After this volley the regimental commander clutched at his leg; several soldiers fell, and a second lieutenant who was holding the flag let it fall from his hands.

It swayed and fell, but caught on the muskets of the nearest soldiers.

The soldiers started firing without orders.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" groaned Kutuzov despairingly and looked around....

"Bolkonski!" he whispered, his voice trembling from a consciousness of the feebleness of age, "Bolkonski!" he whispered, pointing to the disordered battalion and at the enemy, "what's that?" But before he had finished speaking, Prince Andrew, feeling tears of shame and anger choking him, had already leapt from his horse and run to the standard.