d been
broken, and the earth ploughed by our cannonade. With shouts of '_Vive
l'Empereur!_' louder than might have been expected from fellows who had
already shouted so much, our soldiers dashed over the ruins.

"I looked up, and never shall I forget the spectacle I beheld. The great
mass of smoke had arisen, and hung suspended like a canopy twenty feet
above the redoubt. Through a gray mist were seen the Russian grenadiers,
erect behind their half-demolished parapet, with levelled arms, and
motionless as statues. I think I still see each individual soldier, his
left eye riveted on us, the right one hidden by his musket. In an
embrasure, a few feet from us, stood a man with a lighted fuse in his
hand.

"I shuddered, and thought my last hour was come. 'The dance is going to
begin,' cried my captain. Good-night.' They were the last words I heard
him utter.

"The roll of drums resounded in the redoubt. I saw the musket muzzles
sink. I shut my eyes, and heard a frightful noise, followed by cries and
groans. I opened my eyes surprised to find myself still alive. The
redoubt was again enveloped in smoke. Dead and wounded men lay all
around me. My captain was stretched at my feet; his head had been
smashed by a cannon-ball, and I was covered with his blood and brains.
Of the whole company, only six men and myself were on their legs.

"A moment of stupefaction followed this carnage. Then the colonel,
putting his hat on the point of his sword, ascended the parapet, crying
'_Vive l'Empereur!_' He was instantly followed by all the survivors. I
have no clear recollection of what then occurred. We entered the
redoubt, I know not how. They fought hand to hand in the middle of a
smoke so dense that they could not see each other. I believe I fought
too, for my sabre was all bloody. At last I heard a shout of victory,
and, the smoke diminishing, I saw the redoubt completely covered with
blood and dead bodies. About two hundred men in French uniform stood in
a group, without military order, some loading their muskets, others
wiping their bayonets. Eleven Russian prisoners were with them.

"Our colonel lay bleeding on a broken tumbril. Several soldiers were
attending to him, as I drew near--'Where is the senior captain?' said he
to a sergeant. The sergeant shrugged his shoulders in a most expressive
manlier. 'And the senior lieutenant?' 'Here is _Monsieur_, who joined
yesterday,' replied the sergeant, in a perfectly calm tone. The co