he company.

We were covered with blood, and looked like butchers.

"Load!" cried the sergeant.

Then I saw blood and hair on my bayonet, and I knew that in my fury I
must have given some terrible blows. In a moment old Pinto said, "The
regiment is totally routed; the beggarly Prussians have sabred half of
it; we shall find the remainder by and by. Now," he cried, "we must
keep the enemy out of the village. By file, left! March!"

We descended a little stairway which led to one of the gardens of
Klein-Gorschen, and entering a house, the sergeant barricaded the door
leading to the fields with a heavy kitchen table; then he showed us the
door opening on the street, telling us, "Here is our way of retreat."
This done, we went to the floor above, and found a pretty large room,
with two windows looking out upon the village, and two upon the hill,
which was still covered with smoke and resounding with the crash of
musketry and artillery. At one end in an alcove was a broken bedstead,
and near it a cradle. The people of the house had no doubt fled at the
beginning of the battle, but a dog, with ears erect and flashing eyes,
glared at us from beneath the curtains. All this comes back to me like
a dream.

The sergeant opened the window and fired at two or three Prussian
hussars who were already advancing down the street. Zebede and the
others standing behind him stood ready. I looked toward the hill to
see if the squares had yet remained unbroken, and I saw them retreating
in good order, firing as they went from all four sides on the masses of
cavalry which surrounded them completely. Through the smoke I could
perceive the colonel on horseback, sabre in hand, and by him the
colors, so torn by shot that they were mere rags hanging on the staff.

Beyond, on the left, a column of the enemy were debouching from the
road and marching on Klein-Gorschen. This column evidently designed
cutting off our retreat on the village, but hundreds of disbanded
soldiers like us had arrived, and were pouring in from all sides, some
turning ever and anon to fire, others wounded, trying to crawl to some
place of shelter. They took possession of the houses, and, as the
column approached, musketry rattled upon them from all the windows.
This checked the enemy, and at the same moment the divisions of Brenier
and Marchand, which the Prince of Moskowa had despatched to our
assistance, began to deploy to the right. We heard afterward tha