Their eyes told one another what was coming.

The fate which had overtaken so many border forts was to be theirs.

They were lost! And every man thought not of himself, cared not for himself, but for those innocent children, those brave young girls and heroic women.
A man can die.

He is glorious when he calmly accepts death; but when he fights like a tiger, when he stands at bay his back to the wall, a broken weapon in his hand, bloody, defiant, game to the end, then he is sublime.

Then he wrings respect from the souls of even his bitterest foes.