The English battery which fired the first gun was still banging away on our left, and a German one was hard at work upon our right, so that we were wrapped round with the smoke; but we were not so hidden as to screen us from a line of French guns opposite, for a score of round shot came piping through the air and plumped right into the heart of us.  As I heard the scream of them past my ear my head went down like a diver, but our sergeant gave me a prod in the back with the handle of his halbert.

“Don’t be so blasted polite,” said he; “when you’re hit, you can bow once and for all.”

There was one of those balls that knocked five men into a bloody mash, and I saw it lying on the ground afterwards like a crimson football.  Another went through the adjutant’s horse with a plop like a stone in the mud, broke its back and left it lying like a burst gooseberry.  Three more fell further to the right, and by the stir and cries we could tell that they had all told.

“Ah!  James, you’ve lost a good mount,” says Major Reed, just in front of me, looking down at the adjutant, whose boots and breeches were all running with blood.

“I gave a cool fifty for him in Glasgow,” said the other.  “Don’t you think, major, that the men had better lie down now that the guns have got our range?”

“Tut!” said the other; “they are young, James, and it will do them good.”

“They’ll get enough of it before the day’s done,” grumbled the other; but at that moment Colonel Reynell saw that the Rifles and the 52nd were down on either side of us, so we had the order to stretch ourselves out too.  Precious glad we were when we could hear the shot whining like hungry dogs within a few feet of our backs.  Even now a thud and a splash every minute or so, with a yelp of pain and a drumming of boots upon the ground, told us that we were still losing heavily.

A thin rain was falling and the damp air held the smoke low, so that we could only catch glimpses of what was doing just in front of us, though the roar of the guns told us that the battle was general all along the lines.  Four hundred of them were all crashing at once now, and the noise was enough to split the drum of your ear.  Indeed, there was not one of us but had a singing in his head for many a long day afterwards.  Just opposite us on the slope of the hill was a French gun, and we could see the men serving her quite plainly.  They were small active men, with very tight breeches and high hats with great straight plumes sticking up from them; but they worked like sheep-shearers, ramming and sponging and training.  There were fourteen when I saw them first, and only four left standing at the last, but they were working away just as hard as ever.