of these was General Valence, and the other the Duc de
Chartres.

The Duc de Chartres[38] had been welcomed by the old soldiers as a
prince, by the new ones as a patriot, by all as a comrade. His
intrepidity did not carry him away; he controlled it, and it left him
that quickness of perception and that coolness so essential to a
general; amid the hottest fire he neither quickened nor slackened his
pace, for his ardor was as much the effect of reflection as of
calculation, and as grave as duty. His familiarity--martial with the
officers, soldierly with the soldiers, patriotic with the
citizens--caused them to forgive him for being a prince. But beneath the
exterior of a soldier of the people lurked the _arriere pensee_ of a
prince of the blood; and he plunged into all the events of the
Revolution with the entire yet skilful _abandon_ of a mastermind. Men
feared, in spite of his bravery and his exalted enthusiasm for his
country, to catch a glimpse of a throne raised upon its own ruins and by
the hands of a republic. This presentiment, which invariably precedes
great names and destinies, seemed to reveal to the army that, of all the
leaders of the Revolution, he might one day be the most useful or the
most fatal to liberty.

Dumouriez, who had seen the young Duc de Chartres with the army at
Luckner, was struck with his intrepidity and coolness during the action,
and, perceiving a spark of no ordinary fire in this young man, resolved
to attach him to himself.

The Prussians held the heights of La Lune, and had commenced descending
them in battle array. The veteran troops of Frederick the Great, slow
and measured in all their movements, displayed no rash impetuosity and
left naught to chance.

On their side the French did not behold without a feeling of dread this
immense and hitherto invincible army silently advance its first line in
columns of attack, and extend its wings to pierce their centre and cut
off all retreat, either on Chalons or Dumouriez. The soldiers remained
motionless in their position, fearing to expose by a false movement the
narrow battle-field on which they could defend themselves, but did not
dare manoeuvre. The Prussians descended half-way down the heights of
La Lune, and then opened their fire both in front and flank.

On this attack Kellermann's artillery moved forward and took up its
position in front of the infantry. More than twenty thousand balls were
exchanged during two hours from one h