the trees
below.

The battle had begun.

Bang, bang, went the guns; and soon the cannonade, drawing in closer and
closer upon the doomed villages, became a deafening roar, with streams
of hurtling missiles shrieking overhead and bursting with a crash at
intervals. Masses of men could be perceived winding in and out along
the main road and the side lanes like ants, a gap every now and then
showing in their ranks when some shot had accomplished its purpose. By
twelve o'clock the engagement had become general; although, as yet, it
had been only a battle of the guns, which bellowed and hurled
destruction on assailant and defender alike--the curious harsh grating
sound of the French mitrailleuse being plainly perceptible above the
thunder of the cannon and rattle of musketry, "just like the angry growl
of a cross dog under a wagon when some one pretends to take away his
bone!" as one of the men said.

The Ninth Army Corps, composed of Schleswig-Holsteiners, Fritz's
compatriots and close neighbours, were the first to come into collision
with the enemy's van but soon the Hanoverian artillery had to follow
suit; and bye-and-bye, in the main attack on Gravelotte, the infantry
became engaged at last, much to the relief of the men, who were bursting
with impatience at being allowed to rest idly on their arms when such
stirring scenes were being enacted before their eyes.

This was not, however, until the French positions in front of Vionville
had been carried, a success only achieved late in the afternoon, after
the most desperate fighting and when the slaughter-dealing Steinmetz
ordered an advance in front of the enemy's defences.

A tremendous fire of artillery was first concentrated on the French
works, one hundred and twenty guns taking part in the bombardment; and
then, after about half an hour's shelling, the leading Prussian regiment
dashed up the slopes above Gravelotte. The men were rushing into the
very jaws of death; for, when they had got about half-way up, the
mitrailleuses opened on them, doing terrible execution at close
quarters. The brave fellows, however, pressed on, though they fell
literally by hundreds. Indeed, they actually got into the works, and a
half battery of four-pounder guns which had followed them up was close
in their rear on their way to the crest of the hill, when the French,
who had run their mitrailleuses farther back some four hundred yards to
avoid capture, opened so deadly a fire t