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Slowly the breeze drifted it away.

The windmill had ceased to exist!

At this sight the animals' courage returned to them.

The fear and despair they had felt a moment earlier were drowned in their rage against this vile, contemptible act.

A mighty cry for vengeance went up, and without waiting for further orders they charged forth in a body and made straight for the enemy.

This time they did not heed the cruel pellets that swept over them like hail.

It was a savage, bitter battle.

The men fired again and again, and, when the animals got to close quarters, lashed out with their sticks and their heavy boots.

A cow, three sheep, and two geese were killed, and nearly everyone was wounded.

Even Napoleon, who was directing operations from the rear, had the tip of his tail chipped by a pellet.

But the men did not go unscathed either.

Three of them had their heads broken by blows from Boxer's hoofs; another was gored in the belly by a cow's horn; another had his trousers nearly torn off by Jessie and Bluebell.

And when the nine dogs of Napoleon's own bodyguard, whom he had instructed to make a detour under cover of the hedge, suddenly appeared on the men's flank, baying ferociously, panic overtook them.

They saw that they were in danger of being surrounded.

Frederick shouted to his men to get out while the going was good, and the next moment the cowardly enemy was running for dear life.

The animals chased them right down to the bottom of the field, and got in some last kicks at them as they forced their way through the thorn hedge.

They had won, but they were weary and bleeding.

Slowly they began to limp back towards the farm.

The sight of their dead comrades stretched upon the grass moved some of them to tears.

And for a little while they halted in sorrowful silence at the place where the windmill had once stood.

Yes, it was gone; almost the last trace of their labour was gone! Even the foundations were partially destroyed.

And in rebuilding it they could not this time, as before, make use of the fallen stones.

This time the stones had vanished too.

The force of the explosion had flung them to distances of hundreds of yards.

It was as though the windmill had never been.

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