They looked like the advance guard of some important division.

There was a low, rolling volume of heavy sound coming from the far north, and in the rising sun they thought they could distinguish in that direction smoke, as from a battlefield.

The sound itself was unmistakable to the veteran.
"Cannon!" he said.

"Fighting there." "Yes," answered Marteau.

"The Emperor said that the Prussians and Russians were pressing the Duke of Tarentum, Marshal Macdonald." "But what have we here ?" asked old Bal-Arret, shading his eyes and peering at the array on the near road.
A division of Russians, coming from a defile to the right, had debouched upon a broad plateau or level upon the edge of which the little village of Champaubert straggled forlornly.