ays ends in a double quick, because the shot makes you impatient. I
warn you, conscripts, beforehand, so that you may not be surprised."
More than twenty conscripts had ranged themselves behind us to listen.
The cavalry continued to pour out of the wood.

"I will bet," said Corporal Duhem, "that the Fourth cavalry has been on
the march in our rear since daybreak."

And Rabot said they would have to take time to get into line, as it was
so bad traversing the wood. We were discussing the matter like
generals, and we scanned the position of the Prussians around the
villages, in the orchards, and behind the hedges, which are six feet
high in that country. A great number of their guns were grouped in
batteries between Ligny and St. Amand, and we could plainly see the
bronze shining in the sun, which inspired all sorts of reflections.

"I am sure," said Zebede, "that they are all barricaded, and they have
dug ditches and pierced the walls; we should have done well to push on
yesterday, when their squares retreated to the first village on the
heights. If we were on a level with them it would be very well, but to
climb up across those hedges under the enemy's fire will cost a trifle,
unless something should happen in the rear as is sometimes the case
with the Emperor."

The old soldiers were talking in this fashion on all sides, and the
conscripts were listening with open ears.

Meanwhile the camp-kettles were suspended over the fire, but they were
expressly forbidden to use their bayonets for this purpose as it
destroyed their temper. It was about seven o'clock, and we all thought
that the battle would be at St. Amand. The village was surrounded by
hedges and shrubbery, with a great tower in the centre, and higher up
in the rear there were more houses and a winding road bordered with a
stone wail. All the officers said: "That is where the struggle will
be." As our troops came from Charleroi they spread over the plain
below us, infantry and cavalry side by side; all the corps of Vandamme
and Gerard's division. Thousands and thousands of helmets glittered in
the sun, and Buche who stood beside me, exclaimed:

"Oh! oh! oh! look, Joseph, look! they come continually!"

And we could see innumerable bayonets in the same direction as far as
the eye could reach.

The Prussians were spreading more and more over the hill-side near the
windmills. This movement continued till eight o'clock. Nobody was
hungry, but we ate