Sedan, soldiers were seeking their regiments, and going
from door to door asking for bread. We have seen the Emperor's order
announcing the next day, September 1st, as a day of rest. In truth the
army was worn out with fatigue. And yet it had only marched by short
stages. The soldier was almost losing the habit of marching. One corps,
the 1st, for example, only accomplished two leagues per day (on the 29th
of August from Stonne to Raucourt).

During that time the German army, inexorably commanded and driven at the
stick's end like the army of the Xerxes, achieved marches of fourteen
leagues in fifteen hours, which enabled it to arrive unexpectedly, and
to surround the French army while asleep. It was customary to allow
oneself to be surprised. General Failly allowed himself to be surprised
at Beaumont; during the day the soldiers took their guns to pieces to
clean them, at night they slept, without even cutting the bridges which
delivered them to the enemy; thus they neglected to blow up the bridges
of Mouzon and Bazeilles. On September 1st, daylight had not yet
appeared, when an advance guard of seven battalions, commanded by
General Schultz, captured La Rulle, and insured the junction of the army
of the Meuse with the Royal Guard. Almost at the same minute, with
German precision, the Wurtemburgers seized the bridge of La Platinerie,
and hidden by the Chevalier Wood, the Saxon battalions, spread out into
company columns, occupied the whole of the road from La Moncelle to
Villers-Cernay.

Thus, as we have seen, the awakening of the French Army was horrible. At
Bazeilles a fog was added to the smoke. Our soldiers, attacked in this
gloom, knew not what death required of them; they fought from room to
room and from house to house.[39]

It was in vain that the Reboul brigade came to support the Martin des
Pallieres brigade; they were obliged to yield. At the same time Ducrot
was compelled to concentrate his forces in the Garenne Wood, before the
Calvary of Illy; Douay, shattered, fell back; Lebrun alone stood firm on
the plateau of Stenay. Our troops occupied a line of five kilometres;
the front of the French army faced the east, the left faced the north,
the extreme left (the Guyomar brigade) faced the west; but they did not
know whether they faced the enemy, they did not see him; annihilation
struck without showing itself; they had to deal with a masked Medusa.
Our cavalry was excellent, but useless. The field of battle