erous. A man went by, uttering frightful shrieks and pressing his
hands upon his protruding entrails; they beheld a horse dragging himself
along with both thighs broken, and these anguishing sights, these
horrors of the battlefield, affected them no longer. They were suffering
from the intolerable heat, the noonday sun that beat upon their backs
and burned like hot coals.

"How thirsty I am!" Maurice murmured. "My throat is like an ash barrel.
Don't you notice that smell of something scorching, a smell like burning
woolen?"

Jean nodded. "It was just the same at Solferino; perhaps it is the smell
that always goes with war. But hold, I have a little brandy left; we'll
have a sup."

And they paused behind the hedge a moment and raised the flask to their
lips, but the brandy, instead of relieving their thirst, burned their
stomach. It irritated them, that nasty taste of burnt rags in their
mouths. Moreover they perceived that their strength was commencing to
fail for want of sustenance and would have liked to take a bite from the
half loaf that Maurice had in his knapsack, but it would not do to stop
and breakfast there under fire, and then they had to keep up with their
comrades. There was a steady stream of men coming up behind them along
the hedge who pressed them forward, and so, doggedly bending their backs
to the task before them, they resumed their course. Presently they made
their final rush and reached the crest. They were on the plateau, at
the very foot of the Calvary, the old weather-beaten cross that stood
between two stunted lindens.

"Good for our side!" exclaimed Jean; "here we are! But the next thing is
to remain here!"

He was right; it was not the pleasantest place in the world to be in,
as Lapoulle remarked in a doleful tone that excited the laughter of the
company. They all lay down again, in a field of stubble, and for all
that three men were killed in quick succession. It was pandemonium
let loose up there on the heights; the projectiles from Saint-Menges,
Fleigneux, and Givonne fell in such numbers that the ground fairly
seemed to smoke, as it does at times under a heavy shower of rain. It
was clear that the position could not be maintained unless artillery
was dispatched at once to the support of the troops who had been sent
on such a hopeless undertaking. General Douay, it was said, had given
instructions to bring up two batteries of the reserve artillery, and the
men were every moment turni