The Downfall

ng strain died away and was lost in the damp, heavy air, and the men, who had not had courage even to erect their tents and had thrown themselves, wrapped i

d, with ghastly faces and haggard eyes, they rose to their feet, like beings summ

Objects twenty yards away were undistinguishable; his knowledge of the country availed him not; he could not even have indicated in which direction lay Sedan. Just then, however, th

t of those Prussians whom they had come out to look for, and before whom they had been retreating so many weary days; that they were to be given a chance to try a shot at them, and lighten the

ore loudly down at Bazeilles, a

is the

me to be over toward the Meuse; but I

day, for unless a man has his wits about him, don't you see, he is likely to get i

o, at the very moment when they were about to go into battle, the inner man put in his claim for recognition, and would not be denied. Hunger is not conducive to heroism; to those poor fellows eating was the great, th

outeau. "I'll be blowed if I am

r of Belleville, the pothouse politician, who drowned what few correct ideas he

along, telling us that the Prussians were dying of hunger and disease, that they had not so mu

an gamin, who has experienced the vari

uld make folks throw us a copper. And then those great victories about which they made such a fuss! What precious liars they must be, to tell us that

the course of the newspapers in constantly printing bogus news had had most disastrous results; all confidence was destroyed, men had ceased to believe anything or anybo

sily enough, since our rulers have been selling us to the e

c simplicity rev

t wicked people

ster," murmured Pache, mindful o

h of the other generals got a million, as the price of bringing us up here. The bargain was made at Paris last spring, and

acundity of the faubourg, had interested and almost convinced him, but now he had come to detest that apostle of

?" he exclaimed. "You know ver

one of them, perhaps you belong to the d-d band of dirty traitors?" He came forward threateningly. "If you are you have onl

wl and show their teeth, and Jean tho

report the first man

ction now, and what discipline had been maintained by fear would be at an end: what could they do to him, anyway? he would just skip as soon as he thought he had enough of it. And he was profane and obscene, egging the men on against the corporal, who had been allowing them t

to the squad; deny it if you da

his natural douceness and insisted on an explanation. The only reasonable one among them was Loubet, who gave one of his pawky laughs and suggested that, being Frenchmen, they might as well di

ide was worth! Well, I am not going to

aught, talking loudly and repelling Chouteau's insinuations

ow me the rascals who dare qu

inus many of its buttons, evincing in all his lean, shambling person the extreme of poverty and distress. Notwithstanding his f

, it is these men, who persist in saying that we are betray

to Rochas's thick understanding, for it served to explai

hem one of the old-fashioned hidings, such as they won't forget in one while." Down below them in the thick sea of fog the guns at Bazeilles were still pounding away,

e recent forced retreat on Sedan-all were forgotten. Now that they were about to fight at last, was not victory certain? He had learned nothing and forgotten nothing; his blustering, boastful contempt of the enemy, his entire ignorance of the new arts and applia

visited by one of those impulses of good-fellowship that made his men swear by

be a great deal better to take a good nip all around.

. (He had been seen the day before, seated at the table of a tavern in Floing and holding the waitress on his lap, evidently on the best of

have any and don't forget to drink to the glory

t. Here's to your health

p the Prussians? Have not battles their surprises? has not history embalmed many an instance of the fickleness of fortune? That mighty man of war, the lieutenant, added that Bazaine was on the way to join them, would be with them before the day was over: oh, the information was positive; he had it from an aid to

nant?" he made bold to ask

r interpreted to mean that no orders

dy seen th

r who knows what is good for himself, his officers are always invisible when they are not on duty. He held his

e is,"

lieutenant's pitiful state. And there was a finicking completeness, moreover, about his toilet, greater than the male being is accustomed to bestow upon himself, in his scrupulously white

h a sneer, "the captain h

prognosticated was to him an unpardonable crime. He was a strong Bonapartist by conviction; his prospects for promotion were of the brightest; he had several important salons looking after his interests; naturally, he did not take kindly to the changed condition of affairs that promised to make his cake dough. H

o have found his company at last, for which he

aring of preternatural size, and so pale and rigid that he might have served a sculptor as a study for a statue of despair; the steed shivering in the raw, chill air of morning, his dilated nostrils turned in the direction of the distant firing. Some ten paces to their rear were the regimental colors, which the sous-lieutenant whose duty it was to bear them had thus early taken from their case and proudly raised aloft, and as the driving, vaporous rack eddied and

l. On reaching the summit the command, halt! started at the front and ran down the column; the men were cautioned not to leave the ranks, arms were ordered, and there they remained, the heavy knapsacks forming a grievous burden to weary shoulders. It was evident that

a start, addressing Jean and Mau

an expression of dreamy melancholy had rested on his thin

oing to happen him? Every bullet has its billet, they s

as dead now. I tell you I

ly, asking him if he had had a dream. No, he ha

ame, because I was to be mar

not hit it off well, to assist in purchasing his discharge, he had remained with the army, weary and disgusted with life and with his surroundings. Coming home on furlough, however, he fell in love with a cousin and they became engaged; their intention was t

