No doubt a good deal of it is damp, or if not, it could be easily wetted.

If we were to build great piles of it, all along on the banks here, and set it alight so as to burn very slowly, but to give out a great deal of smoke, this light wind would blow it across the river into the faces of the Saxons, and completely cover our movements." "You are right!" the king exclaimed.

"Nothing could be better.

We will make a smoke that will blind and half smother them;" and he hurried away.
An hour later, orders were sent out to all the regiments that, as soon as it became dusk, the men should assemble at the great forage stores for fatigue duty.

As soon as they did so, they were ordered to pull down the stacks, and to carry the straw to the bank of the river, and there pile it in heavy masses, twenty yards apart.