We first passed through Chemery and Chehery, halting in a stubble field near a third village which lay in a hollow to the left of the road at foot of a bare hillock. Here the King, with his suite of Princes, generals, and courtiers, got on horseback, as did also the Chief, and the whole party moved towards the crest of the height. The distant roar of the cannon announced that the battle was in full progress. It was a bright sunny day, with a cloudless sky. Leaving Engel in charge of the carriage I after a while followed the horsemen, whom I found in a ploughed field from which one had an extensive view of the district. Beneath was a deep wide valley, mostly green, with patches of wood on the heights that surrounded it. The blue stream of the Meuse flowed past a town of moderate size, the fortress of Sedan. On the crest of the hill next us, at about the distance of a rifle shot, is a wood, and there are also some trees to the left. To the right in the foreground, which sloped obliquely, in a series of steps as it were, towards the bottom of the valley, was stationed a Bavarian battery, which kept up a sharp fire at and over the town. Behind the battery were dark columns of infantry and cavalry. Still farther to the right, from a hollow, rose a thick column of smoke. It comes, we are told, from the burning village of Bazeilles. We are only about an English mile in a beeline from Sedan, and in the clear atmosphere one can easily distinguish the houses and churches. In the distance, to the left and right, three or four villages, and beyond them all towards the horizon, a range of hills covered throughout with what appears to be a pine forest, serves as a frame for the whole picture. It is the Ardennes, on the Belgian frontier. The main positions of the French appear to be on the hillocks immediately beyond the fortress, and it looks as if our troops intended to surround them there. For the moment we can only see their advance on the right, as the lines of our artillery, with the exception of the Bavarians, who are posted under us, are lost behind the heights as they slowly move forward. Gradually the smoke of the guns is seen beyond the rising ground already mentioned, with the defile in the middle. The corps that are advancing in half circle to enclose the enemy are steadily endeavouring to complete the circle. To the left all is still. At 11 o’clock a dark grey pillar of smoke with yellow edges rises from the fortress, which has hardly taken any part in the firing. The French troops beyond Sedan deliver an energetic fire, and at the same time, over the wood in the defile, rise numbers of small white clouds from the shells--whether French or German we cannot say. Sometimes, also, we hear the rattle of the mitrailleuse.