"Well!" he added, "it is here on my breast. You must carry it to
Harberg and hang it up in the chapel in remembrance of Jean Buche, dead
in the faith of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
He spoke very earnestly, and I thought his wish very natural. Some die
for the rights of Humanity; with some, the last thought is for their
mother, others are influenced by the example of just men who have
sacrificed themselves for the race, but the feeling is the same in
every case, though each one expresses it according to his own manner of
thinking.
I gave him the desired promise and we waited for nearly half an hour
longer. All the troops as they left the wood came and formed near us,
and the cavalry were mustering on our right as if to attack Sombref.
Up to half-past two o'clock not a gun had been fired, when an
aid-de-camp of the Emperor arrived on the road to Fleurus, at full
speed, and I thought immediately, "Our turn has come now. May God
watch over us, for, miserable wretches that we are, we cannot save
ourselves in such a slaughter as is threatening."
I had scarcely made these reflections when two battalions on the right
set off on the road, with the artillery, toward Sombref, where the
Uhlans and Prussian cavalry were deploying in front of our dragoons.
It was the fortune of these two battalions to remain in position on the
route all that day to observe the cavalry of the enemy, while we went
to take the village where the Prussians were in force.
The attacking columns were formed just as the clock struck three; I was
in the one on the left which moved first at a quick step along a
winding road.
On the hill where Ligny was situated, was an immense ruin. It had been
built of brick and was pierced with holes and overlooked us as we
mounted the hill. We watched it sharply too, through the grain as we
went. The second column left immediately after us and passed by a
shorter route directly up the hill, we were to meet them at the
entrance to the village. I do not know when the third column left, as
we did not meet again till later.
All went smoothly until we reached a point where the road was cut
through a little elevation and then ran down to the village. As we
passed through between these little hills covered with grain, and
caught sight of the nearest house, a veritable hail of balls fell on
the head of the column with a frightful noise. From every hole in the
old ruin, from all the windows and loop-holes in the houses, from the
hedges and orchards and from above the stone walls the muskets showered
their deadly fire upon us like lightning.
At the same time a battery of fifteen pieces which had been for that
very purpose placed in a field in the rear of the great tower at the
left of, and higher tip than Ligny, near the windmill, opened upon us
with a roar, compared with which that of the musketry was nothing.
Those who had unfortunately passed the cut in the road fell over each
other in heaps in the smoke. At that moment we heard the fire of the
other column which had engaged the enemy at our right, and the roar of
other cannon, though we could not tell whether they were ours or those
of the Prussians.
Fortunately the whole battalion had not passed the little knoll, and
the balls whistled through the grain above us, and tore up the ground
without doing us the least injury. Every time this whizzing was heard,
I observed that the conscripts near me ducked their heads, and Jean
Buche, I remember, was staring at me with open eyes. The old soldiers
marched with tightly compressed lips.
The column stopped. For an instant each man thought whether it would
not be better to turn back, but it was only for a second, the enemy's
fire seemed to slacken, the officers all drew their sabres and shouted,
"Forward!"
The column set off again at a run and threw itself into the road that
led down the hill across the hedges. From the palisades and the walls
behind which the Prussians were in ambush, they continued to pour their
musketry fire upon us. But woe to every one we encountered! they
defended themselves with the desperation of wolves, but a few blows
from a musket, or a bayonet thrust, soon stretched them out in some
corner. A great number of old soldiers with gray mustaches had secured
their retreat, and retired in good order, turning to fire a last shot,
and then slipped through a breach or shut a door. We followed them
without hesitation, we had neither prudence nor mercy.
At last, quite scattered and in the greatest confusion, we reached the
first houses, when the fusillade commenced again from the windows, the
corners of the streets, and from everywhere. There were the orchards
and the gardens and the stone walls which ran along the hill-side, but
they were thrown down and demolished, the palisades torn up, and could
no longer serve as a shelter or a defence. From the well-barricaded
cottages, they still poured their fire upon us. In ten minutes more,
we should have been exterminated to the last man; seeing this, the
column turned down the hill again, drummers and sappers, officers and
soldiers pell-mell, all went without once turning their heads to look
back. I jumped over the palisades where I never should have thought it
possible at any other time, with my knapsack and cartridge-box at my
back; the others followed my example, and we all tumbled in a heap like
a falling wall.
Once in the road again between the hills, we stopped to breathe. Some
stretched themselves on the ground, and others sat down with their
backs against the slope. The officers were furious; as if they too had
not followed the movement to retreat, and some shouted to bring up the
cannon, and others wanted to re-form the troops, though they could
scarcely make themselves heard in the midst of the thunder of the
artillery which shook the air like a tempest.
I saw Jean Buche hurrying back with his bayonet red with blood. He
took his place beside me without saying a word, and commenced to reload.
Captain Gregoire, Lieutenant Certain, and several sergeants and
corporals, and more than a hundred men were left behind in the
orchards; and the first two battalions of the column had suffered as
much as we.
Zebede, with his great crooked nose, white as snow, seeing me at some
distance, shouted, "Joseph--no quarter!"
Great masses of white smoke rose over the sides of the road. The whole
hill-side from Ligny to St. Amand was on fire behind the willows and
aspens and poplars.
As I crept up on my hands and knees, and looked over the surface of the
grain and saw this terrible spectacle, and saw the long black lines of
infantry on the top of the hill and near the windmills, and the
innumerable cavalry on their flanks ready to fall upon us, I went back
thinking:
"We shall never rout that army. It fills the villages, and guards the
roads, and covers the hill as far as the eye can reach, there are guns
everywhere, and it is contrary to reason to persist in such an
enterprise."