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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Invasion of France in 1814, by 
+Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Invasion of France in 1814
+
+Author: Émile Erckmann
+        Alexandre Chatrian
+
+Release Date: July 26, 2011 [EBook #36859]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: AS THEY CLIMBED UP THEY WERE CLUBBED WITH MUSKETS]
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORICAL ROMANCES OF FRANCE
+
+
+THE INVASION OF
+
+FRANCE IN 1814
+
+
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
+
+ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+NEW YORK::::::::::::::::::::::1911
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1889, 1898
+
+BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+_As they climbed up they were clubbed with muskets . . . Frontispiece_
+
+_There was a general shout of_ "_Long live France!_"
+
+_Big Dubreuil; the friend of the allies_
+
+_Yégof saluted each phantom with sparkling eyes_
+
+"_Let us overwhelm them, as at Blutfeld!_"
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY NOTE
+
+The invasion of France by the allied armies after the battle of Leipsic
+had proved the German campaign even more disastrous than that of Russia
+the year before, was not only essentially the death-blow to the power
+of Napoleon, but was the first real taste France had had for many years
+of an experience she had so often previously meted out to her
+neighbors.  In spite of all she had suffered from the conscription and
+from exhaustion of men and treasure in offensive war--or at least war
+waged outside her own territory--the great Invasion meant for her
+something far more terrible than any reverses she had yet undergone.
+Napoleon was not only not invincible, it appeared, he was not even able
+to defend the frontiers he had found firmly established on his
+accession to power.  The allies had announced that they were warring
+not against France but against the French Emperor--"against the
+preponderance that Napoleon had too long exercised beyond the limits of
+his empire."  Everywhere in France except in the official world of
+Paris, the once enchanted name of Napoleon had become recognized as a
+synonym of national disaster.
+
+Nevertheless nothing--except, perhaps, the similar circumstances of the
+Prussian invasion in 1870--has ever so well attested the fundamental
+and absorbing patriotism of the French people as their heroic
+resistance to this invasion and their instinctive and universal refusal
+to separate in this crisis the cause of their Emperor from their own.
+The presence of a foreign foe on whatever pretext within their
+boundaries sufficed to arouse them _en masse_.  No such enthusiasm had
+been known since the days of the Republic's and the Consulate's
+victories as was awakened, in the thick of national disaster and amid
+the ruin of all ambitious hopes, by the thought of an enemy within the
+borders of _la patrie_.  And in "The Invasion" of MM. Erckmann-Chatrian
+this enthusiasm and devotion find a chronicle which is most
+realistically impressive.  So soon as the peasants of the outlying
+villages of the eastern frontier learn of the impending descent of the
+Cossacks and Germans, without thought of their own comfort and
+safety--which it is, however, impartially pointed out they know would
+hardly be better secured by submission--they organize for resistance.
+They blockade the highways and defend the mountain passes.  Women and
+children aid in the work.  While the siege of Phalsbourg goes on the
+heights are occupied by sturdy peasants who oppose for a while an
+effective obstacle to the passage of the invaders.  The worst
+hardships, the most perilous adventures, are accepted by them with the
+heroic courage of regulars.  Outlaws and smugglers work and fight hand
+to hand with the respected worthies of the neighborhood.  They watch
+their farms burn from their outlook on the hill-tops, they suffer the
+pangs of starvation when their supplies are intercepted by the enemy,
+they fight to desperation when their position is finally turned by the
+treachery of a crazy German they have long harbored--and whose vagaries
+give, by the way, a most romantic color to the narrative--and they are
+finally slain or captured just as Paris capitulates and peace is made.
+None of the National Novels is more graphic or more significant
+historically than "The Invasion."
+
+
+
+
+THE INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OLD SHOEMAKER AND HIS DAUGHTER
+
+If you would wish to know the history of the great invasion of 1814,
+such as it was related to me by the old hunter Frantz du Hengst, you
+must transport yourself to the village of Charmes, in the Vosges.
+About thirty small houses, covered with shingles and dark-green
+houseleeks, stand in rows along the banks of the Sarre: you can see the
+gables carpeted with ivy and withered honeysuckles, for winter is
+approaching; the beehives closed with corks of straw, the small
+gardens, the palings, the hedges which separate them one from the other.
+
+To the left, on a high mountain, arise the ruins of the ancient château
+of Falkenstein, destroyed two hundred years ago by the Swedes.  It is
+now only a mass of stones and brambles; an old "timber-way," with its
+worn-out steps, ascends to it through the pine-trees.  To the right, on
+the side of the hill, one can perceive the farm of Bois-de-Chênes--a
+large building, with granaries, stables, and sheds, the flat roof
+loaded with great stones, in order to resist the north wind.  A few
+cows are grazing in the heather, a few goats on the rocks.
+
+Everything is calm and silent.
+
+Some children, in gray stuff trousers, their heads and feet bare, are
+warming themselves around their little fires on the outskirts of the
+woods; the spiral lines of blue smoke fade away in the air, great white
+clouds remain immovable above the valley; behind these clouds arise the
+arid peaks of the Grosmann and Donon.
+
+You must know that the end house of the village, whose square roof is
+pierced by two loophole windows, and whose low door opens on the muddy
+street, belonged, in 1813, to Jean-Claude Hullin, one of the old
+volunteers of '92, but now a shoemaker in the village of Charmes, and
+who was held in much consideration by the mountaineers.  Hullin was a
+short stout man, with gray eyes, large lips, a short nose, and thick
+eyebrows.  He was of a jovial, kind disposition, and did not know how
+to refuse anything to his daughter Louise, a child whom he had picked
+up among some miserable gypsies--farriers and tin-sellers--without
+house or dwelling-place, who go from village to village mending pots
+and pans, melting the ladles, and patching up cracked utensils.  He
+considered her as his own daughter, and never seemed to remember she
+came of a strange race.
+
+Besides this natural affection, the good old fellow possessed others
+still: he loved above all his cousin, the old mistress of the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes, Catherine Lefèvre, and her son Gaspard, who had been
+carried off that year by the conscription--a handsome young fellow, the
+"fiancé" of Louise, and whose return was expected by all the family at
+the end of the campaign.
+
+Hullin recalled always with enthusiasm his campaigns of the
+Sambre-et-Meuse, of Italy and of Egypt.  He often thought of them, and
+sometimes in the evening, when the work was over, he would go to the
+sawmills of Valtin, that dark manufactory formed of trunks of trees
+still bearing their bark, and which you can perceive down there at the
+end of the valley.  He sat down among the wood-cutters and
+charcoal-gatherers, and sledges, in front of the great fire; and while
+the heavy wheel turned, the dam thundered and the saws grinded, he, his
+elbow on his knee, and his pipe in his mouth, would speak to them of
+Hoche, of Kleber, and finally of General Bonaparte, whom he had seen
+hundreds of times, and whose thin face, piercing eyes, and eagle
+profile, he would depict as though he were present.
+
+Such was Jean-Claude Hullin.
+
+He was one of the old Gallic stock, fond of extraordinary adventures
+and heroic enterprises, but constant to his work, out of a sentiment of
+duty, from New Year's day until Saint Sylvester's.
+
+As for Louise, the child of the tramp, she was a slender creature, with
+long delicate hands, eyes of such a soft deep blue that they seemed to
+penetrate to the depths of your soul, skin of a snowy whiteness, hair
+of a pale straw-color, like silk in texture, and drooping shoulders
+like those of a virgin praying.  Her ingenuous smile, pensive
+forehead--in fact, her whole appearance--recalled the old _Lied_ of the
+Minnesinger Erhart, when he said: "I have seen a ray of light pass by:
+my eyes are still dazzled by it.  Was it a moonbeam piercing the
+foliage?  Was it a smile from the dawn in the forests?  No, it was the
+beautiful Edith, my love, who passed by.  I have seen her, and my eyes
+are still dazzled."
+
+Louise only cared for fields, gardens, and flowers.  In spring-time,
+the first notes of the skylark made her shed tears of delight.  She
+went to see the budding hawthorn and blue cornflowers behind the hedges
+on the hill-sides; she watched for the return of the swallows, from the
+little windows of the garret.  She was always the true child of the
+homeless vagrants, only less wild.  Hullin forgave her everything; he
+understood her nature, and would sometimes say, laughingly:--"My poor
+Louise, with the booty that thou bringest us,--thy fine sheaves of
+flowers and golden wheat-ears--we should die of hunger in three days!"
+
+Then she would smile so tenderly at him and embrace him so willingly,
+that he would go on with his work, saying:--"Bah! why need I grumble?
+She is right: she loves the sunshine.  Gaspard will work for two--he
+will have the happiness of four.  I do not pity him: on the contrary.
+One can find plenty of women who work, and that does not improve their
+beauty; but loving woman! what luck to have found one--what luck!"
+
+Thus reasoned the good old fellow; and days, weeks, and months wore
+away in the expectation of Gaspard's return.
+
+Madame Lefèvre, an extremely energetic woman, partook of Hullin's ideas
+on the subject of Louise.
+
+"As for me," she said, "I only want a daughter who loves us; I do not
+wish her to have anything to do with my household affairs.  So long as
+she is contented!  Thou wilt not bother me--is it not so, Louise?"
+
+And then they would embrace each other.  But Gaspard did not return,
+and for two months they had had no tidings of him.
+
+On that same day, toward the middle of December, 1813, between three
+and four o'clock in the afternoon, Hullin, bending over his bench, was
+finishing a pair of nailed shoes for the wood-cutter Rochart.  Louise
+had just put an earthenware porringer down on the little iron stove,
+which sang and crackled in a plaintive manner, while the old clock
+counted the seconds in its monotonous tic-tac.  Outside, all along the
+street, could be perceived small pools of water, covered with a coating
+of thin white ice, announcing the approach of intense cold.  At times
+the sound of great wooden shoes, running along the hardened road, could
+be heard, and a felt hat, a cape, or a woollen cap would pass by: then
+the noise would cease, and the plaintive hissing of the green wood in
+the flames, the humming of Louise's spinning-wheel, and the boiling of
+the porridge-pot again prevailed.  This had gone on for about two
+hours, when Hullin, glancing accidentally through the little
+window-panes, stopped his work, and remained with his eyes wide open,
+staring, as though absorbed by some unusual spectacle.
+
+In fact, at the corner of the street, in front of the "Trois Pigeons,"
+there advanced, in the midst of a crowd of whistling, jumping, and
+shouting boys, who called out "The King of Diamonds!  The King of
+Diamonds!"--There advanced, I say, one of the strangest personages
+imaginable.  Picture to yourself a red-headed, red-bearded man, with a
+grave face, gloomy expression, straight nose, the eyebrows meeting on
+the forehead, a circle of tin on the head, a gray dogskin floating over
+the back, its forepaws tied around the neck; the chest covered with
+little copper crosses, the legs clothed with a sort of gray cloth
+trousers fastened above the ankle, and the feet bare.  A great raven,
+with black wings glossed over with white, was perched on his shoulder.
+From his imposing gait one would have taken him for one of the ancient
+Merovingian kings, such as are represented by the images of
+Montbéliard; he held in the left hand a short thick stick in the shape
+of a sceptre, and with the right he made ostentatious gestures, raising
+his finger toward heaven, and apostrophizing his retinue.
+
+All the doors opened on his passage; behind every pane appeared
+inquisitive faces.  Some few old women on the outer stairs of their
+houses, called out to the madman, who would not deign to turn his head;
+others went down into the streets and tried to prevent him passing; but
+he, lifting his head and raising his eyebrows, with one word and a
+sign, forced them to make way.
+
+"Hullo!" said Hullin, "here is Yégof.  I did not expect to have seen
+him again this winter.  It is not one of his customs.  What on earth
+can bring him back in such weather?"
+
+And Louise, laying down her distaff, hurried away to contemplate "The
+King of Diamonds."  It was a great event, the arrival of Yégof the
+madman at the commencement of winter: some rejoiced over it, hoping to
+keep him and make him relate his glory and fortunes in the inns;
+others, and especially the women, were filled with a sort of vague
+uneasiness, for madmen, as all know, have ideas from another world:
+they know the past and the future--they are inspired by God: the only
+thing is to know how to understand them--their words bearing always two
+meanings: one for the ordinary run of people, the other for more
+refined and delicate souls, and the wise.  This madman besides, more
+than another, had truly some sublime and extraordinary thoughts.  None
+knew from whence he came, nor where he went, nor what he wanted; for
+Yégof wandered about the country like some troubled spirit.  He spoke
+of extinct races, and pretended that he was Emperor of Australasia, of
+Polynesia, and of other lands besides.  Great books could have been
+written on his palaces, castles, and strongholds--of which he knew the
+number, the situation, the architecture--and whose beauty, riches, and
+grandeur, he would celebrate in a simple and modest manner.  He spoke
+of his stables, of his hunts, of his crown-officers, ministers,
+counsellors, of the heads of his provinces; he never made any mistakes
+as to their names or different merits; but he bitterly bewailed having
+been dethroned by the accursed race: and the old midwife, Sapience
+Coquelin, every time that she heard him groan over this subject, would
+cry bitterly, and others also did the same.  Then he would raise his
+arms to heaven and cry out,--"O women, women! remember, remember!  The
+hour approaches--the spirits of darkness flee! the old race--the
+masters of your masters--advance like the waves of the sea!"
+
+And every spring he was in the habit of making a survey of all the old
+owls' nests, the ancient castles, and all the ruins which crown the
+Vosges in the depths of their forests, at Nideck, Géroldseck,
+Lutzelbourg, and Turkestein, saying that he was going to visit his
+territories, talking of re-establishing the past splendor of his
+states, and of putting all mutinous people into slavery, with the aid
+of his cousin the "Grand Gôlo."
+
+Jean-Claude Hullin made light of these things, from not having a soul
+elevated enough to enter into the invisible spheres; but Louise was
+much troubled by them--above all, when the raven flapped its wings and
+gave its hoarse cry.
+
+Yégof, then, descended the street, without stopping anywhere; and
+Louise, all excitement, seeing that he looked toward their little
+house, said aloud,--"Papa Jean-Claude, I believe he is coming our way."
+
+"It is quite possible," replied Hullin.  "The poor devil must be in
+need of a pair of good lined shoes for the great cold, and if he were
+to ask me, I should hardly be able to refuse them to him."
+
+"Oh, how kind you are!" said the young girl, embracing him
+affectionately.
+
+"Yes, yes! thou art flattering me," said he, laughing, "because I do
+what thou wishest.  Who will pay me for my wood and work?  It will not
+be Yégof!"
+
+Louise kissed him again, and Hullin, looking lovingly at her,
+murmured,--"This payment is worth the other."
+
+Yégof was then about fifteen yards from their door: the tumult still
+kept increasing; the boys hung on to the tatters of his coat, crying
+out, "Diamond!  Club!  Spade!"  Suddenly he turned, raised his sceptre,
+and called out in a dignified though furious manner,--"Go back,
+accursed race!  Go back, deafen me no longer, or I will loose my
+bloodhounds against you!"
+
+This menace only made the shouts of laughter and hisses redouble; but
+as at that moment Hullin appeared on the threshold with a long strap in
+his hand, and distinguishing five or six of the most obstinate among
+them, he warned them that that evening he would go and pull their ears
+during their supper--a feat which he had already performed several
+times with the consent of the parents, the whole band dispersed in
+great consternation.  Then, going toward the madman,--"Enter, Yégof,"
+said the shoemaker, "come and warm thyself by the fire."
+
+"I do not call myself Yégof," replied the unhappy man, looking
+offended.  "I call myself Luitprandt, King of Australasia and
+Polynesia."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," said Jean-Claude--"I know!  Thou hast already told
+me all that.  But what does it matter that thou callest thyself Yégof,
+or Luitprandt? come in all the same.  It is cold; try to warm thyself."
+
+"I come in," replied the madman; "but it is for a much more serious
+affair: it is for a state affair--to form an indissoluble alliance
+between the Germans and the Triboques."
+
+"Well, we will talk of that."
+
+Yégof, stooping under the door, entered as though in a reverie, and
+saluted Louise by bowing and lowering his sceptre; but the raven would
+not come in.  Opening his great wings, he made a circuit around the
+house, and came and fastened himself onto the window-panes to break
+them.
+
+"Hans," shouted the madman, "take care!  I am coming!"
+
+But the bird did not detach its sharp claws from the casement, and
+never ceased fluttering its great wings so long as its master remained
+in the cottage.  Louise did not take her eyes off it: she was afraid.
+As for Yégof, he sat down in the old leathern armchair behind the
+stove, his legs stretched out as though on a throne; and gazing around
+him in a triumphant manner, he cried out,--"I come direct from Jérome,
+to conclude an alliance with thee, Hullin.  Thou art not ignorant that
+I have deigned to cast my eyes on thy daughter, and I come to ask her
+of thee in marriage."
+
+At this proposition Louise blushed to the roots of her hair, and Hullin
+burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Thou laughest!" cried the madman, in a hollow voice.  "Well! thou art
+wrong to laugh.  This alliance may alone save thee from the impending
+ruin of thyself, thy house, and all thy belongings.  At this moment my
+armies are advancing.  They are countless--they cover the earth.  What
+can you do against me?  You will be vanquished, annihilated, or reduced
+to slavery, as you have already been for centuries: for I, Luitprandt,
+King of Australasia and of Polynesia--I have decided that everything
+shall be as it once was.  Remember!"--here the madman raised his finger
+solemnly--"remember what has passed!  You have been beaten!  And we,
+the old northern races--we have put our yokes upon you.  We have
+burdened you with the largest stones for building our strong castles
+and our subterraneous prisons; we have harnessed you to our ploughs;
+you have been before us as the straw before the hurricane.  Remember,
+remember, Triboque, and tremble!"
+
+"I remember very well," said Hullin, still laughing; "but we had our
+revenge.  Thou knowest?"
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted Yégof, frowning; "but that time has gone by.
+My warriors are more numerous than the leaves in the forests; and your
+blood flows like the water of the brooks.  Thou, I know thee--I knew
+thee a thousand years ago!"
+
+"Bah!" said Hullin.
+
+"Yes, it was this hand--dost thou hear?--this hand that has vanquished
+thee, when, for the first time, we entered your forests.  It has made
+thy head bow beneath the yoke--it will make it bend again!  Because you
+are brave, you believe yourselves masters of this country and of all
+France forever.  Well, you are wrong!  We have spoiled you, and we will
+spoil you again.  We will restore Alsace and Lorraine to Germany,
+Brittany and Normandy to the men from the North, with Flanders and the
+South to Spain.  We will make France into a little kingdom around
+Paris--a very little kingdom--with a descendant of the ancient race at
+your head.  And you will no longer agitate yourselves--you will be very
+tranquil.  Ha, ha, ha!"  Yégof began to laugh.
+
+Hullin, who had no knowledge of history, was astonished that he should
+know so many names.
+
+"Bah! stop that, Yégof," said he; "and come, take a little soup to warm
+thy inside."
+
+"I do not ask thee for soup; I ask thee for this girl in marriage--the
+most beautiful on my estates.  Give her to me willingly, and I raise
+thee to the steps of my throne: else my armies shall take her by force,
+and thou shalt not have the merit of giving her to me."
+
+While thus speaking, the unhappy creature regarded Louise with an air
+of profound admiration.
+
+"How beautiful she is!  I destine her to the greatest honors.  Rejoice,
+young girl, rejoice!  Thou shalt be queen of Australasia."
+
+"Listen, Yégof," said Hullin.  "I am very much flattered by thy demand:
+it shows that thou canst appreciate beauty.  It is well.  But my
+daughter is already affianced to Gaspard Lefèvre."
+
+"And I," said the madman, greatly irritated--"I will not hear of such a
+thing!"  Then rising up,--"Hullin," said he, in solemn tones, "it is my
+first demand.  I will renew it yet twice again--dost thou hear--twice!
+And if thou wilt persist in thy obstinacy--misfortune, misfortune on
+thee and thy race!"
+
+"What! thou wilt not take any soup?"
+
+"No, no!  I will accept nothing from thee so long as thou hast not
+consented.  Nothing, nothing!"  And then marching toward the door, much
+to the satisfaction of Louise, who was intent on the raven, fluttering
+its wings against the window-panes, he said, raising his
+sceptre,--"Twice again!" and departed.
+
+Hullin went off into a shout of laughter.  "Poor devil!" he exclaimed.
+"In spite of himself, his nose turned toward the porringer.  He has
+nothing in his inside--his teeth chatter with hunger.  Well! his
+madness is stronger than either cold or hunger."
+
+"Oh, how he frightened me!" said Louise.
+
+"Come, come, my child, calm thyself.  He is gone.  He thinks thou art
+pretty, fool though he is; do not let that terrify thee."
+
+But although the madman had left, Louise still trembled, and felt
+herself blushing when she thought of how he had looked at her.
+
+Yégof had taken the road to Valtin.  He could still be seen, his raven
+on his shoulder, walking slowly along and making curious gestures,
+although no one was near him.  The night was drawing on, and soon the
+tall figure of "The King of Diamonds" disappeared in the gray shadows
+of the winter twilight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SHOEMAKER'S VISITOR
+
+In the evening of that same day, after their supper, Louise, having
+taken her spinning-wheel, was gone for a little diversion to the Mother
+Rochart's where all the good women and young girls of the neighborhood
+used to assemble till near midnight.  They spent their time in relating
+old legends, talking of the rain, of the weather, of marriages,
+baptisms, of the departure or return of the conscripts, and what not,
+that enabled them to pass the hours agreeably.
+
+Hullin remained alone before his little copper lamp, nailing the shoes
+of the old wood-cutter.  He no longer thought of the madman Yégof.  His
+hammer rose and fell, driving the great nails into the thick wooden
+shoes quite mechanically, by force of habit.  In the meantime thousands
+of ideas came into his head; he was thoughtful without knowing why.
+Now it was Gaspard, who gave no signs of being alive; then it was the
+campaign, which was being indefinitely prolonged.  The lamp threw its
+yellowish light around the smoky little room.  Outside, not a sound.
+The fire began to die away.  Jean-Claude rose to put on a fagot, then
+sat down again, muttering,--"Bah! this cannot last; we shall receive a
+letter one of these days."
+
+The old clock began to strike nine; and as Hullin was recommencing his
+work, the door opened and Catherine Lefèvre, the mistress of
+Bois-de-Chênes, appeared on the threshold, to the great stupefaction of
+the shoemaker, for it was not her custom to arrive at such a time.
+
+Catherine Lefèvre might have been sixty years old, but she was as
+upright and strong as at thirty.  Her clear gray eyes and beaked nose
+resembled those of a bird of prey; the corners of her mouth turned
+down, and made her look somewhat gloomy and sad; two or three locks of
+gray hair fell over her forehead; a brown striped hood reached from her
+head, over her shoulders and down to her elbows.  Her physiognomy
+announced a steadfast, tenacious character, with something
+indescribably grand and mournful about it, which inspired both respect
+and fear.
+
+"Can it be you, Catherine?" said Hullin, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, it is I," replied the old dame, calmly.  "I am come to talk with
+you, Jean-Claude....  Louise is away?"
+
+"She has gone for a little amusement to Madeleine Rochart's."
+
+"It is well."
+
+Then Catherine pushed back her hood from her head, and sat down at the
+end of the bench.  Hullin looked fixedly at her: he perceived something
+extraordinary and mysterious about her which fascinated him.
+
+"What has happened, then?" said he, putting down his hammer.
+
+Instead of answering this question, she turned toward the door, and
+seemed to be listening; then hearing no sound, her serious expression
+came back.
+
+"Yégof the madman spent last night at the farm," said she.
+
+"He came to see me this afternoon," rejoined Hullin, without attaching
+any importance to this fact, which was totally indifferent to him.
+
+"Yes," replied the old dame, in a low voice, "he spent the night with
+us; and yesterday evening, about this time, in the kitchen, before us
+all, this madman related terrible things!"
+
+Then she relapsed into silence, and the corners of her mouth seemed to
+turn down more than ever.
+
+"Terrible things!" murmured the shoemaker, excessively astonished: for
+he had never seen Catherine Lefèvre in such a condition before.  "But
+what then? say, what?"
+
+"Dreams I have had!"
+
+"Dreams?  You certainly want to make fun of me!"
+
+"No!"
+
+Then, after a short pause, she slowly continued--"Yesterday evening,
+all our people were assembled in the kitchen around the large fireplace
+after supper; the table still remained covered with empty dishes,
+plates, and spoons.  Yégof had partaken of it with us, and had amused
+us with the history of his treasures, castles, and provinces.  It might
+have been toward nine o'clock: the madman was sitting at one end of the
+blazing fire; old Duchêne, my ploughboy, was mending Bruno's saddle;
+the herdsman, Robin, was plaiting a basket; Annette arranged her pans
+on the shelves: and I had brought my wheel nearer the fire to finish
+spinning a distaff-ful before going to bed.  Out of doors, the dogs
+were barking at the moon; the cold was very great.  We were all there,
+talking of the coming winter.  Duchêne said it would be very severe,
+for he had seen several flocks of wild-geese.  And Yégof's raven, on
+the edge of the mantel-piece, its head buried in its raffled feathers,
+seemed to sleep; but now and then it would elongate its neck and watch
+us, listen a moment and then cover itself again in its plumes."
+
+She remained silent a moment, as though to collect her ideas; her
+eyelids drooped, her great beaked nose seemed to bend down on to her
+lips, and a strange pallor came over her face.
+
+"What the devil is coming next?" thought Hullin.
+
+The old woman continued: "Yégof near the fire, with his tin crown, and
+his short stick on his knees, was dreaming of something.  He looked at
+the great black chimney, the stone mantel-piece, which is carved with
+different figures and trees, and the smoke which went up in great
+clouds around the sides of bacon: when suddenly he struck with the end
+of his stick on to the tiles and called out, as though in a
+dream--'Yes, yes, I have seen that long ago--long ago!'  And as we all
+looked at him speechless--'In those times,' he went on to say, 'the
+pine-forests were forests of oak.  The Nideck, the Dagsberg,
+Falkenstein, Géroldseck, all those old ruined castles did not exist.
+In those times the bison could be hunted in the depths of the woods,
+the salmon caught in the Sarre, and you, the fair men, were buried in
+snow six months of the year.  You lived on milk and cheese, for you had
+many flocks and herds on the Hengst, the Schneeberg, the Grosmann, the
+Donon.  In the summer you hunted: you came down to the Rhine, the
+Moselle, the Meuse.  I can recall it all!'
+
+"And wonderful to relate, Jean-Claude, as the madman spoke, I seemed to
+see also these countries of years gone by, and to remember them as I
+should a dream.  I had let fall my distaff, and Duchêne, Robin,
+Jeanne--in fact, everybody--listened.  'Yes, it was long ago,' he
+continued.  'In those days you were already building these great
+chimneys; and all around, at a distance of two or three hundred yards,
+you planted palisades fifteen feet high, and with the points hardened
+by the fire.  And inside them you kept your big dogs with their hanging
+cheeks, who barked day and night.'
+
+"We could see what he said, Jean-Claude; we could see it all.  But he
+paid no heed to us: he regarded the figures on the chimney-piece with
+his mouth open; but, in an instant, having stooped his head and seeing
+how attentive we all were, he laughed with a wild, mad laughter, and
+cried out:--'In those days you believed yourselves the lords of the
+country, O fair men, with your blue eyes and white skins, fed on milk
+and cheese, and only tasting blood in the autumn, at the great hunts:
+you believed yourselves the masters of the plains and mountains, when
+we, the red men, with the green eyes, out of the sea--we who drank
+always blood and only liked battles--one fine morning we arrived with
+our axes and spears, and ascended the Sarre under the shadows of the
+old oaks.  Ah! it was a cruel war, which lasted weeks and months.  And
+the old woman--there--' said he, pointing at me, with a singular smile,
+'the Margareth of the clan of Kilberix, that old woman with her beaked
+nose, in her palisades, in the midst of her dogs and warriors--she
+fought like a wolf.  But when five moons had passed, hunger arrived.
+The doors of the palisades opened for flight, and we, in ambush in the
+stream--we massacred all!--all--except the children and the beautiful
+young girls.  The old woman, alone, defended herself to the last with
+her teeth and nails; and I, Luitprandt, clove her head in two; and I
+took her father, the aged man and blind, to chain him at the door of my
+castle like a dog!'
+
+"Then, Hullin," continued the old woman, "the madman began to chant a
+long song--the lamentation of the old man chained to his doorway.  Wait
+till I can recall it, Jean-Claude.  It was mournful--mournful as a
+_Miserere_.  No, I cannot remember it; but I seem still to hear it.  It
+made our blood curdle; and, as he laughed without ceasing, at last all
+our servants gave a terrible cry, rage seized them.  Duchêne sprang on
+the madman to strangle him; but he, with more strength than one could
+suppose he possessed, threw him back, and raising his stick furiously,
+said to us:--'On your knees, slaves--on your knees!  My armies are
+advancing!  Do you hear?  The earth trembles with them.  These castles,
+the Nideck, the Haut-Barr, the Dagsberg, the Turkestein, you shall
+build them up again!  On your knees!'
+
+"I never saw a more fearful face than Yégof's at that moment; but,
+seeing for the second time my servants rising against him, I was
+obliged to defend him myself.  'It is a madman,' I said to them.  'Are
+you not ashamed to believe in the words of a madman?'  They stopped on
+my account; but I could not close my eyes that night.  The words of
+that wretched man kept recurring to me.  I seemed to hear the chant of
+the old prisoner, the barking of our dogs, and the sounds of battle.
+For years I have never felt so uneasy.  That is why I came to see you,
+Jean-Claude.  What do you think of it?"
+
+"I?" exclaimed the shoemaker, in whose ruddy face both irony and pity
+were visible.  "If I did not know you so well, Catherine, I should say
+you were deranged:--you, Duchêne, Robin, and the rest of you.  All that
+has about the same effect on me as one of Geneviève de Brabant's
+tales--made up to terrify little children, and which shows us how
+foolish our ancestors were."
+
+"You do not comprehend these things," said she, in a calm, grave voice;
+"you have never had any of those ideas."
+
+"Then you believe all that Yégof has said to you?"
+
+"Yes, I believe it."
+
+"What, you, Catherine?--you, a sensible woman?  If it were the mother
+of Rochart I should say nothing; but you!"
+
+He rose as though annoyed, took off his apron, shrugged his shoulders,
+then sat down again quickly, and called out:--"This madman, do you know
+what he is?  I will tell you.  He is most assuredly one of those German
+school-masters who stuff their brains with 'Old Mother Goose' tales,
+and then gravely relate them to others.  By dint of studying, dreaming,
+ruminating, their wits get out of order; they have visions, many-sided
+ideas, and take their dreams for realities.  I have always looked upon
+Yégof as one of those poor wretches.  He knows lots of names, he speaks
+of Brittany and Australasia, of Polynesia and the Nideck, and then of
+Géroldseck, of the Turkestein, of the Rhine--in fact of everything at
+hazard; and it ends by having the appearance of something when it is
+nothing.  In ordinary times you would think as I do, Catherine; but you
+are troubled at not receiving any tidings from Gaspard.  These rumors
+of war and of invasion that are going about torment and unsettle you.
+You cannot sleep; and what a poor madman says, you regard as Bible
+truths."
+
+"No, Hullin; it is not that.  If you yourself had heard Yégof----"
+
+"Get along!" exclaimed the good old fellow.  "If I had, I should have
+laughed at him as I did just now.  Do you know that he came to ask
+Louise of me in marriage, to make her queen of Australasia?"
+
+Catherine Lefèvre could not restrain a smile; but, regaining almost at
+once her serious expression--"All your reasonings, Jean-Claude," said
+she, "cannot convince me; but, I confess it, the silence of Gasper
+frightens me.  I know my son: he would certainly have written to me.
+Why have his letters never reached me?  The war is going on badly,
+Hullin--we have all the world against us.  They don't want our
+revolution--you know it as well as I do.  So long as we were masters,
+and won victory after victory, they looked kindly on us; but since our
+Russian misfortunes, things wear a bad aspect."
+
+"Là, Là, Catherine, how you get carried away.  You see everything
+gloomily."
+
+"Yes, I see everything gloomily, and I am right.  What makes me so
+uneasy is, that we never get any news from the outer world; we live
+here as in a savage country: one knows of nothing that goes on.  The
+Austrians and the Cossacks could be upon us at any time, and we should
+be taken by surprise."
+
+Hullin observed the old dame, whose expression was very animated; and
+even he began to be influenced by the same fears.
+
+"Listen, Catherine," said he, suddenly.  "When you speak in a
+reasonable manner, it is not I who would say anything against it.  All
+you now tell me is possible.  I do not believe in it; but one might as
+well make sure.  I had intended to go to Phalsbourg in a week, to buy
+sheepskins for trimming some shoes: I will go to-morrow.  At
+Phalsbourg, a garrison and post town, there must be some reliable news.
+Will you believe those I shall bring you on my return from that place?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good; it is then arranged.  I shall leave to-morrow early.  There are
+five leagues in all.  I shall return about six o'clock.  You will see,
+Catherine, that all your dismal ideas have no sense in them."
+
+"I hope so," she replied, rising.  "I hope so.  You have somewhat
+reassured me, Hullin.  Now I will go to the farm, and may I sleep
+better than I did last night.  Good-night, Jean-Claude."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AT PHALSBOURG
+
+The next day at dawn, Hullin, wearing his blue cloth Sunday breeches,
+his large brown velvet jacket and red waistcoat with brass buttons, and
+a broad beaver mountaineer's hat turned up like a cockade above his
+ruddy face--started on his way to Phalsbourg, a stout stick in his hand.
+
+Phalsbourg is a small fortress, half-way on the imperial road from
+Strasbourg to Paris; it dominates Saverne, the defiles of Haut-Barr,
+Roche-Platte, Bonne-Fontaine, and of the Graufthâl.  Its bastions,
+outposts, and demilunes are cut out in zig-zags on a rocky plain: from
+afar, the walls look as though they might be cleared at a jump; but on
+coming closer one perceives the moat, a hundred feet wide, thirty deep,
+and the dark ramparts hewn in the face of the rock.  That makes one
+stop suddenly.  Besides, with the exception of the church, the
+town-hall, the two gateways of France and Germany, in shape of mitres,
+and the peaks of the two powder-magazines, all the rest is hidden
+behind the fortifications.  Such is Phalsbourg, which is not without a
+certain imposing effect, especially when one crosses its bridges and
+piers, under its thick gates, garnished with iron-spiked portcullis.
+In the interior, the houses are distributed in regular quarters; they
+are low, in straight lines, built of freestone: everything bears a
+military aspect.
