she has taken her prayer-book from the shelf and is going
to mass." I could hear the bells of Dann and Mittelbronn and Bigelberg
ring out in the silence. I thought of that peaceful quiet life and was
ready to burst into tears.

The roll of the drums was heard through the damp air, and there was
something inauspicious and portentous in the sound.

Near the main road, on the left, they were beating the assembly, and
the bugles of the cavalry sounded the reveille. The men rose and
looked over the grain. Those three days of marching and fighting in
the bad weather without rations made them sober; there was no talking
as at Ligny, every one looked in silence and kept his thoughts to
himself.

We could see too, that the battle was to be a much more important
affair, for instead of having villages already occupied, which caused
so many separate battles, on our front, there was an immense elevated
naked plain on which the English were encamped.

Behind their lines at the top of the hill was the village of
Mont-St.-Jean, and a league and a half still farther away, was a forest
which bounded the horizon.

Between us and the English, the ground descended gently and rose again
nearest us, forming a little valley, but one must have been accustomed
to the country to perceive this; it was deepest on the right and
contracted like a ravine. On the slope of this ravine on our side,
behind the hedges and poplars and other trees, some thatched roofs
indicated a hamlet; this was Planchenois. In the same direction but
much higher, and in the rear of the enemy's left, the plain extended as
far as the eye could reach, and was scattered over with little villages.

The clear atmosphere after the storm enabled us to distinguish all this
very plainly.

We could even see the little village of Saint-Lambert three leagues
distant on our right.

At our left in the rear of the English right, there were other little
villages to be seen, of which I never knew the names.

We took in all this grand region covered with a magnificent crop just
in flower, at a glance; and we asked ourselves why the English were
there, and what advantage they had in guarding that position. But when
we observed their line a little more closely--it was from fifteen
hundred to two thousand yards from us--we could see the broad,
well-paved road, which we had followed from Quatre-Bras and which led
to Brussels, dividing their position nearly in the centre. It was