At
this, they struck across the fields, and forming behind the guns, lay down
flat on their faces, where they were soon hid from our view by the wreaths
of white smoke, as the sluggish morning breeze rolled it down the
hill--side towards us.
"What the deuce can all this mean--is it a review?" said I, in my
innocence.
"A reconnoissance in force," groaned my friend. "The Allied troops must
be at hand--now, God help us!"
The women, like frightened hares, paused to look up in their brother's
face, as he kept his eye steadily turned towards the ridge of the hill,
and, when he involuntarily wrung his hands, they gave a loud scream, a
fearful concerto, and ran off into the house.
The breeze at this moment "aside the shroud of battle cast" and we heard a
faint bugle--call, like an echo, wail in the distance, from beyond the
hill. It was instantly answered by the loud, startling blare of a dozen of
the light infantry bugles above us on the hill--side, and we could see
them suddenly start from their lair, and form; while between us and the
clearing morning sky, the cavalry, magnified into giants in the strong
relief on the outline of the hill, were driven in straggling patrols, like
chaff, over the summit--their sabres sparkling in the level sunbeams, and
the reports of the red flashes of their pistols crackling down upon us.
"They are driven in on the infantry," said Mr----- He was right but the
light battalion immediately charged over the hill, with a loud hurrah,
after admitting the beaten horse through their intervals, who, however, to
give the devils their due, formed again in a instant, under the shelter of
the high ground.
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