Bazeilles takes fire, Givonne takes fire, Floing takes fire; the battle begins with a furnace.  The whole horizon is aflame.  The French camp is in this crater, stupefied, affrighted, starting up from sleeping,—­a funereal swarming.  A circle of thunder surrounds the army.  They are encircled by annihilation.  This mighty slaughter is carried on on all sides simultaneously.  The French resist, and they are terrible, having nothing left but despair.  Our cannon, almost all old-fashioned and of short range, are at once dismounted by the fearful and exact aim of the Prussians.  The density of the rain of shells upon the valley is so great, that “the earth is completely furrowed,” says an eye-witness, “as though by a rake.”  How many cannon?  Eleven hundred at least.  Twelve German batteries upon La Moncelle alone; the 3d and 4th Abtheilung, an awe-striking artillery, upon the crests of Givonne, with the 2d horse battery in reserve; opposite Doigny ten Saxon and two Wurtemburg batteries; the curtain of trees of the wood to the north of Villers-Cernay masks the mounted Abtheilung, which is there with the 3d Heavy Artillery in reserve, and from this gloomy copse issues a formidable fire; the twenty-four pieces of the 1st Heavy Artillery are ranged in the glade skirting the road from La Moncelle to La Chapelle; the battery of the Royal Guard sets fire to the Garenne Wood; the shells and the balls riddle Suchy, Francheval, Fouru-Saint-Remy, and the valley between Heibes and Givonne; and the third and fourth rank of cannon extend without break of continuity as far as the Calvary of Illy, the extreme point of the horizon.  The German soldiers, seated or lying before the batteries, watch the artillery at work.  The French soldiers fall and die.  Amongst the bodies which cover the plain there is one, the body of an officers on which they will find, after the battle, a sealed note, containing this order, signed NAPOLEON:  “To-day, September 1st, rest for the whole army.”

The gallant 35th of the Line almost completely disappears under the overwhelming shower of shells; the brave Marine Infantry holds at bay for a moment the Saxons, joined by the Bavarians, but outflanked on every side, draws back; all the admirable cavalry of the Targueritte Division hurled against the German infantry, halts and sinks down midway, “annihilated,” says the Prussian Report, “by well-aimed and cool firing."[38] This field of carnage has three outlets; all three barred:  the Bouillon road by the Prussian Guard, the Carignan road by the Bavarians, the Mezieres road by the Wurtemburgers.  The French have not thought of barricading the railway viaduct; three German battalions have occupied it during the night.  Two isolated houses on the Balan road could be made the pivot of a long resistance; but the Germans are there.  The wood from Monvilliers to Bazeilles, bushy and dense, might prevent the junction of the Saxons, masters of La Moncelle, and the Bavarians,