regiments.

Toward five o'clock we reached a village where the battalions and
squadrons filed over a bridge built of brick. This village had been
taken by our vanguard, and in going through it, we saw some of the
Prussians stretched out in the little streets on the right and left,
and I said to Jean Buche: "Those are Prussians, I saw them at Lutzen
and Leipzig, and you are going to see them too, Jean."

"So much the better," he replied, "that is what I want."

This village was called Chatelet. It is on the river Sambre, the water
is very deep, yellow, and clayey, and those who are so unfortunate as
to fall into it, find it very difficult to get out of, for the banks
are perpendicular, as we found out afterward. On the other side of the
bridge we bivouacked along the river; we were not in the advance, as
the hussars had passed over before us, but we were the first infantry
of the corps of Gerard. All the rest of that day the Fourth corps were
filing over the bridge, and we learned at night, that the whole army
had passed the Sambre, and that there had been fighting near Charleroi,
at Marchiennes, and Jumet.

XVII

On reaching the other bank of the river, we stacked our arms in an
orchard, and lighted our pipes and took breath as we watched the
hussars, the chasseurs, the artillery, and the infantry, file over the
bridge hour after hour, and take their positions on the plain. In our
front was a beech forest, about three leagues in length, which extended
toward Fleurus. We could see great yellow spots, here and there in
this wood; these were stubble, and great patches of grain, instead of
being covered with bramble or heath and furze as in our country. About
twenty old decrepit houses were on that side the bridge. Chatelet is a
very large village, larger than the city of Saverne.

Between the battalions and squadrons, which were constantly moving
onward, the men, women, and children would come out with jugs of sour
beer, bread, and strong white brandy which they sold to the soldiers
for a few sous. Buche and I broke a crust as we looked on and laughed
with the girls, who are blonde and very pretty in that country.

Very near us was the little village Catelineau, and in the distance on
our left, between the wood and the river, lay the village of Gilly.
The sound of musketry, cannon, and platoon firing, was heard constantly
in that direction. The news soon came that the Emperor had driven the
Prussian