One day I asked him the reason.

We are very old and close friends, and he told me.
"The incident occurred when he was a young lieutenant.

Indeed, it was his first engagement.

By some means or another he had become separated from his company, and, unable to regain it, had attached himself to a line regiment stationed at the extreme right of the Prussian lines.
"The enemy's effort was mainly directed against the left centre, and for a while our young lieutenant was nothing more than a distant spectator of the battle.

Suddenly, however, the attack shifted, and the regiment found itself occupying an extremely important and critical position.