At 8 o'clock in the morning the German advance body, twelve thousand strong, appeared at the intersection of the road near the top of the hill across the river. They advanced in solid formation, marching in the goose step and singing, to the music of a band, their war hymn, "Deutchland Uber Alles." It was a beautiful morning and the sun glistened on the German helmets as they came down the slope, an apparently innumerable army. In this form they reached the end of the bridge opposite to where the chasseurs were located. The captain of that little band of French ordered them to halt, and they did so, the rear ranks closing up on those in front before the order could be passed along by their commander. In a moment, however, the column began to move again and then the captain of the chasseurs waved his hand and the mitralleuses opened on the advancing host. The range was point blank and there was absolutely no protection. The hail of bullets mowed down the Germans and they broke ranks, fleeing back up the hill and out of range. All was quiet for half an hour and then a detachment of cavalry, evidently ordered to rush the bridge, came down at a gallop, having been formed in the shelter of a road branching off the main highway a short distance from the bridge. They were met by a hail of bullets and nearly all went down before they reached the bridge, while the few who did so fell on it or tumbled, with their horses, into the river. The whole German force was delayed until a battery could be brought up from the rear and trained on the small building sheltering the chasseurs and their machine guns. For some reason, the gunners could not get the range on this small building, and after firing a few shots in its direction, turned their guns on the magnificent chateau, a short distance down the river. At this point there was a small foot bridge, and the German commander evidently meant to try to rush it. Before doing so, however, he was going to make certain that the Chateau, which commanded it, did not conceal another band of defenders. This seems to be the only explanation for the bombardment of the Chateau, which was one of the finest country homes in France and entirely unoccupied. At any rate, they fired shell after shell at the building. I secured a picture of this which shows the work of the guns.