er a thing so slender that it
looked as though it were supported by the fragile meshes of a spider's
web? Captain D. gave me the Colonel's precise orders: not to pass more
than four troopers at a time, and these at walking pace.

Taking the initiative in the movement, I started with my first four
Chasseurs. The bridge rang strangely under our horses' hoofs, and
seemed to me to oscillate in an alarming manner. Fortunately the enemy
was not on the other side; if he had been, our passage would have cost
us dear.

As I was making these reflections a violent fusillade burst out from
the edge of the woods overlooking Jaulgonne to the east. It must have
been directed upon the village, for no bullets whistled around us, so
it was probably our first squadron engaging the German cavalry. When I
got to the other end of the bridge my impatience increased. It was
torture to think of the time it would take to collect my thirty men
and hurry forward to help the others; and I noticed the same
impatience in my men's looks. Those who were on the bridge, walking
slowly and gently across, seemed to implore me to let them trot; but I
pretended not to understand, and the horses' feet continued to trample
heavily over the echoing bridge. At last all my men were over.

We fell in and reached Jaulgonne at a trot. On passing through it we
found several of the inhabitants on their doorsteps:

"_Monsieur l'Officier_, ... _Monsieur l'Officier_, will they come back
again?"

"Never!" I shouted, with conviction.

I stopped an orderly, who told me that the German cavalry were firing
on the exit from the town. How many of them he could not say, as they
were hidden in the woods. He told me, too, that the first squadron was
holding all the entrances to the north and east of the village except
the one on the river bank on the road to Marcilly, where my comrade F.
had posted his troop. I decided then to put myself at the disposal of
the party defending the chief exit from the village, the one that
opened into the road to Fismes. It was the most important one, for it
was in that direction that the Germans were retiring.

The village had been prevented from spreading further to the north by
the heights, which formed an abrupt barrier. It is built astride the
road to Fismes, which thus becomes its principal, if not its only,
street. I had then to go right through Jaulgonne before I could get
out of it in the direction of the firing. I soon did this, an