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Then another battalion of young troops tried it, all together in a rush, shouting and yelling; but what will shouting do against a mitraille of grape? And there was our second battalion laid out on the hillside.
But he wouldn't hear of it. "'Pooh! he would laugh when I would suggest such a thing. 'If ever they come near me I'll tell them I've got "trench pest" and then you'll see them clear out. "He went down in the kitchen and I'd hear him pottering around. I never knew him so gay and happy. "'Tante Rose, I'm going to sing you "La Madelon" and the "Refrain de la Mitraille."
The French mitraille played mercilessly on the ranks; but the chasms were filled up like magic, and in vain the bold horsemen of Gaul galloped round the bristling files. At length the word, "Fire!" was heard within the square, and as the bullets at pistol-range rattled upon them, the cuirass afforded them no defence against the deadly volley. Men and horses rolled indiscriminately upon the earth.
I took many pictures that morning of dogs, three abreast, hauling mitrailleuse, the small and deadly quick-firing guns, from the word mitraille, a hail of balls; of long lines of Belgian lancers on their undipped and shaggy horses, each man carrying an eight-foot lance at rest; of men drilling in broken boots, in wooden shoes stuffed with straw, in carpet slippers.
He had, so he informed me, been a soldier in the GRANDE ARMEE. He enthralled me with hair- raising accounts of his exploits: how, when leading a storming party he was always the leader one dark and terrible night, the vivid and incessant lightning betrayed them by the flashing of their bayonets; and how in a few minutes they were mowed down by MITRAILLE. He had led forlorn hopes, and performed deeds of astounding prowess.
Not one escaped; the distance was too short, the aim too sure, the charge of mitraille too close and heavy. A flying shot at a flock of eider duck added a male, with snowy crest, and three plump, brown females; and a successful approach to a small flock of brent made up fifteen birds under the half-deck of the little craft.
The wounded bird suddenly paused, drew himself up to his full height, and spread his wings, or rather his uninjured pinion. The huge gun roared. The closely-packed mitraille tore the icy crust into powder, fifty yards beyond the doomed bird, which settled, throbbing with a mortal tremor, upon the ice, shot through the head.
Many outbreaks, perhaps quelled after much loss on both sides, in which the monarchy was only saved by the judicious expenditure of much mitraille might have been traced to the covert influence of that mild-eyed, melancholy camériste.
The activity, energy, and courage which they occasionally display in the pursuit of information are truly remarkable. I saw them during the three days at Paris, mingled with canaille and gamins behind the barriers, whilst the mitraille was flying in all directions, and the desperate cuirassiers were dashing their fierce horses against these seemingly feeble bulwarks.
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