"France! France!" Half the 24th brigade came leaping and swarming over the trenches in the Prussian rear.

The Prussians wavered.

"France!" cried the little party that were being overpowered, and charged in their turn with such fury that in two seconds the two French corps went through the enemy's centre like paper, and their very bayonets clashed together in more than one Prussian body.
Broken thus in two fragments the Prussian corps ceased to exist as a military force.

The men fled each his own way back to the fort, and many flung away their muskets, for French soldiers were swarming in from all quarters.

At this moment, bang! bang! bang! from the bastion.
"They are firing on my brigade," said our colonel.