I was awake by daylight on the following morning, was up, and had made a soldier's brief toilet, as well as armed myself completely, before five o'clock. Luckily it happened that I was so, for in a few minutes afterward I was visited by a gay-looking youth, who introduced himself as the Captain Genissac, and who told us that in an hour we were to mount the breach together. He looked at me somewhat superciliously from head to foot; and though I felt that I could have broken him through the middle over my knee as a boy breaks a stick, his cool scrutiny annoyed and discomposed me. We talked over what was to be done for some time; and, urging me to hasten my movements, he went to take his station at the head of the storming party. I hurried after at all speed, followed by my little band; and getting out of the hamlet, and passing through the middle of the tents towards the battery which had effected the breach, a fine, a gay, and an interesting sight was presented, which remains as much fixed upon my memory, in consequence of the beauty of the scene, as from being the first military effort of any consequence in which I ever took a part. The whole army was turned out in the open space between the camp and the city; and about five or six hundred yards in advance of the line was the small battery which had effected a very insufficient breach in the wall. It was still firing, as it had been since the break of day: and a light wind blew the wreaths of smoke down into the hollow which ran towards the Charente, enveloping the base of the hill on which Angoulême stands, while out of the white uncertain mist thus created started forth clear the town of Angoulême, with all its manifold towers and spires. The sun was shining brightly as he rose upon the glittering line of our cavalry and infantry, variously armed, and with many a cornet and a pennon among them: while the rich and peaceful slopes and rises, the clear blue sky, the bright sunshine, and the soft murmur of the autumnal air, contrasted strangely and strikingly with the camp behind us, the long line of iron-clad soldiery in the front, the occasional thunder of our own artillery, and the flashes that burst from time to time from the walls of Angoulême.