a shake to dispel his revery,

bad; I shall b

its of sky appeared, not transparently blue, as on a bright summer's day, but opaque and of the hue of burnished steel, like the cheerless bosom of some deep, sullen mountain tarn. It was in one of those brighter moments when the sun was endeavoring to struggle forth that the regiments of chasseurs d'Afrique, constituting part of Margueritte's division, came riding by, giving the impression of a band of spectral horsemen. They sat very stiff and erect in the saddle, with their short cavalry jackets, broad red sashes and smart little kepis, accurate in distance and alignment and managing admirably their lean, wiry mounts, which were almost invisible under

. "That fellow, yonder, looks like him," he s

you speaking?

illy, whose brother we me

Bourgain-Desfeuilles, shouting and gesticulating wildly. He had torn himself reluctantly from his comfortable quarters at the Hotel of the Golden Cross, and it was eviden

stream is that off yonder

ed slowly upward to the flies, disclosing the setting of the stage. From a sky of transparent blue the sun p

, is Floing, and that more distant one is Saint-Menges, and that one, more distant still, a little to the right, is Fleigneux.

downward from the wood of la Garenne toward the Meuse, from which it was separated by the meadows. On it the line of the 7th corps had been established by General Douay, who felt that his numbers were not suffic

grand, isn't i

that hung heavily in the motionless air, and further in the distance the hills of the left bank, Liry, la Marfee, la Croix-Piau. It was away toward the west, however, in the direction of Donchery, that the prospect was most extensive. There the Meuse curved horseshoe-wise, encircling the peninsula of Iges with a ribbon of pale silver, and at the northern extremity of

ad by which we might

hung over the bottom-lands in shreds and patches, and through it they di

instinctively lowering his voice. "Too

hich was hid from view; it was the army of the Crown Prince of Saxony, debouching from the Chevalier wood and attacking the 1st corps, in front of Daigny village; and now that the XIth Prussian corps,

ights of Illy and Saint-Menges, whence, if they could not maintain their position, they would at least have been free to cross over into Belgium? There were two points that appeared to him especially threatening, the mamelon of Hattoy, to the north of Floing on the left, and the Calvary of Illy, a stone cross with a linden tree on either side, the highest bit of ground in the surrounding country, to the right. General Douay was keenly alive to the importance of these eminences, and the day before had sent two bat

salvo; they detected the bluish smoke rising from the

coming now,

with their left refused and facing the Meuse, so as to guard against a possible attack from that quarter. The ground to the east, as far as the wood of la Garenne, beneath Illy village, was held by the 3d division, while the 1st, which had

s to the rear. Their new position was in a great field of cabbages, upon reaching which the captain made his men lie down. The sun had not yet drunk up the moisture that had descended o

undred yards," th

r shrub. Giving Jean, who was beside him, a nudge with his elbow, he asked what they were to do there. The corporal, whose experience in such matters was greater, pointed to an elevation not far away, where a battery was just taking its position; it was evident that th

elled Rochas, "w

ere slow in obtaining the range, their first projectiles passing over and landing well to the rear of the battery, which was now opening in reply. Many of their shells, too, fell u

Loubet, "their fire

hem in out of the rai

ething. "Didn't I tell you that the dunderh

of the squad, in fact, except Jean. Over eyes that had suddenly lost their brightness lids flickered tremulously; voices had an unnatural, muffled sound, as if arrested by some obstruction in the throat. Maurice, who was sufficiently master of himself as yet, endeavored to diagnose his symptoms; he could not be afraid, for he was not conscious that he was in danger; he only

ace is full of them." Thrice he had heard somethin

Jean said, with a la

e men craned their necks and looked about them with eager interest; th

his simple-minded comrade, "when you see a bullet coming toward you you must raise your forefinge

see them,"

w burst from

windows, stupid! See! there's one-see! there's another. Di

before his nose, while Pache fingered the scapular he wore

ned on his feet, spok

to the shells when you see them coming. As for th

on the head by a fragment of an exploding shell. There was n

ergeant Sapin, who was quite co

ere among the cabbages? There was nothing to be seen, nothing to be learned; no one had any idea how the battle was going. And was it a battle, after all-a genuine affair? All that Maurice could make out, projecting his eyes along the level surface of the fields, was the rounded, wood-clad summit of Hattoy in the remote distance, and still unoccupied. Neither was there a Prussian to be seen anywhere on the horizon; the only evidence of life we

ny vapors and spewing shot and shell upon them; he had also time to see, what he had seen before and had not forgotten, the road from Saint-Albert's p

you want to leave

has chi

do with such d--d rascals, who get

e down, lieutenan

thing. I have to kno

raging word to his men, having nothing in common with them. He appeared nervous and unable

