It was just what I wanted.
We went down across the oat-field to the wood, and entered a close thicket of young trees.
We had both kept our guns and knapsacks and cartridge-boxes. We laid our knapsacks on the ground for a pillow, and it had long been broad daylight, and the retreating crowd had been passing for hours, when we awoke and quietly pursued our journey.
XXII
Numbers of our comrades and of the wounded remained behind at Gosselies, but the larger part of the army kept on their way, and about nine o'clock we began to see the spires of Charleroi in the distance, when suddenly we heard shouts, cries, complaints, and shots intermingled, half a league before us.
The whole immense column of miserable wretches halted, shouting: "The city closes its doors against us! we are stopped here!"
Consternation and despair were stamped on every face.
But a moment after, the news came that the convoys of provisions were coming and that they would not distribute them.
"Let us fall upon them! Kill the rascals who are starving us! We are betrayed!"