ent
position.

"Lie down, will you! and make believe dead!"

But they were both deeply interested in watching the maneuvers of the
battery, and never once removed their eyes from it; it cheered their
heart to witness the cool and intrepid activity of those men, who, they
hoped, might yet bring victory to them.

The battery had wheeled into position on a bare summit to the left,
where it brought up all standing; then, quick as a flash, the cannoneers
leaped from the chests and unhooked the limbers, and the drivers,
leaving the gun in position, drove fifteen yards to the rear, where they
wheeled again so as to bring team and limber face to the enemy and there
remained, motionless as statues. In less time than it takes to tell
it the guns were in place, with the proper intervals between them,
distributed into three sections of two guns each, each section commanded
by a lieutenant, and over the whole a captain, a long maypole of a
man, who made a terribly conspicuous landmark on the plateau. And this
captain, having first made a brief calculation, was heard to shout:

"Sight for sixteen hundred yards!"

Their fire was to be directed upon a Prussian battery, screened by some
bushes, to the left of Fleigneux, the shells from which were rendering
the position of the Calvary untenable.

"Honore's piece, you see," Maurice began again, whose excitement was
such that he could not keep still, "Honore's piece is in the center
section. There he is now, bending over to speak to the gunner; you
remember Louis, the gunner, don't you? the little fellow with whom
we had a drink at Vouziers? And that fellow in the rear, who sits so
straight on his handsome chestnut, is Adolphe, the driver--"

First came the gun with its chief and six cannoneers, then the limber
with its four horses ridden by two men, beyond that the caisson with
its six horses and three drivers, still further to the rear were the
_prolonge_, forge, and battery wagon; and this array of men, horses and
_materiel_ extended to the rear in a straight unbroken line of more than
a hundred yards in length; to say nothing of the spare caisson and
the men and beasts who were to fill the places of those removed by
casualties, who were stationed at one side, as much as possible out of
the enemy's line of fire.

And now Honore was attending to the loading of his gun. The two men
whose duty it was to fetch the cartridge and the projectile returned
from the caisson, where the c