We found on the field of battle the medicine chest of a vet., who jotted
down his impressions from minute to minute. When he was killed he was
writing: "I see the shells bursting with a white smoke in the sky, which
is lighted up from the south; luckily my helmet protects me from
sunstroke." Evidently he was on an excursion, this veterinary surgeon,
and was counting on coming to Paris, and had taken the most minute
precautions of hygiene and of elegance. He was provided with scent and
eau de cologne. He had even brought with him a rose ointment for the
nails, and a superb gilt shoulder-belt which was to raise his prestige
for when he passed under the Arc de Triomphe. The battery to which he
belonged is annihilated now. We could observe on the spot the terrific
effect of our artillery, which was very well commanded. Six abandoned
guns, of which three are impossible to move, are there on the ground
with all their crews, all their officers, all their horses--the pieces
still mounted, riddled with splinters. They were taken back to the rear,
and attracted all the way along the curiosity of the soldiers, with
their sumptuous armorial bearings and their motto, _Ultima regis ratio_.
But this lesson seems to have made a bit of an impression on the Germans
who have fled, and it has given a new energy to our troops, because the
battery to which we owe this success did not have a single man wounded.
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