+
+Hullin, owing to his robust constitution and jovial disposition, never
+had any fears for the future, and considered all rumors of retreat,
+rout, and invasion, which circulated in the country, as so many lies
+propagated by dishonest individuals; so that one may judge of his
+stupefaction when, on leaving the mountains and from the outskirts of
+the woods, he saw the whole surroundings of the town laid as bare as a
+pontoon: not a garden, not an orchard, not a promenade, or a tree, or
+even a shrub--all was destroyed within cannon-range.  A few poor
+creatures were picking up the last remnants of their little houses, and
+carrying them into the town.  Nothing was to be seen on the horizon but
+the line of ramparts standing out clearly above the hidden roads.  It
+had the effect of a thunder-bolt on Jean-Claude.
+
+For some moments he could neither articulate a word nor make a step
+forward.
+
+"Oh, ho!" said he, at last, "this is bad--this is very bad.  They
+expect the enemy."
+
+Then his warlike instincts prevailed; a dark flush came over his brown
+cheeks.  "It is those rascally Austrians, Prussians, and Russians, and
+all the other wretches picked up out of the dregs of Europe, who are
+the cause of this," cried he, waving his stick.  "But beware! we will
+make them pay for the damages!"
+
+He was possessed with one of those white rages such as honest people
+feel when they are driven to extremities.  Woe to him who annoyed
+Hullin just then!
+
+Twenty minutes later he entered the town, at the rear of a long file of
+carriages, each harnessed to five or six horses, pulling, with much
+trouble, enormous trunks of trees, destined to construct block-houses
+on the _place-d'armes_.  Among the conductors, the peasants, and
+neighing, stamping horses, marched gravely a mounted _gendarme_--Father
+Kels--who did not seem to hear anything, and said, in a rough voice,
+"Courage, courage, my friends!  We will make two more journeys before
+evening.  You will have deserved well of your country!"
+
+Jean-Claude crossed the bridge.
+
+A new spectacle opened before him in the town.  There reigned the ardor
+of defence: all the doors were open; men, women, and children came and
+ran, helping to transport the powder and projectiles.  They stopped in
+groups of three, four, six, to make themselves acquainted with the news.
+
+"Hé neighbor!"
+
+"What then?"
+
+"A courier has just arrived in great speed.  He entered by the French
+gate."
+
+"Then he has come to announce the National Guard from Nancy."
+
+"Or, perhaps, a convoy from Metz."
+
+"You are right.  We want sixteen-pounders, and shot also.  The stoves
+are to be broken up to make some."
+
+A few worthy tradespeople in their shirt-sleeves, standing on tables
+along the pavement, were busying themselves with barricading their
+windows with large pieces of wood and mattresses; others rolled up to
+their doors tubs of water.  This enthusiasm reanimated Hullin.
+
+"Excellent!" said he; "everybody is making holiday here.  The allies
+will be well received."
+
+In front of the College, the squeaky voice of the Sergeant-de-ville
+Harmentier was proclaiming:--
+
+"Let it be known that the casemates are to be opened: therefore
+everybody may take a mattress there, and two blankets each.  And the
+commissaries of this place are going to commence their rounds of
+inspection, to ascertain that each inhabitant possesses food for three
+months in advance, which he must certify.--This day, 20th December,
+1813.--JEAN PIERRE MEUNIER, _Governor_."
+
+All this Hullin saw and heard in less than a minute, for the whole town
+was in the greatest excitement.  Strange, serious, and comic scenes
+succeeded each other without interruption.
+
+Near the narrow street leading to the Arsenal, a few National Guards
+were drawing a twenty-four pounder.  These honest fellows had a very
+steep ascent to climb; they could do no more.  "Ho! all together!
+Mille tonnerres!  Once again!  Forward!"  They all shouted at once,
+pushing the wheels, and the great cannon, stretching out its long neck
+over its immense carriage, above their heads, rolled slowly along,
+making the pavement tremble.
+
+Hullin, quite rejoiced, was no longer the same man.  His soldier-like
+instincts, the remembrance of the bivouac, of the marches, of the
+firing, and of the battles--all returned.  His eyes sparkled, his heart
+beat faster, and already thoughts of defence, of entrenchments, of
+death-struggles came and went in his head.
+
+"Faith!" said he, "all goes well!  I have made enough shoes in my life,
+and since the occasion to take up the musket presents itself, well, so
+much the better: we will show the Prussians and Austrians that we have
+not forgotten to charge at the double."
+
+Thus reasoned the good man, carried away by his warlike instincts; but
+his joy did not last long.
+
+Before the church, on the _place-d'armes_, were standing fifteen or
+twenty carts, full of wounded, arrived from Leipzig and Hanau.  These
+unhappy creatures, pale, ghastly, heavy-eyed, some whose limbs were
+already amputated, others with their wounds still untouched, tranquilly
+awaited death.  Near them, a few worn-out jades were eating their
+meagre allowance, while the conductors, poor wretches, who had been
+brought into requisition in Alsace, wrapped in their old mantles, slept
+notwithstanding the cold--their great hats turned down over their faces
+and their arms folded--on the steps of the church.  One shuddered to
+see these sad groups of men, with their gray hoods, heaped up on the
+bloody straw--one carrying his broken arm on his knees; another with
+his head bandaged in an old handkerchief; a third, already dead, being
+used as a seat for the living, his black hands hanging down the ladder.
+Hullin, in front of this mournful spectacle, stopped rooted to the
+ground.  He could not lift his eyes from it.  Great human suffering has
+this strange power of fascination over us: we look to see men perish,
+how they regard death: the best among us are not exempt from this
+frightful curiosity.  It seems as though eternity is going to deliver
+up its secret!
+
+There, then, near the shafts of the first cart, to the right of the
+file, were crouched two carbineers in little sky-blue vests, veritable
+giants, whose powerful natures gave way under the clutch of pain: like
+two caryatides crushed by the weight of some heavy mass.  One, with
+great red mustaches and ashy cheeks, looked at you out of his sunken
+eyes, as though from the depths of some fearful nightmare; the other,
+bent double, with blue hands, and shoulder torn by shot, sank more and
+more; then would raise himself with a jerk, talking softly as though
+dreaming.  Behind lay stretched, two and two, some infantry soldiers,
+the greater number struck by ball, with a leg or an arm broken.  They
+seemed to support their fate with more firmness than the giants.  These
+poor creatures said nothing: a few only, the youngest, furiously
+demanded water and bread; and in the next cart, a plaintive voice--the
+voice of a conscript--called, "My mother! my mother!" while the older
+men smiled gloomily, as though to say: "Yes, yes, she will come, thy
+mother!"  Perhaps they did not think of anything all the time.
+
+Now and then a shudder would pass along the whole of them.  Then
+several wounded could be seen half lifting themselves, with deep
+groans, and falling back as if death had gone its rounds at that moment.
+
+And again everything relapsed into silence.  While Hullin was watching,
+and feeling sick to his heart's core, a shopkeeper in the vicinity,
+Sôme the baker, came out of his house carrying a large basin of soup.
+Then you should have seen all these spectres move, their eyes sparkle,
+their nostrils dilate; they seemed born again.  The unhappy fellows
+were dying of hunger!
+
+Good Father Sôme, with tears in his eyes, approached, saying, "I am
+coming, my children.  A little patience!  It is I, you know me!"
+
+But hardly was he near the first cart, when the great carbineer with
+the ashy cheeks, reviving, plunged his arm up to the elbow in the
+boiling basin, seized the meat, and hid it under his vest.  It was done
+with the rapidity of lightning.  Savage yells arose on all sides: those
+men, if they had had strength to move, would have devoured their
+comrade.  He, his arms pressed tightly to his chest, the teeth on has
+prey, and glaring round him, appeared to hear nothing.  At these cries
+an old soldier, a sergeant, rushed out of the nearest inn.  He was an
+old hand; he understood at once what it was about, and, without useless
+reflections, he tore away the meat from the wild beast, saying to him,
+"Thou dost not deserve any!  It must be divided into parts.  We will
+cut ten rations!"
+
+"We are only eight!" said one of the wounded, very calm to all
+appearance, but with eyes gleaming out of their bronze mask.
+
+"How, eight?"
+
+"You can see, sergeant, that those two are dying fast: it would be so
+much food lost!"
+
+The old sergeant looked.
+
+"Eight," said he; "eight rations!"
+
+Hullin could bear it no longer.  He went over to the innkeeper
+Wittmann's opposite, as white as death; Wittmann was also a fur and
+leather merchant.  Seeing him enter, "Hé! is it you, Master
+Jean-Claude?" he exclaimed.  "You arrive sooner than usual; I did not
+expect you till next week."  Then seeing how he staggered--"But say,
+you are ill?"
+
+"I have just seen the wounded."
+
+"Ah, yes! the first time, it shocks you; but if you had seen fifteen
+thousand pass, as we have, you would not think anything more about it."
+
+"A glass of wine, quick?" said Hullin, who felt badly.  "Oh, mankind,
+mankind!  And to think that we are brothers!"
+
+"Yes, brothers until it touches your purse," replied Wittmann.  "Come,
+drink! that will set you right."
+
+"And you have seen fifteen thousand go by?" rejoined the shoemaker.
+
+"At the least, for two months, without speaking of those who have
+remained in Alsace and the other side of the Rhine; for, you
+comprehend, they cannot find carts enough for all, and then many are
+not worth the trouble of being carried away."
+
+"Yes, I comprehend!  But why are they there, those poor creatures?  Why
+do they not go into the hospital?"
+
+"The hospital!  What is one hospital, ten hospitals, for fifty thousand
+wounded?  Every hospital, from Mayence and Coblentz as far as
+Phalsbourg, is crowded.  And, besides, that terrible fever, typhus, you
+see, Hullin, kills more than the bullet.  All the villages of the plain
+twenty leagues round are infected with it; they die everywhere like
+flies.  Luckily the town has been in a state of siege these three days;
+the gates will be closed, and no more will enter.  I have lost, for my
+part, my Uncle Christian and my Aunt Lisbeth, as healthy, solid people
+as you and I, Master Jean-Claude.  At last the cold has arrived; last
+night there was a white frost."
+
+"And the wounded remained on the pavements all night?"
+
+"No, they came from Saverne this morning; in an hour or two, when the
+horses are rested, they will leave for Sarrebourg."
+
+At that moment, the old sergeant, who had re-established order in the
+carts, came in rubbing his hands.
+
+"Hé! hé!" said he, "it freshens, Papa Wittmann.  You did well to light
+the fire in the stove.  A little glass of cognac to drive away the fog.
+Hum! hum!"
+
+His small half-closed eyes, his beaked nose, the cheek-bones being
+separated from it by two flourishing wrinkles, which were lost to sight
+in a long reddish imperial--everything looked gay in his face, and told
+of a jovial, kind disposition.  It was a regular military face,
+scorched, burnt by the open air, full of frankness, but also of a
+cheery slyness; his great shako, his blue-gray cloak, the
+shoulder-belt, the epaulette, seemed to partake of his individuality.
+One could not have represented him without them.  He walked up and down
+the room, continuing to rub his hands, while Wittmann poured him a
+glass of brandy.  Hullin, seated near the window, had at once noticed
+the number of his regiment--6th Light Infantry.  Gaspard, the son of
+Madame Lefèvre, served in this regiment.  Jean-Claude could now obtain
+some tidings of the lover of Louise; but, as he was going to speak, his
+heart beat loud.  If Gaspard was dead; if he had perished like so many
+others!
+
+The worthy shoemaker felt nearly suffocated; he kept silent.  "Better
+to know nothing," thought he.  However, a few minutes later, he could
+do so no longer.  "Sergeant," said he, in a hoarse voice, "you are in
+the 6th Light Infantry?"
+
+"Yes, my citizen," said the other, turning round in the middle of the
+room.
+
+"Do you know one called Gaspard Lefèvre?"
+
+"Gaspard Lefèvre, of the 2d division of the 1st?  Parbleu, if I know
+him!  It is I who taught him his drill.  A brave soldier! hardened
+against fatigue.  If we had a hundred thousand of that stamp----"
+
+"Then he lives? he is well?"
+
+"Yes, citizen.  Eight days ago I left the regiment at Fredericsthal to
+escort this convoy of wounded.  You understand, it is hot there--one
+cannot answer for anything.  From one moment to the other, each of us
+may have his business settled for him.  But eight days ago, at
+Fredericsthal--the 15th December--Gaspard Lefèvre still answered to the
+roll-call."
+
+Jean-Claude breathed.  "But then, sergeant, have the goodness to tell
+me why Gaspard has not written to his village for two months?"
+
+The old soldier smiled, and blinked his little eyes.  "Ah! now,
+citizen, do you then believe that one has nothing else to do on the
+march but to write?"
+
+"No.  I have served; I was in the campaigns of Sambre-et-Meuse, of
+Egypt and Italy, but that did not prevent me from giving some news of
+myself."
+
+"One instant, comrade," interrupted the sergeant.  "I have passed
+through Egypt and Italy also; the campaign we are finishing is
+altogether different."
+
+"It has then been very severe?"
+
+"Severe! one must have one's soul driven into every part of one's
+members, so as not to leave one's bones there.  All was against us:
+sickness, traitors, peasants, townsfolk, our allies--in fact all!  From
+our company, which was complete when we quitted Phalsbourg, the 21st of
+last January, only thirty-four men remain.  I believe Gaspard Lefèvre
+is the only conscript left.  Those poor conscripts! they fought well;
+but they were not accustomed to endure hardships: they melted like
+butter in an oven."  So saying, the old sergeant approached the counter
+and drank his glass off at one draught.  "To your health, my citizen.
+Are you perchance the father of Gaspard?"
+
+"No, I am a relation."
+
+"Well, you can pride yourselves on being stoutly built in your family.
+What a man at twenty!  He has gone through everything--he has, while
+the others fell away in dozens."
+
+"But," rejoined Hullin, after an instant's silence, "I cannot see
+anything so very different in this last campaign; for we also had
+sickness and traitors."
+
+"Anything different!" exclaimed the sergeant.  "Everything was
+different!  Formerly, if you have gone through the war in Germany, you
+ought to remember that, after one or two victories, it was over: the
+people received you well; one drank the little white wines, and ate
+sauerkraut and ham with the townsfolk; one danced with the buxom wives.
+The husbands and grandpapas laughed heartily, and when the regiment
+left, everybody cried.  But this time, after Lutzen and Bautzen,
+instead of feeling kindly, the people regarded us with diabolical
+faces; we could get nothing out of them but by force; one could have
+fancied one's self in Spain or Vendée.  I do not know what stuff they
+had in their heads against us.  Better had we only been French, had we
+not had Saxons and other allies, who only awaited the moment to spring
+at our throats: we should then have pulled through all the same, one
+against five!  But the allies--don't talk to me of the allies!  Why, at
+Leipzig, the 18th of October last, in the hottest part of the battle,
+our allies turned against us and shot at us from behind; those were our
+good friends the Saxons.  A week later, our former friends the
+Bavarians came and threw themselves across our retreat: we had to pass
+over them at Hanau.  The day after, near Frankfort, another column of
+good friends presented themselves, and we had to crush them.  The more
+one kills, the more they come!  Here we are now this side of the Rhine.
+Well, there are decidedly more of these good friends marching from
+Moscow.  Ah! if we could have foreseen it after Austerlitz, Jena,
+Friedland, Wagram!"
+
+Hullin had become very thoughtful.  "And now how do we stand, sergeant?"
+
+"We have had to repass the Rhine, and all our strongholds on the other
+side are blockaded.  The 10th of November last the Prince of Neufchâtel
+reviewed the regiment at Bleckheim.  The 3d battalion had been
+amalgamated with the 2d, and the 'cadre' received orders to be in
+readiness to leave for the depot.  Cadres are not wanting, but men.  As
+for twenty years we have been bled on all sides, it is not astonishing.
+All Europe is down upon us.  The Emperor is at Paris; he is laying down
+a plan of the campaign.  If we may only have breathing time till the
+spring----"
+
+Just then Wittmann, who was standing by the window, said,--"Here is the
+governor come from inspecting the clearings around the town."
+
+It was the commandant, Jean-Pierre Meunier, wearing a three-cornered
+hat, and a tricolor scarf around his waist, who crossed over the square.
+
+"Ah," said the sergeant, "I must get him to sign my papers.  Pardon,
+citizen; I must leave you."
+
+"Do so, sergeant; and thank you.  If you meet Gaspard, tell him that
+Jean-Claude Hullin embraces him, and that they expect tidings from him
+in the village."
+
+"Good--good.  I will not fail to do so."
+
+The sergeant went out, and Hullin finished his wine in a reverie.
+
+"Father Wittmann," said he, after a pause, "what of my parcel?"
+
+"It is ready, Master Jean-Claude."  Then, looking into the kitchen,
+"Grédel!  Grédel! bring Hullin's parcel."
+
+A little woman appeared, and put down on the table a roll of
+sheepskins.  Jean-Claude passed his stick through it, and lifted it
+over his shoulder.
+
+"What, you are going to leave us so soon?"
+
+"Yes, Wittmann.  The days are short, and the roads difficult through
+the forests after six o'clock.  I must get back early."
+
+"Then a safe journey to you, Master Jean-Claude."
+
+Hullin left, and crossed the square, turning away his face from the
+convoy, which still remained before the church.
+
+The innkeeper from his window watched him hurrying away, and thought to
+himself, "How white he looked on entering; he could hardly keep
+upright.  It is queer that such a sturdy man, and an old soldier too,
+should not have energy enough for a cat.  As for me, I would see fifty
+regiments go by on those carts without minding it any more than I did
+my first pipe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MADAME LEFÈVRE
+
+While Hullin was learning the disaster of our armies, and was walking
+slowly, his head bent, and an anxious expression on his face, toward
+the village of Charmes, everything went on as usual at the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes.  No one thought of Yégof's wonderful stories, or of the
+war: old Duchêne led his oxen to their drinking-place, the herdsman
+Robin turned over their litter; Annette and Jeanne skimmed their
+curdled milk.  Only Catherine Lefèvre was silent and gloomy--thinking
+of days gone by--all the while superintending with an impassible face
+the occupations of her domestics.  She was too old and too serious to
+forget from one day to another what had so much troubled her.  When
+night came on, after the evening's repast, she entered the great room,
+where her servants could hear her drawing the large register-book from
+the closet and putting it on the table, to sum up her accounts, as she
+was in the habit of doing.
+
+They soon began to load the cart with corn, vegetables, and poultry:
+for the next day there was a market at Sarrebourg, and Duchêne had to
+start early.
+
+Picture to yourself the great kitchen, and all these worthy folks
+hurrying to finish their work before going to rest: the black kettle,
+full of beetroot and potatoes destined for the cattle, boiling on an
+immense pinewood fire; the plates, dishes, and soup-tureens shining
+like suns on the shelves; the bunches of garlic and of reddish-brown
+onions hung up in rows to the beams of the ceiling, among the hams and
+flitches of bacon; Jeannie, in her blue cap and little red petticoat,
+stirring up the contents of the kettle with a big wooden spoon; the
+wicker cages, with the cackling fowls and great cock, who pushed his
+head through the bars and looked at the flames with a wondering eye and
+raised crest; the bull-dog Michel, with his flat head and hanging jowl,
+in search of some forgotten dish; Dubourg coming down the creaking
+staircase to the left, his back bent with a sack on his shoulder; while
+outside, in the dark night, old Duchêne, upright on the cart, lifted
+his lantern and called out, "That makes the fifteenth, Dubourg; two
+more."  One could see also, hanging against the wall, an old hare,
+brought by the hunter Heinrich to be sold at the market, and a fine
+grouse, with its purple and green plumage, dimmed eye, and a drop of
+blood at the end of its beak.
+
+It was about half-past seven when the sound of footsteps was heard at
+the entrance to the yard.  The bull-dog went toward the door growling.
+He listened, sniffed the night air, then went back quietly, and began
+licking his dish again.
+
+"It is some one belonging to the farm," said Annette.  "Michel does not
+move."
+
+Nearly at the same time, old Duchêne from outside called,--"Good-night,
+Master Jean-Claude.  Is it you?"
+
+"Yes.  I come from Phalsbourg; and I am going to rest myself a minute
+before going down to the village.  Is Catherine here?"
+
+And then the good man came forward to the light, his hat pushed off his
+face, and his roll of sheepskins on his back.
+
+"Good-night, my children," said he; "good-night!  Always at work!"
+
+"Yes, Monsieur Hullin, as you see," replied Jeanne, laughing.  "If one
+had nothing to do, life would be very wearisome."
+
+"True, my pretty girl, true.  It is only work which gives you your
+roses and brilliant eyes."
+
+Jeanne was going to answer, when the door of the great room opened, and
+Catherine Lefèvre advanced, looking piercingly at Hullin, as though to
+guess beforehand what news he brought.
+
+"Well, Jean-Claude, you have returned."
+
+"Yes, Catherine; with good tidings and bad."
+
+They entered the large room--a high and spacious apartment wainscoted
+with wood to the ceiling, with its oak closets and their shining
+clasps, its iron stove opening into the kitchen, its old clock counting
+the seconds in its walnut-wood case, and the leathern arm-chair, worn
+and used by ten generations of aged men.  Jean-Claude never went into
+this room without its bringing back to his remembrance Catherine's
+grandfather, whom he seemed still to see, with his white head, sitting
+behind the oven in the dark.
+
+"Well?" demanded the old dame, offering a chair to the old shoemaker,
+who was just putting his pack down on the table.
+
+"Well, from Gaspard the tidings are good; the boy is in good health.
+He has had hardships.  All the better: it will be the making of him.
+But for the rest, Catherine, it is bad.  The war! the war!"
+
+He shook his head, and the old woman, her lips pressed, sat down facing
+him, upright in the armchair, her eyes attentively fastened on him.
+
+"So things look badly--decidedly--we shall have the war among us?"
+
+"Yes, Catherine, from day to day we may expect to see the allies in our
+mountains."
+
+"I thought so.  I was sure of it; but speak, Jean-Claude."
+
+Hullin, then, his elbows on his knees, his red ears between his hands,
+and lowering his voice, began to relate all he had seen: the clearing
+of everything around the town, the placing of batteries on the
+ramparts, the proclamation of the state of siege, the cart-loads of
+wounded on the great square, his meeting with the old sergeant at
+Wittmann's, and the story of the campaign.  From time to time he
+paused, and the old mistress of the farm blinked her eyes slowly, as
+though to impress more deeply the various circumstances on her mind.
+When Jean-Claude told about the wounded, the good woman murmured
+softly--"Gaspard has then escaped it all!"
+
+Then, at the end of this mournful tale, there was a long silence, and
+both looked at each other without pronouncing a word.
+
+How many reflections, how many bitter feelings filled their souls!
+
+After some seconds, Catherine recovering from these terrible
+thoughts--"You see, Jean-Claude," said she, in a serious tone.  "Yégof
+was not wrong."
+
+"Certainly, certainly, he was not wrong," replied Hullin; "but what
+does that prove?  A madman, who goes from village to village, who
+descends into Alsace, and from thence to Lorraine--who wanders from
+right to left--it would be very astonishing if he saw nothing, and if
+he did not sometimes tell the truth in his madness.  Everything gets
+muddled in his head, and others believe they understand what he does
+not understand himself.  But what of these wild stories, Catherine?
+The Austrians are upon us.  It only concerns us to know if we shall
+allow them to pass, or if we shall have courage to defend ourselves."
+
+"To defend ourselves!" cried the old woman, whose white cheeks
+trembled: "if we shall have courage to defend ourselves!  Surely it is
+not to me that you speak, Hullin.  What! are we not worthy of our
+ancestors?  Did they not defend themselves?  Were they not
+exterminated--men, women, and children?"
+
+"Then you are for the defence, Catherine?"
+
+"Yes, yes; so long as there remains to me a bit of skin on my bones.
+Let them come!  The oldest of the women is ready!"
+
+Her masses of gray hair shook on her head, her pale rigid cheeks
+quivered, and her eyes sent forth lightnings.  She was beautiful to
+see--beautiful, like that old Margareth of whom Yégof had spoken.
+Hullin held out his hand silently, and gave an enthusiastic smile.
+
+"Excellent," said he--"excellent!  We are always the same in this
+family.  I know you, Catherine: you are ready now; but be calm and
+listen to me.  We are going to fight, and in what way?"
+
+"In every way; all are good--axes, scythes, pitchforks."
+
+"No doubt; but the best are muskets and the balls.  We have muskets:
+every mountaineer keeps his above his door; unfortunately powder and
+balls are scarce."
+
+The old dame became quieter all of a sudden; she pushed her hair back
+under her cap, and looked anxiously about.
+
+"Yes," she rejoined brusquely; "the powder and balls are wanting, it is
+true, but we shall have some.  Marc Divès, the smuggler, has some.  You
+shall go and see him to-morrow from me.  You shall tell him that
+Catherine Lefèvre will buy all his powder and balls; that she will pay
+him; that she will sell her cattle, her farm, land,
+everything--everything--to have some.  Do you understand, Hullin?"
+
+"I understand.  What you would do, Catherine, is noble."
+
+"Bah! it is noble--it is noble!" replied the old dame.  "It is quite
+simple; I wish to revenge myself.  These Austrians--these red men who
+have already exterminated us--well!  I hate them, I detest them, from
+father to son.  There! you will buy powder, and these mad ruffians
+shall see if we will rebuild their castles."
+
+Hullin then perceived that she still thought of Yégof's tale; but
+seeing how exasperated she was, and that, besides, her idea contributed
+to the defence of the country, made no observation on that subject, and
+said calmly,--"So, Catherine, it is settled; I am to go over to Marc
+Divès's to-morrow!"
+
+"Yes! you shall buy all his powder and lead.  Some one ought also to go
+the round of the mountain villages, to warn the people of what is
+coming, and to arrange a signal beforehand for bringing them together
+in case of attack."
+
+"Do not fear," said Jean-Claude.  "I will undertake to charge myself
+with that."
+
+Both rose and turned toward the door.  For about half an hour no sounds
+were heard in the kitchen; the farm-servants had gone to bed.  The old
+dame put down her lamp on the corner of the hearth, and drew the bolts.
+Outside the cold was intense, the air still and clear.  All the peaks
+round, and the pine-trees of the Jägerthal, stood out against the sky
+in dark or light masses.  In the distance, far away behind the
+hill-side, a fox giving chase could be heard yelping in the valley of
+Blanru.
+
+"Good-night, Hullin," said Catherine.
+
+"Good-night."
+
+Jean-Claude walked quickly away on the heath-covered slopes, and the
+mistress of the farm, after watching him for a second, shut her door
+again.
+
+I leave you to imagine the joy of Louise when she learnt that Gaspard
+was safe and sound.  The poor child had hardly been living for two
+months.  Hullin took care not to show her the dark cloud which was
+coming over the horizon.
+
+Through the night he could hear her prattling in her little room,
+talking as though congratulating herself, murmuring Gaspard's name,
+opening her drawers and boxes, without doubt so as to hunt up some
+relics in them and tell them of her love.
+
+So the linnet drenched in the storm, will, while yet shivering, begin
+to sing and hop from branch to branch with the first sunbeam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DEPOT
+
+When Jean-Claude Hullin, in his shirt-sleeves, opened the shutters of
+his little house the next morning, he saw all the neighboring
+mountains--the Jägerthal, the Grosmann, the Donon--covered with snow.
+This first appearance of winter, coming in our sleep, is very striking
+to us: the old pines, the mossy rocks, adorned only the night before
+with verdure, and now sparkling with rime, fill our souls with an
+indefinable sadness.  "Another year gone by," one says to one's self;
+"another hard season to pass before the return of the flowers!"  And
+one hastens to put on the great-coat and to light the fire.  Your
+sombre habitation is filled with a white light, and outside, for the
+first time, you hear the sparrows--the poor sparrows huddled under the
+thatch, their feathers ruffled--calling, "No breakfast this morning--no
+breakfast!"
+
+Hullin drew on his big iron-nailed, double-soled shoes, and over his
+vest a great thick cloth waistcoat.
+
+He heard Louise walking overhead in the little garret.
+
+"Louise," he cried, "I am going."
+
+"What! you are going away to-day also?"
+
+"Yes, my child: it must be so: my affairs are not yet finished."
+
+Then, having doffed his large hat, he went up the stair, and said, in a
+low tone: "Thou must not expect me back so soon, my child.  I have to
+make some distant rounds.  Do not be uneasy.  If any one ask where I
+am, thou art to reply, 'He is with Cousin Mathias at Saverne.'"
+
+"You will not have breakfast before leaving?"
+
+"No: I have a crust of bread and the small flask of brandy in my
+pocket.  Adieu, my child!  Rejoice, and dream of Gaspard."
+
+And, without waiting for fresh questions, he took his stick and left
+the house, going in the direction of the hill of Bouleaux to the left
+of the village.  In a quarter of an hour he had passed it by, and
+reached the path of the Trois-Fontaines, which winds round the
+Falkenstein along by a little wall of dry stones.  The first snow,
+which never lasts in the damp shades of the valleys, was beginning to
+melt and run down the path.  Hullin got on the wall to climb the
+ascent.  On giving an accidental look toward the village, he saw a few
+women sweeping before their doors, a few old men wishing each other the
+"Good-day" while smoking their first pipes on the threshold of their
+cottages.  The deep calm of life, in presence of his agitating
+thoughts, affected him much.  He continued his way pensively, saying to
+himself, "How quiet everything is down there!  Nobody has any idea of
+anything; yet in a few days, what clamors, what rolls of musketry, will
+rend the air!"
+
+As the first thing to be done was to procure powder, Catherine Lefèvre
+had very naturally cast her eyes on Marc Divès the smuggler, and his
+virtuous spouse, Hexe-Baizel.
+
+These people lived on the other side of the Falkenstein, under the base
+of the old ruined castle.  They had hollowed inside a sort of den, very
+comfortable, possessing one door and two skylights, but according to
+certain rumors, communicating with ancient caves by a rift in the rock.
+The custom-house officers had never been able to discover these caves,
+notwithstanding numerous domiciliary visits for that purpose.
+Jean-Claude and Marc Divès had known each other from infancy; they had
+gone nesting together after hawks and owls, and since that time had
+seen each other nearly every week at the saw-mills of Valtin.  Hullin,
+therefore, believed himself sure of the smuggler, but he had some
+doubts of Madame Hexe-Baizel, a most cautious person, who would not, in
+all probability, have the war-like instinct sufficiently developed.
+"But we shall see," he said to himself as he went along.
+
+He had lit his pipe, and from time to time turned round to contemplate
+the immense landscape, whose limits were extending more and more.
+
+Nothing could be grander than those wooded mountains, rising one above
+the other in the pale sky--those vast heather plains, stretching as far
+as the eye could see, white with snow; those black ravines, shut in
+between the woods, with torrents at the bottom, dashing over the
+greenish pebbles polished like bronze.
+
+And then the silence--the great silence of winter!  The soft snow
+falling from the top of the loftiest pine-trees onto their lower
+drooping branches: the birds of prey circling in couples above the
+forests, screaming out their war-cry: all this ought to be seen for it
+cannot be described.
+
+An hour after his departure from the village of Charmes, Hullin,
+climbing the summit of the peak, reached the base of the rock of the
+Arbousiers.  All round this granite mass extends a sort of rugged
+terrace, three or four feet wide.  This narrow passage, surrounded by
+the tall pines growing out from the precipice, looks dangerous, but it
+is safe; unless one feels dizzy, there is no danger in going along it.
+Overhead projects, in a vaulted arch, the rock covered with ruins.
+
+Jean-Claude was approaching the retreat of the smuggler.  He halted a
+minute on the terrace, put back his pipe into his pocket, then advanced
+along the passage, which forms a half-circle, and ends on the other
+side with a chasm.  Quite at the farthest extremity of it, and almost
+on the edge of the chasm, he perceived the two skylight windows of the
+den and the partly opened door.  A great heap of manure was collected
+in front of it.
+
+At the same time Hexe-Baizel appeared, tossing, with a broom made of
+green furze, the manure into the abyss.  This woman was small and
+hard-looking; she had shaggy red hair, hollow cheeks, pointed nose,
+little eyes, bright like two sparks, thin lips, very white teeth, and a
+florid complexion.  As for her costume, it was composed of a short
+dirty woollen petticoat, and a coarse but clean chemise; her brown,
+muscular arms, covered with yellow hairs, were bare to the elbows,
+notwithstanding the excessive cold of the winter at this height; and,
+lastly, all she had on her feet were a pair of long shoes hanging in
+shreds.
+
+"Ha! good-day, Hexe-Baizel," Jean-Claude called out, good naturedly but
+with a tone of raillery.  "You are always fair and fat, happy and
+lively!  It gives me pleasure!"
+
+Hexe-Baizel turned sharply, like a weasel surprised on the watch; her
+red hair stiffened, and her little eyes flashed fire.  However, she
+calmed down immediately, and exclaimed, in a curt voice, as though
+speaking to herself, "Hullin--the shoemaker!  What does he want?"
+
+"I am come to see my friend Marc, fair Hexe-Baizel," replied
+Jean-Claude; "we have some business to settle together."
+
+"What business?"
+
+"Ah, it only concerns us.  Here let me pass that I may speak to him."
+
+"Marc is asleep."
+
+"Well, he must be awakened then; the time is precious."
+
+So saying, Hullin stooped under the door, and penetrated into a cavern,
+whose vault, instead of being round, was composed of irregular curves,
+scored with fissures.  Close to the entrance, two feet from the ground,
+the rock formed a sort of natural fireplace, on which burned a few
+coals and branches of juniper.  Hexe-Baizel's culinary utensils
+consisted of an iron kettle, a stone pot, two broken plates, and three
+or four tin forks; her furniture comprised a wooden stool, a hatchet to
+split wood, a salt box fastened to the rock, and her large furze broom.
+To the left of this kitchen was another cavern, with a curious door,
+larger at the top than at the bottom, closing by aid of two planks and
+a cross-bar.
+
+"Well, where is Marc?" said Hullin, seating himself near the hearth.
+
+"I have already told you that he is asleep.  He returned home late
+yesterday.  My husband must sleep, don't you hear?"
+
+"I hear very well, dear Hexe-Baizel; but I have no time to wait."
+
+"Then go away!"
+
+"Go away?  It is easy said; only I won't go away.  I did not walk three
+miles, to turn back with my hands in my pockets."
+
+"Is it thou, Hullin?" interrupted a brusque voice coming from the
+neighboring cavern.
+
+"Yes, Marc."
+
+"Ah!  I'm coming."
+
+The sound of straw in motion could be heard; then the wooden barrier
+was withdrawn; and a huge frame, three feet broad from one shoulder to
+the other, wiry, bony, with neck and ears brick-color, and thick brown
+hair, appeared in the doorway, and Marc Divès drew himself up before
+Hullin, yawning and stretching his long arms with a short sigh.
