order," Desmond said dolefully, "that only one
officer in each company is to go to the ball."

"You want to go--eh, Desmond?"

"Well, of course I should like to go, and so would everyone I suppose,
however, it can't be helped; for of course you will go yourself."

"Well, I have made up my mind to look in for an hour or two. Conway
doesn't wish to go. I'll tell you how we will arrange, Desmond. What
the order means is that two officers must stop with their company. It
doesn't matter in the least who they are; so that there are two out of
the three with the men. Dancing will begin about eight o'clock. I will
look in there at nine. An hour will be enough for me; so I will come
back to the company, and you can slip away and stop there till it's
over."

"Thank you very much," Desmond said gratefully.

"And look here, Desmond. You had better arrange with your man to leave
your undress uniform out; so that when you get back from the ball you
can slip into it and have the other packed up. That's what I am going
to do. I can't afford to have my best uniform spoiled by having to
sleep in it in the mud. A captain's pay doesn't run to such
extravagance as that."

"What will be done with the baggage if we have to march?"

"Oh, I don't suppose we shall march to-night. But if we do, the
quartermaster will detail a party to collect all the baggage left
behind and put it in store. We needn't bother about that; especially
when, for aught we know, we may never come back to claim it."

But although O'Connor did not know it, the duke had by this time
received news indicating that the attack upon the Prussian outpost was
the beginning of a great movement, and that the whole French army were
pressing forward by the road where the Prussian and British army
joined hands.

At daybreak the French had advanced in three columns--the right upon
Chatelet, five miles below Charleroi, on the Sambre; the center on
Charleroi itself; the left on Marchienne. Zieten, who was in command
of the Prussian corps d'armee, defended the bridges at these three
points stoutly, and then contested every foot of the ground, his
cavalry making frequent charges; so that at the end of the day the
French had only advanced five miles. This stout resistance enabled
Blucher to bring up two out of his other three corps, Bulow, whose
corps was at Liege, forty miles away, receiving his orders too late to
march that day. The rest of the Prussian army concentrated round