During that time the German army, inexorably commanded and driven at the stick’s end like the army of the Xerxes, achieved marches of fourteen leagues in fifteen hours, which enabled it to arrive unexpectedly, and to surround the French army while asleep.  It was customary to allow oneself to be surprised.  General Failly allowed himself to be surprised at Beaumont; during the day the soldiers took their guns to pieces to clean them, at night they slept, without even cutting the bridges which delivered them to the enemy; thus they neglected to blow up the bridges of Mouzon and Bazeilles.  On September 1st, daylight had not yet appeared, when an advance guard of seven battalions, commanded by General Schultz, captured La Rulle, and insured the junction of the army of the Meuse with the Royal Guard.  Almost at the same minute, with German precision, the Wurtemburgers seized the bridge of La Platinerie, and hidden by the Chevalier Wood, the Saxon battalions, spread out into company columns, occupied the whole of the road from La Moncelle to Villers-Cernay.

Thus, as we have seen, the awakening of the French Army was horrible.  At Bazeilles a fog was added to the smoke.  Our soldiers, attacked in this gloom, knew not what death required of them; they fought from room to room and from house to house.[39]

It was in vain that the Reboul brigade came to support the Martin des Pallieres brigade; they were obliged to yield.  At the same time Ducrot was compelled to concentrate his forces in the Garenne Wood, before the Calvary of Illy; Douay, shattered, fell back; Lebrun alone stood firm on the plateau of Stenay.  Our troops occupied a line of five kilometres; the front of the French army faced the east, the left faced the north, the extreme left (the Guyomar brigade) faced the west; but they did not know whether they faced the enemy, they did not see him; annihilation struck without showing itself; they had to deal with a masked Medusa.  Our cavalry was excellent, but useless.  The field of battle, obstructed by a large wood, cut up by clumps of trees, by houses and by farms and by enclosure walls, was excellent for artillery and infantry, but bad for cavalry.  The rivulet of Givonne, which flows at the bottom of the valley and crosses it, for three days ran with more blood than water.  Among other places of carnage, Saint-Menges was appalling.  For a moment it appeared possible to cut a way out by Carignan towards Montmedy, and then this outlet reclosed.  This refuge only remained, Sedan; Sedan encumbered with carts, with wagons, with carriages, with hospital huts; a heap of combustible matter.  This dying agony of heroes lasted ten hours.  They refused to surrender, they grew indignant, they wished to complete their death, so bravely begun.  They were delivered up to it.