Les Misérables Volume II Book 1 Chapter 5 - The Quid Obscurum of Battles

In which the tempestuous opening of a great battle is painted with vivid colours of mud, smoke, and the clash of red and black coats under a grey sky, as napoleonic strategy meets the reluctant adversity of weather and tenacious defenders. Amid the fog of war and the whirl of shifting lines, this narrative captures the ineffable chaos that swallows legions and defies precise account, leaving but the broad, heroic outlines of conflict discernible to the observer’s eye.