y
has no more gallant set of men in its ranks than the drivers in their
obscure position.

Another man had been killed, two horses of a caisson had been
disemboweled, and the enemy kept up such a murderous fire that there
was a prospect of the entire battery being knocked to pieces should they
persist in holding that position longer. It was time to take some step
to baffle that tremendous fire, notwithstanding the danger there was
in moving, and the captain unhesitatingly gave orders to bring up the
limbers.

The risky maneuver was executed with lightning speed; the drivers came
up at a gallop, wheeled their limber into position in rear of the gun,
when the cannoneers raised the trail of the piece and hooked on. The
movement, however, collecting as it did, momentarily, men and horses on
the battery front in something of a huddle, created a certain degree of
confusion, of which the enemy took advantage by increasing the rapidity
of their fire; three more men dropped. The teams darted away at
breakneck speed, describing an arc of a circle among the fields, and the
battery took up its new position some fifty or sixty yards more to the
right, on a gentle eminence that was situated on the other flank of the
106th. The pieces were unlimbered, the drivers resumed their station at
the rear, face to the enemy, and the firing was reopened; and so little
time was lost between leaving their old post and taking up the new that
the earth had barely ceased to tremble under the concussion.

Maurice uttered a cry of dismay, when, after three attempts, the
Prussians had again got their range; the first shell landed squarely on
Honore's gun. The artilleryman rushed forward, and with a trembling hand
felt to ascertain what damage had been done his pet; a great wedge had
been chipped from the bronze muzzle. But it was not disabled, and the
work went on as before, after they had removed from beneath the wheels
the body of another cannoneer, with whose blood the entire carriage was
besplashed.

"It was not little Louis; I am glad of that," said Maurice, continuing
to think aloud. "There he is now, pointing his gun; he must be wounded,
though, for he is only using his left arm. Ah, he is a brave lad, is
little Louis; and how well he and Adolphe get on together, in spite
of their little tiffs, only provided the gunner, the man who serves on
foot, shows a proper amount of respect for the driver, the man who rides
a horse, notwithstanding th