+
+At first sight, the physiognomy of Marc Divès seemed peaceable enough:
+his low broad forehead, bare temples, short curly hair coming down in a
+point almost to the eyebrows, his straight nose and long chin--above
+all the quiet expression in his brown eyes--would have caused him to be
+classed among the ruminating rather than the wilder animals; but one
+would have been wrong in thinking so.  Certain rumors were prevalent in
+the country that Marc Divès, when attacked by the custom-house people,
+had never any hesitation to use his axe or carbine to decide the
+dispute; to him were attributed several serious accidents which had
+happened to the fiscal agents; but proofs were completely wanting.  The
+smuggler, owing to his thorough knowledge of all the mountain defiles
+and by-roads from Dagsburg to Sarrbrück, and from Raon-l'Etape to Bâle
+in Switzerland, was always fifteen leagues from any place where a
+wicked action had been committed.  And then he had such an ingenuous
+look! and those who connected him with sinister tales generally
+finished badly: which clearly shows the justice with which Providence
+sways the world.
+
+"Faith, Hullin," said Marc, after having left his lair, "I was thinking
+of thee yesterday evening, and if thou hadst not appeared, I should
+have gone expressly to the saw-mills of Valtin to meet thee.  Sit down!
+Hexe-Baizel, give a chair to Hullin!"
+
+Then he placed himself on the hearth, his back to the fire, in front of
+the open door, which was raked by all the winds of Alsace and
+Switzerland.
+
+Through this opening there was a magnificent view: it might be compared
+to a picture framed in the rock--an enormous picture, embracing the
+whole valley of the Rhine, and the mountains beyond, which melted away
+in the mist.  And then one could breathe so freely! and the little
+fire, which glimmered in the owl's-nest, was a place to look on, with
+its red light, after one had gazed into the azure expanse.
+
+"Marc," said Hullin, after a short pause, "may I speak before thy wife?"
+
+"We are as one, she and I."
+
+"Well, Marc, I am come to buy powder and lead of thee."
+
+"To kill hares, is it not so?" observed the smuggler, winking.
+
+"No, to fight against the Germans and Russians."
+
+There was a moment's silence.
+
+"And thou wilt want much powder and lead?"
+
+"All that thou canst supply."
+
+"I can supply as much as three thousand francs' worth to-day," said the
+smuggler.
+
+"Then I'll take it."
+
+"And as much more in a week," added Marc, with the same calm manner and
+eager look.
+
+"I take that also."
+
+"You will take it!" cried Hexe-Baizel.  "You will take it!  I should
+think so!  But who is to pay?"
+
+"Hold thy tongue!" said Marc, roughly, "Hullin takes it: and his word
+is enough for me."  And holding out his large hand cordially:
+"Jean-Claude, here is my hand: the powder and lead are thine: but I
+must have my price, dost thou understand?"
+
+"Yes, Marc: only I intend paying thee at once."
+
+"He will pay, Hexe-Baizel, dost thou hear?"
+
+"Eh, I am not deaf, Baizel.  Go and find a bottle of 'brimbelle-wasse'
+for us, so that we may warm our hearts a little.  What Hullin tells me
+rejoices me.  These rascally 'kaiserlichs' will not have the easy game
+against us that I thought.  It appears that we are going to defend
+ourselves, and right well."
+
+"Yes, right well!"
+
+"And there are people who can pay?"
+
+"Catherine Lefèvre pays, and she it is who sends me," said Hullin.
+
+Then Marc Divès rose, and in a solemn tone, and pointing toward the
+precipice, exclaimed, "She is a woman indeed--a woman as grand as that
+rock down there, the Oxenstein, the greatest I have ever seen in my
+life.  I drink to her health.  Drink also, Jean-Claude."
+
+Hullin drank, then Hexe-Baizel.
+
+"Now everything has been said," continued Divès; "but listen, Hullin.
+Do not believe that it will be an easy matter to check the enemy: all
+the hunters, all the sawyers, all the wood-cutters and carriers on the
+mountains will not be too many.  I come from the other side of the
+Rhine.  They are so many--those Russians, Austrians, Bavarians,
+Prussians, Cossacks, and Hussars--they are so many, that the earth is
+black with them.  The villages cannot hold them: they camp on the
+plains, in the valleys, on the hills, in the towns, in the open
+air--they are to be found everywhere."
+
+At that moment a shrill cry was heard.
+
+"It is a buzzard chasing something," said Marc, stopping.
+
+But just then a shadow came over the rock.  A cloud of chaffinches
+cleared the abyss, and hundreds of buzzards and hawks fought above them
+in their rapid flight, uttering loud screams to terrify their prey,
+while the mass seemed stationary, so dense was it.  The regular
+movement of these thousands of wings produced, in the silence, a sound
+like that of dead leaves blown in the wind.
+
+"That is the departure of the chaffinches of the Ardennes," said Hullin.
+
+"Yes, it is the last passage: the beech-nuts are buried under the snow,
+and the seeds also.  Well, then, look! there are more men over there
+than birds in this pass.  All the same, Jean-Claude, we will get over
+them, so long as every one bears a hand in it!  Hexe-Baizel, light the
+lantern: I am going to show Hullin our supplies of powder and lead."
+
+Hexe-Baizel made a face at this proposition.  "For twenty years," said
+she, "no one has gone into the cave.  He can surely believe our word.
+We believe, for our part, that he will pay us.  I will not light the
+lantern--no, indeed!"
+
+Marc, without saying anything, put out his hand and caught up a cudgel
+from the pile of wood; thereupon the old woman darted into the nearest
+hole like a weasel, and, two seconds later, came out with a big horn
+lantern, which Divès quietly lit at the fire on the hearth.
+
+"Baizel," said he, replacing the stick in its corner, "thou must know
+that Jean-Claude is an old friend of my childhood, and that I confide
+much more in him than in thee, old wench; for wert thou not afraid of
+being hanged the same day as myself, I should long ago have been
+swinging to a rope's end.  Come, Hullin, follow me."
+
+They went out, and the smuggler, turning to the left, walked straight
+toward the chasm, which projected over the Valtin two hundred feet in
+the air.  He pushed aside the branches of a little oak, which had its
+roots down below, put forth his leg, and disappeared as though pitched
+into the abyss.  Jean-Claude shuddered, but directly after he saw,
+against the side of the rock, the head of Divès, who called to
+him,--"Hullin, put out thy hand to the left--there is a hole.  Stretch
+thy leg out boldly--thou wilt feel a step, and then turn around."
+
+Master Jean-Claude obeyed, with some trepidation.  He could feel the
+hole in the rock, he found the step, and turning slightly, was face to
+face with his comrade in a sort of arched niche, evidently abutting on
+a sally-port in times past.  At the end of the niche there was a low
+vault.
+
+"How the devil didst thou discover that?" exclaimed Hullin, much
+astonished.
+
+"In seeking after nests thirty-five years ago.  I was one day on the
+rock, and I had often observed flying from there a horned-owl and its
+mate, two splendid birds: their heads were the size of my fists, and
+the wings six feet broad.  I could hear their young calling, and I said
+to myself, 'They are near the cavern, at the end of the terrace.  If I
+could get round a little beyond the chasm I should have them!  By dint
+of looking and bending over, I perceived at last a corner of the step
+above the precipice.  There was a strong holly-bush at one side.  I
+caught hold of it, put out my leg, and, faith, I found myself here.
+What a fight, Hullin!  The old birds wanted to tear out my eyes.
+Luckily, it was broad daylight.  They went at me like cocks, opened
+their beaks and hissed, but the sun dazzled them.  I kicked them.
+Finally, they fell on to the top of an old pine-tree down there, and
+all the jays in the country, the thrushes, chaffinches and tom-tits,
+flew about them till nightfall, plucking out their feathers.  Thou
+canst not imagine, Jean-Claude, the quantity of bones, rat-skins,
+leverets, and carrion of all sorts that they had heaped up in this
+niche.  It was pestilential.  I threw it all into the Jägerthal, and I
+discovered this passage.  But I must also tell thee that there were two
+young ones.  I twisted their necks and poked them into my bag.
+Afterward, I quietly entered, and thou shalt see what I found.  Come!"
+
+They slipped under the narrow archway, formed of enormous red stones,
+where the light threw only a flickering glimmer.
+
+Thirty paces farther on, a vast circular cave, low in the middle, and
+formed in the rock itself, appeared to Hullin.  About fifty little
+casks were arranged at the bottom in shape of pyramids, and, at the
+sides, a large number of ingots of lead and bales of tobacco, which
+filled the air with its smell.  Marc deposited his lantern at the
+entrance of the vault, and regarded his hiding-place with gratification
+and a smile upon his lips.
+
+"That is what I discovered," said he; "the cave was empty, only in the
+centre of it was the carcass of an animal, snowy white,--no doubt some
+fox, dead of old age.  The rascal had known of the passage before I
+had.  He slept safely here.  Who on earth would have dreamed of
+pursuing him?  In those days, Hullin, I was twelve years old.  I
+immediately thought that this place might one day be of use to me.  I
+did not know then what use.  But, later on, when I had begun my first
+attempts at smuggling--at Landau, Kehl, Bâle--with Jacob Zimmer, and
+during two winters all the custom-house people were after us, the idea
+of my old cavern began to haunt me from morning till evening.  I had
+made the acquaintance of Hexe-Baizel, who was then one of the
+farm-servants at Bois-de-Chênes with Catherine's father.  She brought
+me twenty-five louis as marriage-portion, and we settled ourselves in
+the cavern of the Arbousiers."
+
+Divès paused; and Hullin, who had become very thoughtful, asked
+him,--"This hole, then, pleases thee much, Marc?"
+
+"Pleases me!  Why, I would not go and live in the most beautiful house
+in Strasbourg for two thousand pounds a year.  For twenty-three years I
+have here hidden my wares: sugar, coffee, powder, tobacco,
+brandy--everything goes in here.  I have eight horses always
+travelling."
+
+"But thou hast no happiness."
+
+"I have no happiness!  Dost thou think it is nothing to laugh at the
+gendarmes, excisemen, custom-house people; to enrage them, to outdo
+them, to hear on all sides, 'That rascally Marc--isn't he a sharp one!
+How he manages his business!  He can do as he likes with the law and
+its agents,' and this and that.  Hé! hé! hé!  I can tell thee, I can,
+that it is the greatest pleasure in the world.  And then the people
+like it: they get everything half price; one helps the poor, and keeps
+himself warm and well-off."
+
+"Yes, but what dangers!"
+
+"Bah! a customs'-guard would never think of crossing the chasm."
+
+"I should suppose not," thought Hullin, remembering that he must cross
+the precipice again.
+
+"At the same time thou art not altogether wrong, Jean-Claude.  When I
+first had to enter this place with those little barrels on my back, I
+streamed with perspiration; now I am accustomed to it."
+
+"And if thy foot slipped?"
+
+"There would be an end of me!  I would as soon die, spiked on a pine,
+as to cough weeks and months on a mattress."
+
+Divès then shed the light of his lantern on the piles of kegs reaching
+to the top of the vault.
+
+"It is the finest English powder," said he; "it runs like silver grains
+in the hand, and fires like Old Nick.  No need to use much of it--a
+thimbleful is enough.  And here is lead, unmixed with tin.  From this
+very evening, Hexe-Baizel shall begin casting balls.  She knows all
+about it, thou wilt see."
+
+They were beginning to return by the path leading to the chasm, when
+suddenly a confused murmur of words began to fill the air.  Marc blew
+out his lantern, and they stopped still in the darkness.
+
+"Some one is walking up there," the smuggler softly said.  "Who on
+earth has been able to climb up the Falkenstein in such snow?"
+
+They listened, holding their breath, and their eyes fixed on the ray of
+bluish light which came down through a small chink into the cavern.
+Around the cleft grew a few shrubs, sparkling with frost; above, could
+be perceived the ridge of an old wall.  While they were watching,
+keeping profound silence, there appeared at the foot of the wall a
+large shaggy head bound round with a shining circle, a long face, then
+a pointed red beard,--the whole standing out in curious relief against
+the white winter sky.
+
+"It is 'The King of Diamonds,'" observed Marc, laughing.
+
+"Poor devil!" said Hullin, gravely; "he has come to walk about his
+castle, his bare feet on the ice, and a tin crown on his head!  But
+look! he is speaking: he is giving orders to his courtiers; he points
+with his sceptre to the north and to the south--all belongs to him; he
+is master of the heavens and earth!  Poor devil! merely to see him in
+those trousers of his, with his dog-skin on his back, makes me cold all
+over."
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude, it produces on me the effect of a burgomaster or
+village mayor, who puffs himself out like a bullfinch, and blows his
+cheeks up, saying, 'I am Hans Aden; I have ten acres of fine meadows; I
+have two houses; I have a vineyard, an orchard, a garden, h-m! h-m!  I
+have this and that!'  The next day a little fit lays hold of him,
+and--good-evening.  Mad, mad! who is not mad?  Let us go, Hullin; the
+sight of this unfortunate who talks to the winds, and of his raven that
+croaks of famine, makes my teeth chatter."
+
+They entered the passage, and the daylight almost blinded Hullin.
+Happily, the great height of his companion standing in front of him,
+prevented his becoming giddy.
+
+"Lean firmly," said Marc; "imitate me: the right hand in the hole, the
+right foot on the step, turn a bit--here we are!"
+
+They returned to the kitchen, where Hexe-Baizel told them that Yégof
+was in the ruins of the old _Burg_.
+
+"We knew it," replied Marc: "we have just seen him breathing the fresh
+air over there.  Each man to his taste."
+
+Just then the raven Hans, sailing above the abyss, passed the door with
+a hoarse cry; they heard the frost crackling on the bushes, and the
+madman appeared upon the terrace.  He was haggard; and after glancing
+toward the hearth, cried out--"Marc Divès, clear out quickly.  I warn
+thee I am tired of this disorder.  The fortifications of my domains
+ought to be free.  I cannot allow vermin to lodge where I am;
+consequently, thou must make thy arrangements."  Then perceiving
+Jean-Claude, his face brightened--"Thou here, Hullin?" said he, "Art
+thou at length clear-sighted enough to accept the proposals that I have
+condescended to make thee?  Dost thou feel that an alliance such as
+mine, is the only resource to preserve thee from the total destruction
+of thy race?  If it is so, I congratulate thee; thou showest more sense
+than I gave thee credit for."
+
+Hullin could not help laughing.
+
+"No, Yégof, no! heaven has not yet enlightened me, or I might accept
+the honor thou wouldst make me.  Besides, Louise is not old enough to
+be married."
+
+The madman became again serious and gloomy.  Standing on the edge of
+the terrace, his back to the abyss, he seemed quite at home, and his
+raven, hovering from right to left, did not trouble him.
+
+He raised his sceptre, frowned, and exclaimed:
+
+"Then this is the second time, Hullin, that I have made my demand, and
+for the second time thou darest refuse me.  Now, I will renew it once
+again--once, dost thou hear?  Then the fate shall be accomplished!"
+
+Hullin, Marc Divès, and Hexe-Baizel herself burst into fits of laughter.
+
+"He is a great madman," said Hexe-Baizel.
+
+"I think thou art right there," replied the smuggler.  "Poor Yégof!
+decidedly he is out of his wits.  But never mind!  Baizel, attend to
+me.  Thou must commence melting balls of all sizes.  I am going to
+start for Switzerland.  In a week, at latest, the remainder of our
+ammunition will be here.  Give me my boots."
+
+Then stamping down his heels, and twisting round his neck a thick scarf
+of red wool, he unhooked from the wall one of those dark-green mantles
+such as herdsmen wear, threw it over his shoulders, put on an old worn
+hat, took a gourd, and shouted: "Don't forget what I have been telling
+thee, old woman, or beware!  Let us go, Jean-Claude!"
+
+Hullin followed him on the terrace without wishing good-by to
+Hexe-Baizel, who, for her part, did not deign even to go to the
+doorstep to see them depart.  When they were come to the base of the
+rock, Marc Divès drew up and said, "Thou art going into the mountain
+villages, art thou not, Hullin?"
+
+"Yes: that must first be done.  I must warn the wood-cutters,
+charcoal-burners, and others, of what is going on."
+
+"Without doubt.  Do not forget Materne of Hengst and his two boys,
+Labarbe of Dagsburg, and Jérome of St. Quirin.  Tell them that there
+will he powder and balls; that we are of the number, Catherine Lefèvre,
+myself, Marc Divès, and all the honest folks of the country."
+
+"Calm thyself, Marc--I know my men."
+
+"Then good-by for the present."
+
+They shook hands warmly.
+
+The smuggler took the path to the right, toward Donon; Hullin that to
+the left, toward the Sarre.
+
+They were now at some distance from each other, when Hullin called out
+to his comrade: "Hé!  Marc, inform Catherine Lefèvre, as thou passest
+by, that all goes on well.  Tell her I am going into the mountains."
+
+The other assented by a nod, and they both continued their different
+ways.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AMONG THE MOUNTAINEERS
+
+An extraordinary agitation reigned at that time all along the line of
+the Vosges: the tidings of the invasion which was approaching spread
+from village to village, and among the farm-houses and woodmen's
+cottages of the Hengst and the Nideck.  The hawkers, wagoners, tinkers,
+all that floating population which is continually moving from the
+mountains to the plains and from the plains to the mountains, brought
+every day, from Alsace and the borders of the Rhine, many strange
+reports.  "The towns," so these people said, "were being put into a
+state of defence; expeditions were being made to provision them with
+corn and meat; the roads to Metz, Nancy, Huningue, and Strasbourg were
+swarming with convoys.  Everywhere you met powder and ammunition
+wagons, cavalry, infantry, artillery, going to their posts.  Marshal
+Victor still held the route to Saverne; but the bridges of the
+fortresses were already raised from seven in the evening to eight in
+the morning."
+
+No one thought that all this could bode any good.  Nevertheless, though
+many were seriously afraid of war, and though the old women lifted up
+their hands to heaven, crying, "Jesus!  Mary!  Joseph!" the greater
+number were preparing the means of defence.  Under such circumstances,
+Jean-Claude Hullin was well received by all.
+
+The same day, toward five in the evening, he reached the summit of the
+Hengst, and halted with the patriarch of forest-hunters, old Materne.
+He spent the night there; for in winter the days are short and the
+roads difficult.  Materne promised to keep watch over the defile of the
+Zorn, with his two sons Kasper and Frantz, and to reply to the first
+signal which was made from the Falkenstein.
+
+On the following day, Jean-Claude started early for Dagsburg, so as to
+come to an understanding with his friend Labarbe, the wood-cutter.
+They visited together the nearest hamlets, reanimating the love of
+country in the people's hearts; and the next day Labarbe accompanied
+Hullin into Christ-Nickel's, the anabaptist farmer of Painbach--a
+sensible and respectable man, but who could not be prevailed upon to
+participate in their glorious enterprise.  Christ-Nickel had only one
+reply for all their observations; "It is well, it is just, but the
+Bible saith, 'Put up thy sword into its place.  He who lives by the
+sword shall perish by the sword.'"  He promised them, however, to pray
+for the good cause: it was all they could obtain.
+
+They went from there to Walsch, and had some hearty shakes of the hand
+with Daniel Hirsch, a former marine gunner, who agreed to collect all
+the people of his district.
+
+At this place Labarbe left Jean-Claude to make his way by himself.
+
+For eight days longer he beat about the mountain, from Soldatenthal, to
+Léonsberg, Meienthal, Abreschwiller, Voyer, Loëttenbach, Cirey,
+Petit-Mont, and Saint-Sauveur; and on the ninth day he reached St.
+Quirin and saw the bootmaker Jérome.  They visited the pass of Blanru
+together; after which Hullin, satisfied with what he had done, took his
+way to the village.  He had been walking briskly for about two hours,
+picturing to himself the life of the camp,--the bivouac, marches and
+counter-marches--all that life of a soldier which he had so often
+regretted, and which he now saw returning with enthusiasm--when in the
+far distance, amidst the shades of the twilight, he perceived the
+hamlet of Charmes in a bluish mist, his little cottage sending forth a
+scarcely perceptible line of smoke, the small gardens surrounded with
+palisades, the stone-covered roofs, and to the left, bordering the
+hill, the great farm of Bois-de-Chênes, with the saw-mills of Valtin at
+the end of the now dark ravine.
+
+Then suddenly, and without knowing why, his soul was filled with a
+great sadness.
+
+He slackened his pace, and thought of the calm, peaceable life he was
+abandoning--perhaps forever; of his little room, so warm in the winter,
+and cheerful in spring when he opened his windows to the breath of the
+woods; of the tic-tac of the old timepiece, and then of Louise, his
+good little Louise, spinning in the silence with downcast eyes, and in
+the evenings singing some quaint strain with her pure penetrating voice
+when they were both feeling weary.  These reflections laid such hold of
+him that the slightest objects, every instrument used in his
+profession,--the long shining augers, the round-handled hatchet, the
+mallets, the little stove, the old closet, the platters of varnished
+wood, the ancient figure of Saint Michael nailed to the wall, the old
+four-post bed at the bottom of the alcove, the stool, the trunk, the
+copper lamp,--all these things impressed themselves on his mind like a
+living picture, and the tears came into his eyes.
+
+But it was Louise, his darling child, whom he pitied.  How she would
+weep, and implore him to renounce the war!  And how she would hang on
+his neck, saying:--"Oh! do not leave me, Papa Jean-Claude!  Oh, I will
+love you so much!  Oh, surely you will not abandon me!"
+
+And the honest fellow could see the terror in her beautiful eyes--he
+could feel her arms round his neck.  For a moment he fancied that he
+might deceive her, make her believe anything, no matter what, and so
+account for his absence to her satisfaction; but such means were not in
+accordance with his character, and his sadness increased the more.
+
+Arrived at the farm of Bois-de-Chênes, he went in to tell Catherine
+Lefèvre that all was going well, and that the mountaineers were only
+awaiting the signal.
+
+A quarter of an hour after, Master Jean-Claude came down by the Houx
+road in front of his own little house.
+
+Before pushing open the creaking door, the idea struck him to see what
+Louise was about at that moment.  He glanced into the little room
+through the window: Louise was standing by the curtains of the alcove;
+she seemed very animated, arranging, folding and unfolding clothes on
+the bed.  Her sweet face beamed with happiness, and her large blue eyes
+sparkled with a sort of enthusiasm; she even talked aloud.  Hullin
+listened; but a cart happening to pass at the time in the street, he
+could hear nothing.  Making a firm resolve, he entered, saying quietly:
+"Louise, I have returned."
+
+Immediately the young girl, joyous and skipping like a deer, ran to
+embrace him.
+
+"Ah! it is you, Papa Jean-Claude!  I was expecting you.  Mon Dieu! mon
+Dieu! how long you stayed away!  At length you are back."
+
+"It was, my child," replied the honest fellow, in a more undecided
+tone, putting his stick behind the door and his hat on the table, "it
+was because----"
+
+He could say nothing else.
+
+"Yes, yes, you went to see our friends," said Louise, laughing: "I know
+all about it--Mamma Lefèvre has told me everything."
+
+"What! thou knowest?  And dost thou not mind?  So much the better, so
+much the better!  it shows thy sense.  And I, who fancied thou wouldst
+have cried!"
+
+"Cry! and what for, papa Jean-Claude?  Oh, I am courageous; you don't
+know me yet--go!"  She put on a resolute air, which made Hullin smile;
+but he did not smile long when she continued: "We are going to war--we
+are going to fight--we are going to pass up the mountain!"
+
+"Hullo! we are going! we are going!" exclaimed he in astonishment.
+
+"Certainly.  Then are we not going?" said she, regretfully.
+
+"That is to say--I must leave thee for a little time, my child."
+
+"Leave me--oh, no!  I go with thee; it is all agreed upon.  Look, see!
+my small parcel is ready, and here is yours, which I have arranged.
+Don't trouble yourself, let me alone, and you will be satisfied!"
+
+Hullin could not get over his stupefaction.  "But, Louise," he
+exclaimed, "thou canst not think of such a thing.  Consider: we must
+pass nights abroad, and march and run; consider the cold, the snow, the
+musketry!  It cannot be."
+
+"Come," said the young girl, in a tearful voice, throwing herself into
+his arms, "do not pain me!  You are only making fun of your little
+Louise.  You cannot forsake her!"
+
+"But thou wilt be much safer here--thou wilt be warm--thou wilt hear
+from us every day."
+
+"No, no.  I will not--I must go too.  The cold does not harm me.  Only
+too long have I been shut up.  I, too, must breathe a little.  Are not
+the birds out of doors?  The robins are out all the winter.  Have I not
+known what cold was when I was quite tiny? and hunger also?"
+
+She stamped, and, for the third time, putting her arms round
+Jean-Claude's neck,--"Come then, Papa Hullin," said she softly, "Mamma
+Lefèvre said yes.  Would you be more naughty than she was?  Ah, if you
+only knew how much I love you!"
+
+The good man had sat down and turned away his head, so as not to yield,
+and did not allow himself to be embraced.
+
+"Oh, how naughty you are to-day, Papa Jean-Claude!"
+
+"It is for thy sake, my child."
+
+"Well, all the worse.  I will run away after you.  Cold--what is cold?
+And if you are wounded--if you ask to see your little Louise for the
+last time, and she is not there--near you, to take care of you, and
+love you to the end--oh, you must think me very cold-hearted."
+
+She sobbed, and Hullin could not stand it any longer.
+
+"Is it true that Mamma Lefèvre consents?"
+
+"Oh, yes--oh, yes--she told me so.  She said to me,--'Try and make Papa
+Jean-Claude decide.  I am willing, and quite satisfied.'"
+
+"Well, what can I do against two of you.  Thou shalt come with us; it
+is quite decided."
+
+She gave a scream of delight which ran through the cottage,--"Oh, how
+kind you are!"
+
+And with one rub she wiped all her tears away,--"We are going to be
+off, to take to the woods and to make war."
+
+"Ah," said Hullin, shaking his head, "I see it now; thou art always the
+little gypsy.  As soon try to tame a swallow."
+
+Then making her sit on his knees:--"Louise, it is now twelve years
+since I found thee in the snow: thou wast blue, poor little one.  And
+when we were in the cottage, near a good fire, and thou wert slowly
+reviving, the first thing thou didst was to smile at me.  And since
+that time thy will has always been mine.  With that smile thou hast led
+me wherever thou wouldst."
+
+Then Louise began again to smile at him, and they embraced each other.
+"Now we will look at the packages," he said, sighing.  "Are they well
+made, I wonder?"
+
+He approached the bed, and was surprised to see his warmest clothes,
+his flannel-waistcoats, all well brushed, folded, and packed; and
+Louise's bundle, with her best dresses, petticoats, and stout shoes, in
+nice order.  At last he could not help laughing and crying out--"O
+gypsy, gypsy! you are the one for making fine bundles, and going away
+without ever turning the head."
+
+Louise smiled.  "Are you satisfied?"
+
+"I suppose I must be.  But during all this piece of work, I will
+venture to say thou hast never thought of preparing my supper."
+
+"Oh, it will soon be ready.  I did not know you would return this
+evening, Papa Jean-Claude."
+
+"That is true, my child.  Bring me something--no matter what--quickly,
+for I am hungry.  Meanwhile I shall smoke a pipe."
+
+"Yes, that's it; smoke a pipe."
+
+He sat down on the side of the bench and struck the tinder-box quite
+dreamily.  Louise rushed right and left like a sprite, seeing to the
+fire, breaking the eggs, and turning out an omelette with surprising
+celerity.  Never had she appeared so lively, smiling, and pretty.
+Hullin, his elbow on the table and his face in his hand, watched her
+gravely, thinking how much will, firmness, and resolution there was in
+this girl--as light as a fairy, yet determined as a hussar.  In a few
+seconds she served him with the omelette on a large china plate, with
+bread, and the glass and bottle.
+
+"There, Papa Jean-Claude, be hungry no longer."  She observed him
+eating with a look of tenderness.
+
+The flame sprang up in the stove, lighting clearly the low beams, the
+wooden stair in the shadow, the bed at the end of the alcove, the whole
+of the abode, so often cheered by the joyous humor of the shoemaker,
+the little songs of his daughter, and the industry of both.  And all
+this Louise was leaving without any hesitation: she cared only for the
+woods, the snow-covered paths, and the endless mountains, reaching from
+the village into Switzerland, and even beyond.  Ah, Master Jean-Claude
+had reason to cry "gypsy, gypsy!"  The swallow cannot be tamed: it
+needs the open air, the broad sky--continual motion.  Neither storms,
+nor wind, nor rain in torrents frighten it, when the hour of its
+departure is at hand.  It has only one thought, one desire, one
+cry--"Let us away!  Let us away."
+
+The meal finished, Hullin rose and said to his daughter, "I am tired,
+my child; kiss me, and let us go to bed."
+
+"Yes; but do not forget to awake me, Papa Jean-Claude, if you start
+before daybreak."
+
+"Do not trouble thyself.  It is understood thou shalt come with us."
+And seeing her mount the stair and disappear in the garret: "Isn't she
+afraid of stopping in the nest, that's all!" said he to himself.
+
+The silence was great outdoors.  Eleven o'clock had struck from the
+village church.  The good man was sitting down to take off his boots,
+when he caught sight of his musket suspended above the door: he took it
+down, wiped it, and drew the trigger.  His whole soul was intent on the
+business in hand.
+
+"It is all right," he murmured: and then in a grave tone: "It is
+curious....  The last time I held it ... at Marengo ... was fourteen
+years ago, and yet it seems like yesterday!"
+
+Suddenly the hardened snow cracked under a quick footstep.  He
+listened: "Someone!"  At the same time two little sharp taps resounded
+on the panes.  He ran to the window and opened it.  The head of Marc
+Divès, with his broad hat stiff with the frost, bent forward from the
+darkness.
+
+"Well, Marc, what news?"
+
+"Hast thou warned the mountaineers--Materne, Jérome, Labarbe?"
+
+"Yes, all."
+
+"It was time: the enemy has passed."
+
+"Passed?"
+
+"Yes, along the whole line.  I have walked fifteen leagues through the
+snow since this morning to announce it to thee."
+
+"Good; the signal must be given: a great fire on the Falkenstein."
+
+Hullin was very pale.  He put on his boots.  Two minutes later, his
+large blouse on his shoulders and his stick in his hand, he softly
+opened the door, and with long strides followed Marc Divès on the way
+to the Falkenstein.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+RISING OF THE PARTISANS
+
+From midnight till six in the morning a flame shone through the
+darkness on the summit of the Falkenstein, and the whole mountain was
+on the alert.
+
+All the friends of Hullin, Marc Divès, and of Mother Lefèvre, their
+long gaiters on their legs and old muskets on their shoulders,
+journeyed, through the silent woods, toward the gorges of the Valtin.
+The thought of the enemy traversing the plains of Alsace to surprise
+the passes, was present to the minds of all.  The tocsins of Dagsburg,
+Abreschwiller, Walsch, and St. Quirin, and of all the other villages,
+began to call the defenders of the country to arms.
+
+Now you must picture to yourself the Jägerthal, at the foot of the old
+castle, in unusually snowy weather, at that early hour when the clumps
+of trees begin to creep out of the shadow, and when the extreme cold of
+night softens at the approach of day.  Picture, also, to yourself the
+old Sawyerie, with its flat roof, its heavy wheel burdened with
+icicles, the low interior dimly lit up by a pine-wood fire, whose blaze
+fades away in the glimmer of the coming dawn; and, around the fire, fur
+bonnets, caps, and black profiles, gazing one over the other, and
+squeezing close together like a wall; and farther on, in the woods,
+more fires lighting up groups of men and women squatting in the snow.
+
+The agitation began to decrease.  As the sky became grayer the people
+recognized each other.
+
+"Ah, it is Cousin Daniel of Soldatenthal.  You have come too?"
+
+"Yes, as you see, Heinrich, with my wife also."
+
+"What, Cousin Nanette!  Where is she?"
+
+"Down there, near the old oak, by Uncle Hans' fire."
+
+They shook hands.  Many could be heard yawning loudly: others threw on
+the fire bits of planks.  The gourds went round; some retired from the
+circles to make room for their shivering neighbors.  Meanwhile the
+crowd began to grow impatient.
+
+"Ah," cried some, "we did not come here only to get our feet warmed.
+It is time to see and come to an understanding."
+
+"Yes, yes!  Let them hold a council, and name the chiefs."
+
+"No; everybody is not yet arrived.  See, there are more coming from
+Dagsburg and St. Quirin."
+
+Indeed, the lighter it became, the more people could be seen hastening
+along all the mountain paths.  At that time there must have been many
+hundreds of men in the valley--wood-cutters, charcoal-burners,
+raftsmen--without counting the women and children.
+
+Nothing could be more picturesque than that gathering in the midst of
+the snows, in the depths of the defile, closed in as it was by tall
+pines losing themselves in the clouds.  To the right, the valleys
+opening away into each other as far as the eye could reach; to the
+left, the ruins of the Falkenstein rising into the sky.  From a
+distance one would have said it was a flock of cranes settled on the
+ice; but, nearer, these hardy men could be distinguished, with stiff
+beards bristling like a boar, gloomy fierce eyes, broad square
+shoulders, and horny hands.  Some few, taller than the rest, belonged
+to the fiery race of red men, white-skinned, and hairy to the tips of
+their fingers, with strength enough to pull an oak up by the roots.
+Among this number was old Materne of Hengst, with his two sons Kasper
+and Frantz.  These sturdy fellows--all three armed with little rifles
+from Innsprück--having blue cloth gaiters with leathern buttons
+reaching above their knees, their loins girdled with goat-skin, and
+their felt hats coming down low over their necks--did not deign to
+approach the fire.  For an hour they had been sitting on a trunk by the
+river-side, on the watch, with their feet in the snow.  From time to
+time the old man would say to his sons, "What do they shiver for over
+there?  I never knew a milder night for the season: it is nothing--the
+rivers are not even touched."
+
+All the forest-hunters of the country passing by came to shake hands
+with them, then congregated round them and formed a circle apart.
+These fellows spoke little, being used to silence for whole days and
+nights, for fear of frightening away their game.
+
+Marc Divès, standing in the middle of another group, a head taller than
+any of them, spoke and gesticulated--pointing now to one part of the
+mountain, now to another.  In front of him was the old herdsman
+Lagarmitte, with his large gray smock, a long bark trumpet on his
+shoulder, and his dog at his feet.  He listened to the smuggler,
+open-mouth, and kept on bowing his head.  The others all seemed
+attentive: they were composed of charcoal-burners and wood-carriers,
+with whom the smuggler had daily intercourse.
+
+Between the saw-mills and the first fire, on the bridge over the dam,
+sat the bootmaker Jérome of St. Quirin--a man of from fifty to sixty
+years of age, with a long brown face, hollow eyes, big nose--his ears
+covered with a badger-skin cap--and a yellow beard reaching to his
+waist in a peak.  His hands, enveloped in great green woollen gloves,
+were clasped over an immense stick of knotty service-tree.  He wore a
+long sackcloth hood; and might easily have been taken for a hermit.  At
+every rumor that arose, Father Jérome would slowly turn his head, and
+try to catch what it was, frowning.
