General de Failly says that the grand-guards had not had time to signal the enemy’s presence, and that his own information led him to believe that the Germans had marched upon Stenay. The verdict of Marshal MacMahon upon his subordinate is that “General de Failly was surprised in his bivouac by the troops of the Saxon Crown Prince.” The French soon recovered from their disorder, swarms of skirmishers rushed out towards the assailants, some batteries went rapidly into action; and the combined fire of shells and bullets wrought havoc among the Prussian gunners and the infantry, hitting even those on the line of march. They did not yield to the pressure; and when the French delivered a determined attack it was repelled by volleys and independent firing. Then the French got several batteries into position on the hill side north of Beaumont; the Germans were reinforced by the arrival of guns and foot, for the other division of the Corps came up and at once deployed on the right of its comrades. At this time, a little after one o’clock, the Saxons on the right, next the Meuse, and the Bavarians on the left, who had been marching since five o’clock in the morning, had also begun to take part in the fight. King William and his vast Staff, posted on a hill off the road from Buzancy, and his son, on a similar elevation near Oches, were closely watching the battle, discernible thence in its general smoky features, at least by the King. General de Failly had no desire to fight a regular engagement. His aim was to put his troops in order and offer as much resistance as might be required to cover his retreat upon Mouzon, distant only six miles. He, therefore, relied on his line of guns above the village, and they were effective, for some time; but he showed great apprehension lest his left, or Meuse flank, should be turned. Seeing the German lines develop and grow stronger, in men and guns, feeling the new power brought to bear by the Saxons, who, cramped for want of room, were pressed close to the river, and, hearing the Bavarian guns on his right, he made one more vigorous effort to arrest the 4th Corps. Thick lines of skirmishers, followed by supports in close order, dashed forward with such valour and impetuosity that they drove in the covering infantry and charged to within fifty paces of the guns. The danger was great, but the Germans rapidly flung everything near into the contest, gained the mastery, compelled the gallant Frenchmen to wheel about, followed them promptly, captured the southern camp, and then poured into Beaumont itself upon all sides. But the chassepot had told, and the Germans paid heavily, as they always did and were ready to do, for their persistent courage and well-tempered audacity. With the town fell the other camps; and then, for a time, the infantry combat ceased. But the artillery advanced, as usual, and engaged in a long duel with the powerful line of batteries established by the French to facilitate the