صفحة 566 من 3800

In their childlike glee, aroused by the fire and their luck in

successfully cannonading the French, our artillerymen only

noticed this battery when two balls, and then four more, fell

among our guns, one knocking over two horses and another tearing

off a munition-wagon driver's leg. Their spirits once roused

were, however, not diminished, but only changed character. The

horses were replaced by others from a reserve gun carriage, the

wounded were carried away, and the four guns were turned against

the ten-gun battery. Tushin's companion officer had been killed

at the beginning of the engagement and within an hour seventeen

of the forty men of the guns' crews had been disabled, but the

artillerymen were still as merry and lively as ever. Twice they

noticed the French appearing below them, and then they fired

grapeshot at them.