+
+Jean Labarbe, grasping his axe, remained immovable.  He was a
+white-faced man, with an aquiline nose and thin lips.  He exercised
+great influence over the men of Dagsburg, owing to his resolution and
+the clearness of his ideas.  When they shouted around him, "We must
+deliberate; we cannot stay here doing nothing," he simply contented
+himself with saying, "Let us wait: Hullin has not arrived, nor
+Catherine Lefèvre.  There is no hurry."  Everybody then was silenced,
+and looked impatiently toward the path from Charmes.
+
+The sawyer Piorette--a small, brisk, thin, energetic man, whose black
+eyebrows met above his eyes--stood on the threshold of his hut, with
+his pipe between his teeth, contemplating the general appearance of
+this scene.
+
+Meanwhile, the impatience increased every moment.  Some village
+mayors--in square-cut coats and three-cornered hats--advanced in the
+direction of the saw-mills, calling on their communes to come and
+decide what was to be done.  Most fortunately, at last Catherine
+Lefèvre's cart appeared, and a thousand enthusiastic shouts arose on
+all sides:
+
+"There they are! they come!"
+
+Old Materne gravely mounted on a trunk and quietly descended, saying,
+"It is they."
+
+Great agitation showed itself.  The farthest groups gathered together
+in one crowd.  A sort of impatient shiver passed over the mass.
+Scarcely has the old farmer's wife become visible, whip in hand, on her
+straw box with little Louise, than from all parts came cries of "Vive
+la France!  Vive la mère Catherine!"
+
+Hullin, who had remained behind, his broad hat pushed back, his musket
+slung across his shoulder, was now crossing the meadow of Eichmath,
+distributing vigorous shakes of the hand: "Good-day, Daniel; good-day,
+Colon.  Good-day--good-day!"
+
+"Ah! it is going to be warm, Hullin."
+
+"Yes--yes; we are going to hear the chestnuts popping this winter.
+Good-day, my old Jérome!  We have serious business on hand."
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude.  We must hope to pull through it by the grace of
+God."
+
+Catherine, on arriving at the saw-works, told Labarbe to set on the
+ground a keg of brandy which she had brought away from the farm, and to
+get a jug from the sawyer's cottage.
+
+Soon after, Hullin, coming up to the fire, met Materne and his two sons.
+
+"You have come late," said the old hunter.
+
+"Ah! yes.  What was to be done?  I had to descend the Falkenstein, get
+my gun, and start the women.  But as we are now here, let us lose no
+more time; Lagarmitte, blow thy horn, so that all the men may assemble.
+The first thing is to appoint the leaders."
+
+Lagarmitte blew his long trumpet, his cheeks puffed out to his ears:
+then those who were still on the hill-sides or paths hastened their
+pace to be in time.  Soon all those brave fellows were assembled in
+front of the saw-works.  Hullin got up on a pile of tree-trunks, and
+looking seriously upon the crowd, said, amidst deep silence: "The enemy
+crossed the Rhine the day before yesterday: they are marching over the
+mountain into Lorraine: Strasbourg and Huningue are blockaded.  We may
+expect to see the Germans and Prussians in three or four days."
+
+There was a loud shout of "Vive la France!"
+
+[Illustration: THERE WAS A GENERAL SHOUT OF "LONG LIVE FRANCE!"]
+
+"Yes, vive la France!" continued Hullin; "for if the allies enter Paris
+they can do what they choose; they can re-establish statute-labor,
+tithes, convents, monopolies, and the gallows.  If you wish to see that
+over again, you have only to let them pass."
+
+It would be impossible to depict the savage fierceness of the audience
+at that moment.
+
+"That is what I had to tell you," cried Hullin, quite white.  "Since
+you are here, it can only be to fight."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"It is well; but listen to me.  I will be open with you.  Among you are
+fathers of families.  We shall be one against ten, against fifty: we
+must expect to perish.  So let the men who have not reflected on it,
+who feel they have not heart to do their duty to the end, go--none will
+take notice of them.  Each man is free."
+
+Then he paused and looked around him.  Everybody remained stationary:
+then with a firmer voice, he concluded thus: "No one goes away; you are
+all, all resolved to fight.  Well, I am rejoiced to see there is not
+one coward among us.  Now a leader must be chosen.  In great dangers,
+the first thing is order and discipline.  The leader you are going to
+name will have the right of commanding and being obeyed.  So reflect
+seriously, for on that man will hang the fate of you all."
+
+So saying, Jean-Claude descended from the tree-trunk, and the agitation
+became extreme.  Every village deliberated apart by itself--every mayor
+proposed his friend--and the hours wore on.  Catherine Lefèvre was
+burning with impatience.  At length she could no longer contain
+herself, and standing up on her bench, signed that she was going to
+speak.
+
+Catherine was held in great esteem.  At first only a few, then a larger
+number approached to know what she wished to communicate.
+
+"My friends," said she, "we are losing time.  What do you wish for?  A
+trustworthy man, is it not so? a soldier--a man who has seen service,
+and who knows how to profit by our positions?  Well, why do you not
+choose Hullin?  Can any one find a better?  If so, let him speak, and
+we will decide.  I propose Jean-Claude Hullin.  Hé! do you hear--over
+there?  If this continues, the Austrians will have arrived before a
+leader has been decided on."
+
+"Yes,--yes!  Hullin!" shouted Labarbe, Divès, Jérome, and several
+others.  "Let us see how many are for and against him."
+
+Then Marc Divès, clambering on to the trunks, cried out in a voice like
+thunder: "Those who do not want Jean-Claude Hullin for leader must lift
+up their hands."
+
+Not one hand was uplifted.
+
+"Those who want Jean-Claude Hullin for their leader must raise their
+hands."
+
+Every hand was put up.
+
+"Jean-Claude," said the smuggler, "mount up here, look--they have
+chosen you for their leader."
+
+Master Jean-Claude having done so, saw he was named, and said
+immediately in a stern voice: "Good! you name me to be your chief.  I
+accept!  Let Materne the elder, Labarbe of Dagsburg, Jérome of St.
+Quirin, Marc Divès, Piorette the sawyer, and Catherine Lefèvre, come
+into the saw-works.  We are going to take counsel.  In a quarter of an
+hour or twenty minutes, I shall give my orders.  Meanwhile, each
+village must put two men under the orders of Marc Divès, to fetch
+powder and ball from the Falkenstein."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LEADER
+
+The persons indicated by Jean-Claude Hullin met together in the shed of
+the Sawyerie, before the great fireplace; a species of good-humor
+beaming on their faces.
+
+"For twenty years have I heard speak of the Russians, Austrians, and
+Cossacks," said old Materne, smiling, "and I shall not be sorry to see
+a few within reach of my musket: it gives a change to one's ideas."
+
+"Yes," replied Labarbe, "we shall see queer things; the little children
+of the mountains will be able to relate something of what their fathers
+and grandfathers did!  And the old women, of an evening--won't they
+tell long tales in fifty years' time?"
+
+"Comrades," said Hullin, "you know the whole country: you have the
+mountain under your eyes from Thann to Wissembourg.  You know that the
+great roads, imperial roads--traverse Alsace and the Vosges.  They both
+commence at Bâle: one runs along the Rhine to Strasbourg, from whence
+it ascends to Saverne and enters Lorraine.  Huningue, Neuf-Brisach,
+Strasbourg, and Phalsbourg defend it.  The other turns to the left and
+passes by Schlestadt: at Schlestadt it enters the mountain and reaches
+Saint-Dié, Raon-l'Etape, Baccarat, and Lunéville.  The enemy will want
+to force these two roads first,--being the best for cavalry, artillery,
+and baggage,--but as they are defended, we need not trouble ourselves
+about them.  If the allies besiege the fortresses--which would lengthen
+the campaign--we have nothing to fear; but it is not probable they will
+do so.  After having summoned Huningue to surrender, Belfort,
+Schlestadt, Strasbourg, and Phalsbourg, on this side the
+Vosges--Bitsche, Lutzelstein, and Sarrebrück on the other--I imagine
+they will fall upon us.  Now attend to me.  Between Phalsbourg and
+Saint-Die, there are several defiles for the infantry; but there is
+only one way practicable for cannon: this is the road from Strasbourg
+to Raon-les-Leaux by Urmatt, Mutzig, Lutzelhouse, Phramond,
+Grandfontaine.  Once masters of this passage, the allies will be able
+to come out on Lorraine.  This road passes the Donon, two leagues from
+here, on our right The first thing to be done is to make a firm stand
+there, in the most favorable part for defence, that is to say, on the
+plateau of the mountain; to intersect it, to break down the bridges,
+and to erect solid breastworks across it.  A few hundreds of great
+trees across the road with all their branches are worth as much as
+ramparts.  They are the best ambuscades: one is well sheltered behind
+them and can see everything coming.  Those large trees hold like death.
+They must be taken away piece by piece; bridges cannot be thrown over
+them:--in fact it is the best thing to be done.  All that, comrades,
+must be accomplished to-morrow evening, or next day at the latest.  I
+charge myself with it.  But it is not sufficient to occupy a position
+and put it in a good state of defence: it must be so managed that the
+enemy shall not be able to turn it."
+
+"I was just thinking of that," said Materne.  "Once in the valley of
+Bruche, the Germans can march with their infantry into the hills of
+Haslack and turn our left.  Nothing can prevent their trying the same
+manoeuvre on our right, if they reach Raon-l'Etape."
+
+"Yes, but to take these ideas out of their heads, we have a very simple
+thing to do: it is to occupy the defiles of the Zorn and the Sarre on
+our left, and that of Blanru on our right.  One can only keep a defile
+by holding the heights; that is why Piorette must place himself with a
+hundred men on the side of Raon-les-Leaux; Jérome on the Grosmann, with
+the same number, to close the valley of the Sarre; and Labarbe, at the
+head of the remainder on the great slopes to watch over the hills of
+Haslach.  You must choose your men from those of the nearest villages.
+The women ought not to have a long distance to carry provisions; and
+then the wounded will be nearer their homes, which must also be thought
+of.  There is all I have to say to you just now.  The chiefs of posts
+must take care to send me every day on the Donon, where I shall
+establish our head-quarters this evening, a good walker, to inform me
+of what happens, and to receive the countersign.  We shall also
+organize a reserve; but as we must make haste, we will speak of that
+when you are all in position, and there is no longer cause to fear a
+surprise from the enemy."
+
+"And I," exclaimed Marc Divès, "I shall have nothing to do then?  I am
+to remain with my arms folded, watching the others fight?"
+
+"Thou--thou art to survey the transport of ammunition.  None of us know
+how to treat the powder as thou dost, to preserve it from fire and
+damp, to melt the balls, and make cartridges."
+
+"But it is woman's work, that is," exclaimed the smuggler.
+"Hexe-Baizel could do it as well as I.  What! am I not even to fire
+once?"
+
+"Softly, Marc," replied Hullin, laughing; "occasions will not be
+wanting.  In the first place, the Falkenstein is the centre of our
+line; it is our arsenal and our retreating place in case of misfortune.
+The enemy will know through his spies that our convoys come from there;
+he will try, probably, to take them: the balls and bayonet-thrusts will
+come in thy way.  Besides, to have thee in safety will be all the
+better, for thy cellars and caves must not be confided to the first
+comer.  But if thou really wouldst like----"
+
+"No," said the smuggler, who had been touched by Hullin's reference to
+his caves--"no! all things considered, I believe thou art right,
+Jean-Claude.  I have my men--they are well armed--we will defend the
+Falkenstein; and if the opportunity of firing a shot should present
+itself, I shall be all the freer."
+
+"Then that is a decided and well-understood business?" demanded Hullin.
+
+"Yes, yes, it is decided."
+
+"Well, comrades," said the worthy fellow, joyously, "let us warm
+ourselves with a few good glasses of wine.  It is ten o'clock; let each
+one return to his village, and make his preparations.  To-morrow
+morning all the defiles must be vigorously occupied."
+
+They quitted the shed, and Hullin, in the presence of his followers,
+named Labarbe, Jérome, and Piorette chiefs of the defiles: then he told
+those of the Sarre to assemble as soon as possible near the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes, with axes, mattocks, and muskets.  "We shall leave at
+two o'clock, and encamp on the Donon across the route," said he to
+them.  "To-morrow, at dawn, we will begin the breastworks."
+
+He retained Materne and his two sons Frantz and Kasper, announcing to
+them that the battle would commence undoubtedly on the Donon, and that
+good shots would be wanted on that side, which gave them pleasure.
+
+Mistress Lefèvre had never looked happier than when she got into her
+cart again, and, kissing Louise, said in her ear:--"All goes well.
+Jean-Claude is a man: he sees everything; he draws people to him.  I
+have known him forty years, yet he surprises even me."  Then turning
+round--"Jean-Claude," cried she, "we have a ham waiting for us down
+there and a few old bottles, which the Germans shall not drink."
+
+"No, Catherine, they shall not drink them.  Go on, I am coming."
+
+But just as they were starting, and when already a number of
+mountaineers were climbing the hillsides to regain their villages,
+quite in the distance, on the path of Trois-Fontaines, appeared a large
+thin man on a big roan cob, with a flat-brimmed cap of rabbit-skin
+covering the whole back of his neck: a great sheep-dog with a black
+shaggy coat bounded along near him; and the ends of his enormous
+surtout flapped behind him like wings.  Every one cried out,--"It is
+Doctor Lorquin from the plain--the one who attends poor people gratis.
+He comes with his dog Pluto.  He is a good man."
+
+In fact he it was.  He galloped on, shouting, "Halt! stop! halt!"  And
+his red face, sharp eyes, red-brown beard, broad shoulders, great horse
+and dog, all cleaved the air and grew upon the view.  In two seconds he
+had reached the foot of the mountain, crossed the meadow, and appeared
+at the bridge, before the shed.  Instantly, in breathless tones, he
+began to say:--"Ah! the cunning rogues who want to enter on a campaign
+without me; they shall pay for it!"  And tapping a small box he carried
+at his crupper,--"Listen, my good fellows, listen!  I have something
+inside there of which you shall give me an account: every description
+of knife, large, small, round and pointed, to take from you the balls
+and shot of all kinds which you are going to be regaled with!"
+Whereupon he burst out laughing, and all those near him felt a cold
+shiver in all their veins.
+
+Having delivered himself of this pleasantry, Doctor Lorquin continued
+in a graver tone:--"Hullin, I must pull your ears!  What, when the
+country has to be defended, you forget me! others have to warn me.  It
+appears to me, however, that a doctor will not be out of the way here.
+I must call you to account."
+
+"Pardon me, doctor, I was wrong," said Hullin, squeezing his hand.
+"During the last week so many things have happened!  One does not
+always think of everything; and besides, such a man as you are, need
+not be told how to fulfil his duty."
+
+The doctor was appeased.
+
+"All that is right and good," he cried; "but nevertheless by your fault
+I am too late; the good places are taken, the crosses distributed.
+Come, where is the general, that I may make complaints to him?"
+
+"I am the general."
+
+"Oh! oh! really?"
+
+"Yes, doctor, I am the general; and I promote you to be our head
+surgeon."
+
+"Chief surgeon of the partisans of the Vosges!  Well, it suits me.  No
+malice now, Jean-Claude."
+
+Approaching the cart, the worthy man told Catherine that he relied on
+her for the organization of the ambulances.
+
+"Everything shall be ready, doctor," replied the farm-mistress.
+"Louise and I are going to set to work this evening.  Is it not so,
+Louise?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Mamma Lefèvre," said she, enchanted to perceive that the
+campaign was going to begin.  "We shall work well; we will spend the
+night at it even.  M. Lorquin shall be well pleased with us."
+
+"Well, then, let us go.  You will dine with us, doctor?"
+
+They trotted away.  While keeping pace with them, the good doctor
+related to Catherine laughingly how the tidings of the general rising
+had reached him; the affliction of his old housekeeper, Marie, who
+wanted to prevent his going to be massacred by the "kaiserlichs," and
+the various episodes of his journey from Quibolo to the village of
+Charmes.  Hullin, Materne, and his sons were coming on behind, their
+carbines on their shoulders; and thus they ascended the hill-side
+toward the farm of Bois-de-Chênes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CONSCRIPT
+
+You can imagine the animation at the farm, the bustling of the
+domestics, the shouts of enthusiasm, the chinking of glasses and forks,
+the joy depicted on all faces, when Jean-Claude, Doctor Lorquin, the
+Maternes, and all those who had followed the cart of Catherine Lefèvre
+were installed in the large room around a magnificent ham, and began to
+celebrate their future triumphs, glass in hand.
+
+It was on a Tuesday, baking-day at the farm.  Excitement had prevailed
+in the kitchen all the morning: old Duchêne, with shirt-sleeves turned
+up and a cotton cap on his head, was taking out of the oven numberless
+loaves of bread, the good odor of which pervaded the whole house.
+Annette received them and piled them on the hearth; Louise waited on
+the guests; and Catherine Lefèvre superintended everything, crying
+out,--"Make haste, my children--make haste!  The third batch must be
+ready when the men from the Sarre arrive.  It will make six pounds of
+bread for each man."
+
+Hullin, from his seat, watched the movements of the old farm-mistress.
+
+"What a woman!" said he; "what a woman!  She forgets nothing.  Could
+one find another such in the whole country?  To the health of Catherine
+Lefèvre!"
+
+"To the health of Catherine Lefèvre!" replied the others.
+
+The glasses met together, and they began again to talk over combats,
+assaults, and intrenchments.  Each one felt animated with an invincible
+confidence; every one said in himself, "All will go well!"
+
+But heaven had in store for them yet another satisfaction on that day,
+especially for Louise and the Mother Lefèvre.  About noon, just as a
+beautiful gleam of winter sunshine whitened the snow and made the frost
+melt on the window-panes, and the great cock, putting his head out of
+his coop, uttered his triumphant crow, flapping his wings--just then
+the watch-dog, old "Yohan," half blind and toothless, began to bark so
+joyously and plaintively, that everyone listened with the greatest
+attention.  The kitchen was all excitement with the fourth batch coming
+out of the oven, and even Catherine Lefèvre herself stopped.
+
+"Something is going on," said she, in a low voice: and then added, all
+trembling, "Since my boy left, Yohan has never barked like that."
+
+At the same moment, rapid steps traversed the court.  Louise sprang
+toward the door, crying,--"It is he!  It is he!" and almost immediately
+a hand tried to hasp.  The door opened, and a soldier appeared on the
+threshold; but such a soldier, so worn, so bronzed, so emaciated! his
+gray hood, with its pewter buttons, so ragged--his high leathern
+gaiters so torn, that all present were astonished.
+
+He appeared unable to advance a step farther, and slowly put the
+butt-end of his musket on the ground.  The tip of his aquiline
+nose--the nose of Mother Lefèvre--shone like bronze; his red mustaches
+shook like one of those great lean hawks which are forced by hunger to
+come to the very doors of the stables in winter.  He looked into the
+kitchen, pale beneath the brown coating of his cheeks, and with his
+great hollow eyes filled with tears, he seemed unable to advance or say
+a word.
+
+Outside, the old dog leaped, whined, and shook his chain; in the
+interior, one could hear the fire blazing, so great was the silence;
+but soon Catherine Lefèvre, with a piercing voice,
+exclaimed,--"Gaspard! my child!  It is thou!"
+
+"Yes, my mother," replied the soldier, softly, as though suffocating.
+
+And at the same moment Louise began to weep, while in the great room
+there arose a shout like thunder.  All the friends ran out, Master
+Jean-Claude at their head, crying,--"Gaspard!  Gaspard Lefèvre!"
+
+Then they saw Gaspard and his mother embracing each other.  This
+strong, courageous woman was weeping: he did not weep; he held her
+pressed to his breast, his red mustaches mingling with her gray locks,
+and murmured,--"My mother!--my mother!  Ah, how often have I thought of
+you!"  Then, in a louder voice, he said, "Louise!  Where is Louise?  I
+saw Louise!"  And Louise threw herself into his arms, and their kisses
+were mingled together.  "Ah, thou didst not recognize me, Louise!"
+
+"Oh, yes!--oh, yes!  I knew thee, even by thy step!"
+
+Old Duchêne, with his cotton cap in his hands, stammered out by the
+fireplace,--"Lord! is it possible?  My poor child!  What does he look
+like?"
+
+He had brought up Gaspard, and always fancied him, ever since his
+departure, fresh and ruddy in a beautiful uniform with red facings.  It
+completely deranged his ideas to see him otherwise.
+
+At that moment Hullin, raising his voice, said,--"And the rest of us,
+Gaspard,--thy old friends--art thou not going to take notice of us?"
+
+Then the brave fellow turned round and exclaimed with
+enthusiasm,--"Hullin!  Doctor Lorquin!  Materne!  Frantz!  Why, they
+are all here!"
+
+And the embraces recommenced, but this time more joyously, with shouts
+of laughter and shaking of hands that seemed endless.
+
+"Ah, doctor, it is you!  Ah, my old father, Jean-Claude!"
+
+They looked closely at each other, with bright, beaming faces, and went
+arm-in-arm up and down the great room; and Mother Catherine with the
+knapsack, Louise with the gun, and Duchêne with the shako, followed
+them, laughing and drying their cheeks and eyes--nothing had ever been
+seen like it before.
+
+"Let us sit down and drink!" exclaimed Doctor Lorquin.  "This is the
+bouquet of the feast."
+
+"Ah, my poor Gaspard, how happy I am to behold thee safe and sound,"
+said Hullin.  "Ha, ha!  Without flattery, I like thee better as thou
+art now than with thy great red cheeks.  Parbleu! thou art a man now.
+Thou remindest me of the old fellows of my time, those of the Sambre
+and Egypt--ha, ha, ha! we had not round noses, we were not sleek and
+fat; we looked like lean rats watching a cheese, and our teeth were
+long and white!"
+
+"Yes, yes, that does not surprise me, Papa Jean-Claude.  Come, let us
+sit down; we can talk more at ease.  Ah, now, why are you all at the
+farm?"
+
+"What, dost thou not know?  All the country is up, from Houpe to
+Saint-Sauveur, to defend itself."
+
+"Yes, the anabaptist of Painbach just mentioned it as I passed.  It is
+then true?"
+
+"It is true.  Everybody is in it; and I am the general in chief."
+
+"Excellent--excellent!  That these rogues of 'kaiserlichs' should not
+carry everything with a high hand in our own country gives me pleasure.
+But hand me the knife.  Anyway one is happy to find one's self at home
+again.  Hé!  Louise, come here and sit down a little while.  Look, Papa
+Jean-Claude: with this girl on one side of me, the ham on the other,
+and the bottle to the front, I should not need a fortnight to pick up
+again; and my comrades would not know me when I joined the company."
+
+Everybody was now sitting down and astonished to see with what appetite
+the brave fellow ate and drank, while regarding Louise and his mother
+tenderly, and replying to one and the other, without losing a single
+mouthful.
+
+The farm-people, Duchêne, Annette, Robin, and Dubourg, arranged in a
+half-circle, watched Gaspard in ecstasies; Louise refilled his glass;
+the Mother Lefèvre, seated by the stove, got up and went to his
+knapsack, and, on only finding two old black shirts with holes wide
+enough to put one's, hand through, with worn-out shoes and a bit of wax
+for cartridges, a comb with two teeth and an empty bottle, she lifted
+her hands to heaven and hastening to open the linen chest, saying,
+"Lord, can one be astonished that so many die of sheer want!"
+
+Doctor Lorquin, in presence of such a vigorous appetite, rubbed his
+hands joyfully, and murmured to himself, "What a sturdy fellow!  What a
+digestion!  What a set of teeth!  He could crunch pebbles like nuts."
+
+And even old Materne said to his sons:--"In other days, after two or
+three days of hunting in the high mountains in winter, I also used to
+feel the hunger of a wolf, and to eat a haunch of venison right off:
+now I am getting old, one or two pounds of meat are sufficient for
+me---which shows what age does."
+
+Hullin had lit his pipe, and seemed in a reverie: evidently something
+worried him.  After a few minutes, seeing that Gaspard's appetite was
+less lively, he brusquely asked, "Say, then, Gaspard, without
+interrupting thyself, how the devil hast thou managed to come?  We
+believed that thou wast still on the borders of the Rhine, on the
+Strasbourg side."
+
+"Ah! ah! old soldier, I comprehend," said young Lefèvre, winking.
+"There are so many deserters, are there not?"
+
+"Oh! such an idea would never enter my head, and yet----"
+
+"You would not be sorry to know that I had done nothing wrong?  I
+cannot blame you, Papa Jean-Claude: you are right.  He who is missing
+at the roll-call when the 'kaiserlichs' are in France, deserves to be
+shot.  Be composed, here is my leave."
+
+Hullin, who possessed no false delicacy, read,--"Leave for twenty-four
+hours to the grenadier Gaspard Lefèvre, of the 2d of the 1st.  This
+day, 3d January, 1814.--GEMEAU, Head of Battalion."
+
+"Good, good," exclaimed he.  "Put that carefully in thy knapsack, thou
+mightest lose it."
+
+All his good-humor had returned:--"Do you see, my children, I know what
+love is?  There is both good and bad in it: but it is particularly bad
+for young soldiers who come too close to their village after a
+campaign.  They are capable of forgetting themselves and of not
+returning unless in company of two or three gendarmes.  I have seen it.
+But come, since everything is in order, let us drink a glass of
+'rikevir.'  What say you, Catherine?  The men of the Sarre may arrive
+at any moment, and we have not an instant to lose?"
+
+"You are right, Jean-Claude," replied the old farm-mistress sadly.
+"Annette, go down and bring three bottles from the small cellar."
+
+The servant obeyed quickly.
+
+"But this leave, Gaspard," continued Catherine--"how long has it
+lasted?"
+
+"I received it yesterday, at eight in the evening, at Vasselonne, my
+mother.  The regiment is retreating on Lorraine; I must rejoin it this
+evening at Phalsbourg."
+
+"It is well; thou hast still seven hours; thou wilt not need more than
+six to reach there, although there is much snow on the Foxthal."
+
+The good woman came and sat down again by her son, with a full heart.
+Every one was moved.  Louise, with her arm on the old tattered epaulet
+of Gaspard and her cheek against his, was sobbing.  Hullin emptied the
+ashes from his pipe at the end of the table, frowning, without saying
+anything; but when the bottles arrived and were uncorked, "Come,
+Louise," said he, "take courage! this cannot last forever; it must end
+in one way or another, and I venture to affirm that it will end well.
+Gaspard will come back to us, and then we shall have the wedding."
+
+He refilled the glasses, and Catherine dried her eyes, murmuring, "To
+think that those brigands are the cause of all this.  Ah! let them
+come--let them come here!"
+
+They all drank with a melancholy air; but the old "rikevir," entering
+the hearts of these brave people quickly enlivened them.  Gaspard,
+stronger than he had appeared at first, began to relate the terrible
+battles of Bautzen, Lutzen, Leipzig, and Hanau, where the conscripts
+had fought like tried soldiers, winning victory after victory, till
+traitors began to appear.
+
+Every one listened in silence.  Louise, when he spoke of any great
+danger--of the passage over rivers under the enemy's fire, or the
+taking of a battery by the bayonet--squeezed his arm as though to
+defend him.  Jean-Claude's eyes sparkled; the doctor demanded each time
+the position of the ambulance; Materne and his sons stretched out their
+necks and clinched their jaws; and with help of the old wine the
+enthusiasm increased every moment.  "Ah, the rascals! ah, the brigands!
+But look out! it is not over yet."
+
+Mother Lefèvre admired the courage and luck of her son in the midst of
+these events, which will be remembered centuries to come.  But when
+Lagarmitte, looking solemn and grave in his long gray cloth coat, with
+his broad black felt on his white head, and with his bark trumpet on
+his shoulder, crossed the kitchen, and appeared at the entrance to the
+large room, saying,--"The men of the Sarre are come,"--then all this
+enthusiasm, disappeared, and the company rose, thinking of the terrible
+struggle which would soon take place in the mountains.
+
+Louise, throwing her arms round Gaspard's neck, cried, "Gaspard, do not
+go away!  Remain with us!"
+
+He became very pale.
+
+"I am a soldier," said he.  "I am called, Gaspard Lefèvre.  I love thee
+a thousand times more than my own life; but a Lefèvre only knows his
+duty."
+
+And he unwound her arms.  Louise then, sinking on the table, began to
+moan aloud.  Gaspard rose.  Hullin stood between them, and grasping his
+hands tightly, with trembling lips, said: "Excellently well!  Thou hast
+spoken like a man."
+
+His mother came forward with a calm countenance to buckle his knapsack
+on his shoulders.  She did it with knitted eyebrows and pressed lips,
+without one sigh escaping her; but two great tears slowly ran down the
+wrinkles of her cheeks.  And when she had done it, she turned away, and
+with her sleeve over her eyes, said: "It is well!  Go--go, my child!
+thy mother blesses thee.  Whatever thy fortune thou wilt yet not be
+lost to us.  Look, Gaspard: there is thy place--there between Louise
+and myself--thou wilt always be there.  This poor child is not old
+enough yet to know that to live is to suffer."
+
+Everybody left; only Louise remained lamenting in the room.  A few
+seconds later, as the butt end of the musket sounded on the slabs of
+the kitchen, and the outer door was opened, she gave a piercing shriek,
+and darted after him.
+
+"Gaspard, Gaspard, look!  I will be courageous; I will not cry; I will
+not keep thee back.  Oh, no; but do not leave me in anger.  Have pity
+on me!"
+
+"Angry! angry with thee, my Louise!  Oh, no!  But to see thee so
+unhappy breaks my heart.  Ah! if thou wert a little braver now, I
+should feel happier."
+
+"Well, I am.  Let us kiss each other!  See, I am no longer the same.  I
+would be like Maman Lefèvre."
+
+They calmly gave each other a parting embrace, Hullin held the gun;
+Catherine motioned with her hands, as though to say, "Go, go! it is
+enough!"  And he, suddenly seizing his musket, walked away resolutely,
+without looking back.
+
+On the other side, the men of the Sarre, with their axes and hatchets,
+were climbing the steep ascent of the Valtin.
+
+Five minutes later, on passing by the great oak, Gaspard turned round,
+lifting his hands.  Catherine and Louise replied to it.  Hullin
+advanced to meet his people.  Doctor Lorquin alone remained with the
+women; and when Gaspard, continuing his way, had disappeared, he
+exclaimed, "Catherine Lefèvre, you can pride yourself on having an
+affectionate son.  God grant him good fortune!"
+
+And the distant voices of the new-comers could be heard laughing among
+themselves, as they were marching to war as gayly as to a wedding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ROBIN'S VISION
+
+As Hullin, at the head of the mountaineers, was taking his measures for
+the defence of his country, the madman Yégof, with his tin crown, that
+sad spectacle of humanity shorn of its noblest attribute,
+intelligence--the madman Yégof, his breast exposed to the fierce wind,
+his feet bare, reckless of cold, like the reptile in his prison, was
+wandering from mountain to mountain, in the midst of the snows of
+winter.  How comes it that the madman is able to resist the sharpest
+severity of the atmosphere, while an intelligent being would succumb to
+it?  Does it arise from a more powerful concentration of life, a more
+rapid circulation of the blood, a state of continued fever?  Or is it
+the effect of the extraordinary excitement of the senses, or any other
+unknown cause?
+
+Science tells us nothing.  She admits only material causes, without
+giving an account of such phenomena.
+
+So Yégof went on at random, and night came.  The cold was redoubled,
+the fox gnashed his teeth in the pursuit of an invisible prey; the
+famished buzzard fell back with empty claws among the bushes, uttering
+a cry of distress.  He, with his raven on his shoulder, gesticulating,
+jabbering, as if in a dream, kept walking on, from Holderloch to
+Sonneberg, from Sonneberg to Blutfeld.
+
+Now, on this particular night, the old shepherd, Robin, of the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes, was destined to be the witness of a most strange and
+fearful sight.
+
+Some days ago, having been overtaken by the first fall of snow at the
+bottom of the ravine of the Blutfeld, he had left his cart there to
+conduct his flock back to the farm; but having discovered that he had
+forgotten his sheepskin, and left it in a shed there, he had on this
+day, when his work was done, set out about four o'clock in the
+afternoon to go and fetch it.  The Blutfeld, situated between the
+Schneeberg and the Grosmann, is a narrow gorge, bounded by rocks.  A
+narrow stream of water winds through it, under shadow of the tall
+shrubs, and in its depths extends a vast pasturage, all covered with
+large gray stones, that lie thickly scattered about.
+
+This gorge is very little frequented, for there is a wild look about
+the Blutfeld, especially by the light of a winter moon.  The learned
+folks of these regions, the school-master of Dagsburg, and he of
+Hazlach, say that in that spot occurred the famous battle of the
+Triboques against the Germans, who wished to penetrate into Gaul, under
+the command of a leader named Luitprandt.  They say that the Triboques,
+from the neighboring heights, hurling upon their enemies huge masses of
+rocks, crushed them there as in a mortar, and that, on account of this
+great carnage, the gorge has preserved to this day the name of
+_Blutfeld_.  Fragments of broken pots, of rusty lances, of helmets, and
+long swords with cross hilts, are often found there.
+
+At night, when the moon sheds her light upon this field and those
+immense stones, all covered with snow, when the north wind blows among
+the frost-covered branches, making them rattle and clatter like
+cymbals, you might fancy you heard the wild cry of the Germans at the
+moment of surprise, the shrieks of the women, the neighings of the
+horses, the rumbling of the chariots in the defile; for it seems that
+these people brought with them, in their skin-covered carriages, women,
+children, old men, and all that they possessed in gold, and silver, and
+movables, like the Germans setting out for America.  The Triboques
+never ceased to massacre them during two days, and on the third day
+they returned to the Donon, the Schneeberg, the Grosmann, the Giromani,
+the Hengst,--their broad shoulders stooping under the weight of their
+booty.
+
+This is what is related concerning the Blutfeld, and certainly to see
+this gorge enclosed within the mountains like an immense trap, without
+any other outlet than a narrow footpath, it is easy to understand how
+the Germans were taken at a disadvantage and fell an easy prey to their
+conquerors.
+
+Robin did not reach the spot till between seven and eight o'clock, just
+as the moon was rising.
+
+The worthy fellow had descended the precipice a hundred times, but
+never had he beheld the place so brightly illuminated, and at the same
+time of so gloomy an aspect.
+
+At a distance, his white cart, at the bottom of the abyss, looked to
+him exactly like one of those enormous stones, covered with snow,
+beneath which the Germans had been buried.  It was at the entrance of
+the gorge, behind a thick cluster of shrubs, and beside it the little
+torrent ran murmuring in a slender stream, bright as steel, and
+sparkling like diamonds.
