A scattering fire of bullets carried away many, but John knew that he
was not touched. Neither was Bougainville, who, like Bonaparte at Lodi
or Arcola, was now leading his men in person, waving aloft a small
sword, and continually shouting to his children to follow him. The
French fell fast, but they reached the first line of the houses, and
then they sent a deadly hail of their own bullets upon the defenders.
Every street and alley in Chastel was swept by the fire of the French.
John heard above the crash of the rifles the incessant rattling of the
machine guns, and then, as they opened out, the roar of the
seventy-five-millimeters added to the terrible tumult. The Germans,
withdrawing to the far edge and taking what shelter they could, replied,
also with cannon, machine guns and rifles.
John saw Chastel already in ruins fairly melting away. Caught as it must
have been in the former action it came tumbling, stone and brick walls
and all to the ground. Detached fires were burning at many places, and
a great pyramid of flame leaped up from a point where the Hotel de
l'Europe stood. The cathedral alone, as if by some singular chance,
seemed to be untouched. The lofty Gothic spire shot up in the silver
moonlight, and towered white and peaceful over fighting Gaul and Teuton.
John looked up at it more than once, as he fired a rifle, that he had
picked up, down the street at the fleeting shadows.
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