"The Haguenau gate?"
"Is ours."
"Come, children," said Pichegru, who realized that this was no time for lengthy explanations, "Forward! march!"
[CHAPTER XXXII]
THE TOAST
They obeyed with the joyful eagerness which is born of hope, taking with them the sentinels who had been stationed along the walls. Just as they reached the third they heard rapid firing from the gate where Stephan had left his men.
"Hurry, general," said he, "our men are attacked!"
The column advanced at a quick-step. The gate opened and the portcullis was raised as they came in sight. Though attacked by a force thrice as great as their own, the Republicans had held their ground; the gate was still theirs. The column dashed through the gate and down the street like a wild-boar which sweeps everything before him, while Stephan's men—who were a target, with their Prussian uniforms, for the men of Pichegru's command, who did not know of his little ruse—kept close to the wall.