Page 532 - les-miserables

CHAPTER V

THE QUID OBSCURUM

OF BATTLES

Every one is acquainted with the first phase of this battle; a
beginning which was troubled, uncertain, hesitating, men-
acing to both armies, but still more so for the English than
for the French.
It had rained all night, the earth had been cut up by the
downpour, the water had accumulated here and there in the
hollows of the plain as if in casks; at some points the gear of
the artillery carriages was buried up to the axles, the circ-
ingles of the horses were dripping with liquid mud. If the
wheat and rye trampled down by this cohort of transports
on the march had not filled in the ruts and strewn a litter be-
neath the wheels, all movement, particularly in the valleys,
in the direction of Papelotte would have been impossible.
The affair began late. Napoleon, as we have already ex-
plained, was in the habit of keeping all his artillery well in
hand, like a pistol, aiming it now at one point, now at an-
other, of the battle; and it had been his wish to wait until the
horse batteries could move and gallop freely. In order to do

532 Les Miserables