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Updated: June 20, 2025
On seeing these we made an exclamation of joy, but the fear of seeing the others come in, made us run out in the rear, far into the rye-field, skulking and hiding like thieves. We had regained all our strength, and we went and sat down on the edge of a little brook. Buche said: "Look here! I must have my part." "Yes, half of all," I replied.
Buche and I slept that night in a little room, with a Holy Virgin and infant Jesus in a niche between the curtains over our heads, and we rested like the blessed in heaven. The next morning, instead of keeping on our way, we were so glad to sit on a comfortable chair in the kitchen, to stretch our legs and smoke our pipes as we watched the kettles boiling, that we said, "Let us stay quietly here.
We scattered in every direction, Buche and I always keeping together, and it was ten minutes before we could be rallied again near the road in squads from all the regiments. Those who have the direction of affairs in war should keep such examples as these before their eyes, and reflect that new plans cost those dear who are forced to try them.
Everything changes nothing but good sense and good will remain." Buche did not want to understand this reasoning, but when the gendarmes came, he submitted notwithstanding. As we went along, one after another of our little party would drop off in his own village, till at last no one was left but Toul, Buche, and I.
I looked round, thinking, "That is Buche calling me." In a moment I saw him at the door of a woodshed, crossing bayonets with five or six of our men. I caught sight of Zébédé at that same instant, as our company was in that corner, and rushing to Buche's assistance, I shouted, "Zébédé!" Parting the combatants, I asked Buche what was the matter. "They want to murder my prisoners!" said he.
Our little company got smaller and smaller as men halted in their own villages, and when, on July 16, we reached Phalsbourg, Buche and I were alone. Buche went on to break the news of my return, but I could not wait, and ran after him. I heard people saying, "There's Joseph, Bertha," and in a moment I was in the house, and in Catherine's arms.
For a long time we had been able to see nothing but the shadows of the gunners as they manoeuvred in the smoke, on the border of the ravine, when we heard the order, "Cease firing!" At the same moment we heard the piercing voices of the colonels of our four divisions shout, "Close up the ranks for battle!" All the lines approached each other. "Now it is our turn," said I to Buche.
The soldiers were all shouting and singing, with their guns on their shoulders, but we knew this only by seeing their open mouths. I had just taken my place by the side of Buche and had begun to breathe, when a forward movement began. This time the plan was to cross the little stream, push the Prussians out of Ligny, mount the hill behind and cut their line in two, and the battle would be gained.
Buche kept saying: "Well! a dozen big potatoes roasted in the ashes as we do at Harberg would rejoice my eyes. We don't eat meat every day at home, but we always have potatoes." I thought of our warm little room at Pfalzbourg, the table with its white cloth, Father Goulden with his plate before him, while Catherine served the rich hot soup and the smoked cutlets on the gridiron.
These miserable thoughts ran through my head, but I marched on with more courage, and Buche said: "The English are right in having their bottles made of tin, for if I had not seen this shining in the moonlight, I should never have thought of going to look for it."
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