With swords, scythes and clubs they fell on the six men.

Their numbers worked to their disadvantage.

Three of the men surrounding the woman, the Frenchman and the two Russian guardsmen, were accomplished swordsmen.

The Cossacks were not to be disdained in rough-and-tumble fighting and the Englishman was a valiant ally.

Their racial antagonisms were forgot in their common danger and the deadly peril of the woman.
The swords of the soldiers flashed as they thrust and parried.