to the village. As we
passed through between these little hills covered with grain, and
caught sight of the nearest house, a veritable hail of balls fell on
the head of the column with a frightful noise. From every hole in the
old ruin, from all the windows and loop-holes in the houses, from the
hedges and orchards and from above the stone walls the muskets showered
their deadly fire upon us like lightning.

At the same time a battery of fifteen pieces which had been for that
very purpose placed in a field in the rear of the great tower at the
left of, and higher tip than Ligny, near the windmill, opened upon us
with a roar, compared with which that of the musketry was nothing.
Those who had unfortunately passed the cut in the road fell over each
other in heaps in the smoke. At that moment we heard the fire of the
other column which had engaged the enemy at our right, and the roar of
other cannon, though we could not tell whether they were ours or those
of the Prussians.

Fortunately the whole battalion had not passed the little knoll, and
the balls whistled through the grain above us, and tore up the ground
without doing us the least injury. Every time this whizzing was heard,
I observed that the conscripts near me ducked their heads, and Jean
Buche, I remember, was staring at me with open eyes. The old soldiers
marched with tightly compressed lips.

The column stopped. For an instant each man thought whether it would
not be better to turn back, but it was only for a second, the enemy's
fire seemed to slacken, the officers all drew their sabres and shouted,
"Forward!"

The column set off again at a run and threw itself into the road that
led down the hill across the hedges. From the palisades and the walls
behind which the Prussians were in ambush, they continued to pour their
musketry fire upon us. But woe to every one we encountered! they
defended themselves with the desperation of wolves, but a few blows
from a musket, or a bayonet thrust, soon stretched them out in some
corner. A great number of old soldiers with gray mustaches had secured
their retreat, and retired in good order, turning to fire a last shot,
and then slipped through a breach or shut a door. We followed them
without hesitation, we had neither prudence nor mercy.

At last, quite scattered and in the greatest confusion, we reached the
first houses, when the fusillade commenced again from the windows, the
corners of the streets, and fr