"Yes."
"Well! let us wait, we must defend ourselves, I will not surrender."
"Nor I either," said he, "I had rather die than to be taken prisoner."
At the same moment the Prussian officer shouted arrogantly, "Lay down your arms."
Instead of waiting, as I did, Buche discharged the contents of his musket full in the officer's breast. Then the other four fell upon us. Buche received a blow from a sabre which cut his shako down to the visor, but with one thrust with his bayonet he killed his antagonist. Three of them still remained. My musket was loaded. Buche planted himself with his back against a nut-tree, and every time the Prussians, who had fallen back, approached us, I took aim. Neither of them wanted to be the first to die! As we waited, Buche with his bayonet fixed and I with my musket at my shoulder, we heard a galloping on the road. This frightened us, for we thought more Prussians were coming, but they were our lancers. The hussars then turned off into the grain, and Buche hastened to re-load his gun.
Our lancers passed and we followed them on the run.
An officer who joined us, said that the Emperor had set out for Paris, and that King Jerome had just taken command of the army.
Buche's scalp was laid completely open, but the bone was not injured, and the blood ran down his cheeks. He bound up his head with his handkerchief.
After that we saw no more Prussians.
About two o'clock in the morning, we were so weary we could hardly take another step. About two hundred paces to the left of the road there was a little beech grove. Buche said: "Look, Joseph, let us go in there and lie down and sleep."