and the high ground above the villages; Vergé prolonged the line to the left, and placed one brigade facing south to front the Bois de Vionville, and connect the array with Lapasset’s brigade on the ridge which, from the north, overlooked the Bois St. Arnould and the ravine leading to Gorze. The 6th Corps, encamped north of the main road, continued the line on that side, and rapidly developed a front facing south-west between the highway and the Roman road. The sound of the cannonade was heard as far off as Jarny and Conflans, startled Lebœuf at Vernéville, and aroused the Marshal, busy in his quarters at Gravelotte. _The Third Corps strikes in._ Rheinbaben’s bold horsemen and gunners had done their work; they had gained for the oncoming infantry that species of moral advantage which always accrues from a surprise. As they fell back to more sheltered positions behind the swelling hills, the right wing of the 3rd Corps, under Stülpnagel, entered the field from the south; the left wing, directed by the fiery Alvensleben himself, came down into the arena from the south-west, and several batteries, urged on by Von Bulow, dashed up and formed the centre of the assailants. Indeed, the guns were in action before the infantry could march over the distance between their starting points and the outward spray of the French line of battle; so that for an appreciable interval the groups of batteries had to depend upon themselves. Yet not for long. Stülpnagel’s battalions plunged into the dense woods on the right, and waged a close combat with the skirmishers of Jolivet’s brigade, who were slow to give ground. Beyond the thickets, the left wing of the division drove Valazé’s skirmishers from an eminence, the highest in those parts, and a battery was speedily in action on its bare summit. By degrees, as they came up, the battalions of the 10th Brigade went forward on the left, or western, flank of the height, where the contest, conducted with vigour on both sides, eddied to and fro, until the German onset, repeated and sustained, gained the mastery, and cleared the slopes so effectually that five other batteries, driving up the hill as fast as they could clear the defile, took ground on its top, and gave support to the companies in the wood and on the open down. About an hour was consumed in this desperate work, made all the more arduous because the German infantry pushed eagerly into the fight, not in compact masses, but one battalion after another as each struggled up to the front. Major-General Doering was killed, and many officers went down in this sanguinary strife: one battalion which dashed forward to resist a French attack at a critical moment lost every officer. But as it retired, broken and wasted, the French were smitten in turn by its comrades, forced to give way, and the position was, at this heavy cost, secured. For the troops engaged in the forest had now attained the