stanislas and his principal officers held a consultation with the midshipmen, and it was agreed that the Russian column should be allowed to approach near to the guns before these opened fire, and that their doing so should be the signal for the general attack upon the column.

Half an hour later a peasant who had been placed near the edge of the wood announced that the Russian column was in sight, that so far as he could judge from his observations made from a tree-top, it numbered about 2000 infantry, with a battery of artillery.
"That is just a fair match for us," Stanislaus said.

"The 500 men extra do not count for much, and their superiority of arms will be counterbalanced by our advantages of surprise, and to the effect which cannon brought against them for the first time may exercise on the minds of the soldiers." Presently along the straight road the black column of the enemy could be seen.

They were advancing in a heavy mass, some forty men abreast, and were preceded at a distance of 300 yards by an advance guard of 200 men.