killed were already but
skeletons, the flesh having been cut off for food. The advance parties
had been called in, and a barricade thrown up just beyond Champigny,
where the advance guard occasionally exchanged shots with the Prussians
a few hundred yards away. Strong parties were at work erecting a series
of earthworks on the hill.

The Franc-tireurs fell back from the position they had held the night
before, and established themselves in a few houses, half roofless and
shattered by shell, between Champigny and the river. Most of the houses
in the long straggling street of Champigny bore marks of the conflict
that had raged there before the Saxons had been driven out. Fortunately
large stores of straw were found in the village, and these added much to
the comfort of the troops, and the Franc-tireurs carried off a good many
trusses to their quarters. Considerable amounts of other stores were
also discovered there, and were thoroughly appreciated by the soldiers
after their restricted rations.

They smoked their pipes that evening feeling thankful that as they lay
behind Champigny there was no occasion for them to turn out on outpost
duty.

"They say we shall fight again to-morrow for certain," Rene said.

"I think it likely we shall, Rene, but I should be inclined to bet ten
to one, that it is the Prussians who will attack. They will have had
forty-eight hours to mass their forces here, and will be fools if they
don't take advantage of the opportunity we have been good enough to give
them."

Day was just breaking when a sharp rattle of musketry broke out. The
Franc-tireurs sprang to their feet.

"I should have won my bet, Rene, if you had taken it," Cuthbert
exclaimed, as he slung his cartridge-box over his shoulder. "They are on
us all along the line."

In less than a minute the rattle of musketry swelled into a continuous
roar, above which came the boom of cannon and the explosion of shells in
and around Champigny. Just as the corps was formed up, the heavy guns in
the battery of St. Maur behind them opened fire, their deep roar
sounding loud above the sharp explosion of the Prussian field-guns. As
they advanced at the double towards the village, they could see a mob of
panic-stricken men rushing from the front.

"The cowards, the vile cowards!" broke from the lips of the men, and as
some of the fugitives ran past them, they saluted them with yells and
cries of contempt. Fully five thousand panic-stricken m