Great numbers of
fugitives came along the road, cuirassiers, lancers, and chasseurs.
Not one of them stopped.

We began to be terribly hungry. We knew very well that everything in
these houses must have been eaten long ago, but still we went into the
one on the left. The floor was covered with straw, on which the
wounded were lying. We had hardly opened the door when they all began
to cry out at once; to tell the truth, the stench was so horrible that
we left immediately and took the road to Charleroi. The moon shone
beautifully, and we could see on the right amongst the grain a quantity
of dead men, who had not yet been buried.

Buche followed a furrow about twenty-five paces, to where three or four
Englishmen were lying one on the top of the other. I asked him what he
was going to do amongst the dead.

He came back with a tin bottle, and shaking it at his ear, he said,
"Joseph, it is full."

He dipped it in the water of the ditch before opening it, and then took
out the cork and drank, saying, "It is brandy!"

He passed it to me, and I drank also. I felt my life returning, and I
gave him back the bottle half full, thanking God for the good idea that
he had given us.

We looked on all sides to see if we could not find some bread in the
haversacks of the dead, but the uproar increased, and as we could not
resist the Prussians if they should surround us, we set off again full
of strength and courage. The brandy made us look at everything on the
bright side already, and I said to Buche:

"Jean, now the worst is over and we shall see Pfalzbourg and Harberg
again. We are on a good road which will take us back to France. If we
had gained the battle, we should have been forced to go still farther
into Germany, and we should have been obliged to fight the Austrians
and the Russians, and if we had had the good fortune to escape with our
lives, we should have returned old gray-haired veterans, and should
have been compelled to keep garrison at 'Petite Pierre,' or somewhere
else."

These miserable thoughts ran through my head, but I marched on with
more courage, and Buche said:

"The English are right in having their bottles made of tin, for if I
had not seen this shining in the moonlight, I should never have thought
of going to look for it."

Every moment while we were talking in this way men were riding by,
their horses almost ready to drop, but by beating and spurring, they
kept them trotting just the s