+
+When he arrived there, the shepherd began to look for the key of the
+padlock; then, having unlocked the shed, he crept in on his hands and
+knees, and found, very fortunately, not only his sheepskin, but an old
+hatchet, which he had quite forgotten.
+
+But judge of his surprise when, on issuing from it, he saw the madman
+Yégof appear at the turn of the footpath, and come straight toward him
+in the bright moonlight.
+
+The honest man immediately remembered the fearful story told in the
+kitchen of Bois-de-Chênes, and he felt afraid; but quite another
+feeling came over him when behind the fool, at fifteen or twenty paces,
+he beheld, stealthily approaching in their turn, five gray wolves, two
+big and three smaller ones.
+
+At first he took them for dogs, but they were wolves.  They followed
+Yégof step by step, and he did not appear to see them; his raven
+hovered overhead, flitting from the full moonlight to the shadow of the
+rocks, and then returning; the wolves, with flaming eyes, their sharp
+muzzles turned up, were sniffing the air; the fool raised his sceptre.
+
+The shepherd pulled-to the door of the shed as quick as lightning, but
+Yégof did not see him.  He advanced into the gorge as into a spacious
+chamber, to the right and left rose the steep rocks, above which
+myriads of stars were shining.  You might have heard a fly move; the
+wolves made no noise in walking; all was silent, and the raven had just
+perched on the top of an old withered oak that grew upon one of the
+rocks opposite; his shining plumage looked still darker than usual, as
+he turned his head, and seemed to be listening.
+
+It was a strange sight.
+
+Robin said to himself:--"The fool sees nothing, hears nothing; they
+will devour him.  If he stumbles, if his foot slips, it is all over
+with him."
+
+But in the middle of the gorge, Yégof, having turned round, sat down
+upon a stone, and the five wolves round him, still sniffing the air,
+squatted on their haunches in the snow.
+
+And then, a really terrible sight--the fool raising his sceptre, made
+them a speech, calling them each by his name.
+
+The wolves answered him with dismal howls.
+
+Now this is what he said to them:--"Hé, Child, Bléd, Merweg, and thou,
+Sirimar, my ancient, we are met together, then, once again!  You have
+returned fat.  There has been good cheer in Germany, eh?"
+
+Then, pointing to the snow-covered gorge:--"You remember the great
+battle?"
+
+First one of the wolves began to howl slowly in a dismal voice, then
+another, then all the five together.
+
+This lasted a good ten minutes.
+
+The raven, perched on the withered branch, did not stir.
+
+Robin would gladly have fled.  He put up his prayers, invoked all the
+saints, and, in particular, his own patron, for whom all the shepherds
+of the mountain have the highest veneration.
+
+But the wolves still continued howling, awakening all the echoes of the
+Blutfeld.
+
+At last one, the oldest of the number, was silent, then another, then
+all, and Yégof continued:--"Yes, yes: that is a dismal story.  Look!
+there is the river down which our blood flowed in streams!  No matter,
+Merweg, no matter; the others have left their bones to whiten on the
+common, and the cold moon has seen their women tearing their hair for
+three days and three nights!  Oh, that frightful day!  Oh, the dogs!
+were they proud of their great victory?  Let them be
+accursed--accursed."
+
+The fool had cast his crown to the ground.  He now picked it up,
+groaning as he did so.
+
+The wolves, still crouching round, listened to him like attentive
+spectators.  The biggest among them began to howl, and Yégof answered
+his complaint.
+
+"You are hungry, Sirimar; take comfort, take comfort; you will not want
+for food much longer; the men of our side are coming, and the strife
+will begin afresh."
+
+Then rising, and striking his sceptre on a stone, "See," said he,
+"behold thy bones!"
+
+He approached another.  "And thine, Merweg, behold them!" said he.
+
+All the troop followed him, while he, raising himself upon a low rock,
+and glancing round upon the silent gorge, exclaimed:--"Our war-song is
+silent! our war-song is now a groan!  The hour is near; it will
+reawaken, and you will be among the warriors; you will possess once
+more these valleys and these mountains.  Oh! that sound of wheels,
+those cries of women, those blows from crushing rocks and stones; I
+hear them; the air is full of them.  Yes, yes; they fell on us from
+above, and we were surrounded.  And now all is dead; hear!  all is
+dead; your bones sleep, but your children are on their way, and your
+turn will come.  Sing! sing!"
+
+And this time he himself began to howl, while the wolves took up again
+their savage song.
+
+These dismal howls grew more and more loud and appalling; and the
+silence of the rocks around, some plunged in darkness, while others
+were fully revealed in the moon's rays, the solemn stillness of every
+tree and shrub beneath its weight of snow, the distant echoes replying
+with a sad voice to the mournful concert, all were calculated to strike
+terror into the breast of the old shepherd.
+
+But by degrees his fears grew less, for Yégof and his gloomy procession
+were getting farther and farther away from him, and gradually
+retreating toward Hazlach.
+
+The raven, in his turn, with a hoarse cry unfurled his wings, and took
+his flight through the sky.
+
+The whole scene vanished like a dream.
+
+Robin heard for a long while after the howlings of the retreating
+wolves.  They had completely ceased for more than twenty minutes.  The
+silence of winter reigned on all sides, when the worthy man felt
+himself sufficiently recovered from his fright to come out of his
+hiding-place, and take his way back at full speed to the farm.
+
+On arriving at Bois-de-Chênes, he found everybody stirring.  They were
+preparing to kill an ox for the troops from the Donon.  Hullin, Doctor
+Lorquin, and Louise were already set out with those from the Sarre.
+Catherine Lefèvre was loading her great four-horse wagon with bread,
+meat, and brandy.  People were coming and going in all directions, and
+all lending a helping hand in the preparations.
+
+Robin could not bring himself to relate to any one all that he had seen
+and heard.  Besides, it seemed to himself so incredible that he really
+dared not open his mouth about it.
+
+When he had retired to rest in his crib in the middle of the stable, he
+said to himself that no doubt Yégof had, during the winter, tamed a
+litter of young wolves, and that he talked nonsense to them just as one
+talks sometimes to one's dog.
+
+But, for all that, this strange encounter left a superstitious dread
+upon his mind, and even when he had arrived at a great age, the old
+fellow never spoke of these things without shuddering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A RECONNOISSANCE
+
+Hullin's orders had all been carried out; the defiles of the Zorne and
+of the Sarre were well guarded; while that of Blanru, the extreme point
+of the position, had been put into a state of defence by Jean-Claude
+himself and the three hundred men who composed his principal force.
+
+We must now transport ourselves to the southern slopes of the Donon,
+two kilomètres from Grandfontaine, and await further events.
+
+Above the high-road which winds round the hillside up to within
+two-thirds of the summit, was a farm, surrounded with a few acres of
+tilled land, the freehold of Pelsly the anabaptist: it was a large
+building with a flat roof, much needed, so as to prevent its being
+blown away by the high winds.  The out-houses and pigsties were
+situated at the back, toward the summit of the mountain.
+
+The partisans were encamped near: at their feet lay Grandfontaine and
+Framont; in a narrow gorge farther on, at the point where the valley
+takes a turn, rose Schirmeck and its old mass of feudal ruins; lastly,
+among the undulations of the chain, the Bruche disappears in a zigzag,
+under the grayish mists of Alsace.  To their left arose the arid peak
+of the Donon, covered with rocks and a few stunted pines.  Before them
+was the rugged road, its shelving banks thrown down over the snow, and
+great trees flung across it with all their branches.
+
+The melting snow let the yellow soil be seen in patches here and there,
+or else formed great drifts, heaped up by the north wind.
+
+It was a grand and severe spectacle.  Not a single traveller, not a
+carriage appeared along the whole length of the road in the valley,
+winding as far as the eye can reach: it was like a desert.  The fires
+scattered round the farm-house sent up their puffs of damp smoke to the
+sky, and alone indicated the position of the bivouac.
+
+The mountaineers, seated by their kettles, with their hats slouched
+over their faces, were very melancholy: three days they had been
+awaiting the enemy.  Among one of the groups, sitting with their legs
+doubled up, bent shoulders, and pipes in their mouths were old Materne
+and his two sons.
+
+From time to time Louise appeared on the step of the farm, then quickly
+re-entered, and set herself again to her work.  A great cock was
+scratching up the manure with his claws, and crowing hoarsely; two or
+three fowls were strutting up and down among the bushes.  All that was
+pleasant to look upon; but the chief pleasure of the partisans was to
+contemplate some magnificent quarters of bacon, with red-and-white
+sides, which were spitted on greenwood sticks, the fat melting drop by
+drop on to the small coals--and to fill their flasks at a small cask of
+brandy placed on Catherine Lefèvre's cart.
+
+Toward eight o'clock in the morning a man suddenly appeared between the
+great and little Donon; the sentinels perceived him at once; he
+descended, waving his hat.
+
+A few minutes later Nickel Bentz, the old forest-keeper of the Houpe,
+was recognized.
+
+The whole camp was roused; they ran to awaken Hullin, who had been
+sleeping for an hour in the farm-house, on a great straw mattress, side
+by side with Doctor Lorquin and his dog Pluto.
+
+The three came out, accompanied by the herdsman Lagarmitte, nicknamed
+Trumpet, and the anabaptist Pelsly--a silent man, having his arms
+buried to the elbows in the deep pockets of his gray woollen tunic
+trimmed with pewter clasps, with an immense beard, and the tassel of
+his cotton cap half way down his back.
+
+Jean-Claude seemed light-hearted.  "Well, Nickel, what is going on down
+there?" cried he.
+
+"At present, nothing new, Master Jean-Claude; only on the Phalsbourg
+side one hears something like the rumbling of a storm.  Labarbe says
+that it is cannon, for all night we have seen flashes through the
+forest of Hildehouse, and since the morning gray clouds have been
+spreading over the plain."
+
+"The town is attacked," said Hullin; "but what about the Lutzelstein
+side?"
+
+"One can hear nothing," replied Bentz.
+
+"Then the enemy is trying to turn the place.  In any case, the allies
+are down there: there must be hosts of them in Alsace."  And turning
+toward Materne, who was standing behind him, "We cannot remain any
+longer in uncertainty," said he; "thou, with thy two sons, go on a
+reconnoissance."
+
+The old hunter's face brightened.  "So be it!  I can stretch my legs a
+little," said he, "and see if I can't knock over one of those rascally
+Austrians or Cossacks."
+
+"Stop an instant, my old fellow! it is not now a question of knocking
+anybody over; we want to see what is going on.  Frantz and Kasper will
+remain armed; but I know thee: thou must leave thy carbine here, thy
+powder-flask, and thy hunting-knife."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Because thou wilt have to go into the villages, and if thou art taken
+in arms, thou wilt be shot directly."
+
+"Shot?"
+
+"Certainly.  We do not belong to the regular troops; they do not take
+us prisoners; they shoot us.  Thou wilt follow, then, the road to
+Schirmeck, stick in hand, and thy sons will accompany thee at a
+distance, in the underwood, within musket-range.  If any marauders
+attack thee, they will come to thy rescue; if it is a column, or a
+handful of troops, they must allow thee to be taken."
+
+"They are to let me be taken!" cried the old hunter, indignantly.  "I
+should like to see that."
+
+"Yes, Materne; it will be the best plan: for an unarmed man would be
+released, an armed shot.  I do not need to tell thee not to sing out to
+the Germans that thou art come to spy upon them."
+
+"Ah, ah!  I comprehend.  Yes, yes, that is not badly planned.  As for
+me, I never quit my gun, Jean-Claude, but war is war.  Hold! there is
+my carbine, and my powder-flask, and my knife.  Who will lend me his
+blouse and his stick?"
+
+Nickel Bentz handed him his blue blouse and his cap.  They were
+surrounded by an admiring crowd.
+
+After he had changed his clothes, notwithstanding his large gray
+mustaches, one would have taken the old hunter for a simple peasant
+from the high mountains.
+
+His two sons, proud to be of this first expedition, looked to the
+priming of their muskets, and fixed to the end of the barrel a
+boar-spear, straight and long as a sword.  They felt their
+hunting-knives, flung their bags upon their backs, and confident that
+all was in order, they glanced proudly round them.
+
+"Ah," said Doctor Lorquin, laughing, "do not forget Master
+Jean-Claude's advice.  Be careful.  One German more or less in a
+hundred thousand would not make much difference in our affairs; whereas
+if one or the other of you came back to us injured, you would be
+replaced with difficulty."
+
+"Oh, fear nothing, doctor: we shall have our eyes open."
+
+"My boys," replied Materne, haughtily, "are true hunters; they know how
+to wait the moment and profit by it.  They will only fire when I call.
+You can rest assured! and now, let us start; we must be back before
+night."
+
+They departed.
+
+"Good luck to you!" shouted Hullin, while they mounted the snow in
+order to avoid the breastworks.
+
+They soon descended toward the narrow path, which turns sharply on the
+right of the mountain.
+
+The partisans watched them.  Their red frizzy hair, long muscular legs,
+their broad shoulders, and supple, quick movements,--all showed that in
+case of an encounter, five or six "kaiserlichs" would have little
+chance against such fine fellows.
+
+In a quarter of an hour they had reached the pine-forest and
+disappeared.
+
+Then Hullin quietly returned to the farm, talking to Nickel Bentz.
+
+Doctor Lorquin walked behind, followed by Pluto, and all the others
+returned to their places round the bivouac fires.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE LANDLORD OF THE "PINEAPPLE"
+
+Materne and his two boys walked for some time in silence.  The weather
+had become fine; the pale winter sun shone over the brilliant snow
+without melting it, and the ground remained firm and hard.
+
+In the distance, along the valley, stood out, with surprising
+clearness, the tops of the fir-trees, the reddish peaks of the rocks,
+the roofs of the hamlets, with their icy stalactites hanging from the
+eaves, their small sparkling windows, and sharp gables.
+
+People were walking in the street of Grandfontaine.  A troupe of young
+girls were standing round the washing-place; a few old men in cotton
+caps were smoking their pipes on the doorsteps of the little houses.
+All this little world, lying in the depths of the blue expanse, came,
+and went, and lived, without a sound or sigh reaching the ears of the
+foresters.
+
+The old hunter halted on the outskirts of the wood, and said to his
+sons: "I am going down to the village to see Dubreuil, the innkeeper of
+the 'Pineapple.'"
+
+And he pointed with his stick to a long white building, the doors and
+windows of which were surrounded with a yellow bordering, a pine-branch
+being suspended to the wall as a signboard.
+
+"You must await me here.  If there is no danger, I will come out on to
+the doorstep and raise my hat; you can then come and take a glass of
+wine with me."
+
+He immediately descended the snowy slopes to the little gardens lying
+above Grandfontaine, which took about ten minutes; he then made his way
+between two furrows, reached the meadow, and crossed the village
+square: his two sons, with their arms at their feet, saw him enter the
+inn.  A few seconds after he reappeared on the doorstep and raised his
+hat.
+
+Fifteen minutes later they had rejoined their father in the great room
+of the "Pineapple."  It was a rather low room with a sanded floor, and
+heated by a large iron stove.
+
+Excepting the innkeeper Dubreuil, the biggest and most apoplectic
+landlord in the Vosges, with immense paunch, round eyes, flat nose, a
+wart on his left cheek, and a triple chin reaching over his
+collar--with the exception of this curious individual, seated near the
+stove in a leather arm-chair, Materne was alone.  He had just filled
+the glasses.  The clock was striking nine, and its wooden cock flapped
+its wing with a peculiar scraping sound.
+
+"Good-day, Father Dubreuil," said the two youths in a gruff voice.
+
+"Good-day, my brave fellows," replied the innkeeper, trying to smile.
+
+Then, in an oily voice, he asked them, "Nothing new?"
+
+"Faith, no!" replied Kasper; "here is winter, the time for hunting
+boars."
+
+And they both, putting their carbines in the corner of the window,
+within reach, in case of attack, passed one leg across the bench, and
+sat down, facing their father, who was at the head of the table.
+
+At the same time they drank, saying, "To our healths!" which they were
+always very careful to do.
+
+"Thus," said Materne, turning to the fat man, as though taking up the
+threads of an interrupted conversation, "you think, Father Dubreuil,
+that we have nothing to fear from the wood of Baronies, and that we may
+hunt boar peaceably?"
+
+"Oh, as to that, I know nothing!" exclaimed the innkeeper; "only at
+present the allies have not passed Mutzig.  Besides, they harm no one;
+they receive all well-disposed people to fight against the usurper."
+
+"The usurper?  Who is he?"
+
+"Why, Napoleon Bonaparte, the usurper, to be sure.  Just look at the
+wall."
+
+He pointed to a great placard stuck on the wall, near the clock.
+
+"Look at that, and you will see that the Austrians are our true
+friends."
+
+Old Materne's eyebrows nearly met, but, repressing his feelings, "Oh,
+ah!" said he.
+
+"Yes, read that."
+
+"But I do not know how to read, Monsieur Dubreuil, nor my boys either.
+Explain to us what it is."
+
+Then the old innkeeper, leaning with his hands on the arms of his
+chair, arose, breathing like a calf, and placed himself in front of the
+placard, with his arms folded on his enormous paunch; and in a majestic
+tone he read a proclamation from the allied sovereigns, declaring "that
+they made war on Napoleon personally, and not on France.  Therefore
+everybody ought to keep quiet and not meddle in their affairs, under
+pain of being burnt, pillaged, and shot."
+
+The three hunters listened, and looked at each other with a strange air.
+
+When Dubreuil had finished, he reseated himself and said, "Now do you
+see?"
+
+"And where did you get that?" demanded Kasper.
+
+"That, my boy, is put up everywhere!"
+
+"Well, we are pleased with that," said Materne, laying his hand on
+Frantz's arm, who had risen with sparkling eyes.  "Dost thou want a
+light, Frantz?  Here is my flint."
+
+Frantz sat down again, and the old man continued, good-naturedly: "And
+our good friends the Germans take nothing from any one?"
+
+"Quiet, orderly people have nothing to fear; but as to the rascals who
+rise, all is taken from them.  And it is just--the good ought not to
+suffer for the wicked.  For example, instead of doing you any harm, the
+allies would receive you well at their head-quarters.  You know the
+country: you would serve as guides, and you would be richly paid."
+
+There was a slight pause.  The three hunters again looked at each
+other: the father had spread his hands on the table, as though to
+recommend calm to his sons; but even he was very pale.
+
+The innkeeper, observing nothing, continued: "You would have much more
+to fear in the woods of Baronies from those brigands of Dagsburg,
+Sarre, and Blanru, who have all revolted, and wish to have '93 over
+again."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" demanded Materne, making an effort to control
+himself.
+
+"Am I sure!  You have only to look out of the window and you will see
+them on the road to the Donon.  They have surprised the anabaptist
+Pelsly, and bound him to the foot of his bed.  They pillage, rob, break
+up the roads.  But beware!  In a few days they will see strange things.
+It is not with a thousand men that they will be attacked, not with ten
+thousand, but with millions.  They will all be hung."
+
+Materne rose.
+
+"It is time for us to be going," said he briefly.  "At two o'clock we
+must be at the wood, and here we are talking quietly like magpies!  Au
+revoir, Father Dubreuil."  They rushed out hastily, no longer able to
+contain their passion.
+
+"Think of what I have said," cried the innkeeper to them from his chair.
+
+Once in the open air, Materne, turning round, said, with trembling
+lips: "If I had not restrained myself, I should have broken the bottle
+on his head."
+
+"And I," said Frantz, "should have run him through with my bayonet."
+
+Kasper, one foot on the step, seemed about to re-enter the inn; he
+grasped the handle of his hunting-knife, and his face bore a terrible
+expression.  But his father took him by the arm and dragged him off,
+saying: "Come, come, we will deal with him later on.  To counsel me to
+betray the country!  Hullin told us to be on our guard: he was right."
+
+They went down the street, looking to the right and left with haggard
+eyes.  The people asked among themselves: What is the matter with them?
+
+On reaching the end of the village, they halted, in front of the old
+cross, close to the church, and Materne in a calmer tone, pointing out
+the path which winds round Phramond over the heath, said to his sons:
+"You must take that road.  I shall follow the route to Schirmeck.  I
+shall not go too fast, so that you may have time to come up with me."
+
+They parted, and the old hunter, with bowed head, walked on
+thoughtfully for a long time, asking himself by what inward strength he
+had been able to keep from breaking the fat innkeeper's head.  He said
+to himself that no doubt it was from fear of compromising his sons.
+
+While thinking over these things, Materne kept continually meeting
+herds of cattle, sheep and goats, which were being led into the
+mountain.  Some came from Wisch, Urmatt, and even from Mutzig; the poor
+beasts could scarcely stand.
+
+"Where the devil are you running so fast?" shouted the old hunter to
+the melancholy herdsmen.  "Have you then no confidence in the
+proclamation of the Austrians and Russians?"
+
+And they angrily answered: "It is easy for you to laugh.
+Proclamations! we know what they are worth now.  They pillage and rob
+everything, make forced contributions, carry off the horses, cows,
+oxen, and carts."
+
+"Nonsense! impossible!  What are you talking about?" said Materne.
+"You astound me!  Such worthy people, such good friends, the saviours
+of France.  I cannot believe you.  Such a beautiful proclamation as it
+was."
+
+"Well, go down to Alsace, and you will see."
+
+The poor creatures went on, shaking their heads in extreme indignation,
+and he laughed slyly.
+
+The farther Materne advanced, the number of herds became greater.
+There were not only troops of cattle bellowing and lowing, but flocks
+of geese, as far as the eye could reach, screeching and cackling,
+dragging themselves along the road with wings spread and half-frozen
+feet: it was piteous to see.
+
+It was worse still on approaching Schirmeck.  The people were flying in
+crowds, with their great wagons loaded with barrels, smoked meats,
+furniture, women and children.  They were lashing their horses almost
+to death on the road, and screaming in terrified voices: "We are lost;
+the Cossacks are coming."
+
+The cry of "The Cossacks! the Cossacks!" ran along the whole line like
+a puff of wind; the women turned round open-mouthed, and the children
+stood up on the wagons to get a better view.  You never beheld anything
+like it before; and Materne, angered, blushed for the terror of these
+people, who might have defended themselves; while selfishness and their
+desire to save their property, made them fly like cowards.
+
+At the crossing of the Fond-des-Saules quite close to Schirmeck, Kasper
+and Frantz rejoined their father, and the three entered the "Golden
+Key" tavern, kept by the Widow Faltaux, on the right side of the road.
+The poor woman and her two daughters were watching from a window the
+great migration with streaming eyes and clasped hands.
+
+In fact, the tumult increased every minute; the cattle, wagons, and
+people seemed eager to get away over each other's shoulders.  They no
+longer had any command of themselves: they were howling and striking
+about them in their desire to escape.
+
+Materne pushed the door open, and seeing the women more dead than
+alive, white and dishevelled, he shouted, striking his stick on the
+ground: "What, mother, have you too gone mad?  What! you, who owe a
+good example to your daughters,--have you lost courage?  it is a shame."
+
+The old woman turned round and said in a broken voice: "Ah, my poor
+Materne, if you only knew--if you only knew!"
+
+"Well, what then?  The enemy is coming: they won't eat you."
+
+"No; but they devour everything without mercy.  Old Ursula, of
+Schlestadt, came here yesterday evening.  She says that the Austrians
+only want 'Knöpfe' and 'Nudel,' the Russians 'Schnapps,' and the
+Bavarians 'Sauerkraut.'  And when they have stuffed all that down their
+throats, they cry out with their mouths still full, 'Schocolat!
+schocolat!'  O Lord, how can we feed all these people?"
+
+"I know well that is difficult," said the old hunter: "you can never
+satisfy a jay with white cheese.  But, first of all, where are these
+Cossacks, these Bavarians, these Austrians?  All the way from
+Grandfontaine we have not met even one."
+
+"They are in Alsace, on the Urmatt side, and they are coming here."
+
+"While waiting for them," said Kasper, "give us a bottle of wine.  Here
+is a three-crown piece: you will hide it easier than your barrels."
+
+One of the girls went to the cellar, and, at the same time, several
+other persons entered: an almanac-seller from Strasbourg, a wagoner
+from Sarrebrück in a blouse, and two or three townspeople from Hutzig,
+Wisch, and Schirmeck, who were flying with their herds, and were
+exhausted with shouting.
+
+All sat down at the same table, before the windows overlooking the
+road.  Wine was served them, and each began to relate what he knew.
+One said the allies were in such numbers that they had to sleep side by
+side in the valley of Hirschenthal, and they were so covered with
+vermin that, after their departure, the dead leaves walked of
+themselves in the woods; another, that the Cossacks had set fire to a
+village in Alsace, because they had been refused candles for dessert
+after dinner; that some of them, especially the Calmucks, ate soap like
+cheese and bacon-rind like cake; that many drank brandy by the pint,
+after having taken care to season it with handfuls of pepper; and that
+it was necessary to hide everything from them, for nothing came amiss
+to them for eating and drinking.
+
+The wagoner said, at this point, that three days before, a Russian
+corps-d'armée having passed the night under the ramparts of Bitsch, it
+had been compelled to remain more than an hour on the ice in the little
+village of Rorbach, and that the whole of this army corps had drunk out
+of a warming-pan left on the window-sill of an old woman's house; that
+this race of savages broke the ice to bathe, and afterward crept into
+the brick-kilns to dry; lastly, that they only feared Corporal Knout.
+
+These worthy folks communicated such singular things to each other,
+which they pretended to have seen with their own eyes, or heard from
+trustworthy sources, that one could with difficulty believe them.
+
+Outside, the tumult, rolling of wagons, lowing of herds, shouts of the
+drivers, and clamors of the fugitives, continued unceasingly, and
+produced the effect of a vast murmur.
+
+Toward noon Materne and his sons were going to leave, when a more
+prolonged shout than any of the others was heard: "The Cossacks! the
+Cossacks!"
+
+Then everybody rushed outside, except the hunters, who contented
+themselves with opening a window and looking out: they all ran away
+across the fields: men, herds, wagons and all, were dispersed like
+leaves in autumn.  In less than two minutes the road was deserted,
+except in Schirmeck, which was so encumbered, that it would have been
+impossible to walk four steps.  Materne, gazing far away along the
+road, cried, "I look in vain--I can see nothing."
+
+"Nor do I," rejoined Kasper.
+
+"Come, come," cried the old hunter, "I see clearly that the fear of all
+these people gives more strength to the enemy than he in fact
+possesses.  It is not in such a way we shall receive the Cossacks in
+the mountains; they will find who they have to deal with."
+
+Then, shrugging his shoulders with an expression of disgust, he said:
+"Fear is an odious thing, and after all we have only one poor life to
+lose.  Let us go."
+
+They quitted the inn, and the old man having taken the road to the
+valley, in order to climb the summit of the Hirschberg in front of
+them, his sons followed him.  They soon reached the outskirts of the
+wood, when Materne said that they must mount as high as possible, so as
+to see the whole plain, and bring back some positive news to the
+bivouac; that all the accounts of those cowards were not worth one good
+look by themselves.
+
+Kasper and Frantz agreed, and all three began to climb the slope, which
+forms a sort of advanced promontory commanding the plain.  When they
+reached the peak they distinctly saw the enemy's position, three
+leagues distant, between Urmatt and Lutzelhouse.  They formed great
+black lines on the snow: farther off were a few dark masses--no doubt,
+the artillery and baggage.  Other masses surrounded the villages, and,
+notwithstanding the distance, the sparkling of the bayonets announced
+that a column had just commenced marching toward Visch.
+
+After having contemplated this spectacle in silence for some minutes,
+the old man said, "We have decidedly thirty thousand men under our
+eyes.  They are advancing in our direction; we shall be attacked
+to-morrow, or the day after at the latest.  It will not be a trumpery
+affair, my boys; but if they are numerous we have the best of the
+position.  And then it is always agreeable to fire into a heap; there
+are no balls lost."
+
+Having made these judicious reflections, he looked at the height of the
+sun, and added: "It is now two o'clock; we know all we want.  Let us
+return to the bivouac."
+
+The youths slung their carbines crossways, and leaving to their left
+the valley of the Brocque, Schirmeck, and Framont, they climbed the
+steep banks of the Hengsbach, which overlook the Little Donon--two
+leagues distant--and came down again on the other side, without
+following any regular path through the snow, and only guiding
+themselves by the peaks in order to take a short cut.
+
+They continued thus for about two hours: the winter sun was going down
+to the horizon, night was approaching, bright and calm.  They had now
+only to descend, and then mount, on the other side, the solitary gorge
+of Kiel, forming a large circular basin in the midst of the woods, and
+enclosing a bluish pond, where the deer came sometimes to quench their
+thirst.
+
+Suddenly, as they were coming out from the underwood, not dreaming of
+anything, the old man, stopping behind a thick screen of shrubs, said
+"Chut!" and lifting his hand, pointed to the little lake, which was
+covered with thin clear ice.
+
+The two young fellows needed only to glance toward it to be greeted by
+a most strange sight.  About twenty Cossacks, with yellow shaggy
+beards, heads covered with old fur caps in the shape of stove-pipes,
+their lean legs draped in long rags, and their feet in rope stirrups,
+were seated on their little horses, with long floating manes and thin
+tails, their bodies speckled yellow, black and white, like goats.  Some
+had for their only weapon a long lance, others a sword, others an axe
+suspended by a cord to their saddle, and a large horse-pistol passed
+through their belts.  Several were looking upward with ecstasy on the
+green tops of the pines, rising by stages above each other into the
+clouds.  One great lanky fellow had broken the ice with the butt-end of
+his lance; and his little horse was drinking with outstretched neck and
+overhanging mane.  A few having dismounted, were clearing the snow and
+pointing to the wood--no doubt to indicate that it was a good place for
+encamping.  Their comrades on horseback were conversing and pointing to
+the bottom of the valley on their right, which descends in the form of
+a gap toward Grinderwald.
+
+Anyway it was a halt.  It is impossible to describe the strange and
+picturesque aspect of these fellows from a strange country, with their
+copper-colored faces, long beards, black eyes, flat heads, squat noses,
+and grayish tatters, on the banks of this lake, under the lofty
+perpendicular rocks lifting up their green pines to the skies.
+
+It seemed a new world in ours,--a sort of unknown and strange game,
+which the three red hunters at first contemplated with intense
+interest.  Having remained so for about five minutes, Kasper and Frantz
+fixed their long bayonets at the muzzle of their carbines, and then
+retired about twenty paces into the underwood.  They reached a rock,
+fifteen or twenty feet high, which Materne climbed, having no arms;
+then, after a few words exchanged in whispers, Kasper examined his
+priming and raised his musket slowly to his shoulder, while his brother
+stood by in readiness.
+
+One of the Cossacks--he who was letting his horse drink--was about two
+hundred paces from them.  The gun went off, awakening the deep echoes
+of the gorge; and the Cossack, spinning over his horse's head, plunged
+through the ice of the lake.
+
+It is impossible to describe the stupor of the party at this report.
+They looked round them in every direction: the echo replied as though
+it had been a general fusillade; while a puff of smoke rose above the
+clump of trees where the hunters were hiding.
+
+Kasper had reloaded his piece in a moment; but in the same space of
+time the dismounted Cossacks had bounded on their horses, and all took
+flight over the slope of the Hartz, one after the other, like roebucks,
+screaming wildly, "Hourah! hourah!"
+
+This flight was but the work of a moment: the instant Kasper took aim
+for the second time, the tail of the last horse disappeared in the
+bushes.
+
+The horse of the dead Cossack alone remained at the water's edge, held
+there by a singular circumstance: his master, whose head and part of
+whose body was in the water, had his foot still in the stirrup.
+
+Materne listened from his rock, then said joyously--"They are gone!
+Well, let us go and see.  Frantz, remain here.  Suppose any of them
+should return----?"
+
+Notwithstanding this recommendation, they all three approached near the
+horse.  Materne immediately took the bridle, saying:--"Come, old
+fellow, we are going to teach you to speak French."
+
+"Let us be off," exclaimed Kasper.
+
+"No, we must see what we have shot.  Don't you see that will be good
+for our comrades?  Dogs who have not sniffed the skin of the game are
+never well trained."
+
+Whereupon they fished the Cossack out of the pool, and having placed
+him across the horse, began to climb the side of the Donon by such a
+steep path, that Materne repeated, a hundred times at least,--"The
+horse will never go up there."  But the horse, with its long goat-like
+legs, passed more easily than they did; so that the old hunter wound up
+by remarking--"These Cossacks have famous horses.  If ever I grow old,
+I will keep him to go after the deer with.  We have a famous horse, my
+boys; with all his look of a cow, he is strong as a cart-horse."
+
+From time to time he also made reflections on the Cossack:--"What a
+queer face, eh!  A round nose and a forehead like a cheese-box.  There
+are certainly queer folks in the world!  Thou hast hit him well,
+Kasper; right in the middle of the chest.  And look! the ball came out
+at the back.  Capital powder!  Divès always keeps good articles."
+
+Toward six they heard the first shout of their sentinels: "Who goes
+there?"
+
+"France," replied Materne, advancing.
+
+Everybody ran to meet them.  "Here is Materne!"
+
+Hullin himself was as curious as the rest, and could not help hastening
+toward them with Doctor Lorquin.  The partisans were soon collected
+round the horse, with outstretched necks and open mouths, by the side
+of a large fire where the supper was cooking.
+
+"It is a Cossack," said Hullin, squeezing Materne's hand.
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude; we caught him at the pond of Kiel: it was Kasper who
+shot him."
+
+They stretched the corpse out near the fire.  His yellow face had
+strange shadows on it in the firelight.
+
+Doctor Lorquin, having looked at him, said: "It is a fine specimen of
+the Tartar race; if I had time, I should put it in a lime-bath, so as
+to obtain a skeleton of this tribe."
+
+He then knelt down, and opening the long tunic,--"The ball has
+traversed the pericardium, and has produced almost the same effect as
+aneurism of the heart."
+
+The others kept silence.
+
+Kasper, with his hand on the muzzle of his rifle, seemed quite
+contented with his game; and old Materne, rubbing his hands, said: "I
+was sure I would bring you back something: my boys and I never return
+empty-handed.  There now!"
+
+Hullin then pulled him aside.  They entered the farm together, and
+after the first surprise was over, every man began to make his own
+personal reflections on the Cossack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+ROUND THE WATCHFIRES
+
+That night, which was on a Friday, the anabaptist's little farm-house
+never ceased for an instant to be filled with people coming in and
+going out.
+
+Hullin had established his head-quarters in the large room on the
+ground floor, to the right of the barn, facing Framont: on the other
+side of the passage was the ambulance: the upper part was inhabited by
+the farm people.
+
+Although the night was very still and the stars were shining in
+myriads, the cold was so intense that there was nearly an inch of ice
+on the panes.
