All the muskets covered the young captain.

"Stir, and thou'rt a dead man," muttered threatening voices.

Without replying, M.d'Assas collected all his strength and shouted, "Auvergne! Here are the foe!" At the same instant he fell pierced by twenty balls.
[Accounts differ; but this is the tradition of the Assas family.] The action thus begun was a glorious one.

The hereditary prince was obliged to abandon the siege of Wesel and to recross the Rhine.

The French divisions maintained their positions.
[Illustration: Death of Chevalier D'Assas----233] The war went on as bloodily as monotonously and fruitlessly, but the face of Europe had lately altered.