The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1859-12-14
many of our comrades. "

| I'LL w ~AS VI
tention The attack is fixed for five
o'clock. Suppose you and were to
carry the bastion ten minutes before
the Colonel from Egypt can bring his
men upon the ground ="
A fierce roar of JOY and laughter
the strange laughter of veterans and
born invincibles.
| "That was question | put to your
hearts-your answer Z"
The answer was yell Of exulting
assent, but was half drowned by anoth=
err response, and thunder of the imperi-
al drums, and the rattle of fixing bay
onets.
The Colonel told off a party to the
battery.
Level the guns at the top ties
Fire, at my signal, and keep firing ov-
er our heads till you see our colors on
the place"
He then darted to the head of the
column, which instantly formed behind
| him in the centre of Deaths Alley.
The colors No hand but mine
shall hold them to-day"
They were instantly brought to him
his left hand shook them free in the af-
ternoon sun.
A deep marmur of Joy from the old
hands at the now unwonted sight
Out flashed the sword like steel light
ming. He waved it toward the bat-
terry.
Bang I! bang bang bang bang!
went the canon, and the smoke rolled
over the trenches. At the same mo-
rnent up went the colors waving, and
the Coloneps clarion voice pealed above
all.
Twenty fourth demi- brigade-for=
ward !"
They went so swiftly out of the
trenches that they were not seen thro'
their own smoke until they had run
some sixty yards. No sooner were
they seen coming on like devile, than
two thousand muskets were leveled at
them from all the Prussian line. 1t
was not a rattle of small arms-it was
a crash, and the men fell fast but in a
moment they were seen to spread out
like fan, and when the fan closed
again it half encircled the bastion.-
1t was a French attack. Part swarm
ed at it in front like bees, part swept
around the glaeis and aanked it. They
were seen to fall in numbers, shot
down from the embrasures. But the
living took the place of the dead, and
the fight ranged evenly rear. There
the Colonel and hundred men are
fighting hand to hand with the Prus-
SLAMS, who have charged out at the
back doors of the hastion. Success
there, and the baotion must fall--both
sides know this
All in a moment the colors disap
peared. There was a groan from the
French line. No there they were
again, and close under the bastion.
And now in front the attack was so
hot that often the Prussian gunners
were seen to jump down, driven from
their posts and the next moment a
fierce hurrah from the rear told that
the French had won some great ad-
vantage there. The fire slackenipg
told a similar tale, and now down came
the Prussian flag staff. That might
be accident. A few moments of thirsty
expectation, and up went the colors of
the Oath brigade npon the Bastion St.
Andre
The whole French army raised
shout that rent the sky, and their can
non began to play on the Prussian lines
and between the bastion and the near
est fort to prevent recapture,
/ Then shot from the earth cubic
acre of fire where last the bastion YVES
seen it carried up heavy mountain
of red and black smoke, that looked as
| solid as marble, There was q heavy,
spllen, tremulons explosion, that sqf-
fered out the sound of the cannon, and
/ paralysed the French and Prussian gun
1 ners' hands, and checked the very beat
ing of their hearts. Thirty thousand
pounds of gnnpowder were in that aw-
full explosion,
War itself held its breath, and both
armies, like peaceful spectators, gazed
wonder struck, terror-strnck. Great
hell seemed to have burnt through the
earth's crust, and to be rushing at hea-
ven. Huge stones, canpons, corpses,
and limbs of soldier were seen driven
or fallen through the smoke. Some Of
these last came quite clear Of the ruins,
aye, into the French and Prussian lines,
that even the yeteraDssput their hands
j. to their eyes Raynal felt something
spatter on him from the sky. 1t was
blood-a comrades, perhaps, Oh J!
war war -
The smoke cleared Where q mo-
\ ment before the great bastion stood
and fought was monstrous pile OF
blackened, bloody stones and timbers,
with dismounted cannon sticking up