y no means in the
Espagnac-French,--not chivalrous epigram at all, mere rough banter, and
what is called "chaffing;"--and in short, that the French Mess-rooms
(with their eloquent talent that way) had rounded off the thing into the
current epigrammatic redaction; the authentic business-form of it being
ruggedly what is now given. Let our Manuscript proceed.

"D'Auteroche declining the first fire,"--or accepting it, if ever
offered, nobody can say,--"the three Guards Regiments, Lord Charles's on
the right, give it him hot and heavy, 'tremendous rolling fire;' so that
D'Auteroche, responding more or less, cannot stand it; but has at once
to rustle into discontinuity, he and his, and roll rapidly out of the
way. And the British Column advances, steadily, terribly, hurling back
all opposition from it; deeper and deeper into the interior mysteries
of the French Host; blasting its way with gunpowder;--in a magnificent
manner. A compact Column, slowly advancing,--apparently of some 16,000
foot. Pauses, readjusts itself a little, when not meddled with; when
meddled with, has cannon, has rolling fire,--delivers from it, in fact,
on both hands such a torrent of deadly continuous fire as was rarely
seen before or since. 'FEU INFERNAL,' the French call it. The French
make vehement resistance. Battalions, squadrons, regiment after
regiment, charge madly on this terrible Column; but rush only on
destruction thereby. Regiment This storms in from the right, regiment
That from the left; have their colonels shot, 'lose the half of their
people;' and hastily draw back again, in a wrecked condition. The
cavalry-horses cannot stand such smoke and blazing; nor indeed, I think,
can the cavaliers. REGIMENT DU ROI rushing on, full gallop, to charge
this Column, got one volley from it [says Espagnac] which brought to the
ground 460 men. Natural enough that horses take the bit between
their teeth; likewise that men take it, and career very madly in such
circumstances!

MAP Chap. VIII, Book 15, PAGE 440 GOES ABOUT HERE--------

"The terrible Column with slow inflexibility advances; cannon (now in
reversed position) from that Redoubt d'Eu ('Shame on you, Ingoldsby!'),
and irregular musketry from Fontenoy side, playing upon it; defeated
regiments making barriers of their dead men and firing there; Column
always closing its gapped ranks, and girdled with insupportable fire.
It ought to have taken Fontenoy and Redoubt d'Eu, say military men; it
oug