A SKETCH OF AFRICAN WARFARE. 189 



After a few moments of repose the battalions of attack are 

 selected, and begin slowly to ascend the mountain, taking 

 advantage of every irregularity of the ground, or intervening 

 obstacle, to cover their approach, while at the same time, 

 over the heads of the advancing troops, the artillery fire 

 bomb-shells in order to disorder the masses of the enemy that 

 are awaiting on the summit. When the advancing battalions 

 get within fire, or six hundred yards, they take a short rest 

 to recover breath, then the clarions sound the charge, the 

 artillery pauses, and the officers and men charge up the hill 

 at full run, without answering a shot of the enemy, and chase 

 them from their position. 



The Kabyles being once dislodged from their heights do 

 not flee, but move down the hill on the other side, hiding 

 themselves in the ravines or wooded hill-side, and wait until 

 the eminence they have lost shall be abandoned, when they 

 will again repossess it. 



Sometimes it happens that the ridge occupied by the 

 Kabyles is selected by the general as a suitable place for the 

 encampment, and while the men bring up the equipages, and 

 raise .the tents, the natives turn their, attention to the senti- 

 nels and outposts that surround the camp. Not being able 

 to do anything against the encampment itself, they wait until 

 darkness has covered the hills, and then steal silently up to 

 one of the places that they saw occupied by the troops, and 

 assault it with such intrepidity and force, that it has become 

 the habit with the soldiers in the outposts to intrench them- 

 selves to avoid being cut to pieces in the dark. 