gth of time. The men had been cautioned against throwing away their sacks unless in case of actual necessity, and he kept turning over, first on his right side, then on the left, to ease himself a moment of his burden by rest

ll day?" Maurice finally aske

, like the sensible fellow he was: "Why do you grumble? we are not so badly off here. You will have an opportunity to distinguish yourself befor

at smoke over Hattoy. They have taken Hattoy;

posted there; he could see nothing at all, in fact, save the smoke that at each discharge rose above a thin belt of woods that served to mask the guns. The enemy's occupation of the position, of which General Douay had been forced to abandon the defense, was, as Maurice had instinctively felt, an event of the gravest importance and destined to result in the most disastrous consequences; its possessors would have entire command of all the surrou

ochas. "What do you mean by yelli

es and subsided into a stupid sile

end. But even thus early in the day the Germans had demonstrated the superiority of their artillery; their percussion shells had an enormous range, and exploded, with hardly an exception, on reaching their destination, while the French time-fuse shells, with a much shorter range, burst for the most part in the air and were wasted. And there was nothing left for the

e chance!" said Maurice, in a frenzy of impatience. "It is disgusting t

e will come," Jean i

and was in the act of making some suggestions to the officers grouped around him, when, emerging from a sunken road, General Bourgain-Desfeuilles also rode up. This officer, though he owed his advancement to "influence" was wedded to the antiquated African routine and had learned nothing by experience

marshal is wounded,

a few minutes ago, in which he advises me of the fact, and also notifie

is to have his place! And

nd for the last twenty-four hours had been strenuously recommending the occupat

ed of yesterday: the whole army is to b

evious gesture, as if

rmy retreating to the northward of Sedan-and all these important events kept from the poor devils of soldiers who were squandering their life's blood! and all their destinies, dependent on the life of a single man, were to be intrusted to the direction of fresh and untried hands! He had a distinct con

, when General Douay, to whom a grimy, dust-stained hussar had

al! Ge

, with such an accent of surprise, t

ieve de Failly at the head of the 5th corps-and he writes me that he has written instructions from the Minister of War assigning him to the command of the arm

mine, anyhow." And off he galloped, not allowing himself to be greatly agitated by this unexpected turn of affairs, for he had gone into the war solely in the hope of seeing his name rai

rals! they understood one another; they were not going to pull all the blankets off the bed! What was a poor devil of a soldier to do when he had such leaders put over him? Three commanders in two hours' time, three great numskulls, none of whom knew what was the right thing to do, and all of them

and protracted observation of Hattoy, the shells from which came tumbling almost at his very feet; then, giving a glance at the plateau of Illy, called up an officer to carry an order to the brigad

Calvary it would be impossible for us to hold this

upon them laterally, from the left; the batteries at Frenois, together with one which the enemy had carried across the river and posted on the peninsula of Iges, had established, in connection with the guns on Hattoy, an enfilading fire which swept the plateau de l'Algerie in its entire leng

cted for himself. He had turned his head, and caught sight of t

t is!" was

handsome eyes; it was only pale; very pale and in

aded; "take me to the ambulance, I

it was useless to imperil two comrades' lives for one whose wound was so evi

poor boy, and the litter-be

kept crying, as one distraught that his dream of h

away, tak

y off where a flying ambulance had been established. Chouteau and Loubet jumped to their feet simultaneously, anticipating the others, seized the sergeant, one of them by the sh

exclaimed Loubet. "L

ut relaxing his spe

you take me for a fool, to leave hi

e little wood, threw it down at the foot of a tree, and went th

d. It was nothing more than the strain from which his nervous, high-strung temperament was suffering from reflex action; but Jean, who was observing him narrowly, detected the incipient crisis in the wandering, vacant eyes, and seizing him with his strong hand, held him down firmly at his side. The corporal lectured him paternally in a whisper, not mincing his words, but employing good, vigorous language to restore him to a sense of self-respect, for he knew by

ice, ghastly pale, his te

re you going to be sick like those fellows over

hin reach of their rifles since the opening of the campaign. This first squad was succeeded by others, and in front of their position the little dust clouds that rose where the French shells struck were distinctly visible. It was all very vivid and clear-cut in the transparent air of morning; the German

check it, but desisted upon Rochas's representation that it was absolutely necessary as a measure of relief for the men's pent-up feelings. So, then, they were at liberty to shoot at last, they could use up those cartridges that they had been lugging around with them for the last month, without ever burning a single one! The effec

, the other companies being posted in the adjacent fields; the musketry fire seemed to be drawing nearer. The young man also beheld the regimental colors a little to the rear, borne aloft by the sturdy arm of the standard-bearer, but it was no longer the phantom flag that he had seen that morning, shrouded in m

banner? With that reflection Maurice and his companions kept on industriously wastin