se was cut into
intrenchments. A redoubt with heavy batteries crowned the highest peak.
Near this were placed his regular infantry, officered by French
deserters. Arabs and Kabyles swarmed in all directions, and, crouching
in nooks, were ready to open fire on the French army as it wound its way
with steady march along the narrow causeway which hung midway on the
mountain slopes.

Valee had divided his force into three columns, one of which was led by
Lamoriciere, a man to become famous in Algerian warfare. The Sultan was
now to see the value of French infantry. To the astonishment of the
Arabs, the enemy, leaving the road, came darting over the steeps.
Ravines, woods, and rocks were all mastered in the rush. Slowly but
surely they were reaching the intrenchments, when a thick veil came over
the scene from the smoke of incessant fire. The mist rolled away before
the breeze sweeping through the pass, and the combatants met and fought
hand to hand. The Arabs and Kabyles clung desperately to their places of
shelter, but the French clambered up, grasping at shrubs and branches,
ever winning their way. Abd-el-Kader made a last stand in person at the
great redoubt, while his regulars and masses of Kabyles gathered round
him. The converging columns of the French came creeping on amid the roll
of drums and the blare of trumpets. The Arabs, bewildered by foes
attacking them both in front and rear, wavered, broke, and fled.
Lamoriciere and his Zouaves, Changarnier and the Second Light Infantry,
burst over the intrenchments, and the tricolor waved on the summit of
the Atlas.

Abd-el-Kader retreated on Miliana, while the conqueror, entering Medea,
found it abandoned and half burned. The Sultan had made his last attempt
to fight the French on the principles of European warfare. His caliphs
and chiefs were ordered never again to meet the enemy in masses, but to
harass them in hanging on their flanks and rear, cutting their
communications, attacking baggage and transports, and waging a contest
of feigned retreats, ambuscades, and sudden sallies in order to bewilder
and weary the foe. Miliana was evacuated by Abd-el-Kader on Valee's
approach, but the chance of Arab warfare came when the French entered
the mountain passes. Unceasing attacks, day and night, caused severe
loss to the lately victorious French, with the capture of baggage and
the abandonment of all wounded men. The French garrisons in Medea and
Miliana were soon reduced to