THE STANDARD-BEARER

I

HE regiment was drawn up

on a slope of the railway
Eso cutting and served as mark
for all the Prussian army massed
opposite under cover of the woods.
They were firing at eighty yards. The
officers shouted, ‘Lie down!’ but
nobody obeyed, and the gallant regi-
ment remained standing, grouped be-
neath its flag. Under the setting sun,
on this wide horizon of ripe cornfields
and pasture meadows, the mass of
men, harassed, wrapped in bewildering
smoke, looked like a flock caught in