The Downfall

s he found and lit a candle to enable him to consult his watch: it was four o'clock, just beginning to be light. He adjusted his double eyeglass upon his nose and looked out into t

ucted vision was the morning mist arising from the river. In the distance, behind the veil of fog, the guns were barking more fiercely across the

ntly downward toward the meadows and commanded a wide panoramic view of the encircling hills, from Remilly to Frenois. Weiss, with the sense of responsibility of his new proprietorship strong upon him, had spent the night in burying his provisions in the cellar and protecting his furniture, as far

e summoning him

iss, are y

g to the woods and making for the Belgian frontier, and there was no one left to guard the property but the woman concierge, Francoise Quittard by name, the widow of a mason; and s

at? It is a promising beginning. Our best cour

fect good faith, and he had fully intended to keep it; but as yet there was only an artillery duel at long ra

nd it!" he replied.

pite of everything. Barricades had been thrown up across the Douzy road, and all the smaller streets; small parties of soldiers had been thrown into the houses by way of garrison; every narrow lane, every garden had become a fortress, and since three o'clock the troops, awakened from their slumbers without beat of drum or call of bugle in the inky blackness, had been at their posts, their chassepots freshly greased

ed," said Delaherche. "I have a w

tion on his face. His men had already taken full possession of the building, some of them being engaged in loopholing the shutters of the ground-floor windows that commanded the street, while others, in the courtyard that o

't know where the enemy is." Presently he asked, with no appa

y," Weis

I don't think the world might co

dred yards. And at the same time there was a transformation, as rapid and startling, almost, as the stage effect in a fairy spectacle: the sun rose, the exhalations of the Meuse were w

way bridge. See, they are making their way along the tr

pared and charged, he averred, but they had fought four hours the day befo

our luck," h

ked at the Place de l'Eglise. There was no cover for any force advancing by these two approaches; the Germans would be obliged to traverse the meadows and the wide, bare level that lay between the outskirts of the village and the Meuse and the railway. Their prudence in avoiding unnecessary risks was notorious, hence it seemed improbable that the real attack would come from that quarter. They kept coming acr

ss remarked. "I recognize them

take Bazeilles in flank and rear. Should they succeed in effecting a lodgment in the park of Montivilliers, the village might become untenable. This was no more than a vague, half-formed idea, that flitted through hi

ible in the distance. A battery had just commenced firing from that quarter; the smoke rose in the bright sunshine in

hey are all going to have a h

had turned his eyes in the same

position. This is the spot wher

nk so?" Wei

rshal's opinion, for he was here last night and told us that we

orizon with a glance; then in a low, falteri

fear the danger lies in another quarter

of a vise, then, turning to the north, brought his hands toge

rose momentarily on the tranquil air and floated lazily away over the crests. That human torrent that he had seen so lately streaming over those hills, where was it now-where were massed those innumerable hosts? At last, at the corner of a pine wood, above Noyers and Frenois, he succeeded in making out a little cluster of mounted men in uniform-some general, doubtless, and his staff. And off there to the west the Meuse curved in a great loop, and in that direction lay their sole line of retreat on Mezieres, a narrow road that traversed the pass of Saint-Albert, between that loop and the dark forest of Ardennes. While reconnoitering the day before he had met a general officer who, he afterward learned, was Ducrot, commanding the 1st corps, on a by-road in the valley of Givonne, and had made bold to call his attention to the importance of that, their only line of retreat. If the army did not retire at once by that roa

med to be raging in Chevalier's wood, in front of Daigny. His uneasiness was owing to reports that had been brought in by peasants the day previous, that the Prussian advance had reached Francheval, so that the movement which was being conducted at the west, by way of Donchery, was also in process of execution at the east, by way of Francheval, and the two jaws of the vise would come together up there at the north, near the Calvary of Illy, unless the two-fold flanking movement could be promptly checked. He knew nothing of tactics or strategy, had nothing but his common sense to guide him; but he looked with fear and trembli

his arms and bringing his hands slowly together, "that is how it will be unless

h an expression of impatience and disdain for the bourgeois in spectacles and frock coat who presumed to set his opinion against the marshal's. Irri

into the Meuse, those Bavarian friends of yours, an

ets were heard thudding against the dyehouse wall, and our men, kneeling behind the low parapet of the court

essing himself to Delaherche, who had stationed himself behind the pump where he might be out of the way of the bullets: "All the same, it would have been their wisest course to make trac

