For a long time I have wanted a pipe, and here is a fine one."

"Fusileer Klipfel!" cried Pinto, indignantly, "will you be good enough
to put back that pipe? Leave it to the Cossacks to rob the wounded! A
French soldier knows only honor!"

Klipfel threw down the pipe and we departed, not one caring to look
back at the wounded Prussian. We arrived at the edge of the forest,
outside which, among tufted bushes, the Prussians we pursued had taken
refuge. We saw them rise to fire upon us, but they immediately lay
down again. We might have remained there tranquilly, since we had
orders to occupy the wood, and the shots of the Prussians could not
hurt us, protected as we were by the trees. On the other side of the
slope we heard a terrific battle going on; the thunder of cannon was
increasing, it filled the air with one continuous roar. But our
officers held a council, and decided that the bushes were a part of the
forest, and that the Prussians must be driven from them. This
determination cost many a life.

We received orders, then, to drive the enemy's tirailleurs, and as they
fired as we came on, we started at a run, so as to be upon them before
they could reload. Our officers ran, also full of ardor. We thought
the bushes ended at the top of the hill, and that we could sweep off
the Prussians by dozens. But scarcely had we arrived, out of breath,
upon the ridge, when old Pinto cried:

"Hussars!"

I looked up, and saw the _Colbacks_ rushing down upon us like a
tempest. Scarcely had I seen them, when I began to spring down the
hill, going, I verily believe, in spite of weariness and my knapsack,
fifteen feet at a bound. I saw before me, Pinto, Zebede, and the
others, making their best speed. Behind, on came the hussars, their
officers shouting orders in German, their scabbards clanking and horses
neighing. The earth shook beneath them.

I took the shortest road to the wood, and had almost reached it, when I
came upon one of the trenches where the peasants were in the habit of
digging clay for their houses. It was more than twenty feet wide, and
forty or fifty long, and the rain had made the sides very slippery; but
as I heard the very breathing of the horses behind me, while my hair
rose on my head, without thinking of aught else, I sprang forward, and
fell upon my face: another fusileer of my company was already there.
We rose as soon as we could, and at the same instant two hussars glided
down the sl