said: "If he proves himself a brave soldier and comes home safe and sound, he shall marry you." I will try to prove a brave soldier, and as for the rest, that remains with the good God. I am so tired now that I cannot write any more. I will write soon again, if I can, though, perhaps, it may be a month. When I do, I will tell you how we took Ratisbon. Your Pierre,

3rd Company, 115th of the Line, Grand Army.

Marie folded the letter, put it carefully away in her little writing-desk, and sitting down in the old, yellowcovered chair, looked thoughtfully into the fire.

CHAPTER XII

The Walls Of Ratisbon

You know, we French stormed Ratisbon;

A mile or so away,

On a little mound, Napoleon

Stood on our storming day.

—Robert Browning, Incident of the French Camp.

Gott im Himmel! Vat vill become of mein garten?" cried Heinrich Hauptmann, when he first saw the French forces approaching the walls of Ratisbon. This town, called by the Germans Regensburg (from the small river Regen which here flows into the Danube), is one of the oldest cities in Central Europe. In 1809, it was surrounded on the south by a wall with towers at regular intervals, but the fortifications were old and poor, and the dry ditches outside the rampart were used as kitchen gardens by some of the thrifty inhabitants.

A stone bridge connected the town with the suburb upon the left bank of the Danube called Stadt-amHof, and by this bridge the Archduke determined to transport his army after the disastrous battle of Eckmuhl. When the Marshal Davout evacuated the city to join the Emperor at Abensburg, he left, according to Napoleon's orders, the 65th of the Line, commanded by Colonel Coutard, to garrison the place and defend the bridge. To Ratisbon, then, came the Archduke Charles of Austria and his defeated army,

seeking by the stone highway over the Danube their only means of safety. The 65th fought bravely for some hours, but could not hold out against the mass of the Austrian forces, and Colonel Coutard surrendered the town. The Archduke led his troops across the river, leaving in Ratisbon a garrison of some 6000 men, whom, however, he could reinforce rapidly from the 60,000 soldiers that he had now assembled beyond the suburb of Stadt-am-Hof. Save for the means of retreat thus afforded him, the Archduke and his army would have been compelled to surrender.

But the Emperor could not march upon Vienna while the Austrians held Ratisbon, for, unless he took the town, the Archduke could again cross the Danube and attack him in the rear. Thus the capture of Ratisbon became the sine qua non for the march to Vienna. To Ratisbon, therefore, came the corps of Davout, Lannes, and Massena, flushed with victory; to Ratisbon, therefore, rode the Emperor Napoleon.

Just outside the wall of the town, near the Straubing gate and built against the rampart, stood the house of Heinrich Hauptmann. Heinrich was a vender of garden truck, and in the ditches of the old fortification he had his small kitchen-garden, where he raised a varied assortment of beans, turnips, cabbages, horseradish, parsnips, and other delicacies which he sold in the Ratisbon market. Heinrich had been very loath to leave his little property. During Marshal Davout's occupation he had remained in his house, but when the Austrians, retreating from Eckmuhl, attacked the place to wrest it from the 65th, Hauptmann was forced to retreat behind the ramparts, where he spent his time in cursing the "verderbt Oestreicher" (the wicked

Austrian) and the "schlecht Franzose" (the bad French). After the Austrians obtained possession of the town he went out again, but soon the approach of the great army of Napoleon compelled him once more to take refuge within the walls. In order to enter the city it was necessary for the French to descend into the deep ditch of the fortification, cross it under fire from the Austrians, and scale the rampart by means of ladders. The Emperor Napoleon, who had dismounted upon a hillock about a cannon-shot from the town, quickly perceived the house of Hauptmann near the Straubing gate and saw that it was built against the rampart. At once His Majesty ordered up several twelve-pounders and howitzers, and commanded their fire to be concentrated upon this house, that its ruins, falling into the ditch, might form an incline upon which the corps of Lannes could mount to assault the wall.

The cannonade began. Heinrich, who was in the Osten Casse near the Straubing gate, soon learned that something was going on in the direction of his cherished dwelling. Unable to restrain his anxiety, he managed to get up upon the rampart, and the situation was instantly revealed to him in all its stern reality, for at that moment a cannon-ball from one of the French twelve-pounders crashed into his house and tumbled part of it into the ditch. Heinrich nearly fell off the rampart from terror and rage.

"Tausend Teufel!" he yelled, "die franzosische Verbrecher! dey are shootin der damt balls right in mein house! Gott im Himmel! mein house vill be all von damt ruin!"

'Get down from here!" cried an Austrian soldier. "What do I care about you or your house!"

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Vat do you care about me or mein house?" roared Heinrich, bursting with rage, "Vell, dat's all right vat you care about me or mein house! Vat for you come in dis town und brought der schlecht franzosisch Kaiser Napoleon after you, who goes und troes his damt balls right in mein house, dat's vat I vant to know?"

But the soldier ruthlessly dragged Heinrich off the rampart, and as Heinrich continued to expostulate, he was informed that if he didn't “shut up" he would have his "head cracked "—a mode of procedure which did not leave much room for further argument.

Meanwhile the Morand and Boudet divisions had been ordered forward to within a short distance of the walls of Ratisbon and stationed in the rear of a large stone store-house that stood close to the promenade surrounding the town. Then Marshal Lannes, who had conducted this manoeuvre, rode off to the little hill to receive the Emperor's final orders. The 115th of the Line were drawn up at the west side of the store-house, while in front of them were massed the 85th of the Line, which belonged to the Morand division. The twelve-pounders were thundering, the house of Hauptmann had already fallen, and the cannon-balls were now battering a breach in the rampart. Francois Legrand stamped his foot impatiently, and Pierre, who stood near him, wondered why the order did not come to advance. Suddenly they saw soldiers from the Friant, Gudin, Molitor, and Carra St. Cyr divisions, breaking ranks and running quickly toward the mound where the Emperor had taken his stand. The crowd grew larger and larger, and the Austrians, seeing that a part of the vast mass was