l firm, still the stronger from time to time; we found abandoned
gun-carriages, caissons, and cannons, and the ditches on either side
were full of knapsacks, cartridge-boxes, guns, and sabres, which had
been thrown away by the men to facilitate their flight.

But the most terrible thing of all was the great ambulances in the
middle of the road filled with the wounded. The drivers had cut the
traces and fled with the horses for fear of being taken prisoners. The
poor half-dead wretches, with their arms hanging down, looked at us as
we passed with despairing eyes.

When I think of all this now, it reminds me of the tufts of straw and
hay which lodge among the bushes after an inundation. We say "That is
our harvest, this is our crop, that is what the tempest has left us."

Ah! I have had many such reflections during fifty years!

What grieved me most and made my heart bleed in the midst of this rout
was that I could not discover a single man of our battalion besides
ourselves. I said to myself, "They cannot all be dead;" and I said to
Buche:

"If I could only find Zebede it would give me back my courage."

But he replied: "Let us try to save ourselves, Joseph. As for me, if I
ever see Harberg again, I will not complain because I have to eat
potatoes. No, no. God has punished me. I shall be contented to work
and go into the woods with my axe on my shoulder. If only I do not go
home maimed, and if I am not compelled to hold out my hand at the
roadside in order to live, like so many others. Let us try to get home
safe and sound."

I thought he showed great good sense.

At about half-past ten, as we reached the environs of Genappe, terrible
cries were heard in the distance. Fires of straw had been lighted in
the middle of the principal street to give light to the multitude, and
we could see from where we were, that the houses were full of people
and the streets so full of horses and baggage that they could not move
a step. We knew that the Prussians might come at any moment, and that
they would have cannon; and that it would be better for us if we went
round the village than to be taken prisoners altogether. This was why
we turned to the left across the grain fields with a great many others.
We crossed the Thy in water up to our waists, and toward midnight we
reached Quatre-Bras.

We had done well not to stop at Genappe, for we already heard the roar
of the Prussian cannon and musketry near the village.