in spite of his wishes, into a major battle against superior forces,
and obliged to carry out a dangerous retreat.

He decided therefore to proceed with caution, and to push out,
three or four leagues in front of him, an advance party which could
probe the country and, most importantly, take some prisoners, from
whom he hoped to get some information; for the peasantry either knew
nothing or would not talk. As a small body of infantry would be
endangered if he advanced them too far, and as, also, men on foot
would take too long to return with the information which he so
urgently needed, it was to the fifty Hussars that he gave the task of
going ahead and exploring the terrain. Then, as the country was very
broken, he gave a map to our sergeant, briefed him, in front of the
detachment and sent us off, two hours before daylight, repeating that
it was essential that we went ahead until we made contact with the
enemy outposts, from which he would very much like us to capture a
few prisoners.

Sergeant Canon managed his detachment according to the book. He
sent out a small advance-guard, put scouts on the flanks and took all
the precautions usual in partisan warfare. When we had gone some two
leagues from the camp, we came on a large inn. Our sergeant
questioned the inn-keeper and was told that, a good hour's march
away, was a body of Austrian troops, the size of which he did not
know, though he knew that the leading regiment contained some very
unpleasant Hussars, who had maltreated a number of the local
inhabitants.

Having gathered this information, we set off once more, but hardly
had we gone a hundred paces, when Sergeant Canon, writhing on his