se over the whole field, especially to the left where Bagration's
fleches were, but where Pierre was the smoke of the firing made it
almost impossible to distinguish anything. Moreover, his whole attention
was engrossed by watching the family circle--separated from all
else--formed by the men in the battery. His first unconscious feeling
of joyful animation produced by the sights and sounds of the battlefield
was now replaced by another, especially since he had seen that soldier
lying alone in the hayfield. Now, seated on the slope of the trench, he
observed the faces of those around him.

By ten o'clock some twenty men had already been carried away from the
battery; two guns were smashed and cannon balls fell more and more
frequently on the battery and spent bullets buzzed and whistled around.
But the men in the battery seemed not to notice this, and merry voices
and jokes were heard on all sides.

"A live one!" shouted a man as a whistling shell approached.

"Not this way! To the infantry!" added another with loud laughter,
seeing the shell fly past and fall into the ranks of the supports.

"Are you bowing to a friend, eh?" remarked another, chaffing a peasant
who ducked low as a cannon ball flew over.

Several soldiers gathered by the wall of the trench, looking out to see
what was happening in front.

"They've withdrawn the front line, it has retired," said they, pointing
over the earthwork.

"Mind your own business," an old sergeant shouted at them. "If they've
retired it's because there's work for them to do farther back."

And the sergeant, taking one of the men by the shoulders, gave him a
shove with his knee. This was followed by a burst of laughter.

"To the fifth gun, wheel it up!" came shouts from one side.

"Now then, all together, like bargees!" rose the merry voices of those
who were moving the gun.

"Oh, she nearly knocked our gentleman's hat off!" cried the red-faced
humorist, showing his teeth chaffing Pierre. "Awkward baggage!" he added
reproachfully to a cannon ball that struck a cannon wheel and a man's
leg.

"Now then, you foxes!" said another, laughing at some militiamen who,
stooping low, entered the battery to carry away the wounded man.

"So this gruel isn't to your taste? Oh, you crows! You're scared!" they
shouted at the militiamen who stood hesitating before the man whose leg
had been torn off.

"There, lads... oh, oh!" they mimicked the peasants, "they don't like it
at all!