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CHAPTER V.
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
3
d 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
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