Taking the initiative in the movement, I started with my first four Chasseurs.  The bridge rang strangely under our horses’ hoofs, and seemed to me to oscillate in an alarming manner.  Fortunately the enemy was not on the other side; if he had been, our passage would have cost us dear.

As I was making these reflections a violent fusillade burst out from the edge of the woods overlooking Jaulgonne to the east.  It must have been directed upon the village, for no bullets whistled around us, so it was probably our first squadron engaging the German cavalry.  When I got to the other end of the bridge my impatience increased.  It was torture to think of the time it would take to collect my thirty men and hurry forward to help the others; and I noticed the same impatience in my men’s looks.  Those who were on the bridge, walking slowly and gently across, seemed to implore me to let them trot; but I pretended not to understand, and the horses’ feet continued to trample heavily over the echoing bridge.  At last all my men were over.

We fell in and reached Jaulgonne at a trot.  On passing through it we found several of the inhabitants on their doorsteps: 

“Monsieur l’Officier, ... Monsieur l’Officier, will they come back again?”

“Never!” I shouted, with conviction.

I stopped an orderly, who told me that the German cavalry were firing on the exit from the town.  How many of them he could not say, as they were hidden in the woods.  He told me, too, that the first squadron was holding all the entrances to the north and east of the village except the one on the river bank on the road to Marcilly, where my comrade F. had posted his troop.  I decided then to put myself at the disposal of the party defending the chief exit from the village, the one that opened into the road to Fismes.  It was the most important one, for it was in that direction that the Germans were retiring.

The village had been prevented from spreading further to the north by the heights, which formed an abrupt barrier.  It is built astride the road to Fismes, which thus becomes its principal, if not its only, street.  I had then to go right through Jaulgonne before I could get out of it in the direction of the firing.  I soon did this, and found the horses of the first squadron massed in the short alleys leading out of the main street.  I ordered my troop to dismount in a yard much too small and very inconvenient.  But the first thing to do was to clear the causeway and shelter our horses from bullets, which might enfilade the street if the fighting bore away towards the left.  Then, whilst a non-commissioned officer collected the squads for the action on foot, I ran as far as the furthest houses of the village to reconnoitre the ground and get orders.

I spied Major P. in a sheltered nook, still mounted, and he told me of his anxiety about the situation.  The enemy riflemen were invisible, and were riddling the outskirts of the village, while we were unable to reply; and some guns had been seen which were being got into position.  He advised me to go and see the captain of the first squadron, who had been ordered to defend that entrance of the village, and to place myself at his disposal in case of need.