eager curiosity, was beginning to look pale in the face. "We

minute I will

ves as little as possible. They had a powerful artillery fire, moreover, to sustain them; the pure, cool air was vocal with the shrieking of shells. Raising his eyes he saw that the Pont-Maugis battery was not the only one that was playing on Bazeilles; two others, posted half way up the hill of Liry, had opened fire, and their projectiles not only reached the village, but swept the naked plain of la Moncelle beyond, where the reserves of the 12th corps were, and even the wooded slopes of Daigny, held by a division of the 1st corps, were not beyond their range. There was not a summit, moreover, on the left bank of the stream that was not tipped with flame. The guns seemed to spring spontaneously from the soil, like some noxious growth; it was a zone of fire that grew hotter and fiercer every moment;

had grazed his house, the front of which was visible to him ab

knock it about my e

t of falling backward. There was a brief convulsive movement of the legs; the youthful, tranquil expression of the face remained, stamped there unalterably by the h

tammered Delaherche. "Come, if you are

m their presence ma

o go, gentlemen. The enemy may attem

and followed Delaherche, but when they had gained the street he insisted upon going to see if the fastening of his d

executed: the men abandoned their formation, some of them stepping from the ranks and flattening themselves against the house fronts, others casting themselves prone upon the ground, and down the vacant space thus suddenly formed the mitrailleuses that had been placed in battery at the farther end poured a perfect hailstorm of bullets. The column disappeared as if it had been swept bodily from off the face of the earth. The recumbent me

"I forgot to lock the cellar door! I must

eviving after the shock it had sustained, was less eager to get away. He had halted in front of his dyehouse and was

long with us. A lone woman among such dre

one when the others went, indeed I would, if it had not

sorrowfully at sight of the little fellow in his clean, white bed, his face exhibiting t

"I will find quarters for you in Sedan. Wrap hi

e alive! but we two are all that are left, and we must live for each other. And then, per

think it will trouble them some to get in now. Come on! And it is not going to be a ver

ing away more furiously than ever, and the screaming of the shells was incessant. Two had already fallen in the stre

you have no cause for alarm; he will be all right in a couple of days. Keep your courage up, and the firs

oir, Fr

voir,

force as to break every window in the vicinity. At first it was impossible to distinguish anything in the dense cloud of dust and smoke that rose in the air, but presently this drifted

ailed him; he could only express his

ieu! Nom

had raised himself in bed to look at his mother. He spoke no word, he uttered no cry; he gazed with blazing, tearless eyes, d

: "Nom de Dieu! they have

ere commencing to appear again in the direction of the church. The chimney, in falling, had

ave destroyed my house. No, no! I will

f his double eyeglass and substituted the spectacles, and the big, burly bourgeois, his overcoat flapping about his legs, his honest, kindly, round face ablaze with wrath, who would have been ridiculous had he not been so superbly heroic, proceeded to open fire, peppering away at the Bavarians at the bottom of the street. It was in h

ructions, should the enemy carry the position, to withdraw into the building, barricade the first floor, and defend themselves there as long as they had a cartridge left. The men fired at will, lying prone upon the ground, and sheltering themselves as best they might behind posts and every little projection of the walls, and the storm of lead, interspersed with tongues of flame and puffs of smoke, that tore through that broad, deserted, sunny avenue was like a downpour of hail beaten level by the fierce blast of winter. A woman was seen to cross the roadway, running with wild, uncertain steps, and she escaped uninjured. Next, an old man, a peasant, in his blouse, who would not be satisfied until he saw his worthless nag stabled, received a bullet square in his forehead, and the violence of the impact

und to our rear. I saw them sneaking along the railroad

g of importance was occurring in that direction. Should the enemy gain possession of the park Bazeilles would be at their mercy, but the briskness of

eutenant, violently forcing Weiss up against the w

his practiced ear detected a shell coming their way, he had acted the part of a friend and placed the civilian in a safer position. The missile landed some ten paces from w

he said; "they have

back to the wall, near where the dead woman lay, stretched across her d

y. Don't fire too hurriedly; take your time. When

ting shells, rent the air, thick with dust and sulphurous smoke. Men dropped at the corner of every lane and alley; corpses scattered here and there upon the pavement, singly or in little groups, made splotches

