heights of Illy and Saint-Menges, whence,
if they could not maintain their position, they would at least have been
free to cross over into Belgium? There were two points that appeared
to him especially threatening, the _mamelon_ of Hattoy, to the north of
Floing on the left, and the Calvary of Illy, a stone cross with a
linden tree on either side, the highest bit of ground in the surrounding
country, to the right. General Douay was keenly alive to the importance
of these eminences, and the day before had sent two battalions to occupy
Hattoy; but the men, feeling that they were "in the air" and too remote
from support, had fallen back early that morning. It was understood that
the left wing of the 1st corps was to take care of the Calvary of Illy.
The wide expanse of naked country between Sedan and the Ardennes
forest was intersected by deep ravines, and the key of the position
was manifestly there, in the shadow of that cross and the two lindens,
whence their guns might sweep the fields in every direction for a long
distance.

Two more cannon shots rang out, quickly succeeded by a salvo; they
detected the bluish smoke rising from the underbrush of a low hill to
the left of Saint-Menges.

"Our turn is coming now," said Jean.

Nothing more startling occurred just then, however. The men, still
preserving their formation and standing at ordered arms, found something
to occupy their attention in the fine appearance made by the 2d
division, posted in front of Floing, with their left refused and facing
the Meuse, so as to guard against a possible attack from that quarter.
The ground to the east, as far as the wood of la Garenne, beneath Illy
village, was held by the 3d division, while the 1st, which had lost
heavily at Beaumont, formed a second line. All night long the engineers
had been busy with pick and shovel, and even after the Prussians had
opened fire they were still digging away at their shelter trenches and
throwing up epaulments.

Then a sharp rattle of musketry, quickly silenced, however, was heard
proceeding from a point beneath Floing, and Captain Beaudoin received
orders to move his company three hundred yards to the rear. Their new
position was in a great field of cabbages, upon reaching which the
captain made his men lie down. The sun had not yet drunk up the moisture
that had descended on the vegetables in the darkness, and every fold
and crease of the thick, golden-green leaves was filled with trembling