+
+Outside, one could hear the challenge of the sentinel, the passing of
+the patrols, and, on the surrounding peaks, the howling of the wolves,
+who followed our armies in hundreds since 1812.  These wild beasts
+crouched on the ice, their sharp muzzles between their paws, with
+hunger at their entrails, calling each other, from the Grosmann to the
+Donon, with moaning sounds like that of the north wind.
+
+It made more than one mountaineer grow pale.
+
+"It is Death who calls," thought they; "he scents the battle, he
+summons us!"
+
+The oxen lowed in the stables, and the horses gave frightful neighs.
+
+About thirty fires blazed on the plateau; all the anabaptist's wood was
+taken; fagots were heaped one upon another.  Their faces were scorched,
+and their backs frozen; they warmed their backs, and the ice hung from
+their mustaches.
+
+Hullin, alone, before the great pinewood table, was taking thought for
+all.  According to the latest tidings of the evening, announcing the
+arrival of the Cossacks at Framont, he was convinced that the first
+attack would take place the next day.  He had distributed cartridges,
+doubled the sentries, appointed patrols, and marked all the posts along
+the outworks.  Every one knew beforehand what place he was to occupy.
+
+Hullin had also sent orders to Piorette, Jérome of St. Quirin, and
+Labarbe, to send him their best marksmen.
+
+The little dark pathway, lit by a dim lantern, was full of snow, and
+passing under the immovable light every instant one could see the
+chiefs of the ambush, with their hats pressed down to their ears, the
+ample sleeves of their great-coats pulled down over their wrists, with
+their dark eyes and beards stiffened with ice.
+
+Pluto no longer growled at the heavy step of these men.  Hullin, with
+his head between his hands and his elbows on the table, listened
+thoughtfully to all their reports:--
+
+"Master Jean-Claude, there is a movement in the direction of
+Grandfontaine; and the sounds of galloping are distinguishable."
+
+"Master Jean-Claude, the brandy is frozen."
+
+"Master Jean-Claude, many of the men are in want of powder."
+
+"They are in want of this: they are in want of that."
+
+"Let some one be sent to watch Grandfontaine, and let the sentries on
+that side be changed every half-hour."  "Let the brandy be brought to
+the fire."  "Wait until Divès comes: he brings us ammunition.  Let the
+remainder of the cartridges be distributed.  Let those who have more
+than twenty give some to their comrades."
+
+And so it went on all the night.
+
+At five in the morning, Kasper, Materne's son, came to tell Hullin that
+Marc Divès, with a load of cartridges, Catherine Lefèvre on a cart, and
+a detachment from Labarbe, had just arrived together, and that they
+were already on the plateau.
+
+The tidings pleased him, especially on account of the cartridges, for
+he had feared delay.
+
+He immediately rose and went out with Kasper.  The plateau presented a
+curious spectacle.
+
+On the approach of day, clouds of mist began to rise from the valley,
+the fires hissed with the damp, and all around could be seen sleeping
+men: one stretched on his back, with his arms thrown under his hat, a
+blue face, and doubled-up legs; another with his cheek on his arm and
+his back to the fire; the greater number seated, with bent heads and
+their muskets slung across their shoulders.  All was silent, wrapped in
+purple light or gray tints, just as the fire blazed or smouldered.
+Then, in the distance, could be discerned the profile of the sentinels,
+with their muskets across their arms or clubbed upon the ground, gazing
+into the cloud-filled abyss beneath them.
+
+To the right, fifty paces from the last fire, could be heard the
+neighing of horses, and people stamping with their feet to warm
+themselves, and talking aloud.
+
+"Master Jean-Claude is coming," said Kasper, going toward them.
+
+One of the partisans having thrown a few sticks of dry wood on to the
+fire, there was a bright blaze; and Marc Divès's men on horseback,
+twelve tall fellows, wrapped in their long gray cloaks, their felts
+slouched back over their shoulders, with their long mustaches either
+turned up or falling down to their necks, their sabres in their grasp,
+stood motionless round the load of cartridges.  Farther on Catherine
+Lefèvre crouched down in her cart, her hood over her face, her feet in
+the straw, her back against a large barrel.  Behind her was a caldron,
+a gridiron, a fresh-killed pig, scalded all white and red, with some
+strings of onions and cabbages for making soup.  All stood out of the
+darkness for a second, and then relapsed into night.
+
+Divès, having quitted the convoy, advanced on his powerful horse.
+
+"Is it you, Jean-Claude?"
+
+"Yes, Marc."
+
+"I have some few thousand cartridges there.  Hexe-Baizel is working day
+and night."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Yes, old fellow.  And Catherine Lefèvre brings provisions as well; she
+killed yesterday."
+
+"All right, Marc: we shall want all that.  The battle is impending."
+
+"Yes, yes, I thought so; we came quickly.  Where is the powder to be
+put?"
+
+"There, under the cart-house behind the farm.  Ah, is that you,
+Catherine?"
+
+"Of course, Jean-Claude.  It is dreadfully cold this morning!"
+
+"You are always the same.  Have you no fear?"
+
+"What! should I be a woman if I were not curious?  I must poke my nose
+everywhere."
+
+"Yes, you always make excuses for the fine and noble things you do."
+
+"Hullin, you are wearisome with your repetitions; let me alone with
+your compliments.  Must not all those people eat?  Can they live on air
+in such weather as this?  And is not air fattening on a day so
+cold--like needles and razors.  So I took my measures.  Yesterday we
+slaughtered an ox--poor Schwartz, you know--he weighed a good nine
+hundred.  I have brought his hind-quarters for this morning's soup."
+
+"Catherine, it is in vain I have known you so long," cried Jean-Claude,
+quite touched; "you are always astonishing me.  No sacrifice is too
+great for you, neither money, care, nor trouble."
+
+"Ah," replied the old farm-wife, rising and springing from her cart,
+"you tease and worry me, Jean-Claude.  I am going to warm myself."
+
+She gave Dubourg the reins of her horse, and looking back, said,
+"Jean-Claude, those fires are a pleasure to behold.  But where is
+Louise?"
+
+"Louise spent the night cutting and sewing bandages with Pelsly's two
+daughters.  She is at the ambulance: over there you see, where the
+light is shining."
+
+"Poor child!" said Catherine, "I will go and help her.  That will warm
+me."
+
+Hullin watched her retreating figure, and made a gesture, as though
+saying, "What a woman!"
+
+At this moment, Divès and his people were carrying the powder into the
+shed, and as Jean-Claude approached the nearest fire, what was his
+surprise to see, among the crowd of partisans, Yégof the madman,
+crowned as usual, gravely seated on a stone, with his feet in the
+ashes, and draped in his rags as though they were a royal mantle.
+
+Anything more strange than this figure by the fire-light could not be
+imagined.  Yégof was the only one awake of the crowd, and might readily
+have been taken for some barbarian king musing in the midst of his
+sleeping horde.
+
+Hullin only saw in him a madman, and laying his hand softly on his
+shoulder, said, ironically:
+
+"I salute thee, Yégof!  Thou art come, then, to lend us the help of thy
+invincible arm and of thy countless armies?"
+
+The madman, without showing the least surprise, replied: "That depends
+on thee, Hullin; thy fate, and that of all these people, is in thy
+hands.  I have suspended my anger, and I will allow thee to pronounce
+sentence."
+
+"What sentence?" demanded Jean-Claude.
+
+The other, without replying, continued, in a low solemn voice: "Behold
+us two on the eve of a great battle, as we were sixteen hundred years
+ago.  At that time, I, the chief of so many people, came among thy
+tribe to ask a passage."
+
+"Sixteen hundred years ago!" said Hullin.  "Zounds!  Yégof, that makes
+us terribly old!  But it is of no consequence--each to his taste."
+
+"Yes," rejoined the madman, "but, with thy usual obstinacy, thou
+wouldst hear nothing.  Men died on the Blutfeld--men who now call for
+vengeance!"
+
+"Ah, the Blutfeld!" said Jean-Claude.  "Yes, yes, an old story; I seem
+to have heard it before."
+
+Yégof reddened, and his eyes sparkled.
+
+"Thou pridest thyself on thy victory!" cried he; "but take care--take
+care! blood calls for blood!"  And in a calmer tone, "Listen," he
+added.  "I am not angry with thee.  Thou art brave; the children of thy
+race might mingle with those of mine.  I am anxious for an alliance
+with thee--thou knowest it."
+
+"There, he is going to begin about Louise," thought Jean-Claude.  And,
+foreseeing a formal demand, he said: "Yégof, I am sorry, but I must
+leave thee.  I have so much to see after----"
+
+The madman did not wait the end of this leave-taking, and rising, with
+his face distorted by indignation, "Thou refusest me thy daughter?"
+cried he, lifting his finger solemnly.
+
+"We will talk of that later on."
+
+"Thou refusest!"
+
+"Yégof, thy shouts will awaken every one."
+
+"Thou refusest, and it is for the third time!  Beware! beware!"
+
+Hullin, despairing of making him become more reasonable, walked rapidly
+away, but the madman furiously pursued him with these strange words:
+
+"Huldrix, woe on thee!  Thy last hour is at hand; the wolves are coming
+to feed upon thy carcass.  All is over.  I let loose the tempests of my
+wrath; and neither to thee nor thine shall mercy, pity, or pardon be
+shown.  Thou hast so willed it."
+
+And, flinging his rags over his shoulder, the poor wretch went away in
+the direction of the peak of Donon.
+
+Some of the volunteers, awakened by his cries, looked up drowsily, and
+saw him disappearing in the darkness.  They heard the fluttering of
+wings round the fire; then, as though it were a dream, they turned
+round and fell asleep again.
+
+About an hour later, Lagarmitte sounded the _reveille_; and in a few
+minutes all were on their feet.
+
+The chiefs of the ambuscade collected their men: some went toward the
+shed, to obtain cartridges; others filled their gourds with brandy from
+the cask.  All this was done in good order, their chiefs being at the
+head of each body of men; then the several companies disappeared in the
+gray morning light toward the out-posts on the hill-sides.
+
+When the sun rose, the plateau was quite deserted, and, with the
+exception of five or six fires which were still burning, there was no
+sign that the partisans were in possession of all the posts on the
+mountain, or in what place they had passed the night.
+
+Hullin hurriedly ate a crust and drank a glass of wine with his friends
+Doctor Lorquin and Pelsly the anabaptist.
+
+Lagarmitte was with them, for he was not allowed to leave Master
+Jean-Claude all day, and had to transmit his orders in case of need.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+"FORWARD!  FORWARD!"
+
+At seven o'clock there was no sign of any movement in the valley.
+
+From time to time, Doctor Lorquin opened one of the windows in the
+large room and looked out.  Nothing was stirring; the fires had
+smouldered away; all was still.
+
+In front of the farm, on a bank, about a hundred feet distant, the
+Cossack could be seen who had been killed the previous evening by
+Kasper.  He was white with the frost, and as hard as a stone.
+
+In the interior, a fire had been made in the great iron stove.
+
+Louise sat near her father, looking at him with an inexpressible
+affection, as though she feared never to see him again.  Her red eyes
+showed that she had been crying.
+
+Hullin, though firm, looked not a little moved.  The doctor and the
+anabaptist, both grave and serious, talked over the present position of
+affairs, and Lagarmitte, from behind the stove, listened to them with
+deep interest.
+
+"We are not only right, but it is our duty to defend ourselves," said
+the doctor.  "Our fathers cleared these woods and cultivated them: they
+are our legitimate inheritance."
+
+"No doubt," returned the anabaptist, sententiously; "but it is written,
+'Thou shalt not kill.  Thou shalt not shed thy brother's blood!'"
+
+Catherine Lefèvre, who was in the act of cutting a slice of ham,
+evidently felt impatient at this conversation, and, turning round
+sharply, replied to him: "If that were true, and your religion were
+right, the Germans, Russians, and all these red men might take the
+clothes off our backs.  'Tis fine, that religion of yours; yes, fine,
+for it gives the rogues such an advantage!  It helps them to pillage
+people of substance.  I am sure the allies would wish for us no better
+religion than yours.  Unfortunately, everybody does not care to live
+like sheep.  As for me, Pelsly--and I say it without wishing to annoy
+you--I consider it folly to grow rich for the benefit of others.  But,
+after all, you are honest folks; one cannot be angry with you: you have
+been brought up from father to son in the same notions: what the
+grandfather thought, the grandson thinks also.  But we will defend you
+in spite of yourselves; and afterward we will let you tell us of the
+peace eternal.  I am fond of discourses on peace, when I have nothing
+else to do, and when I am thinking after dinner: then it rejoices my
+heart."
+
+After having said this, she turned round and went on carving her ham.
+
+Pelsly opened his mouth and eyes, and Doctor Lorquin burst out laughing.
+
+Just then the door opened, and one of the sentries who had been
+stationed on the edge of the plateau, cried out, "Master Jean-Claude,
+come and see.  I believe they are mounting the hill."
+
+"It is well, Simon; I am coming," said Hullin, rising.  "Louise, kiss
+me.  Have courage, my child.  Do not fear; all will go well."
+
+He pressed her to his breast, her eyes swollen with tears.  She seemed
+more dead than alive.
+
+"Above all," said the worthy man, addressing Catherine, "let no one go
+outside or near the windows."
+
+Then he darted out into the road.
+
+All those present turned pale.
+
+When Master Jean-Claude had reached the verge of the hill, and cast his
+eyes over Grandfontaine and Framont, three thousand mètres below, the
+following sight presented itself to his eyes:
+
+The Germans, who had arrived the evening before, a few hours after the
+Cossacks, and had passed the night (about five or six thousand of them)
+in the barns, stables, and sheds, were moving about like ants.  They
+appeared on all sides in bodies of ten, fifteen, and twenty, buckling
+their knapsacks and swords, and fixing their bayonets.
+
+Besides these, the cavalry--the Uhlans, Cossacks, Hussars--in green,
+blue, and gray uniforms striped with red and yellow--with their glazed
+linen and sheepskin caps, colbacks, and helmets--were saddling their
+horses and hastily rolling up their long cloaks.
+
+Meanwhile the officers, in their great military cloaks, came down the
+small staircase: some were looking up at the country; others were
+embracing the women on the doorsteps.
+
+Trumpeters, with their hands on their sides, were sounding the
+roll-call at all the corners of the streets, and the drummers
+tightening the cords of their instruments.
+
+In short, through the broad expanse, one could see all their military
+attitudes as they were on the point of starting.
+
+A few peasants, leaning out of their windows, were watching the scene;
+women were showing themselves at the loopholes of the garrets; and the
+innkeepers were filling the gourds, Corporal Knout watching them
+meanwhile.
+
+[Illustration: BIG DUBREUIL, THE FRIEND OF THE ALLIES.]
+
+Hullin's sight was keen, and nothing escaped him; besides, for years he
+had been accustomed to this sort of thing; but Lagarmitte, who had
+never seen anything like it, was stupefied: "There are great numbers of
+them," he exclaimed, shaking his head.
+
+"Bah! what does that matter?" said Hullin.  "In my days we exterminated
+three armies of them, of fifty thousand each, in six months; we were
+not one against four.  All that thou seest there would not have been a
+breakfast for us.  And besides, you may be sure, we shall not have to
+kill them all; they will run like hares.  I have seen it before."
+
+After these remarks, he resolved to inspect his men.  "Come on," he
+said to the herdsman.
+
+Then the two made their way behind the abatis, following a trench made
+two days before in the snow, which had been frozen as hard as ice: the
+felled trees in front of it, formed an insurmountable barrier, which
+extended about six hundred mètres.  Below this was the broken-up road.
+
+On coming near, Jean-Claude saw the mountaineers of Dagsburg crouching
+at distances of twenty paces from each, other, in a sort of round nests
+which they had dug out for themselves.
+
+All these fine fellows were sitting on their knapsacks, with their
+gourds to their right hand, their felts or foxskin caps drawn down upon
+their heads, and their guns between their knees.  They had only to rise
+to have a clear view of the road fifty feet below, at the foot of a
+slippery descent.
+
+Jean-Claude's arrival pleased them much.
+
+"Ho, Master Hullin, shall we soon begin?"
+
+"Yes, my boys, never fear; before an hour we shall be at it."
+
+"Ah, so much the better!"
+
+"Yes, but take care to aim at the breast: do not hurry, and show
+yourselves no more than you can help."
+
+"You may rest assured, Master Jean-Claude."
+
+He passed on; but everywhere he met with a like reception.
+
+"Do not forget," said he, "to stop firing when Lagarmitte sounds his
+horn: it would be only powder lost."
+
+Coming up to old Materne, who commanded all these men--numbering about
+two hundred and fifty--he found him smoking his pipe, his nose fiery
+red, and his beard stiffened with the cold.
+
+"At, it is thou, Jean-Claude."
+
+"Yes, I have come to shake your hand."
+
+"In good time.  But why are they so slow in coming--tell me that?  Are
+they going to march off in another direction?"
+
+"Don't be afraid: they need the road for their artillery and baggage.
+Hark! they are sounding 'to horse.'"
+
+"Yes, I have seen already that they are preparing."  Then, chuckling to
+himself: "Thou dost not know, Jean-Claude, what a funny thing I saw, a
+few minutes ago, as I was looking toward Grandfontaine."
+
+"What was it, my old friend?"
+
+"I saw four Germans lay hold of big Dubreuil, the friend of the allies:
+they stretched him on the stone bench by his door, and one great lanky
+fellow gave him I know not how many cuts with a stick across his back.
+Ha, ha, ha, he must have yelled, the old rascal!  I will wager that he
+refused something to his good friends,--his wine of the year XI. for
+instance."
+
+Hullin heard no more: for, casting his eyes accidentally down the
+valley, he caught sight of an infantry regiment coming up the road.
+Farther back in the street, cavalry were seen coming, five or six
+officers galloping in front of them.
+
+"Ah, ah! there they come!" cried the old soldier, whose face glowed
+suddenly with an expression of strange energy and enthusiasm.  "At last
+they have made up their minds!"  Then he rushed out of the trench,
+shouting: "Attention, my children!"
+
+Passing by, he saw Riffi, the little tailor of Charmes, bending over a
+long musket: the little man had been piling up the snow to give him a
+better position for aiming.  Farther up, he saw the old wood-cutter
+Rochart, his great shoes trimmed with sheepskin: he had taken a gulp at
+his gourd, and was rising deliberately, having his carbine under his
+arm and his cotton cap over his ears.
+
+That was all: for in order to command the whole of the action, he had
+to climb almost to the summit of the Donon, where there is a rock.
+
+Lagarmitte followed, striding till his long legs looked like stilts.
+Ten minutes after, when they had reached the top of the rock,
+half-breathless, they perceived, fifteen hundred mètres below them, the
+enemy's column, three thousand strong, with white great-coats, leather
+belts, cloth gaiters, tall shakos, and red mustaches; and in the spaces
+formed by the companies, the young officers, with flat caps, waving
+their swords, and shouting in shrill voices: "Forward! forward!"
+
+These troops were bristling with bayonets, and advancing at the charge
+toward the breastworks.
+
+Old Materne, his beaked nose rising above a juniper branch and his brow
+erect, was also watching the arrival of the Germans; and as he was very
+clear-sighted, he could distinguish even faces among the crowd, and
+choose the man he wished to knock over.
+
+In the centre of the column, on a large bay horse, an old officer was
+advancing right ahead, with a white wig, a three-cornered hat trimmed
+with gold, his waist encircled with a yellow scarf, and his breast
+decorated with ribbons.  When this personage raised his head, the peak
+of his hat, surmounted by a tuft of black plumes, formed a vizor.  He
+had great wrinkles along his cheeks, and looked sufficiently stern.
+
+"There is my man!" thought the old hunter, deliberately taking aim.
+
+He fired, and when he looked again the old officer had disappeared.
+
+Immediately the whole hill-side became enveloped in fire all along the
+intrenchment; but the Germans, without replying, continued to advance
+toward the breastworks, their guns on their shoulders, and as steadily
+as though on parade.
+
+To tell the truth, more than one brave mountaineer, father of a family,
+seeing this forest of bayonets coming up, and notwithstanding the
+excitement of battle, felt that he would have done better had he
+remained in his village, than to have mixed himself up in such an
+affair.  But, as the proverb says, "The wine was drawn, and it had to
+be drunk."
+
+Riffi, the little tailor, recalled the words of his wife Sapience:
+"Riffi, you will get yourself crippled, and it will serve you right."
+
+He vowed a costly offering to St. Leon's Chapel should he return from
+the war; but at the same time he resolved to make good use of his
+musket.
+
+When they were about two hundred feet from the breastworks, the Germans
+halted and began a rolling fire, such as had never been heard in the
+mountain before.  It was a regular storm of shot: the balls in hundreds
+tore away the branches, sent bits of broken ice flying in all
+directions, or flattened themselves on the rocks on every side, leaping
+up with a strange hissing noise, and passing by like flocks of pigeons.
+
+All this did not stop the mountaineers from continuing their fire, but
+it could no longer be heard.  The whole hill-side was wrapped in blue
+smoke, which prevented their taking any aim.
+
+About ten minutes later, there was the rolling of a drum, and all this
+mass of men made a rush at the breastworks, their officers shouting,
+"Forward!"
+
+The earth shook with them.
+
+Materne, springing up in the trench, with quivering lips and in a
+terrible voice, cried out, "To your feet! to your feet!"
+
+It was time: for a good number of these Germans,--nearly all students
+in philosophy, law, and medicine, heroes of the taverns of Munich,
+Jena, and other places--who fought against us, because they had been
+promised great things after Napoleon's fall--all these intrepid fellows
+were climbing the icy slope, and endeavoring to jump into the
+intrenchment.
+
+But they were received with the butt-end of the musket, and fell back
+in disorder.
+
+It was then that the gallant conduct of the old wood-cutter Rochart was
+observable, knocking over, as he did, more than ten "kaiserlichs," whom
+he took by the shoulder and hurled down the incline.  Old Materne's
+bayonet was red with blood; and little Riffi never ceased loading his
+musket and firing into the mass of Germans with great spirit.  Joseph
+Larnette, who unluckily received a bullet in his eye; Hans Baumgarten,
+who had his shoulder smashed; Daniel Spitz, who lost two fingers by a
+sabre-cut, and many others, whose names should be honored and revered
+for ages--all these never once left off firing and reloading their guns.
+
+Below the slope fearful cries were heard, while above nothing but
+bristling bayonets and men on horseback were to be seen.
+
+This lasted a good quarter of an hour.  No one knew what the Germans
+would do, since there was no passage; when they suddenly decided on
+going away.  Most of the students had fallen, and the others--old
+campaigners used to honorable retreats--no longer fought with the same
+steadiness.
+
+At first they retreated slowly, then more quickly.  Their officers
+struck them from behind with the flat end of their swords; the
+musketry-fire pursued them; and, finally, they ran away with as much
+precipitation as they had been orderly in advancing.
+
+Materne, and fifty others, rose upon the barricades, the old hunter
+brandishing his carbine, and bursting into hearty roars of laughter.
+
+At the foot of the bank were heaps of wounded dragging themselves along
+the ground.  The trodden-down snow was red with blood.  In the midst of
+the piles of dead were two young officers, still alive, but unable to
+disengage themselves from their dead horses.
+
+It was horrible!  But men are, in fact, savages: there was not one
+among the mountaineers who pitied those poor wretches; but, on the
+contrary, they seemed to rejoice at the sight.
+
+Little Riffi, transported with a noble enthusiasm, just then glided out
+along the bank.  To the left, underneath the breastworks, he had caught
+sight of.  a superb horse, which had belonged to the colonel killed by
+Materne, and had retired unhurt into his nook.
+
+"Thou shalt be mine," said he to himself.  "Sapience will be
+astonished!"
+
+All the others envied him.  He seized the horse by the bridle and
+sprang upon him; but judge of the general stupefaction, and of Riffi's
+in particular, when this noble animal began to shape his course toward
+the Germans in full gallop.
+
+The little tailor lifted his hands to heaven, imploring God and all the
+saints.
+
+Materne would have liked much to fire; but he dared not, the horse went
+so fast.
+
+At last Riffi disappeared amid the bayonets of the enemy.
+
+Everybody thought he had been killed.  However, an hour later, he was
+to be seen passing along the main street of Grandfontaine, his hands
+tied behind him, and Corporal Knout at his back, bearing his emblem of
+office.
+
+Poor Riffi!  He alone did not partake of the triumph, and his comrades
+laughed at his misfortune, as though he had been but a "kaiserlich."
+
+Such is the character of men; so long as they are happy themselves, the
+misery of others grieves them but little.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE BATTLE RENEWED
+
+The mountaineers were almost beside themselves with enthusiasm: they
+lifted their hands and bepraised one another, as if they were the cream
+of mankind.
+
+Catherine, Louise, Doctor Lorquin and all the others came out of the
+farm, cheering and congratulating each other, gazing at the marks of
+the bullets and at the bank blackened with powder; then at Joseph
+Larnette stretched in his hole, having his head smashed; at Baumgarten,
+who, with his arm hanging down, walked in great pallor toward the
+ambulance; and then at Daniel Spitz, who, in spite of his sabre-cut,
+wanted to stay and fight; but the doctor would not hear of it, and
+forced him to enter the farm.
+
+Louise came up with the little cart, and poured out brandy for the
+combatants; while Catherine Lefèvre, standing at the edge of the
+sloping bank, watched the dead and wounded scattered over the road, and
+led up to by long lines of blood.  There were both young and old among
+them, with faces white as wax, wide-opened eyes, and outstretched arms.
+Some few tried to raise themselves, but no sooner had they done so than
+they fell back again; others looked up as though they were afraid of
+receiving some more bullets, and dragged themselves along the bank in
+order to get under shelter.
+
+Many of them seemed resigned to their fate, and were looking for a
+place to die, or else watching their retreating regiment on its way to
+Framont--that regiment with which they had quitted their homes, with
+which they had made a long campaign, and which was now abandoning them!
+"It will see old Germany again!" they thought.  "And when some one asks
+the captain or the sergeant, 'Did you know such a one--Hans, Kasper,
+Nickel, of the 1st or of the 2d company?' they will reply, 'Ah!  I
+think so.  Had he not a scar on the ear, or on the cheek? fair or dark
+hair? five feet six in height?  Yes, I know him.  He was buried in
+France, near a little village whose name I do not remember.  Some
+mountaineers killed him the same day big Major Yéri-Peter was killed.
+He was a fine fellow!'  And then it is, 'Good-day to you.'"
+
+Perhaps, too, there were some of them who dreamed of their mother, or
+of a pretty girl left behind them, Gretchen or Lotchen, who had given,
+them a ribbon, and shed hot tears when they left: "I will await thy
+return, Kasper.  I will only marry thee!  Yes, yes, thou wilt have to
+wait long!"
+
+It was not pleasant to think of.
+
+Madame Lefèvre, seeing this, thought of Gaspard.  Hullin, who came up
+with Lagarmitte, cried out in a joyous tone, "Well, my boys, you have
+been under fire.  Bravo! everything goes well.  The Germans will have
+no occasion to boast of this day."
+
+Then he embraced Louise, and hurried up to Catherine.
+
+"Are you satisfied, Catherine?  There! our success is certain.  But
+what is the matter?  You do not smile."
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude, all goes well.  I am satisfied.  But look down at
+the road.  What a butchery!"
+
+"It is only what happens in war," replied Hullin, gravely.
+
+"Could we not go and help that little fellow down there, who watches us
+with his large blue eyes?  He makes me feel so sad.  Or that tall, dark
+man, who is binding his leg with his handkerchief?"
+
+"Impossible, Catherine.  I am very sorry.  We should have to cut steps
+in the ice to get down, and the Germans, who will be back in an hour or
+two, would take advantage of them.  Let us go.  The victory must be
+announced in all the villages--to Labarbe, Jérome, and Piorette.  Ho!
+Simon, Niklo, Marchal, come here.  You will have to set out
+immediately, and carry the great tidings to our comrades.  Materne,
+keep thy eyes open, and warn me at the slightest movement."
+
+They approached the farm, and, as he passed, Jean-Claude took a look at
+the reserve, Marc Divès being on horseback surrounded by his men.  The
+smuggler complained bitterly of being left with nothing to do, as if
+his honor were tarnished thereby.
+
+"Bah!" said Hullin, "so much the better!  Besides, thou keepest guard
+over our right.  Look at that flat ground down there.  If we are
+attacked from that point, thou wilt have to march!"
+
+Divès made no answer; he looked both sad and indignant, nor did his
+stalwart smugglers, wrapped in their cloaks, their long swords hanging
+by their sides, seem at all in a better humor; one might have said that
+they were meditating some revenge.
+
+Hullin, not succeeding in consoling them, entered the farm-house.
+Doctor Lorquin was extracting the ball from Baumgarten's wound, who was
+making terrible cries.
+
+Pelsly, on the doorstep, was trembling all over.  Jean-Claude asked him
+for paper and ink, in order to transmit his orders through the
+mountain; but the poor anabaptist could hardly give them to him, so
+great was his trouble.  However, he succeeded at last, and the
+messengers departed, proud of being charged to announce the first
+battle and victory.
+
+A few mountaineers were in the large room, warming themselves at the
+oven and talking animatedly.  Daniel Spitz had already undergone
+amputation of his two fingers, and sat behind the stove with his hand
+bound up.
+
+Those who had been posted behind the abatis before daybreak, not having
+breakfasted, were now eating a crust of bread and drinking a glass of
+wine, shouting, gesticulating, and making great bravado meanwhile.
+Then they went out, looked at the intrenchments, came back to warm
+themselves again, and laughed fit to split their sides when they spoke
+of Riffi, and his wails and cries on horseback.
+
+It was eleven o'clock.  These incomings and outgoings lasted till
+twelve, when Marc Divès suddenly came into the room, calling
+out:--"Hullin!  Where is Hullin?"
+
+"Here I am."
+
+"Well, then, come!"
+
+The smuggler's tone had something remarkable about it: from being a
+moment before furious at having taken no part in the fight, he had now
+become triumphant.  Jean-Claude followed him, feeling very uneasy: and
+the large room was immediately deserted, everybody being convinced,
+from Marc's manner, that there was something serious the matter.
+
+To the right of the Donon extends the ravine of Minières, through which
+runs a foaming torrent when the snows melt--descending from the summit
+of the mountain to the valley.
+
+Exactly in front of the plateau defended by the partisans, and on the
+other side of this ravine, at a distance of five or six hundred mètres,
+projects a sort of open terrace with rugged sides, which Hullin had
+considered unnecessary to occupy for the time, wishing not to divide
+his forces, and seeing, besides, that it would be easy for him to turn
+this position by the pine-clumps, and to establish himself there, if
+the enemy showed any intention to take it.
+
+Now imagine the consternation of the worthy man when, on reaching the
+door of the farm-house, he saw two companies of Germans climbing this
+ascent, among the gardens of Grandfontaine, having two field-pieces
+yoked to powerful horses, which appeared to hang over the precipice.  A
+troop was pushing at the wheels, and in a few seconds the guns would
+have reached the plateau.
+
+It was like a thunder-bolt for Jean-Claude; he turned pale, and then
+into a great passion with Divès.
+
+"Couldst thou not have warned me sooner?" he cried.  "Did I not command
+thee to watch over the ravine?  Our position is turned.  They will hem
+us in, and cut us off from the road farther on.  Everything is going to
+the deuce."
+
+The people present, and old Materne himself, who had come up in great
+haste, were startled by the glance he darted at the smuggler; who,
+notwithstanding his usual audacity, was quite confused, not knowing
+what to reply.
+
+"Come, come, Jean-Claude," said he at last, "be calm.  It is not so
+serious as thou sayest.  We have not fought yet--we others; and
+besides, we have no cannons--so it will be the very thing for us."
+
+"Yes, the very thing for us, imbecile!  Thy self-love made thee wait
+till the last minute, did it not?  Thou wert too eager to fight, and
+have an opportunity for boasting and making bravado; and for that thou
+didst not hesitate to risk all our lives.  Look! there are other troops
+being got ready at Framont."
+
+In fact, another column, much stronger than the first, was just then
+marching out of Framont at the charge, and advancing against the
+breastworks.  Divès did not say a word.  Hullin controlled his anger,
+and became suddenly calm in the presence of danger.
+
+"Go back to your posts," he said briefly to those around him.  "Let all
+be ready for the coming attack.  Materne, listen!"
+
+The old hunter inclined his head.  Meanwhile, Marc Divès had recovered
+his self-possession.
+
+"Instead of screaming like a woman," said he, "thou wouldst do better
+to give me orders to attack down there, by turning the ravine at the
+pine-clumps."
+
+"Then do it!" replied Jean-Claude; and in a calmer tone: "Listen, Marc!
+I am very angry with thee.  We were conquerors; and by thy fault the
+battle has to be fought over again.  If thou failest in thy attack, all
+is lost for us."
+
+"Good! good!  The affair is altogether mine: I will answer for it."
+
+Then, springing on his horse, and throwing the end of his mantle over
+his shoulder, he drew his long blade with a defiant air.  His men did
+the same.
+
+He then turned to the reserve, composed of five hundred mountaineers,
+and showing the plateau to them with the point of his sword, said,
+"Look there, my men! we must carry that position.  The men of Dagsburg
+must not say that they are braver than the men of the Sarre.  Forward!"
+And, full of ardor, they advanced, skirting the ravine.  Hullin shouted
+to them--"At the point of your bayonets!"
+
+The big smuggler, on his great sleek roan, turned round, laughing out
+of the corners of his mustache, and waved his sword in a significant
+way; then the whole body dashed into the pine-wood.
+
+At the same time the Germans, with their eight-pounders, had gained the
+plateau, and were putting them in position, while the column from
+Framont was ascending the hill-side.  Thus everything was in the same
+condition as before the battle,--with this difference, that the
+enemies' bullets would now come into play and take the mountaineers in
+the rear.
+
+One could see distinctly the two field-pieces with their cramp-irons,
+levers, sponges, artillerymen, and the officer commanding, a great
+lanky fellow, with broad shoulders and fair mustaches floating in the
+wind.  The blue shades of the valley seeming to diminish the distance,
+they looked as though you might have touched them; but Hullin and
+Materne were not to be deceived; it was a good six hundred mètres
+across.  No carbine could reach so far.  Nevertheless, the old hunter,
+before returning to the abatis, wished to have his mind set quite at
+rest.  He advanced as close as possible to the ravine, followed by
+his-son Kasper and a few mountaineers; and, leaning against a tree, he
+raised his gun deliberately and took aim at the tall officer with the
+fair mustaches.  All those about him held their breath for fear of
+balking the attempt.
+
+Materne fired, but when he laid down his weapon to see what had
+occurred, no change had taken place.
+
+"It is astonishing how age weakens the sight," he said.
