ade, and stormed _a la Turque_. Our
anxiety during the day was indescribable. With our telescopes
constantly in our hands, we watched the effect of every new discharge;
we galloped from hill to hill with the impatience of men in actual
combat, and every eye and tongue was busy in calculating the
distances, the power of guns, and the time which the crumbling works
would take to fill up the ditch. The reports of the engineers, towards
evening, announced that a practicable breach was made, and three
battalions of Austrian grenadiers, and as many of Prussians, were
ordered under arms for the assault. To make this gallant enterprize
more conspicuous, the whole army was formed in columns, and marched to
the heights, which commanded a view of the fortress. The fire from the
batteries now became a continued roar, and the guns of Longwy, whose
fire had slackened during the day, answered them with an equal
thunder; the space between was soon covered with smoke, and when the
battalions of grenadiers moved down the hillside, and plunged into the
valley, they looked like masses of men disappearing into the depths of
ocean. The anxiety now grew intense. I hardly breathed; and yet I had
a mingled sensation of delight, eagerness, and yet of uncertainty, to
which nothing that I had ever felt before was comparable. I longed to
follow those brave men to the assault, and probably would have made
some such extravagant blunder, but for seeing Varnhorst's broad
visage turned on me with a look of that quiet humour which, of all
things on earth, soonest brings a man to his senses. "My good friend,"
said he, "however fine this affair may be, live in hope of seeing
something finer. Never be shot at Longwy, when you may have a chance
of scaling the walls of Paris. I have made a vow never to be hanged in
the beginning of a revolution, nor to be shot in the beginning of a
war. But come, the duke is beckoning to us. Let us follow him."

We saw the general and his staff galloping from the ground where he
had remained from the beginning of the assault, to a height still more
exposed, and where the guns from the fortress were tearing up the
soil. From this spot a large body of troops were seen rushing from the
gate of the fortress, and plunging into the valley. The result of this
powerful sortie was soon heard, for every thing was invisible under
the thick cloud, which grew thicker every moment, in the volleys of
musketry, and the shouts of the troops o