"Firing at will" — feu à volonté — meant every man loaded and fired in his own time rather than waiting for the volley. It was the looser kind of fire, used once a firefight settled into a grinding exchange or when the neat ranks had begun to fray. The smoothbore Charleville was no marksman's weapon: barely accurate past eighty yards, fouling with every shot, good for perhaps two or three rounds a minute. After the first volleys a wall of black-powder smoke hid the enemy entirely, and men loaded and fired into the murk by feel and instinct. The discipline lay not in aim but in keeping up the rate.

The figure is caught in the act of firing — the Charleville brought up to the shoulder, head down to the stock, the campaign dress heavy on him: dark blue coat with red cuffs and white cross-belts, white waistcoat and trousers, and the full marching pack with rolled greatcoat and mess tins on his back. He belongs in a firing line, where the poses of the loading sequence read together. Rank a Second Rank Standing Firing behind him, show the reload with a French Imperial Guard Tearing Cartridge, and bring the next volley up with a French Imperial Guard Standing Make Ready.

W. Britain model 36180. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.