up against the frontier and occupied those heights of Illy and
Saint-Menges, whence, if they could not maintain their position, they
would at least have been free to cross over into Belgium? There were
two points that appeared to him especially threatening, the _mamelon_
of Hattoy, to the north of Floing on the left, and the Calvary of
Illy, a stone cross with a linden tree on either side, the highest bit
of ground in the surrounding country, to the right. General Douay was
keenly alive to the importance of these eminences, and the day before
had sent two battalions to occupy Hattoy; but the men, feeling that
they were “in the air” and too remote from support, had fallen back
early that morning. It was understood that the left wing of the 1st
corps was to take care of the Calvary of Illy. The wide expanse of
naked country between Sedan and the Ardennes forest was intersected by
deep ravines, and the key of the position was manifestly there, in the
shadow of that cross and the two lindens, whence their guns might
sweep the fields in every direction for a long distance.

Two more cannon shots rang out, quickly succeeded by a salvo; they
detected the bluish smoke rising from the underbrush of a low hill to
the left of Saint-Menges.

“Our turn is coming now,” said Jean.

Nothing more startling occurred just then, however. The men, still
preserving their formation and standing at ordered arms, found
something to occupy their attention in the fine appearance made by the
2d division, posted in front of Floing, with their left refused and
facing the Meuse, so as to guard against a possible attack from that
quarter. The ground to the east, as far as the wood of la Garenne,

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