, Joseph, all is over, all is lost; there
is no help for it; all you can do is to revenge yourself, defend
yourself, to fight pitilessly, and die."

While these thoughts were passing through my head, General Chemineau
galloped along our front, crying:

"Form square."

The officers on the right, on the left, in advance, in the rear, took
up the word and it passed from right to left; four squares of four
battalions each were formed. I found myself in the third, on one of
the interior sides, a circumstance which in some degree reassured me;
for I thought that the Prussians, who were advancing in three columns,
would first attack those directly opposite them. But scarcely had the
thought struck me when a hail of cannon-shot from the guns which the
Prussians had massed on a hill to the left, swept through us just as at
Weissenfels; and that was not all. They had thirty pieces of artillery
playing upon us. One can imagine from this what gaps they made. The
balls shrieked sometimes over our heads, sometimes through the ranks,
and then again struck the earth, which they scattered over us.

Our heavy guns replied to their fire with a vigor which kept us from
hearing one half the hissing and roaring of theirs, but could not
silence it, and the horrible cry of "Close up the ranks! Close up the
ranks!" was ever sounding in our ears.

We were enveloped in smoke without having fired a shot, and I said to
myself, "if we stay here another quarter of an hour we shall all be
massacred without having a chance to defend ourselves," which seemed to
me fearful, when the head of the Prussian columns appeared between the
hills, moving forward with a deep, hoarse murmur, like the noise of an
inundation. Then the three first sides of our square, the second and
the third obliquing to the right and left fired. God only knows how
many Prussians fell. But instead of stopping they rushed on, shouting
like wolves, "_Vaterland! Vaterland!_" and we fired again into their
very bosoms.

Then began the work of death in earnest. Bayonet-thrust, sabre-stroke,
blows from the butt-end of our pieces, crashed on all sides. They
tried to crush us by mere weight of numbers, and came on like furious
bulls. A battalion rushed upon us, thrusting with their bayonets; we
returned their blows without leaving the ranks, and they were swept
away almost to a man by two cannon which were in position fifty paces
in our rear.

They were the last who trie