The moon, which occasionally gave out weird gleams of silver light between the masses of dark cloud that floated slowly on the upper currents of air, was now luckily enveloped, and all the scenery was intensely dark. Yet we could distinctly see the lights twinkling in the town, and the glare of the night fires, which cast flashes of lurid and wavering radiance upon the steep gables, the spire of a church, and the undefined outlines of masses of building. The French could see nothing of us; but the neighing of our nags was sufficient to give them all an _alerte_, consequently, when we came within four hundred yards of the town gate, the whole regiment of horse were in their saddles to receive whatever might be approaching. We were advancing in close column of troops as the way was broad and open. The Inniskillings were in our rear; the light troop of ours was in front of the whole, with Colonel Preston riding between Douglas and me. On the roadway, as we approached, we could see the black figure of a single horseman posted. "When he challenges, Gauntlet, reply in French," whispered the Colonel; "say something to deceive him." Preston had scarcely spoken, when the voice of the vidette rung out clearly on the night-- "_Qui vive?_" "Artois," I replied, while we all pressed forward at a trot. "_A quel regiment?_" shouted the vidette, in great haste. "Les Hussards de la Reine," said I, giving the name of Boisguiller's well-known corps, which was in the camp at Corbach. "_Très bien!_ replied the soldier, but the next moment he could hear Preston's words of command, given sternly and low-- "Prepare to charge--_charge!_" The Frenchman's carbine flashed redly through the gloom, almost in our faces; the bullet whistled over our heads to the rear, where a fearful cry told that it had found a fatal billet among the Inniskillings; then wheeling round his horse, he galloped to the rear, where his comrades were formed in column of squadrons. Ere the echoes of his shot had died away on the night wind, we heard the cheers of the 20th and the sound of the Highland bagpipe mingling with the hoarse hurrah of Bulow's light troop, as the town was assailed on three other points at once. Then the opening musketry flashed redly in various quarters, and the gleam of sudden fires shot upward in the murky air. Sword in hand we burst, with the weight and fury of a landslip, among the French cavalry, and drove them back, not so much by dint of edge or point, as by the sheer weight of our men and horses. So sudden was the shock, so irresistible our charge, that they scarcely made any resistance, but were thrust pell-mell into the town, in the narrow streets of which they were so intermingled with our men and the Inniskillings that in many instances neither of us could use our swords. For some minutes, at this crisis, I found myself completely isolated and wedged among the French, some of whom actually laughed at the whole affair.