the town, and then
enters it. The enemy in mass occupied this hollow way; Delzons and his
Frenchmen rushed upon them pell-mell; the Russians were broken and
overthrown; they gave way, and presently our bayonets glistened on the
heights.

Delzons, conceiving himself sure of the victory, announced it as won. He
had nothing but a pile of buildings to storm; but his soldiers
hesitated. He himself advanced, and was encouraging them by his words,
actions, and example, when a ball struck him in the forehead, and
extended him on the ground. His brother threw himself upon him, covered
him with his body, clasped him in his arms, and was striving to bear him
out of the fire and the fray, when a second ball hit him also, and both
expired together.

This loss left a great void, which required to be filled. Guilleminot
succeeded Delzons, and the first thing he did was to throw a hundred men
into a church and the yard around it, in the walls of which they made
loopholes. This church stood on the left of the high road, which it
commanded, and to its possession we owed the victory. Five times during
the day was this post passed by the Russian columns as they were
pursuing ours, and five times did its fire, seasonably poured upon their
flank and rear, harass them and retard their progress: afterward, when
we resumed the offensive, this position placed them between two fires,
and ensured the success of our attacks.

Scarcely had that general made this disposition when he was assailed by
a host of the enemy: he was driven back towards the bridge, where the
viceroy had stationed himself in order to judge how to act and to
prepare his reserves. At first the re-enforcements which he sent came up
but slowly one after another; and, as is almost always the case where
there is this tardy movement, being singly inadequate to any great
effort, each was successively destroyed without result.

At length the whole of the 14th division was engaged; and the combat was
carried for the third time to the heights. But when the French had
passed the houses, advanced beyond the central point from which they had
set out, and reached the plain where they were exposed, and where the
circle expanded, they could advance no farther; overwhelmed by the fire
of a whole Russian army, they were daunted and shaken; fresh columns
incessantly came up: our thinned ranks gave way and were broken; the
obstacles of the ground increased their confusion; and at length they