It was level open
country; twice again the guns roared, five rounds in all, and all
movement ceased. The engagement had lasted less than five minutes
and of those two thousand splendid horsemen not one escaped. The
French artillerists picked up the wounded and sent them back to
Rheims to receive nursing and care, and then hurried on to the
action whither they were bound when surprised by the Hussars.
The infantry of the Germans and of the French were now coming to
hand grips. A battalion of Zouaves was creeping round to attack
the advancing column in the rear. The German commander at Nogent
l'Abbesse learned from his air scouts what was happening. He saw
the peril of the advancing column, that it was almost surrounded,
and, he threw further columns into the fray, to cover the retreat.
The sortie on the railway had now become impossible. General Foch
had moved too quickly. But, even so, the peril was great, for the
German force was almost cut off. It meant the loss of 15,000 men
and artillery, or it meant the sacrifice of some one corps to cover
the retreat. The latter course was chosen.
Three thousand of the Guards Corps, the flower of the Prussian
Army, were sent like a catapult at the gap in the French line,
immediately in front of Rheims. Five times they charged, and with
such heroic daring and such penetrative energy that General Foch
did not dare break from his position.
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