ittering steel.

A roar and a rush, and the Prussian line three deep came furiously like
a huge steel-pointed wave, at the French lines. A tremendous wave of
fire rushed out to meet that wave of steel: a crash of two hundred
muskets, and all was still. Then you could see through the black
steel-tipped line in a hundred frightful gaps, and the ground sparkled
with bayonets and the air rang with the cries of the wounded.

A tremendous cheer from the brigade, and the colonel charged at the head
of his column, out by Death's Alley.

The broken wall was melting away into the night. The colonel wheeled
his men to the right: one company, led by the impetuous young Captain
Jullien, followed the flying enemy.

The other attack had been only too successful. They shot the sentries,
and bayoneted many of the soldiers in their tents: others escaped by
running to the rear, and some into the next parallel.

Several, half dressed, snatched up their muskets, killed one Prussian,
and fell riddled like sieves.

A gallant officer got a company together into the place of arms and
formed in line.

Half the Prussian force went at them, the rest swept the trenches: the
French company delivered a deadly volley, and the next moment clash
the two forces crossed bayonets, and a silent deadly stabbing match was
played: the final result of which was inevitable. The Prussians were
five to one. The gallant officer and the poor fellows who did their duty
so stoutly, had no thought left but to die hard, when suddenly a roaring
cheer seemed to come from the rear rank of the enemy. "France! France!"
Half the 24th brigade came leaping and swarming over the trenches in the
Prussian rear. The Prussians wavered. "France!" cried the little party
that were being overpowered, and charged in their turn with such fury
that in two seconds the two French corps went through the enemy's centre
like paper, and their very bayonets clashed together in more than one
Prussian body.

Broken thus in two fragments the Prussian corps ceased to exist as a
military force. The men fled each his own way back to the fort, and many
flung away their muskets, for French soldiers were swarming in from all
quarters. At this moment, bang! bang! bang! from the bastion.

"They are firing on my brigade," said our colonel. "Who has led his
company there against my orders? Captain Neville, into the battery, and
fire twenty rounds at the bastion! Aim at the flashes from their middle