grade, and although it
was night we could see them distinctly, for the sky was covered with
stars and the moon shone bright; it was almost as light as day.

They stopped at a bend of the river and posted six guns, and
immediately after a pontoon train arrived with oak planks and all
things necessary for throwing two bridges across. Our hussars scoured
the banks collecting boats, and the artillerymen stood at their pieces
to sweep down any who might try to hinder the work. For a long while
we watched their labor, while again and again we heard the sentry's
"_Qui vive!_" It was the regiments of the Third corps arriving.

At daybreak I fell asleep, and Klipfel had to shake me to arouse me.
On every side they were beating the reveille; the bridges were
finished, and we were going to cross the Saale.

A heavy dew had fallen, and each man hastened to wipe his musket, to
roll up his great-coat and buckle it on his knapsack. One assisted the
other, and we were soon in the ranks. It might have been four o'clock
in the morning, and everything seemed gray in the mist that arose from
the river. Already two battalions were crossing on the bridges, the
officers and colors in the centre. Then the artillery and caissons
crossed.

Captain Florentin had just ordered us to renew our primings, when
General Souham, General Chemineau, Colonel Zapfel, and our commandant
arrived. The battalion began its march. I looked forward expecting to
see the Russians coming on at a gallop, but nothing stirred.

As each regiment reached the farther bank it formed a square with
ordered arms. At five o'clock the entire division had passed. The sun
dispersed the mist, and we saw, about three-fourths of a league to our
right, an old city with its pointed roofs, slated clock-tower,
surmounted by a cross, and, farther away, a castle; it was Weissenfels.

Between us and the city was a deep valley. Marshal Ney, who had just
come up, wished to reconnoitre this before advancing into it. Two
companies of the Twenty-seventh were deployed as skirmishers and the
squares moved onward in common time, with the officers, sappers, and
drums in the centre, the cannon in the intervals and the caissons in
the rear.

We all mistrusted this valley--the more so since we had seen, the
evening before, a mass of cavalry, which could not have retired beyond
the great plain that lay before us. Notwithstanding our distrust, it
made us feel very proud and brave to