He was answered in the affirmative.

"Then set fire to the houses, and let off the rockets; they will see them
at Cuxhaven--men," fall in--march--and off we all trundled towards the
river again.

When we arrived there, we found ten Blankanese boats, two of them very
large, and fitted with sliding platforms. The four fieldpieces were run
on board, two into each; one hundred and fifty men embarked in them and
the other craft, which I found partly loaded with sacks of corn. I was in
one of the smallest boats with the colonel. When we were all ready to
shove off, "Lafont," he said, "are the men ready with their couteaux?"

"They are, sir," replied the sergeant.

"Then cut the horses' throats--but no firing." A few bubbling groans, and
some heavy falls, and a struggling splash or two in the water, showed that
the poor artillery horses had been destroyed.

The wind was fair up the river, and away we bowled before it. It was
clear to me that the colonel commanding the post had overrated our
strength, and, under the belief that we had cut him off from Cuxhaven, he
had determined on falling back on Hamburgh.

When the morning broke, we were close to the beautiful bank below Altona.
The trees were beginning to assume the russet hue of autumn, and the sun
shone gaily on the pretty villas and bloomin Gartens on the hill side,
while here and there a Chinese pagoda, or other fanciful pleasure--house,
with its gilded trellised work, and little bells depending from the eaves
of its many roofs, glancing like small golden balls, rose from out the