rs as if on parade; and when the
whole twenty-four guns went off together, the report was deafening, and
the whole valley was covered with smoke.

At the end of a second, we heard the calm voices of these veterans
above the whistling in our ears saying "Load! take aim! fire!" And
that continued without interruption for half an hour. We could see
nothing at all, but the English had opened their fire, and we heard
their bullets scream in the air and strike with a dull sound in the
mud; and then we could hear another sound too, that of the muskets
striking against each other, and the sound of the bodies of wounded men
as they were thrown like boneless sacks twenty paces in the rear, or
sank in a heap with a leg or an arm wanting. All this mingled with the
dull rumbling; the destruction had commenced.

The groans of the wounded mingled also with these sounds, and with the
fierce terrible neighing of the horses, which are naturally ferocious,
and delight in slaughter. We could hear this tumult half a league in
the rear; and it was with great difficulty the animals could be
restrained from setting off to join in the battle.

For a long time we had been able to see nothing but the shadows of the
gunners as they manoeuvred in the smoke, on the border of the ravine,
when we heard the order, "Cease firing!" At the same moment we heard
the piercing voices of the colonels of our four divisions shout, "Close
up the ranks for battle!" All the lines approached each other.

"Now it is our turn," said I to Buche.

"Yes," he replied, "let us keep together."

The smoke from our guns rose up into the air, and then we could see the
batteries of the English, who still continued their fire all along the
hedges which bordered the road.

The first brigade of Alix's division advanced at a quick step along the
road leading to Haie-Sainte. In the rear I recognized Marshal Ney with
several of the officers of his staff.

From every window of the farm-house, and from the garden, and walls
which had been pierced with holes, came fiery showers, and at every
step men were left stretched on the road. General Ney on horseback
with the corners of his great hat pointing over his shoulders, watched
the action from the middle of the road. I said to Buche:

"That is Marshal Ney, the second brigade will go to support the first,
and we shall come next."

But I mistook; at that very moment the first battalion of the second
brigade received or