rums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
SHAKSPEARE.

The action was a series of those grand manoeuvres in which the Prussians
excelled all the other troops of Europe. From the spot on which I stood,
the whole immense plain, to the foot of the defiles of Argonne, was
visible; but the combat, or rather the succession of combats, was fought
along the range of hills at the distance of some miles. These I could
discover only by the roar of the guns, and by an occasional cloud of smoke
rising among the trees. The chief Prussian force stood in columns in the
plain below me, in dark masses, making an occasional movement in advance
from time to time, or sending forth a mounted officer to the troops in
action. Parks of artillery lay formed in the spaces between the columns,
and the baggage, a much more various and curious sight than the troops,
halting in the wide grounds of what seemed some noble mansion, had already
begun to exhibit the appearance of a country fair. Excepting this busy
part of the scene, few things struck me as less like what I had conceived
of actual war, than the quietness of every thing before and around me. The
columns might nearly as well have been streets of rock; and the engagement
in front was so utterly lost to view in the forest, that, except for the
occasional sound of the cannon, I might have looked upon the whole scene
as the immense picture of a quiet Flemish holiday. The landscape was
beautiful. Some showery nights had revived the verdure, of which France
has so seldom to boast in autumn; and the green of the plain almost
rivalled the delicious verdure of home. The chain of hills, extending for
many a league, was covered with one of the most extensive forests of the
kingdom. The colours of this vast mass of foliage were glowing in all the
powerful hues of the declining year, and the clouds, which slowly
descended upon the horizon, with all the tinges of the west burning
through their folds, appeared scarcely more than a loftier portion of
those sheets of gold and purple which shone along the crown of the hills.

But while I lingered, gazing on the rich and tranquil luxury of the scene,
almost forgetting that there was war in the world, I was suddenly recalled
to a more substantial condition of that world by the sound of a trumpet,
and the arrival of my troop, who had at length struggled up the hill,
evidently surprised at finding me there, when the suttlers were in full
employment