uickly disposed our company in
such a manner that the retreating force fell back through our midst; and
then we promptly closed in, and so took the fighting to ourselves.

I cannot tell very clearly how our retreat to the Citadel was managed,
nor even of my own part in it; for fighting is but rough, wild work,
which defies all attempts at scientific accuracy in describing it--and
for the reason, I fancy, that it engenders a wholly unscientific frame
of mind. Reduced to its lowest terms, fighting is mere barbarity; a most
illogical method of settling some disputed question by brute force
instead of by the refined reasoning processes of the intelligent human
mind; and by the anger that it inevitably begets, the habit of accurate
observation, out of which alone can come accurate description, is
hopelessly confused. Therefore I can say only that foot by foot we
yielded the ground to the enemy that pressed upon us; that wild shouts
rang out--in which I myself joined, though why I should have shouted I
am sure I do not know--together with the sharp rattle of clashing
swords; and that through the roar of this outburst of fierce sounds
there ran an undertone of groans and sobs from the poor wretches who had
fallen wounded to the ground. The one thing that I remember clearly is a
set-to with swords that I had with a big fellow, just as we had come
close to the Citadel, that ended in a way (that would have surprised him
mightily had he lived long enough to comprehend it) by my finishing him
by means of a stop-thrust followed by a beautiful draw-cut that was a
famous stroke with my old sabre-master at Leipsic. And I well remember
thinking, at the moment that I made this stroke--and so saved my life by
it, for the fellow was pressing me very closely--how happy it would have
made the old Rittmeister could he have seen me deliver it.

As we made a rush for the gate of the Citadel, that we might get inside
this place of safety and drop the grating before the enemy could follow
us, we were surprised by finding many of our own men lying dead about
the entrance; and what was far worse for us, we found that unskilled
hands had been at work with the machinery whereby the gate was lowered
and by their bungling had managed to start it downward in such a way
that it had jammed in the grooves. What actually had happened there, as
we knew afterwards, was that the first of the cowardly wretches who had
entered the Citadel had tried to drop the g