The moment the order to advance was given us my captain looked at me so closely that I felt impelled to stroke my budding moustache two or three times with as nonchalant an air as possible. In fact, I had no fear; my only dread was that people might think me afraid. Furthermore, these inoffensive shots contributed to keep me in a calm state of mind. My vanity told me that I was really in danger, being at last under battery fire. I was delighted to find myself so cool, and I dreamed of the pleasure of relating in the drawing-room of Madame B----, Rue de Provence, the story of the taking of the fort of Cheverino. The colonel rode past our company and said to me, "Well, you are going to get it hot at your first battle." I smiled with a truly military air, at the same time brushing from my sleeve some dust which a ball thirty paces off had thrown up. It was evident that the Russians had noticed the miscarriage of their balls, for they replaced them by shells which could more easily reach us in the hollow where we were posted. One that burst near by knocked off my cap and killed a man close to me. "I congratulate you," said the captain to me, as I picked up my cap. "Now you are safe for the day." I was acquainted with the soldier's superstition that the axiom _non bis in idem_ holds good as much on the battlefield as in the court of justice. I replaced my cap jauntily. "That's a free and easy kind of greeting," I replied as jovially as possible. This poor joke seemed excellent under the circumstances. "You are lucky," said the captain; "you need not fear anything more, and you will command a company to-night. I know very well that a bullet for me will find its billet to-day. Each time I have been wounded the officer next to me has been grazed by a spent bullet, and," he added in a lower and half-ashamed tone, "their names always began with a P." I took courage; most people would have done the same; most people would have been equally struck with such prophetic words. Conscript as I was, I did not think I could confide my feelings to anybody. I thought I ought always to appear cool and brave. About half an hour after, the fire of the Russians slackened considerably: then we sallied out of our cover to storm the fort. Our regiment was composed of three battalions. The second was ordered to outflank the fort from the side of the gorge; the other two were to make the assault. I was in the third battalion. Coming out from behind the buttress which had protected us, we were greeted by several rounds of fire, which did but little harm in our ranks. The whistling of the balls startled me: I kept looking round, thus bringing upon myself joking remarks from my more seasoned comrades. "Upon the whole," I said, "a battle is not so very dreadful." We advanced at the double, preceded by our sharpshooters; suddenly the Russians gave three cheers, three distinct hurrahs, then they stopped firing and became silent.