before noon
carried the village of Champingy, and the first echelon of the
important plateau of Villiers, and were already commencing the work
of intrenchment, when, rallying from the amaze of a defeat, the German
forces burst upon them, sustained by fresh batteries. The Prussian
pieces of artillery established at Chennevieres and at Neuilly opened
fire with deadly execution; while a numerous infantry, descending from
the intrenchments of Villiers, charged upon the troops under Renoult.
Among the French in that strife were Enguerrand and the Mobiles of which
he was in command. Dismayed by the unexpected fire, these Mobiles gave
way, as indeed did many of the line. Enguerrand rushed forward to the
front: "On, mes enfans, on! What will our mothers and wives say of us
if we fly? Vive la France!--On!" Among those of the better class in that
company there rose a shout of applause, but it found no sympathy among
the rest. They wavered, they turned. "Will you suffer me to go on
alone, countrymen?" cried Enguerrand; and alone he rushed on towards
the Prussian line--rushed, and fell, mortally wounded, by a musket-ball.
"Revenge, revenge!" shouted some of the foremost; "Revenge!" shouted
those in the rear; and, so shouting, turned on their heels and fled.
But ere they could disperse they encountered the march, steadfast though
rapid, of the troop led by Victor de Mauleon. "Poltroons!" he thundered,
with the sonorous depth of his strong voice, "halt and turn, or my men
shall fire on you as deserters."

"Va, citoyen," said one fugitive, an officer-popularly elected, because
he was the loudest brawler in the club of the Salle Favre,--we have seen
him before--Charles, the brother of Armand Monnier;--"men can't fight
when they despise their generals. It is our generals who are poltroons
and fools both."

"Carry my answer to the ghosts of cowards," cried De Mauldon, and shot
the man dead.

His followers, startled and cowed by the deed, and the voice and the
look of the death-giver, halted. The officers, who had at first yielded
to the panic of their men, took fresh courage, and finally led the bulk
of the troop back to their post "enlevis a la baionette," to use the
phrase of a candid historian of that day.

Day, on the whole, not inglorious to France. It was the first, if it
was the last, really important success of the besieged. They remained
masters of the ground, the Prussians leaving to them the wounded and the
dead.

That