+
+"Your weakened sight!" cried Kasper.  "There is not a man from the
+Vosges to Switzerland who can boast of hitting his mark at two hundred
+mètres like you!"
+
+The old hunter knew well it was the case, but he did not wish to
+discourage the others.
+
+"Well," he replied, "we have no time for disputing.  Here is the enemy
+again; let each do his duty."  Although these words seemed simple and
+calm enough, Materne was very much troubled in reality.  On entering
+the trench confused sounds met his ear--the clattering of arms and the
+regular tramp of many feet.  He looked down over the steep bank, and
+now saw the Germans, who this time carried long ladders with hooks at
+the end.
+
+It was not a pleasant sight for the brave fellow: he made a sign to his
+son to approach, and said to him, in a low voice, "Kasper, that looks
+bad--very bad; the rascals are coming with ladders.  Give me thy hand!
+I should like to have thee near me, and Frantz as well; but we must
+defend ourselves with steadiness."
+
+At this moment a great explosion shook the abatis, and a hoarse voice
+was heard crying out, "Ah, my God!"  Then a hundred paces distant there
+was a heavy sound, and a fine tree bent down slowly and fell into the
+abyss.  It was the first cannon-ball: it had cut off old Rochart's
+legs.  It was followed by another immediately after, which covered all
+the mountaineers with broken ice, and made a great rumbling.  Old
+Materne himself had bent down under the force of the explosion, but
+raising himself quickly, he shouted, "Let us revenge ourselves, my
+children.  They are before you.  To conquer or die!"
+
+Fortunately the panic of the mountaineers only lasted a second: they
+all understood that the slightest hesitation and they were lost.  Two
+ladders had already been raised, notwithstanding the fusillade, and
+were being attached to the bank by their iron hooks.  This sight made
+the partisans furious, and the fight became more terrible and desperate
+than before.
+
+Hullin had noticed the ladders before Materne had, and his wrath
+against Divès increased; but as in such a case indignation is of no
+avail, he had sent Lagarmitte to tell Frantz Materne, who had been
+posted on the other side of the Donon, to come to him quickly with half
+his men.  We may well believe the brave fellow, warned of the danger
+his father was in, lost not a moment.  Already their large black hats
+could be seen climbing the hill-side amid the snows, their carbines
+slung across their shoulders.  They came with all despatch,
+nevertheless Jean-Claude met them, with a haggard expression in his
+eyes, and shouted in a vibrating voice, "Come quicker! at that rate you
+will never reach us."
+
+He was in a towering passion, and attributed all the misfortune to the
+smuggler.
+
+Meanwhile Marc Divès, in about half an hour, had gone round the ravine,
+and, from the back of his tall horse, began to perceive the two
+companies of Germans, with grounded arms, about a hundred feet behind
+the guns, which were being fired upon the trench.  Then, approaching
+the mountaineers, he said to them, in a stifled voice, while the
+reports of the cannon were re-echoed in the gorge and in the distance
+the noise of battle was heard: "Comrades, you must attack the infantry
+with your bayonets: I and my men will be answerable for the rest.  Is
+it understood?"
+
+"Yes, it is understood."
+
+"Then, forward!"
+
+The whole troop advanced in good order toward the outskirts of the
+wood, big Piercy of Soldatenthal at their head.  Nearly at the same
+instant the _Wer da?_ ("Who there?") of a sentinel was heard; then two
+shots; a loud cry of "Vive la France!" and the trampling of many feet
+in a charge.  The brave mountaineers threw themselves like wolves on
+the enemy.
+
+Divès stood up in his stirrups and watched them with great glee.  "That
+is well," said he.
+
+The _mêlée_ was a terrible one; the ground trembled with it.  The
+Germans were firing no more than the partisans: the affair was passing
+in silence; the clashing of bayonets and the sound of sabre-strokes,
+with here and there a rifle-shot, shouts of anger and a great tumult:
+except these, one could hear nothing else.  The smugglers, with
+outstretched necks and sword in hand, sniffed the carnage and awaited
+the signal from their chief with impatience.
+
+"Now, it is our turn," said Divès, at length.  "The guns must be ours."
+
+And out of the underwood they sprang, and their large cloaks flying
+behind them like wings, they dashed forward, bending in their saddles
+and pointing their swords.
+
+"Never mind cutting!  Run them through!" cried Divès once more.
+
+That was all he said.
+
+In a second, the twelve vultures were down upon the guns.  Among their
+number were four old Spanish dragoons and two cuirassiers of the guard,
+whom a life of danger had attached to Marc: so I leave you to imagine
+how they fought.  Blows from lever, rammer, and sabre, the only arms
+the gunners had to hand, rained upon them like hail; they parried them
+all, and every cut they made brought down a man.
+
+Marc Divès received two pistol-shots, of which one singed his left
+cheek and the other carried away his hat.  But, at the same time,
+bending over his saddle, his long arms stretched out, he transfixed the
+big officer with the fair mustaches to his gun; then raising himself
+deliberately, and gazing round him with a frown, said, in a sententious
+manner: "We have cleared out the rubbish! the guns are ours."
+
+To get a good idea of this terrible scene, you must imagine the crowd
+on the plateau of Minières.  The cries, the neighings of horses, the
+flight of some, who threw down their arms in order to run the faster,
+the desperation of others;--beyond the ravine, the ladders covered with
+white uniforms and bristling with bayonets; the mountaineers above the
+escarpment defending themselves with obstinacy; the hill-sides, the
+road, and, above all, the space outside the breastworks, encumbered
+with dead and wounded;--the great numbers of the enemy, their muskets
+over their shoulders and their officers in the midst of them, pressing
+forward into action; and, finally, Materne standing on the crest of the
+hill, his bayonet in the air, his mouth opened wide, shouting wildly to
+his son Frantz, who was advancing with his troop, Master Jean-Claude at
+their head, to aid the mountaineers.  You should have heard the
+fusillade, the platoon and file firing, and, above all, the distant
+confused shouts, intermixed with sharp wails dying away among the
+mountain echoes.  To gain a good idea of the scene, you should imagine
+all these as concentrated into one moment and surveyed with a rapid
+glance.
+
+But Divès was not of a contemplative turn: he lost no time in making
+poetical reflections on the uproar and savagery of the battle.  With
+one look he had taken in the whole situation; so, springing from his
+horse, he went up to the first gun, which was still loaded, aimed it at
+the ladders, and fired.
+
+Then there arose wild clamors, and the smuggler, peering through the
+smoke, saw that fearful havoc had been made in the enemy's ranks.  He
+waved his hands in sign of triumph, and the mountaineers on the
+breastworks answered with a general hurrah.
+
+"Now then, dismount," said he to his men, "and don't go to sleep.  A
+cartridge, a ball, and some turf.  We will sweep the road.  Look out!"
+
+The smugglers put themselves in position, and continued to fire with
+enthusiasm upon the white coats.  The bullets rained into their ranks.
+At the tenth discharge there was a general _sauve-qui-peut_.
+
+"Fire! fire!" shouted Marc.
+
+And the partisans, now supported by Frantz's troop, regained, under
+Hullin's directions, the positions which they had for the moment lost.
+
+The whole of the hill-side was soon covered with dead and wounded.  It
+was then four in the evening; night was approaching.  The last ball
+fell into the street of Grandfontaine, and rebounding on the angle of
+the pavement, knocked down the chimney of the "Red Ox."
+
+About six hundred men perished that day: there were, of course, many
+mountaineers among them, but the greater number were "kaiserlichs."
+Had it not been for the fire of Marc Divès's cannon, all would have
+been lost; the partisans were not one against ten, and the enemy had
+already begun to gain on the trenches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+PAINFUL SCENES
+
+The Germans, huddled together in Grandfontaine, fled in crowds in the
+direction of Framont, on foot and on horseback, hurrying, dragging
+along their ammunition-wagons, strewing the road with their knapsacks,
+and looking behind as though they feared to find the partisans at their
+heels.
+
+In Grandfontaine they destroyed everything out of sheer revenge; they
+smashed in doors and windows, maltreated the people, demanded food and
+drink indiscriminately.  Their shouts and curses, the commands of their
+officers, the murmurs of the townsfolk, the artillery rolling over the
+bridge of Framont, the shrill cries of the wounded horses, were heard
+as a confused murmur at the breastworks.
+
+The hill-side was covered with arms, shakos, and dead; in fact, with
+all the signs of a great rout.  In front was Marc Divès's cannon
+directed down the valley, ready to fire in case of a fresh attack.
+
+All was finished, and finished well.  Yet no shout of triumph rose from
+the intrenchments: the losses of the mountaineers, in this last
+assault, had been too great for that.  There was something solemn in
+this silence succeeding to the uproar; all these men who had escaped
+the carnage, looked grave, as though astonished to see each other
+again.  Some few called a friend, others a brother, who did not answer;
+and then they searched for them in the trenches, along the breastworks,
+or on the slopes, calling "Jacob, Philip, is it thou?"
+
+Night came on; and the gray shadow creeping over everything, added
+mystery to these fearful scenes.  The people came and went among the
+wrecks of the battle without recognizing each other.
+
+Materne, having wiped his bayonet, called hoarsely to his
+boys:--"Kasper!  Frantz!" and seeing them approach in the darkness, he
+asked, "Is that you?"
+
+"Yes, we are here."
+
+"Are you safe? are you wounded?"
+
+"No."
+
+The old hunter's voice became hoarser and more trembling still:--"Then
+we are all three united once more," said he, in a low tone.
+
+And he, whom none would have thought to be so tender, embraced his sons
+warmly.  They could hear his chest heaving with suppressed sobs.  They
+were both much moved, and said to each other,--"We never dreamed that
+he loved us so much!"
+
+But the old man, soon recovering from his emotion, called out, "It was
+a hard day, though, my boys.  Let us have something to drink, for I am
+thirsty."
+
+Then, casting one last look on the dark slopes, and seeing that Hullin
+had placed sentinels at short distances apart, they proceeded toward
+the farmhouse.
+
+As they were picking their way carefully through the trenches,
+encumbered with the dead, they heard a stifled voice, which said to
+them, "Is it thou, Materne?"
+
+"Ah! forgive me, my poor old Rochart," replied the hunter, bending over
+him, "if I touched thee.  What, art thou still here?"
+
+"Yes, I cannot get away, for I have no longer any legs to carry me."
+
+They remained silent for a moment, when the old wood-cutter
+continued,--"Thou wilt tell my wife that in a bag behind the closet,
+there are five pieces of six.  I have saved them up, in case we either
+of us fell ill.  I no longer need them."
+
+"That is to say--that is to say--But thou mayst recover still, my poor
+old fellow.  We will carry thee away."
+
+"No; it is not worth the trouble: I cannot last more than an hour.  It
+would only make me linger."
+
+Materne, without answering, signed to Kasper to place his carbine with
+his own, so as to form a stretcher, and Frantz placed the old
+wood-cutter upon them, notwithstanding his moans.  In this way they
+arrived at the farm.
+
+All the wounded who during the combat had had strength to drag
+themselves to the ambulance were now assembled there; and Doctor
+Lorquin and his comrade Dubois, who had arrived during the day, had
+work enough to do.  But all was far from being over yet.
+
+As Materne, his boys, and Rochart were traversing the dark alley under
+the lantern, they heard to their left a cry which made their blood run
+cold, and the old wood-cutter, half dead, called out, "Why do you take
+me there?  I will not go; I will not have anything done to me."
+
+"Open the door, Frantz," said Materne, his face streaming with
+perspiration.  "Open it!  Be quick!"
+
+Frantz having pushed open the door, they beheld in the centre of the
+low room with its large brown beams, Colard's son stretched out full
+length on a great kitchen-table, a man at each arm and a bucket beneath
+him.  Doctor Lorquin, his shirtsleeves turned up to his elbows, and a
+short saw in his hand, was cutting off the poor fellow's leg, while
+Dubois stood by with a large sponge.  The blood trickled into the pail.
+Colard was as white as death.
+
+Catherine Lefèvre was there with a roll of lint on her arm.  She seemed
+calm; but her teeth were clinched, and she fastened her eyes on the
+ground as though determined to witness nothing.
+
+"It is finished," said the doctor, turning round; and perceiving the
+new-comers, "Ha! it is you, Father Rochart!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, it is I; but I will not let any one touch me.  I would rather die
+as I am."
+
+The doctor lifted up a candle, looked at him, and made a grimace.
+
+"It is time to see to you, my poor old fellow.  You have lost much
+blood, and if we wait longer it will be too late."
+
+"So much the better!  I have suffered enough in my life."
+
+"As you like.  Let us pass on to another."
+
+He cast his eyes over a long line of straw mattresses at the end of the
+room; the two last were empty, but covered with blood.  Materne and
+Kasper laid the old wood-cutter down on the last, while Dubois,
+approaching another wounded man, said, "Nicolas, it is thy turn!"
+
+Nicolas Cerf raised his pale face and his eyes glistened with fright.
+
+"Let him have a glass of brandy," said the doctor.
+
+"No, I would rather smoke my pipe."
+
+"Where is thy pipe?"
+
+"In my waistcoat pocket."
+
+"Good, I have found it.  And the tobacco?"
+
+"In my trousers."
+
+"All right.  Fill his pipe, Dubois.  He is a plucky fellow; it gives
+one pleasure to see a man like that.  We are going to take off thy arm
+in a trice."
+
+"Is there no way of saving it, Monsieur Lorquin, to bring up my poor
+children?  It is their only resource."
+
+"No; it is no use; the bone is smashed.  Light the pipe, Dubois.  Now,
+Nicolas, smoke away."
+
+The unhappy fellow began, though evidently without relish.
+
+"Is all ready?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Yes," replied Nicolas, in a husky voice.
+
+"Good.  Attention, Dubois!  Sponge away."
+
+And he made a rapid turn in the flesh with a great knife.  Nicolas
+ground his teeth.  The blood spurted up, and Dubois bound up something
+tightly.  The saw grated for two seconds, and the arm fell heavily on
+the boards.
+
+"That is what I call a well-performed operation," said Lorquin.
+
+Nicolas was no longer smoking; the pipe had fallen from his lips.
+David Schlosser, of Walsch, who had held him, let go.  They bound up
+the stump with linen, and, all unaided, Nicolas went to lie down on the
+straw.
+
+"One more finished!  Sponge the table well, Dubois, and let us go on to
+another," said the doctor, washing his hands in a large bowl.
+
+Each time that he said, "Let us go on to another," the wounded moved
+uneasily, terrified by the screams they heard and the glittering knives
+they saw.  But what was to be done?  Every room in the farm, the
+granary, and the lofts was full.  They were thus obliged to operate
+under the eyes of those who would soon in their turns come beneath the
+painful knife.
+
+The operation had taken but a few seconds.  Materne and his sons looked
+on for the same reason as one looks at other horrible things,--to know
+what they are like.  Then in the corner, under the old china clock,
+they saw a heap of amputated limbs.
+
+Nicolas's arm had already been cast among them, and a ball was now
+being extracted from the shoulder of a red-whiskered mountaineer of the
+Harberg.  They opened deep gashes in his back; his flesh quivered, and
+the blood coursed down his powerful limbs.
+
+The dog Pluto, behind the doctor, looked on with an attentive air, as
+though he understood, and from time to time stretched himself and
+yawned loudly.
+
+Materne could look on no longer.
+
+"Let us get out of this," said he.
+
+Hardly were they outside the door, when they heard the doctor exclaim,
+"I have got the ball!" which must indeed have been satisfactory to the
+man from the Harberg.
+
+Once outside, Materne, inhaling the cold air with, delight, exclaimed:
+"Only think that the same might have happened to us!"
+
+"True," said Kasper; "to get a ball in one's head is nothing; but to be
+cut up in that style, and then to beg one's bread for the rest of one's
+days!"
+
+"Bah!  I should do the same as old Rochart," said Frantz.  "I should
+die quietly.  The old fellow was right.  When one has done one's duty,
+why should one be afraid?"
+
+Just then the hum of voices was heard on their right.
+
+"It is Marc Divès and Hullin," said Kasper, listening.
+
+"Yes; they must be just returning from throwing up breastworks behind
+the pine-wood, to protect the cannon," added Frantz.
+
+They listened again; the footsteps came nearer.
+
+"Thou must be very much bothered with these three prisoners," said
+Hullin, roughly.  "Since thou returnest to the Falkenstein to-night to
+get ammunition, what prevents thee from taking them away?"
+
+"Where are they to be put?"
+
+"Why, in the communal prison of Abreschwiller, to be sure.  We cannot
+keep them here."
+
+"All right, I understand, Jean-Claude.  And if they try to escape on
+the way, I am to use my sword?"
+
+"Just so."
+
+By this time they had reached the door, and Hullin, perceiving Materne,
+could not suppress a shout of enthusiasm: "Ah!  Is it thou, old fellow?
+I have been searching for thee an hour.  Where the devil wert thou?"
+
+"We have been carrying poor Rochart to the ambulance, Jean-Claude."
+
+"Ah! it is a sad affair, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; it is sad."
+
+There was a moment's pause, and the satisfaction of the worthy man
+again became visible.
+
+"It is not at all lively," said he; "but what is to be done when one
+goes to the war?  You are not hurt any of you?"
+
+"No; we are all three safe and sound."
+
+"So much the better.  Those who are left can boast of being lucky."
+
+"True," cried Marc Divès, laughing.  "At one time I thought Materne was
+going to give way.  Without those cannon-balls at the finish, things
+would have gone badly."
+
+Materne colored, and glanced sideways at the smuggler.
+
+"Perhaps so," said he, dryly; "but without the cannon-balls at the
+beginning, we should not have needed those at the end.  Old Rochart,
+and fifty other brave men, would still have had their arms and legs,
+and our victory would not have been clouded."
+
+"Bah!" interrupted Hullin, anticipating a dispute between the two brave
+fellows, neither of whom was remarkable for his conciliatory
+disposition.  "Leave that alone.  Every one has done his duty; and that
+is the chief thing."
+
+Then, addressing Materne: "I have just sent a flag of truce to Framont,
+to bid the Germans carry away their wounded.  In an hour, I dare say,
+they will be here.  Our sentries must be warned to let them approach if
+they come without arms and with torches.  If in any other way, let them
+be received with a volley."
+
+"I will go at once," answered the old hunter.
+
+"Materne, thou wilt afterward sup at the farm with thy boys."
+
+"Agreed, Jean-Claude."
+
+And he went off.
+
+Hullin then bade Frantz and Kasper light great bivouac fires; Marc was
+at once to feed his horses, so that he might go without delay to
+procure ammunition.  Seeing them hurrying away, Hullin turned into the
+farm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+ROUND THE FESTIVE BOARD
+
+At the end of the dark alley was the yard of the farm, into which one
+descended by five or six well-worn steps.  On the left were the granary
+and the wine-press; to the right the stables and pigeon-cot, the gables
+of which stood out black on the dark cloudy sky; and in front of the
+door was the laundry.
+
+No sound from the outside reached the yard.  After so many tumultuous
+scenes, Hullin was impressed by the deep silence.  He looked up at the
+piles of straw hanging from the beams of the granary roof, the ploughs
+and carts in the shadows of the outhouses, and an inexpressible feeling
+of calm and repose came over him.  A cock was roosting quietly among
+the hens on the wall.  A big cat, darting quickly by, disappeared
+through a hole into the cellar.  Hullin thought himself in a dream.
+
+After a few moments spent in silent contemplation, he walked slowly
+toward the laundry, the three windows of which shone brightly in the
+darkness: for the farm-kitchen not being large enough for preparing
+food for three or four hundred men, it was now being used for the
+purposes of cooking.
+
+Master Jean-Claude heard Louise's clear voice giving orders in a
+resolute tone, which astonished him.
+
+"Now, Katel, quick! supper-time is near.  Our people must be hungry.
+Since six in the morning they have taken nothing, and have been
+fighting all the time.  They must not be kept waiting.  Come, bestir
+yourself, Lesselé; bring the salt and pepper!"
+
+Jean-Claude's heart leaped within him at the sound of this voice.  He
+could not help gazing for a minute through the window before entering.
+
+The kitchen was large, with low whitewashed ceiling.  A beechwood fire
+crackled on the hearth, its red flames encircling the sides of an
+immense kettle.  The charming figure of Louise, wearing her short
+petticoat so as to move unimpeded, a bright color in her face, the
+short red body of her dress leaving uncovered her round shoulders and
+white neck, stood out clearly in the foreground.  She was in all the
+bustle of the occasion, coming and going, tasting the soup and sauces
+with a knowing air, and approving and criticising everything.
+
+"A little more salt!  Lesselé, have you almost done plucking that great
+lean cock?  At this rate we shall never have finished!"
+
+It was delightful to see her thus busily commanding.  It brought tears
+into Hullin's eyes.
+
+The two daughters of the anabaptist--one tall, thin, and pale, with her
+large flat feet encased in round shoes, her red hair fastened up in a
+little black cap, her blue stuff dress falling in folds to her heels;
+the other fat, slowly lifting up one foot after the other, and waddling
+along like a duck--forming a striking contrast to Louise.
+
+The stout Katel went panting about without saying a word, while Lesselé
+performed everything in her sleepy methodical way.
+
+The worthy anabaptist himself, seated at the end of the room, with his
+legs crossed on a wooden chair, his cotton cap on his head, and his
+hands in his blouse pockets, looked on with a wondering air, addressing
+to them sententious exhortations from time to time: "Lesselé, Katel! be
+obedient, my children.  Let this be for your instruction.  You have not
+yet seen the world.  You must be quicker and sharper."
+
+"Yes, yes, you must bestir yourselves," added Louise.  "Gracious! what
+should become of us if we stood thinking months and weeks before
+putting a little onion into a sauce!  Lesselé, you are the tallest,
+unhook me that parcel of onions from the ceiling."
+
+The girl obeyed.
+
+Hullin had never felt prouder in his life.
+
+"How she makes them move about!" thought he.  "Ah! ha! ha! she is like
+a little hussar.  I never should have believed it."
+
+After having watched them for five minutes, he went into the room.
+
+"Well done, my children!"
+
+Louise was holding a soup-ladle at the time.  She let it fall, and
+threw herself into his arms, crying: "Papa Jean-Claude, is it you? you
+are not wounded?  Nothing is the matter with you?"
+
+At the sound of this voice, Hullin turned pale, and could make no
+reply.  After a long silence, pressing her to his heart, he said: "No,
+Louise, I am quite well; I am very happy."
+
+"Sit down, Jean-Claude," said the anabaptist, seeing him trembling with
+emotion; "here, take my chair."
+
+Hullin sat down, and Louise, with her arms on his shoulder, began to
+cry.
+
+"What is the matter, my child?" said the worthy man, kissing her.
+"Come, calm thyself.  Only a few seconds ago thou wert so courageous."
+
+"Oh, yes, but I was only acting; I was very much afraid.  I thought,
+'Why does he not come?'"
+
+She threw her arms round his neck.  Then a strange idea came into her
+head.  She took him by the hand, crying: "Papa Jean-Claude, let us
+dance, let us dance!"
+
+And they made three or four turns.  Hullin could not help laughing, and
+turning toward the grave anabaptist, said: "We are rather mad, Pelsly;
+do not let that astonish you."
+
+"No, Master Hullin, it is quite natural.  King David himself danced
+before the ark after his great victory over the Philistines."
+
+Jean-Claude, astonished to find that he was like King David, made no
+reply.
+
+"And thou, Louise," he continued, stopping, "thou wert not afraid
+during this last battle?"
+
+"Oh, at first, with all the noise and the roaring of the cannons; but
+afterward I only thought of you and of Mamma Lefèvre."
+
+Master Jean-Claude grew silent again.
+
+"I knew," thought he, "that she was a brave girl.  She has everything
+in her favor."
+
+Louise taking him by the hand, then led him to a regiment of pans
+around the fire, and showed him with delight her kitchen.
+
+"Here is the beef and roast mutton, here is General Jean-Claude's
+supper, and here is the soup for our wounded.  Haven't we been busy!
+Lesselé and Katel would tell you so.  And here is our bread," said she,
+pointing to a long row of loaves arranged on the table.  "Mamma Lefèvre
+and I mixed up the flour."
+
+Hullin looked on astonished.
+
+"But that is not all," said she; "come over here."
+
+She took off the lid of a saucepan, and the kitchen was immediately
+filled with a savory odor which would have rejoiced the heart of a
+gourmand.
+
+Jean-Claude was deeply touched by all these proofs of attention to the
+wants of his men.
+
+Just then Mother Lefèvre came in.
+
+"Well," said she, "prepare the table; everybody is waiting over there.
+Come, Katel, go and lay the cloth."
+
+The girl went running out to do so.
+
+They all crossed the dark yard and made their way toward the large
+room.  Doctor Lorquin, Dubois, Marc Divès, Materne, and his two boys,
+all very hungry, were awaiting the soup impatiently.
+
+"How about our wounded, doctor?" said Hullin, on entering.
+
+"They have all been attended to, Master Jean-Claude.  You have given us
+plenty of work to do; but the weather is favorable; there is nothing to
+fear from putrid fevers; things wear a pleasant aspect."
+
+Katel, Lesselé, and Louise soon came in bearing an immense tureen of
+smoking soup and two sirloins of roast beef, which they deposited on
+the table.  They all sat down without ceremony--old Materne to the
+right of Jean-Claude, Catherine Lefèvre to the left; and from that time
+the clatter of spoons and forks and the gurgling of the bottles took
+the place of conversation till half-past eight in the evening.  The
+glow which might be seen from the outside upon the windows, proved that
+the volunteers were doing justice to Louise's cookery, which
+contributed greatly to the enjoyment of her guests.
+
+At nine o'clock Marc Divès was on his way to Falkenstein with the
+prisoners.  At ten everybody was asleep at the farm, on the plateau,
+and around the watchfires.  The silence was only broken by the passing
+of the patrols and the challenge of the sentinels.
+
+Thus terminated, this great day, after the mountaineers had proved that
+they had not degenerated from their ancestors.
+
+Other events, not less important, were soon to succeed those which had
+already taken place: for in this world, when one obstacle is
+surmounted, others present themselves.  Human life resembles a restless
+sea: one wave follows another from the old world to the new, and
+nothing arrests its ever-lasting movement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CAVE OF LUITPRANDT
+
+All through the battle, till the close of night, the good people of
+Grandfontaine had observed the poor crazy Yégof standing upon the crest
+of the Little Donon, and, his crown on his head, with his sceptre held
+aloft, like a Merovingian king, shouting commands to his phantom
+armies.  What passed through his mind when he saw the utter rout of the
+Germans no one can say; but at the last cannon-shot he disappeared.
+Where did he betake himself?  On this point the people of Tiefenbach
+have the following story:--
+
+At that time there lived upon the Bocksberg two singular
+creatures--sisters--one named "little Kateline," and the other "great
+Berbel."  These creatures, who were almost in tatters, had taken up
+their abode in the "Cave of Luitprandt," so called, according to old
+chronicles, because the German king, before invading Alsace, had caused
+to be interred in that immense vault of red sandstone the savage chiefs
+who had fallen in the battle of Blutfeld.  The hot spring which always
+bubbles in the middle of the cavern protected the eerie sisters from
+the sharp colds of winter; and the woodcutter, Daniel Horn, of
+Tiefenbach, had been good enough to fill up the largest entrance to the
+rock with heaps of brushwood.  By the side of the hot spring there is
+another, cold as ice and clear as crystal.  Kateline, who always drank
+of its waters, was scarce four foot high, thick-set and bloated; and
+her cowering figure, her round eyes and enormous goitre, rendered her
+whole appearance peculiarly suggestive of a big turkey-hen in a
+reverie.  Every Sunday she carried into Tiefenbach a great basket,
+which the people of the place filled with boiled potatoes, crusts of
+bread, and occasionally, on high days, with cakes and other remains of
+their festivals;--with which she reascended breathlessly to her rocky
+home, muttering, gibbering, and behaving in the absurdest way.
+Meanwhile Berbel took care to drink from the cold spring: she was
+gaunt, one-eyed, scraggy as a bat, with a flat nose, large ears, a
+gleaming eye, and thrived upon the booty obtained by her sister.
+Seldom did she descend from the Bocksberg, except in July, at the time
+of greatest heat--when she proceeded to launch her incantations--her
+enchanting-wand a withered thistle--against the crops of those who had
+failed to contribute to her sister's basket.  These imprecations were
+always believed to be followed by dire storms, hail, and destructive
+vermin without stint: whence they came to be dreaded as the plague, and
+the hag herself to be regarded as a weather-witch (_Wetterhexe_), while
+"little Kateline" was looked upon as the good genius of Tiefenbach and
+its neighborhood.  In such wise Berbel folded her arms and took her
+ease in her cave, while her sister went gibbering along the highways.
+
+Unfortunately for the sisters, Yégof had for many years established his
+winter-quarters in "Luitprandt's cavern;" and it was thence he set
+forth every spring on a visit to his innumerable châteaux and
+feudatories, as far as Geierstein in the Hundsrück.  Every year,
+therefore, toward the end of November, after the first snows, he
+arrived with his raven, to the accompaniment of piercing cries from
+Wetterhexe.
+
+"What have you to grumble at?" he would say, while installing himself
+in the place of honor.  "Are you not intruders upon my domain, and am I
+not truly good to permit two such useless old hags (_Valkyries_) to
+stay in the Valhalla of my fathers?"
+
+Then Berbel, in a rage, used to overwhelm him with abuse, while
+Kateline gave vent to her dissatisfaction in thick unintelligible
+utterances; but he, regardless of both, lit his old box pipe and set
+himself to describe his endless peregrinations to the ghosts of the
+German warriors buried in the cavern sixteen centuries before, calling
+upon each of them by name, and addressing them as personages still
+living.  From this it will be understood with what disgust the arrival
+of the maniac came to be regarded by Kateline and Berbel; in fact for
+both it was nothing less than a calamity.
+
+Now in the year we are speaking of, Yégof, having failed to return to
+them at the proper time, induced the sisters to believe that he was
+dead and to rejoice at the idea of seeing no more of him.  But for many
+days Wetterhexe had remarked an extraordinary movement going on in the
+neighboring gorges, and men marching off in bodies, shouldering their
+muskets, from the sides of Falkenstein and Donon.  Clearly something
+was taking place out of the common.  Recollecting that the year before
+Yégof had informed the phantoms of the cave that his armies, in
+countless hosts, were coming to invade the country, the sorceress was
+seized with a vague apprehension and anxiety to learn the cause of so
+much agitation; but no one came up to the cave, and Kateline having
+made her rounds on the previous Sunday, could not have been induced to
+stir out for the gift of a kingdom.
+
+In this state of apprehension, Wetterhexe went and came upon the side
+of the mountain and became hourly more restless and irritable.  During
+the whole of that Saturday events assumed quite another aspect.  From
+nine o'clock in the morning deep and heavy explosions began to growl
+like a continuous storm among the thousand echoes of the mountain;
+while far away in the direction of Donon, the swift lightnings swept up
+across the sky among the peaks; then toward night the discharges
+deepening in intensity filled the silent gorges with an indescribable
+tumult.  At every report the Hengst, the Gantzlee, the Giromani, and
+the Grosmann cliffs seemed to echo to their lowest depths.
+
+"What can it be?" cried Berbel.  "Has the end of the world come?"
+
+Then re-entering her lurking-place, and finding Kateline crouched in
+her corner and munching a potato, Berbel shook her roughly and hissed
+out:--"Fool! have you got no ears?  Is there anything that you fear?
+You are good for nothing but eating, drinking, and mumbling.  Oh, you
+idiot!"
+
+She snatched away the potato in a rage, and then seated herself by the
+side of the hot spring, which was sending up its gray fumes to the
+roof.  Half an hour after, the darkness having become intense and the
+cold excessive, she made a fire of brushwood, which shed its pale
+gleams upon the blocks of red sandstone and lit up the farthest corner
+of the cave, where Kateline was now asleep, huddled in the straw, with
+her chin upon her knees.  Without, the noisy tumult had ceased.  Then
+withdrawing the brushwood curtain from the mouth of the cave, she
+peered out into the darkness, and returned to crouch down, by the
+spring.  With her large lips compressed, her eyes closed, and the great
+round wrinkles playing upon her cheeks, she drew round her knees an old
+woollen covering, and appeared to fall asleep.  Throughout the cavern
+there was no sound, except that of the congealed vapor, which fell back
+at long intervals into the spring with a strange splashing noise.
+
+This silence lasted for about two hours; midnight was approaching, when
+all of a sudden a distant sound of footsteps, mingled with discordant
+cries, was heard outside the cave.  Berbel listened, and at once
+perceived that they were human cries.  Then she rose, trembling, and,
+armed with her thistle-wand, proceeded to the entrance of the cave;
+whence, through the screen of brushwood, she saw, at fifty paces
+distant, Yégof advancing toward her in the moonlight.  He was alone,
+but gesticulating and waving his sceptre, as if myriads of invisible
+beings were about him.
+
+"Hark, ye red men!" he was shrieking, with, beard sticking up on end,
+his hair streaming about his head, and his dog-skin upon his arm.
+"Hark, ye red men!  Roog!  Bled!  Adelrik! hark!  Will ye not hear me
+at last?  Do you not see they are coming?  Behold them cleaving the sky
+like vultures.  Hark to me.  Let this miserable race be annihilated!
+Ha, ha! it is you, Minau! it is you, Rochart ... ha! ha!"  And
+addressing the dead upon the Donon, he called upon them defiantly, as
+if they were standing before him; and then fell back a step at a time,
+striking the air, uttering imprecations, encouraging his phantoms, and
+casting about him as if in close fight.  The sight of this terrible
+struggle against beings who were invisible caused Berbel to shudder
+with fright, and to fancy her hair stiffening upon her head.  She
+sought to hide herself; but just at the moment a strange noise from
+behind drew her attention, and her terror may be imagined when she saw
+the hot spring bubbling with more than usual activity and sending out
+clouds of steam, which rose and broke away in separate masses toward
+the entrance of the cavern; and while these clouds like phantoms were
+slowly advancing in close order, Yégof appeared upon the scene,
+shouting hoarsely:--
+
+"You come at last! you heard me then!"
+
+Thus saying, he removed with an impatient effort all obstructions from
+the mouth of the cave: the cold air rushed down the vault and the
+steaming vapors rose far into the sky, writhing and glancing above the
+cliff, as if the slain of that day and those of the ages gone by had
+recommenced beyond the earth a battle that would never end.
+
+Yégof, with face which appeared shrunken in the pale moonlight, his
+sceptre held high, his great beard flowing down his breast, and his
+eyes flaming, saluted each phantom with a wave of the hand, addressing
+it by name:
+
+"Hail, Bled!  Roog, hail! and you, my brave men, all hail!  The hour
+you have been expecting for ages is at hand: the eagles are whetting
+their beaks and the soil is thirsting for blood.  Remember Blutfeld!"
