s out of Charleroi, and that they had re-formed in squares at
the corner of the wood.

We expected every moment to be ordered to cut off their retreat, but
between seven and eight o'clock, the sound of musketry ceased, the
Prussians retired to Fleurus, after having lost one of their squares;
and the others escaped into the wood. We saw two regiments of dragoons
arrive and take up their position at our right, along the bank of the
Sambre. There was a rumor a few minutes afterward that General Le Tort
had been killed by a ball in the abdomen, very near the place where in
his youth he had watched and tended the cattle of a farmer. What
strange things happen in life! The general had fought all over Europe,
since he was twenty years old, but death waited for him here!

It was about eight o'clock in the evening, and we were expecting to
remain at Chatelet until our three divisions had crossed. An old bald
peasant, in a blue blouse and a cotton cap and as lean as a goat, came
into camp and told Captain Gregoire that on the side of the beech wood
in a hollow, lay the village of Fleurus, and to the right of this, the
little village of Lambusart; that the Prussians had been stationed in
these towns more than three weeks, and that more of them had arrived
the night before, and the night before that. He told us also that
there was a broad road, bordered with trees, running two good leagues
along our left; that the Belgians and Hanoverians had posts at
Gosselies and at Quatre-Bras; that it was the high-road to Brussels,
where the English and Hanoverians and Belgians had all their forces;
while the Prussians, four or five leagues at our right, occupied the
route to Namur, and that between them and the English, there was a good
road running from the plateau of Quatre-Bras to the plateau of Ligny in
the rear of Fleurus, over which their couriers went and came from
morning till night, so that the Prussians and English were in perfect
communication, and could support each other with men, guns, and
supplies when necessary.

Naturally enough I thought at once, that the first thing to be done was
to get possession of this road and so cut off their communication; and
I was not the only one who thought so; but we said nothing for fear of
interrupting the old man. In five minutes half the battalion had
gathered round him in a circle. He was smoking a clay pipe and
pointing out all the positions with the stem. He was a sort of
commi