refused to move.

The enemy infantry were running to the aid of their battery;
minutes seemed like hours to us; so young Pertelay, satisfied to have
captured six guns, ordered us to leave the others and to head, with
our booty, at the gallop, for the French lines.

This was a prudent measure, but it proved fatal to our leader, for
hardly had we begun our retreat, when the gunners and their officers
emerged from their hiding places under the wagons, loaded the two
guns which we had not taken with grape-shot and discharged a hail of
bullets into our backs.

You can well imagine that thirty horsemen and six artillery
pieces, each drawn by six horses and ridden by three transport
riders, all proceeding in a state of disorder, presented a target
which the grape-shot could hardly miss. We had two sergeants and
several Hussars killed or wounded, as well as two of the transport
riders. Some of the horses were also put out of action, so that most
of the teams were so disorganised that they could not move.
Pertelay, keeping perfectly cool, ordered the traces of the dead or
injured horses to be cut and Hussars to take the place of the dead
transport riders, and we continued quickly on our way. However, the
commander of the Austrian battery made use of the few minutes we had
taken to do this to direct a second volley of grape-shot at us,
which caused further casualties, but we were so resolved not to
abandon the six guns which we had captured that we repaired the
damage as well as we could, and kept on the move. We were already in
touch with the French lines and out of the range of grape-shot, when
the enemy artillery officer changed projectiles and fired two