all the same, so as not to reproach ourselves; for
the battle, once begun, might last two days without giving us a chance
to eat again.

Between eight and nine o'clock the first battalions of our division
left the wood. The officers came to shake hands with their comrades,
but the staff remained in the rear. Suddenly the hussars and chasseurs
passed us, extending our line of battle toward the right. They were
Morin's cavalry. Our idea was that when the Prussians should have
become engaged in the attack on St. Amand, we would fall on their flank
at Ligny. But the Prussians were on their guard, and from that moment
they stopped at Ligny, instead of going on to St. Amand. They even
came lower down, and we could see the officers posting the men among
the hedges and in the gardens and behind the low walls and barracks.
We thought their position very strong. They continued to come lower
down in a sort of fold of the hill-side between Ligny and Fleurus, and
that astonished us, for we did not yet know that a little brook divided
the village into two parts, and that they were filling the houses on
our side, and we did not know that if they were repulsed they could
retreat up the hill and still hold us always under their fire.

If we knew everything about such affairs beforehand, we should never
dare to commence such a dangerous enterprise, but the difficulties are
discovered step by step. We were destined that day to find a great
many things which we did not expect.

About half-past eight several of our regiments had left the wood, and
very soon the drums beat the assembly and all the battalions took their
arms. The general, Count Gerard, arrived with his staff, and passing
us at a gallop, without any notice, went on to the hill below Fleurus.
Almost immediately the firing commenced; the scouts of Vandamme
approached the village on the left, and two pieces of cannon were sent
off, with the artillerymen on horseback. After five or six discharges
of cannon from the top of the hill the musketry ceased and our scouts
were in Fleurus, and we saw three or four hundred Prussians mounting
the hill in the distance, toward Ligny. General Gerard, after looking
at this little engagement, came back with his staff and passed slowly
down our front, inspecting us carefully, as if he wished to ascertain
what sort of humor we were in. He was about forty-five years old,
brown, with a large head, a round face, the lower part heavy, w