"At last, my boys!" said Captain O’Hare. The men of his company were flushed with excitement. At last! The weary waiting of two months was at an end; the enemy were upon them; and now every man tingled with the joy of the fight to come, and greedily watched for the foe. The officers, looking along their ranks, could not but be struck with the wonderful change. Gone the blank despair, gone the sullen discontent, gone the hang-dog look; every man’s face was lit up, every man’s eyes flashed, every man stood erect with an air of high-hearted staunchness that had not been seen for many a day. "There they are!" cried Pomeroy, whose keen eyes had descried Colbert’s hussars advancing cautiously over the hill-top. At this moment the bugle sounded for the last companies of the 95th to retire across the bridge and occupy the defensive positions allotted to them. The men marched with alacrity; it was certain there must be a fight now. Jack’s was the rearmost company but one. It had only reached the middle of the bridge when the 15th Hussars came riding behind in hot haste, and the infantry were in imminent danger of being trampled down. The French were pressing on in such force that the hussars, wholly outnumbered, had been hurriedly withdrawn. Unsupported, the 95th were too weak to withstand a charge of cavalry; they must retire, and there was no time to lose. "Hurry your stumps!" shouted a trooper as he passed Wilkes. "No hurry!" said the corporal coolly, looking over his shoulder. But behind them Colbert’s hussars and chasseurs had swept down on to the bridge and ridden into the rear-most company. Some of the latter were cut down, half were captured, the rest succeeded in gaining the farther bank, and joined their comrades behind the vineyard walls. "A close shave, mates!" said Wilkes. "But let ’em come on; we’re ready."