The market-place at Busancy, a small country town, was crowded with officers, hussars, uhlans, couriers, and all sorts of conveyances. After a while Sheridan and Forsythe also arrived. At 11.30 the King appeared, and immediately afterwards we heard the unexpected news that the French were standing their ground. At about four kilometres from Busancy we came to a height beneath which to the left and right a small open valley lay between us and another height. Suddenly we heard the muffled sound of a discharge in the distance. “Artillery fire,” said the Minister. A little further on I saw two columns of infantry stationed on the other side of a hollow to the left on a piece of rising ground bare of trees. They had two guns which were being fired. It was so far off however that one could hardly hear the report. The Chief was surprised at the sharpness of my sight and put on his glasses, which I for the first time learned were necessary to him when he wished to see at a distance. Small white clouds like balloons at a great height floated for three or four seconds above the hollow and then disappeared in a flash. These were shrapnel shells. The guns must have been German, and seemed to throw their shot from a declivity on the other side of the hollow. Over this hollow was a wood, in front of which I could observe several dark lines, perhaps French troops. Still further off was the spur of a hill, with three or four large trees. This, according to my map, was the village of Stonn, from which, as I afterwards heard, the Emperor Napoleon watched the fight. The firing to the left soon ceased. Bavarian artillery, blue cuirassiers, and green light horse, passed us on the road, going at a trot. A little further on, just as we drove by a small thicket, we heard a rattle, as of a slow and badly delivered volley. “A mitrailleuse,” said Engel, turning round on the box. Not far off, at a place where the Bavarian rifles were resting in the ditch by the road, the Minister got on horseback in order to ride with the King, who was ahead of us. We ourselves, after following the road for a time, turned towards the right across a stubble field. The ground gradually rose to a low height on which the King stood with the Chief and a number of Princes, generals and other officers of high rank. I followed them across the ploughed fields, and standing a little to one side I watched the battle of Beaumont till nearly sunset.