"No," replied the colonel, "I cannot. I promised to hold this ground for twenty-four hours, and I must remain for one hour longer." "But we cannot go without you," cried the officers. "Obey my orders! Return to your troops and retire with them!" said the colonel sternly. Military discipline permitted the officers to do nothing but obey. The colonel was left with his orderly upon the top of the hill up which the Austrians were advancing. The orderly continued firing until the first platoon of the enemy were upon them, when he fell, and the colonel was left standing alone. "Where is the Thirteenth Regiment?" asked the Austrian officer. "I am the Thirteenth Regiment," replied the colonel with a smile. "Then surrender," cried the officer. "You insult me by asking me, a colonel in the Serbian army, to surrender," replied the colonel as he raised his revolver. But the Austrians were watching sharply and fired first, and the brave colonel fell mortally wounded. He was carried back of the Austrian lines in an ambulance. When the Austrian general was told the story, he hurried to the hospital and found Colonel Batsicht still alive. The Austrian told him that it was sad indeed to see such a brave man dying and that he was sorry the colonel had not surrendered. "I am not sorry, General," replied the colonel. A few hours later he died, and was buried with military honors. The Serbian soldiers and the Serbian people will never forget him. He has now become one of their national heroes. Their imaginative and poetical natures see him now as one greater than a mere man, as a sort of superman with the attributes of a god. So they sing in the valley of the Vardar and in the meadows and mountains of Montenegro and Albania the sad but spirited song of which the words in English are:-- "Colonel Batsicht, the Austrians are a thousand to one, but what does it matter? You are only one, yourself, but you are Colonel Batsicht! Were the Austrians as many as the leaves in the forests and their rush to attack more violent than the flood of the Vardar in the spring time, you would even then be their equal, Colonel Batsicht!" WHERE ARE YOU GOING, GREAT-HEART? Where are you going, Great-Heart, With your eager face and your fiery grace?-- Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To fight a fight with all my might, For Truth and Justice, God and Right, To grace all Life with His fair Light." Then God go with you, Great-Heart! Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To beard the Devil in his den; To smite him with the strength of ten; To set at large the souls of men." Then God go with you, Great-Heart! Where are you going, Great-Heart? "To end the rule of knavery; To break the yoke of slavery; To give the world delivery." Then God go with you, Great-Heart! * * * *