n frantically shouting to Weiss without in

ll! then I shall leave y

, however, and had to make his way for a space of some three hundred yards along the deserted, empty road, swept by the batteries on Liry hill, although the perspiration was streaming from his face and body, he shivered and his teeth chattered. For a minute or so he advanced cautiously along the bed of a dry ditch, bent almost double, then, suddenly forsaking the protecting shelter, burst into the open and ran for it with might and main, wildly, aimlessly, his ears ringing with detonat

n horseback, and his mustache was so stiffly waxed, there was such a brilliant color on his cheeks, that Delaherche saw at once he had been "made up" and painted like an actor. He had had recourse to cosmetics to conceal from his army the ravages that anxiety and il

n of bullets that kept pattering incessantly on its other front and the sh

murmured, "you

ake refuge in the narrow road that skirted the kiln,

s is madness. Sire

hat voice from Paris: "March! march! die the hero's death on the piled corpses of thy countrymen, let the whole world look on in awe-struck admiration, so that thy son may reign!"-could that be what he heard? He rode forward, controlling his charger to a slow walk. For the space of a hundred yards he thus rode forward, then halted, awaiting the death he had come there to seek. The bullets sang in concert with a music like the fierce autumnal blast; a shell burst in front of him an

beseech you, do not ex

and turned his horse's head toward la Moncelle, quitting the road and taking the abandoned fields of la Ripaille. A captain was mortally wounded, two hor

soon as he should have left the brick works, would have to run the gauntlet of those terrible proje

illed on the spot; c

f the field. His wound was not sever

time w

-past six. It was up there aroun

w he i

a moment after he was hit, then he fainted and they

returned

; he is in

nspection to his advanced posts. The marshal wounded! it was "just our luck," as the lieutenant of marines had put it. He was reflecting o

ef! The army is ordered to concentrate a

the strange tidings that came to him in such quick succession and not relishing the prospect of being involved in the confusio

nders to give them their instructions, and as he sped swiftly on the intelligence spread among

this time was grimy with powder. "Retreat on Mezieres at th

o retreat, without loss of a minute's time, by the Saint-Albert pass, but now the way could be no longer open to them, the black swarms of Prussians had certainly anticipated them and were on the plain of Donchery. There we

nervously and proceeded to explain matters to the lieutenant, who was still seated

r ground. You can see for yourself that we are doing well. One mo

driven the enemy at the point of the bayonet through the meadows toward the river in headlong flight, which might easily have been converted into a general rout had there been fresh troops to support the sailor-boys, who had suffered

harge them with the

poor boy-officer's face; yet he had

hildren; give t

e. The flies already were beginning to buzz about Francoise's head and settle there, while lying on his bed little Charles,

ke; get up-I am thir

r-in-chief, possessed by a haunting dread of the enemy's turning movement, was determined to sacrifice everything in order to escape from the toils. The Place de l'Eglise was evacuated, the troops fell back from street to street; soon the

himself with rage. "No! I will leave my skin here first. Let the

up in his house and barricaded it, he paced the empty apartments with the restless impatience of a caged wild beast, going from room to room to make sure that all the doors and windows were securely fastened. He counted his cartridges and found he had forty left, then, as he was about to give a final look to the meadows to see whether any attack was to be apprehended from that quarter, the sight of the hills on the left

ndrels!" he twice repeated, extending

now was up there on the heights, out of reach of danger, while at his feet lay the valley of the Meuse and the vast panorama of the field of battle. Far as the eye could re

oncelle and Givonne, some regiments of the 12th and 1st corps, looking like diminutive insects at that distance and lost to sight at intervals in the dip of the narrow valley in which the hamlets lay concealed; and beyond that valley rose the further slope, an uninhabited, uncultivated heath, of which the pale tints made the dark green of Chevalier's Wood look black by contrast. To the north the 7th corps was more distinctly visible in its position on the plateau of Floing, a broad belt of sere, dun fields, that sloped downward from the little wood of la Garenne

stretch of country in which were numerous villages, first Douzy and Carignan, then more to the north Rubecourt, Pourru-aux-Bois, Francheval, Villers-Cernay, and last of all, near the frontier, Chapelle. All about him, far as he could see, the land was his; he could direct the movements of the quarter of a million of men and the eight hundred guns that constituted his army, could master at a glance every detail of the operations of his invading host. Even then the XIth corps was pressing forward toward Saint-Menges, while the Vth was at Vrigne-aux-Bois, and the Wurtemburg divisi

o Daigny and la Moncelle, sending them hurtling over Sedan city to sweep the northern plateaus. It was barely eight o'clock, and with eyes fixed on the gigantic board he direc