Then taking advantage of this, he served two of his guns with grape, and swept the enemy off the top of the bastion, and kept it clear.

He made it so hot they could not work the upper guns.
Then they turned the other two tiers all upon him, and at it both sides went ding, dong, till the guns were too hot to be worked.

So then Sergeant La Croix popped his head up from the battery, and showed the enemy a great white plate.

This was meant to convey to them an invitation to dine with the French army: the other side of the table of course.
To the credit of Prussian intelligence be it recorded, that this pantomimic hint was at once taken and both sides went to dinner.
The fighting colonel, however, remained in the battery, and kept a detachment of his gunners employed cooling the guns and repairing the touch-holes.

He ordered his two cutlets and his glass of water into the battery.
Meantime, the enemy fired a single gun at long intervals, as much as to say, "We had the last word." Let trenches be cut ever so artfully, there will be a little space exposed here and there at the angles.