+
+[Illustration: YÉGOF SALUTED EACH PHANTOM WITH SPARKLING EYES.]
+
+At this point Berbel's terror seemed to hold her transfixed; but soon
+the last volumes of gray mist disappeared out of the cavern and melted
+into the sky.  Seeing which the crazy montagnard marched fiercely into
+the cave, and seating himself by the spring, with his great head
+between his hands, and his elbows on his knees, looked down into the
+boiling water with a haggard stare.
+
+Kateline was now awake and venting her guttural moans; while
+Wetterhexe, more dead than alive, was furtively watching the maniac
+from the farthest corner of the cave.
+
+"They have all gone up from the earth!" exclaimed Yégof, suddenly.
+"All, all!  They have gone to reanimate the courage of my youths, and
+inspire them with contempt of death!"
+
+And again lifting up his face, which seemed impressed with deep
+anguish, he cried, fixing his wolfish eyes on Wetterhexe:--
+
+"Oh, thou descendant of the sterile valkyries, thou who hast nurtured
+within thy bosom no life-breath of warriors, nor ever filled their deep
+goblets at the festive board, nor regaled them with the smoking flesh
+of the wild boar, for what purpose art thou good?  To spin shrouds for
+the dead.  Ha! take thy distaff and spin night and day; for thousands
+of brave men are slumbering in the snow!  ... They fought well....
+Yes, they did all that men could do; but the time had not come, ... now
+the ravens are fighting for their carcasses!"
+
+Then in accents of uncontrollable rage, snatching the crown off his
+head together with handfuls of hair--"Ah, cursed race," he exclaimed,
+"will you always be barring our passage?  Were it not for you we had
+already conquered Europe; the red men would have been masters of the
+world....  And I have bowed my head before the leader of this race of
+curs....  I asked him for his daughter, instead of seizing and carrying
+her away as the wolf carries the lamb! ... Ah!  Huldrix, Huldrix!"
+
+Then changing this rhapsody--"Listen, listen, valkyrie!" he cried in a
+hoarse voice, and pointing his finger with great solemnity.
+
+Wetterhexe listened.  A great gust of wind rose up through the night,
+shaking the old forest-trees heavy with their load of frost.  Often and
+often had the sorceress in the winter nights heard the soughing of the
+north wind and paid it no attention, but now she was overwhelmed with
+fear!  And as she stood there all trembling, a hoarse cry was heard
+without; and almost at the same time the raven Hans, sweeping beneath
+the rock, set himself to describe great circles overhead, flapping his
+wings with a frightened air, and uttering melancholy cries.
+
+Yégof became pale as death.  "Vod, Vod! what has thy son Luitprandt
+done for thee?  Why choose him rather than another?"
+
+For some seconds he stood as though amazed: then, suddenly transported
+by savage enthusiasm and brandishing his sceptre, he dashed out of the
+cavern.
+
+Two minutes afterward, Wetterhexe, standing at the entrance of the
+rock, followed him with anxious eyes.
+
+He went straight on, with neck stretched forward and long strides.  You
+would have thought him a wild beast upon the prowl.  Hans went before
+him, hopping from place to place.
+
+In a moment they disappeared down the Blutfeld gorge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+GASPARD'S LETTER
+
+Toward two o'clock the next morning, snow began to fall.  At daybreak
+the Germans had left Grandfontaine, Framont, and even Schirmeck.  In
+the distance, on the plains of Alsace, could be seen the black lines,
+which indicated their retreating battalions.
+
+Hullin arose early and made the round of the bivouacs.  He stopped for
+a few seconds on the plateau, to look at the cannons in position, the
+sleeping partisans, and the watchful sentries; then, satisfied with his
+inspection, he re-entered the farm, where Louise and Catherine were
+still asleep.
+
+The gray light was spreading everywhere.  A few wounded in the next
+room were growing feverish; they were calling for their wives and
+children.  Soon the hum of voices and the noise of busy feet broke the
+stillness of the night.  Catherine and Louise awoke.  They saw
+Jean-Claude sitting in a corner of the window watching them, and
+ashamed of having slept longer than he, they arose and approached him.
+
+"Well?" asked Catherine.
+
+"Well, they have left; and we are masters of the field, as I expected."
+
+This assurance did not appear to satisfy the old dame.  She looked
+through the window to see for herself that the Germans were retreating
+into Alsace; and during the whole of that day she seemed both anxious
+and troubled.
+
+Between eight and nine the curé Saumaize came in from the village of
+Charmes.  Some mountaineers then descended the slopes to pick up the
+dead, and dug a deep pit to the right of the farm, where partisans and
+"kaiserlichs," with their clothes, hats, shakos, and uniforms, were
+laid side by side.  The curé Saumaize, a tall old man with white hair,
+read the prayers for the dead in that solemn, mysterious voice which
+seems to penetrate to the depths of one's soul, and to summon from the
+tomb the spirits of extinct generations to attest to the living the
+terrors of the grave.
+
+All day carts and sledges continued to arrive to carry away the
+wounded, who demanded, with loud cries, to be allowed to see their
+villages once more.  Doctor Lorquin, fearing to increase their
+irritation, was forced to consent.  And toward four o'clock, Catherine
+and Hullin were alone in the great room: Louise had gone out to prepare
+the supper.  Outside, large flakes of snow continued to fall, and, from
+time to time, a sledge might be seen silently passing along, bearing a
+wounded man laid in straw.  Catherine, seated near the table, was
+folding bandages with an absent air.
+
+"What ails you, Catherine?" demanded Hullin.  "You have seemed so
+thoughtful since morning: and yet our affairs are going on well."
+
+The old dame, pushing the linen slowly away from her, replied,--"Yes,
+Jean-Claude, I am uneasy."
+
+"Uneasy about what?  The enemy is in full retreat.  Only this moment,
+Frantz Materne, whom I had sent to reconnoitre, and all the messengers
+from Piorette, Jérome, and Labarbe, told me that the Germans are
+returning to Mutzig.  Old Materne and Kasper, having gathered up the
+dead, learned at Grandfontaine that nothing is to be seen in the
+direction of Saint-Blaize-la-Roche.  All this proves that our Spanish
+dragoons gave the enemy a warm reception on the way to Senones, and
+that they fear an attack from Schirmeck.  What is it, then, Catherine,
+that troubles you?"
+
+And seeing that Hullin looked at her inquiringly, "You may laugh at
+me," said she; "but I have had a dream."
+
+"A dream?"
+
+"Yes, the same as at the farm of Bois-de-Chênes."  And getting
+animated, she continued, in an almost angry tone, "You may say what you
+like, Jean-Claude, but a great danger menaces us.  Yes, yes! you don't
+see any sense in all this; but it was not a dream, it was like an old
+tale which comes back to one: something one sees in sleep and
+remembers.  Listen!  We were as we are now, after a great victory--in
+some place--I don't know where--in a sort of large wooden shed, with
+beams across it, and palisades around.  We were not thinking of
+anything: all the faces I saw I knew: you were among them, Marc Divès,
+Duchêne, and old men already dead: my father and old Hugues Rochart of
+Harberg, the uncle of him who has just died: and they all had coarse
+gray cloth blouses, with long beards and bare necks.  We had won a like
+victory, and were drinking out of red earthenware pots, when a cry
+arose: 'The enemy is coming!'  And Yégof, on horseback, with his long
+beard and pointed crown, an axe in his hand, and with his eyes gleaming
+like a wolf's, appeared before me in the darkness.  I rushed on him
+with a club, he waited for me--and from that moment I saw no more.  I
+only felt a great pain in my neck; a cold wind passed over my face, and
+my head seemed to be dangling at the end of a cord: it was that
+wretched Yégof who had hung my head to his saddle and was galloping
+away!"
+
+There was a short pause; and then Jean-Claude, rousing from his stupor,
+replied: "It is a dream.  I also have had dreams.  Yesterday you were
+agitated, Catherine, by all that tumult, that noise."
+
+"No," she exclaimed in a firm tone, taking up her task again: "no, it
+was not that.  And to tell you the truth, during the battle, and even
+when, the cannons were thundering against us, I was not afraid; I was
+certain beforehand that we should not be beaten; I had seen it long
+ago.  But now I am afraid."
+
+"But the Germans have evacuated Schirmeck; the whole line of the Vosges
+is defended.  We have more men than we need; they are coming every
+minute in great numbers."
+
+"No matter."
+
+Hullin shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Come, come! you are feverish, Catherine; try to be calm, and think of
+pleasanter things.  As for all these dreams, you see, I make no more
+account of them than I do of the Grand Turk, with his pipe and blue
+stockings.  The chief thing is to keep a good look-out, and to have
+plenty of ammunition, men, and guns: that is infinitely better than the
+most rose-colored dreams."
+
+"You are mocking me, Jean-Claude."
+
+"No; but to hear a sensible, courageous woman speak as you do, reminds
+one in spite of himself of Yégof, who pretends to have lived sixteen
+hundred years ago."
+
+"Who knows?" said the old woman, in an obstinate tone; "it is possible
+he may remember what others have forgotten."
+
+Hullin was going to relate to her his conversation of the evening
+before at the bivouac-fire with the madman, thus hoping to overthrow
+all her gloomy fancies; but seeing she agreed with Yégof about the
+sixteen hundred years, the worthy man said no more, but resumed his
+walk up and down, with his head bent and an anxious face: "She is mad,"
+thought he; "one more shock and it is all over with her!"
+
+Catherine after a pause was going to speak, when Louise entered like a
+swallow, calling out, in her sweetest voice, "Maman Lefèvre, Maman
+Lefèvre, a letter from Gaspard!"
+
+Whereupon the old farm-wife, whose hooked nose almost touched her lips,
+so angry was she to see Hullin turning her dream into ridicule, raised
+her head, the long wrinkles in her face relaxing.
+
+She took the letter, looked at the red seal, and said to the young
+girl: "Embrace me, Louise: it is a good letter!"  And Louise at once
+embraced her with joy.
+
+Hullin came close up to them, delighted at this incident; and the
+postman Brainstein, his big boots dyed red with the snow, his two hands
+on his stick, and drooping his shoulders, stationed himself at the door
+with a tired look.
+
+The old dame put on her spectacles, slowly opened the letter under the
+impatient eyes of Jean-Claude and Louise, and read aloud:--
+
+"This, my mother, is to announce to you that all goes well, and that I
+reached Phalsbourg on Tuesday evening just as the gates were being
+closed.  The Cossacks were already on the Saverne road; we had to fire
+all night against their advanced guard.  The following day, an envoy
+was sent demanding the surrender of the place.  The commandant,
+Meunier, told him to go and be hanged; and three days after great
+showers of bombs and shells began to rain upon the town.  The Russians
+have three batteries--one on the side of Hittelbronn, the other at the
+Baraques above, and the third behind the tilery of Pernette near the
+drinking-tank; but the red-hot shot do us the most harm: they burn down
+the houses, and when a fire has broken out the bombs then come in
+quantities and prevent the people from extinguishing it.  The women and
+children do not leave the block-houses; the townsmen remain with us on
+the ramparts: they are fine fellows.  Among them are some old soldiers
+of the Sambre-et-Meuse, Italy, and Egypt, who have not forgotten how to
+manage the guns.  I felt sorry to see the graybeards bending over the
+carronades to take aim.  I will answer for it that there are no balls
+lost with them; but all the same, when one has made the world tremble,
+it is hard to be obliged, in one's old days, to fight for one's home
+and last morsel of bread."
+
+"Yes, it is hard," exclaimed Catherine, drying her eyes.  "Only to
+think of it makes one's heart bleed."
+
+Then she continued:--
+
+"The day before yesterday, the governor decided on our making a sortie
+against the tile-kiln battery.  You must know that these Russians break
+the ice of the tank, and bathe in it, in groups of from twenty to
+thirty; afterward drying themselves in the oven of the brick-kiln.
+Well! about four o'clock, as the day was closing, we went out by the
+Arsenal gateway, ascending the covered way, and filing along the
+Allée-des-Vaches, with our muskets under our arms, and marching at the
+double.  Ten minutes after we commenced a rolling fire on the men that
+were in the tank.  Then their comrades rushed out of the brick-kilns:
+they had only time to put on their cartouche-boxes, seize their
+muskets, and form, all naked as they were, on the snow, like regular
+savages.  Notwithstanding that, the rogues were ten times more numerous
+than we, and they began a movement to the right, in the direction of
+the little chapel of St. John, in order to surround us, when the guns
+from the Arsenal began to send such a storm of shot at them as I never
+saw before; it carried whole files clean off.  A quarter of an hour
+later they retreated in a body to Quatre-Vents, without waiting to pick
+up their breeches--their officers at their head, and the hail from the
+fortress bringing up the rear.  Papa Jean-Claude would have laughed at
+the rout immensely.  At last, toward nightfall, we returned to the
+town, having destroyed one of their batteries and thrown two
+eight-pounders into the well of the kiln.  It was our first sortie.  I
+am now writing to you from the Baraques du Bois-de-Chênes, where we
+have been sent to get provisions for the fortress.  All this may last
+months.  It is said that the allies are reascending the valley of
+Dosenheim as far as Weschem, and that thousands of them are marching on
+Paris.  Oh, if the Emperor once obtained the upper hand in Lorraine and
+Champagne, not one of them would escape!  But who lives will see.  They
+are sounding the retreat on Phalsbourg.  We have collected a pretty
+good number of oxen, cows, and goats about here; but shall have to
+fight in order to get them in safely.  Good-by, my good mother, my
+dearest Louise, and Papa Jean-Claude.  I embrace you as though I held
+you in my arms."
+
+At the close of the letter, Catherine Lefèvre was overwhelmed with
+emotion.
+
+"What a brave boy!" said she.  "He only knows his duty.  There! thou
+hearest, Louise?  He embraces thee!"
+
+Louise then throwing herself into her arms, they embraced each other;
+and Catherine, notwithstanding the firmness of her character, could not
+keep back two large tears from trickling down her cheeks; then,
+recovering herself, "Come," said she, "all is well!  Come, Brainstein,
+you must eat some meat and drink a glass of wine.  And here is a
+crown-piece for your journey; I would give you the same sum every day
+of the week for such a letter."
+
+The postman, delighted with his present, followed the old dame.  Louise
+walked after them, and Jean-Claude, also, being eager to interrogate
+Brainstein as to what he had learnt on the road, touching the events
+taking place; but he could get nothing new out of him, except that the
+allies were besieging Bitsche and Lutzelstein, and that they had lost
+some hundreds of men in trying to force the Graufthal pass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SURPRISE
+
+Toward ten o'clock, Catherine Lefèvre and Louise, after having wished
+Hullin good-night, went up to sleep in the room over the large kitchen;
+in which there were two feather-beds, with curtains, striped with blue
+and red, reaching to the ceiling.
+
+"Come," exclaimed the old woman, climbing up to hers on a chair--"come,
+sleep well, my child.  As for me, I am tired out, and almost asleep
+already."
+
+She drew the bedclothes round her, and five minutes after was sound
+asleep.  Louise soon followed her example.
+
+Now this had lasted about two hours, when the old dame was awakened
+suddenly by a tremendous noise.
+
+"To arms! to arms!  Ho! this way quick!  A thousand thunders! they are
+upon us!"
+
+Five or six shots then followed each other, lighting up the dark
+windows.
+
+"To arms! to arms!"
+
+Then there was more firing, and the noise of people rushing about
+everywhere.
+
+Hullin's voice, sharp and vibrating, could be heard giving orders.
+
+Then, to the left of the farm, a great way off, there came a low dull
+crackling sound, from the gorges of the Grosmann.
+
+"Louise!  Louise!" cried the old farm-wife,--"dost thou hear?"
+
+"Yes!  Oh, my God! it is terrible."
+
+Catherine sprang out of bed.
+
+"Get up, my child," said she, "and let us dress."
+
+The firing redoubled, and flashed like lightning upon the panes.
+
+"Attention!" shouted Materne.
+
+One could also hear the neighing of a horse outside, and the tramping
+of a great crowd in the alley, the yard, and before the farm: the house
+seemed shaken to its foundations.
+
+Suddenly, the firing came from the windows of the large room on the
+ground-floor.  The two women dressed in haste.  Just at that moment, a
+heavy foot creaked on the stairs; the door opened, and Hullin appeared
+with a lantern, showing signs of great agitation.
+
+"Make haste!" cried he; "we have not an instant to lose."
+
+"What has happened then?" asked Catherine.
+
+The fusillade came nearer.
+
+"Eh!" exclaimed Jean-Claude, throwing up his arms, "have I time now to
+explain to you?"
+
+The old dame understood that the only thing to be done was to obey.
+She put on her hood and descended the staircase with Louise.  By the
+flickering light of the shots, Catherine saw Materne, bare-necked, and
+his son Kasper, firing from the entrance of the alley upon the abatis,
+and ten others behind handing them muskets, so that they had only to
+aim and fire.  All these men, in a throng, loading, shouldering, and
+firing, had a terrible aspect.  Three or four dead bodies lying against
+the old wall added to the horror of the scene.  The smoke was at the
+point of reaching the dwelling.
+
+Coming down the stairs, Hullin cried, "Here they are, thank heaven!"
+And all the brave fellows who were there, looking up, cried out,
+"Courage, Mother Lefèvre!"
+
+Whereupon the poor old lady, worn out by her emotions, began to weep
+and lean on Jean-Claude's shoulder; but he lifted her up like a
+feather, and ran along by the wall to the right.  Louise followed,
+sobbing loudly.
+
+Out of doors, one could only hear the whizzing of bullets and the dull
+heavy blows against the wall; the bricks and mortar were tumbling down,
+the tiles rolling about; while in front, near the abatis, and three
+hundred yards off, one could see the white uniforms in line, lit up by
+their own fire in the dark night; and, to their left, on the other side
+of the ravine of Minières, the mountaineers attacking them in flank.
+
+Hullin disappeared at the corner of the farm,--where all was in
+darkness;--Doctor Lorquin, on horseback in front of a sledge, having a
+large cavalry sword in his hand and two pistols passed through his
+belt, with Frantz Materne and a dozen other armed men, being barely
+distinguishable.  Hullin placed Catherine in the sledge, on some straw,
+and Louise by her side.
+
+"There you are!" exclaimed the doctor.  "It is well for you."
+
+And Frantz Materne added:--"If it were not for you, Mother Lefèvre, you
+may well believe that not one of us would quit the plateau this night;
+but there is nothing to be said since you are in the case."
+
+"No," cried the others, "there is nothing to be said!"
+
+Just at that moment, a tall fellow, with legs long as a heron's and a
+round back, came running behind the wall and shouting, "They are
+coming!  Fly! fly!"
+
+Hullin turned pale.
+
+"It is the big knife-grinder of the Harberg!" he exclaimed, grinding
+his teeth.
+
+Frantz without saying a word put his musket to his shoulder, aimed and
+fired; and Louise saw the grinder at thirty yards in the dim light,
+throw up his arms and fall face downward on the ground.  Frantz
+reloaded, smiling grimly.
+
+Hullin then said: "Comrades, here is our mother--she who has given us
+powder and furnished us with food for the defence of our country; and
+here is my child: save them!"
+
+They all replied: "We will save, or die with, them."
+
+"And do not forget to warn Divès to stay at the Falkenstein till
+further orders."
+
+"All right, Jean-Claude."
+
+"Then forward, doctor, forward!" cried the gallant man.
+
+"And you, Hullin?" exclaimed Catherine.
+
+"My place is here; our position must be defended till death!"
+
+"Papa Jean-Claude!" cried Louise, holding out her arms to him.
+
+But he had already turned the corner,--the doctor flicked his horse,
+and the sledge passed quickly along the snow.  Frantz Materne and his
+men, with their muskets on their shoulders, marched behind; while a
+rolling fire of musketry was still kept up around the farm.
+
+That was what Catherine Lefèvre and Louise saw in the space of a few
+minutes.  No doubt something strange and terrible had happened in the
+night.  The old farm-mistress, recalling her dream, became very
+thoughtful.  Louise dried her eyes and looked toward the plateau, which
+was lighted up as by a fire.  The horse bounded away under the doctor's
+whip, so that the mountaineers could hardly keep up.  For some distance
+the tumult and clamor of the battle, the explosions, and whizzing of
+the balls among the branches, were distinctly heard; but all this grew
+fainter and fainter, and soon, at the descent of the path, vanished as
+in a dream.
+
+The sledge had reached the opposite side of the mountain, and was
+flying like an arrow through the darkness.  The only sounds which broke
+the silence were the galloping of the horse, the quick breathing of the
+escort, and from time to time the doctor's cry, "Here, Bruno! here
+then!"
+
+A current of cold wind, coming up from the valley of the Sarre, carried
+upon its breeze, like a great sigh, the endless roar of the torrents
+and soughing of the woods.  The moon was peering out from behind a
+cloud, and looking down on the black forests of Blanru, with their tall
+pines loaded with snow.
+
+Ten minutes later the sledge had gained an angle of the woods, and
+Doctor Lorquin, turning round in his saddle, exclaimed,--"Now, Frantz,
+what have we to do?  Here is the way which leads toward the hills of
+St. Quirin, and there is another road which descends to Blanru.  Which
+shall we take?"
+
+Frantz and the men of the escort came up.  As they were then on the
+western slope of the Donon, they began to see again, high in the air,
+on the other side of the hill, the fusillade of the Germans, who were
+advancing by way of the Grosmann.  First they saw the flashes, and then
+heard the rolling echoes in the depths of the valleys.
+
+"The road by the hills of St. Quirin," said Frantz, "is the shortest
+cut to the farm of Bois-de-Chênes; it would save at least
+three-quarters of an hour."
+
+"Yes," rejoined the doctor, "but we should risk being stopped by the
+Germans, who now occupy the defile of the Sarre.  See, they are already
+masters of the heights; they have no doubt sent detachments to the
+Sarre-Rouge in order to turn the Donon."
+
+"Let us take the Blanru road, then," said Frantz; "it is longer, but
+safer."
+
+The sledge passed down the left along the woods.  The partisans, gun in
+hand, advanced one after the other along the top of the bank, while the
+doctor on his horse swept along the snow in the roadway.  Above, the
+great pine-branches met across the road, and enveloped it with their
+deep shadows, while the moon lit up the surrounding scenery.  This road
+was so majestic and picturesque, that, under any other circumstances,
+Catherine would have been astonished at it, and Louise would not have
+failed to admire the garlands of icicles, looking like crystals in the
+pale rays of the moon; but just then they were filled with uneasiness;
+and, moreover, when the sledge entered the gorge, all the brightness
+vanished, and only the summits of the high mountains around remained
+visible.  They had been going in this way for a quarter of an hour,
+when Catherine, having kept silence for some time, at last could
+contain herself no longer, but exclaimed: "Doctor Lorquin, now that you
+have us in the depths of Blanru, and can do with us what you please,
+will you explain to me why we have been dragged away by force?
+Jean-Claude carried me off, and flung me on this heap of straw--and
+here I am!"
+
+"Up, Bruno," cried the doctor.
+
+Then he gravely answered her: "This night, Dame Catherine, a great
+misfortune has overtaken us.  You must not attribute it to Jean-Claude:
+it is by another's fault that we have lost the fruit of all our
+sacrifices!"
+
+"Through whose fault?"
+
+"That unlucky Labarbe's, who did not guard the defile of the Blutfeld.
+He died afterward fulfilling his duty; but that does not repair the
+disaster; and if Piorette does not come up in time to aid Hullin, all
+is lost; it will be necessary to abandon the road and to fight
+retreating."
+
+"What! the Blutfeld is taken?"
+
+"Yes, Mistress Catherine.  Who the deuce could ever have thought that
+the Germans would enter that?  A defile almost impracticable for
+foot-passengers, enclosed by rugged rocks, where the goatherds can
+barely descend with their flocks.  Well, they marched that way, two at
+a time; they turned Roche-Creuse, crushed Labarbe, and then fell upon
+Jérome, who defended himself like a lion till nine in the evening; but,
+at last, he was obliged to take refuge in the pine-woods, and leave the
+pass to the 'kaiserlichs.'  That is the whole story.  It is shocking.
+Indeed, there must be some one among us base and vile enough to have
+guided the enemy, and would deliver us over to him bound hands and
+feet.  Oh, the wretch!" cried Lorquin, furiously.  "I am not
+revengeful, but if he came into my clutches, how I would serve him!
+Up, Bruno! up, then!"
+
+The partisans were marching along the bank like spectres, without
+saying a word.
+
+The old farm-mistress became silent in order to collect her ideas.
+
+"I begin to understand," said she at last.  "We were attacked to-night
+on both sides."
+
+"Exactly so, Catherine.  Fortunately, ten minutes before the attack,
+one of Marc Divès's smugglers, Zimmer, the old dragoon, had come full
+gallop to warn us.  Had it not been for that, we would have been lost.
+He fell in with our vanguard, after having run the gauntlet of a
+detachment of Cossacks on the plateau of Grosmann.  The poor fellow had
+received a terrible sabre-thrust; and his bowels were protruding over
+the saddle--was it not so, Frantz?"
+
+"Yes," replied the hunter, sadly.
+
+"And what did he say?" demanded Catherine.
+
+"He had only time to cry, 'To arms!  We are hemmed in!  Jérome sends
+me.  Labarbe is dead!  The Germans have passed the Blutfeld!'"
+
+"He was a gallant fellow," exclaimed Catherine.
+
+"Yes, a gallant fellow," replied Frantz, with his head bent down.
+
+Then they relapsed into silence, and for some time the sledge swept
+through the winding valley.  Now and then they were obliged to stop,
+the snow was so deep--when three or four mountaineers would take the
+horse by the bridle--and so they continued their way.
+
+"All the same," said Catherine, suddenly rousing up from her reverie,
+"Hullin might have told me."
+
+"But if he had mentioned these two attacks," interrupted the doctor,
+"you would have wanted to remain."
+
+"And who can hinder me from doing what I like?  If it pleased me to get
+out of the sledge this very moment, should I not be free?  I had
+forgiven Jean-Claude, but I am sorry for it!"
+
+"Oh, Maman Lefèvre, supposing he is killed while you are saying that!"
+murmured Louise.
+
+"She is right, poor child," thought Catherine; and then quickly added,
+"I said I was sorry for it; but he is such a good man, that one cannot
+be angry with him.  I forgive him with all my heart; in his place I
+should have done the same."
+
+Two or three hundred yards farther on they entered the defile of
+Roches.  The snow had ceased falling, and the moon was shining between
+great white clouds.  The narrow gorge, hemmed in by steep precipices,
+expanded in the distance, its sides covered with tall pines.  Nothing
+disturbed the deep calm of the woods; one could have imagined one's
+self far away from all human agitation.  The silence was so great that
+every step the horse made in the snow could be heard, and even his
+sharp quick breathing.  Frantz Materne halted at times to gaze upon the
+black slopes, and then hurried on to overtake the others.
+
+They crossed valley after valley; the sledge mounted and descended, now
+to the right and then to the left; and the partisans, with their
+bayonets fixed, followed continually.
+
+Toward three in the morning they reached the meadow of Brimbelles,
+where at the present day an old oak can still be seen bending over the
+valley.  To the left, in the midst of the snow-covered, heather, behind
+a low stone wall, stood the old house of the guard Cuny.  Three
+beehives were placed on a bench, a gnarled vine hung down from the roof
+and a small pine-bough was suspended over the door by way of
+sign-board, for Cuny carried on the business of innkeeper in this
+solitary place.
+
+At this spot the road runs close under the meadow wall, and as a large
+cloud obscured the light of the moon, the doctor, fearing to be upset,
+halted beneath the oak.
+
+"We have only one hour's journey more, Mother Lefèvre," said he; "take
+courage; there is no hurry."
+
+"Yes," said Frantz; "the heaviest part of the road is over, and the
+horse may breath a while."
+
+The small party collected round the sledge, and the doctor got down.
+Some lit their pipes; but no one spoke: they were all busy thinking of
+the Donon.  What was going on there?  Would Jean-Claude be able to
+defend the plateau till Piorette arrived?  So many dread thoughts and
+dismal reflections passed through the minds of the worthy people, that
+not one seemed able to speak.
+
+They had been standing thus about five minutes, when the black cloud
+passed slowly away, and the pale moonlight lit up the gorge.  Suddenly,
+a dark figure on horseback appeared two hundred paces from them, in the
+path between the pine-trees.  By the light of the moon they quickly
+perceived that it was the figure of a Cossack with his sheepskin cap,
+and bearing a lance under his arm.  He was advancing slowly; Frantz was
+already taking aim, when other Cossacks with their lances appeared
+behind him.  They advanced deliberately in the direction of the sledge,
+like people on the search, some with their heads turned upward, others
+peering into the shrubs from their saddles.  They numbered more than
+thirty.
+
+Imagine the feelings of Louise and Catherine, seated in the middle of
+the road.  They looked on open-mouthed.  In another minute they would
+be surrounded by these bandits.  The mountaineers were stupefied; it
+was impossible to return: they were hemmed in on one side by the meadow
+wall, on the other by the mountain-side.  The old farm-wife seized
+Louise by the hand, and said, in a stifled voice, "Let us escape to the
+woods!"
+
+She sprang from the sledge, leaving her shoe in the straw.
+
+Suddenly one of the Cossacks uttered a guttural cry, which was repeated
+along the whole line.
+
+"We are discovered!" exclaimed the doctor, as he drew his sword.
+
+The words had scarcely escaped his lips when twelve musket-shots lit up
+the path from end to end; a regular savage whoop answered the report of
+the muskets.  The Cossacks made off from the path to the meadow in
+front, gave their horses the reins, bent down in their saddles, and
+flew toward the guard-house like deer.
+
+"Ha! they are off like the devil!" said the doctor.
+
+But the worthy man was too hasty.  Suddenly, when they had gone two or
+three hundred yards along the valley, the Cossacks again wheeled round
+and massed themselves firmly together; then, with their lances in rest,
+and bending over their horses' heads, they rushed straight at the
+partisans, shouting in hoarse voices--"Hourah! hourah!"
+
+It was a terrible moment.
+
+Frantz and the others sprang toward the wall, to protect the sledge.
+
+In another second, the clashing of lances and screams of rage could
+alone be heard, mingled with imprecations.  Under the shadow of the old
+oak, through the straggling moonbeams, could be seen the horses
+prancing with tossing manes, as they endeavored to clear the meadow
+wall; while the barbarian Cossacks, with gleaming eyes and uplifted
+arms, struck furiously with their lances, advancing, retreating, and
+uttering piercing yells.
+
+Louise, deathly pale, and Catherine, with her gray dishevelled hair,
+stood up in the straw.
+
+Doctor Lorquin, in front of them, parried the strokes with his sabre,
+and all the time kept shouting to them--"Lie down! lie down!"  But they
+did not hear him.
+
+Louise, in the midst of the tumult and shouting, thought only of
+sheltering Catherine; and the old dame, in the midst of her terror, had
+recognized Yégof, on a tall, gaunt horse--Yégof, with his tin crown,
+bristling beard, long lance, and dog-skin floating from his shoulders.
+She saw him as distinctly as though it were broad daylight.  He stood
+about ten feet distant, with sparkling eyes, brandishing his blue lance
+in the darkness, and striving to reach her.  What could she do?  Submit
+to her fate!  Thus do the most resolute characters succumb to
+inevitable destiny.  The old dame thought her fate was sealed.  She saw
+all these people tearing like wolves, thrusting and parrying in the
+moonlight.  She saw some fall; and horses running, riderless through
+the fields.  She saw the topmost window of the guard-house thrown open;
+and old Cuny, in his shirt-sleeves, shoulder his gun, though not daring
+to fire into the crowd.  All passed before her eyes with wonderful
+clearness.  "The madman has returned," she said to herself.  "Do what
+they will, he will hang my head to the side of his saddle.  It will end
+as I saw in my dream."
+
+And, indeed, everything seemed to justify her fears: the mountaineers,
+inferior in numbers, were giving way.  The Cossacks had cleared the
+wall, and were already on the footpath.  A well-aimed thrust passed
+through the old dame's back-hair, and she felt the cold iron against
+her neck.
+
+"Oh, the murderers!" she screamed, falling back and clutching fast at
+the reins.
+
+Doctor Lorquin himself had been hurled against the sledge.  Frantz and
+the others, surrounded by twenty Cossacks, could afford them no help.
+Louise felt a hand on her shoulder: it was the hand of the madman,
+seated on his great horse.
+
+At this fearful moment, the poor child, mad with terror, uttered a
+scream of distress; then she saw something gleaming in the darkness: it
+was Lorquin's pistols.  Quick as lightning, tearing them from the
+doctor's belt, she fired them off both at once, singeing Yégof's beard,
+and blowing out the brains of a Cossack who was bending toward her with
+flaming eyes.  She then seized Catherine's whip, and pale as death,
+lashed the horse, who bounded away.  The sledge flew through the
+bushes, swaying from right to left.  Suddenly there was a shock.
+Catherine, Louise, the straw, and all rolled in the snow on the slopes
+of the ravine.  The horse stopped short on its haunches, its mouth full
+of bloody foam.  It had struck against an oak-tree.
+
+Rapid as was the fall, Louise had seen figures passing like the wind
+behind the underwood.  She had heard a powerful voice, that of Divès,
+crying out, "Forward!  Cut them down!"
+
+It was like a vision--one of those confused apparitions which pass
+before the eyes in moments of supreme danger; but, on rising, the young
+girl had no longer any doubts.  Fighting was going on only a few paces
+distant behind the cover of some trees, and the voice of Marc was heard
+shouting, "Go it, my old fellows!  Give them no quarter!"
+
+Then she saw a dozen Cossacks clambering up the hill in front, like
+hares among the heather; below Yégof was crossing the valley in the
+moonlight with the speed of a terrified bird on the wing.  Several
+shots were sent after him, but the madman remained unscathed, and,
+standing upright in his stirrups, with his horse at full gallop, he
+turned, waving his lance with bravado, and shouting "Hourah!"  Two more
+shots whizzed by from the guard-house; a bit of rag fell from his
+loins, but the madman continued his course, crying "Hourah!" in a
+hoarse tone, and toiled up the path which his companions had taken
+before him.
+
+All this passed before Louise like a dream.
+
+Then, turning round, she saw Catherine by her side, stupefied and
+absorbed like herself.  They gazed at each other for a moment, and then
+embraced with an inexpressible feeling of happiness.
+
+"We are saved!" murmured Catherine; and they both wept.  "Thou hast
+behaved bravely.  Jean-Claude, Gaspard, and I have good reason to be
+proud of thee!"
+
+Louise was deeply agitated and trembled all over.  The danger being
+passed, her gentle nature again resumed its sway, and she could not
+understand whence came her courage of a few minutes before.
+
+They were recovering from their fright and about to get into the
+sledge, when they saw five or six partisans with the doctor coming
+toward them.
+
+"Ah! you may cry as much as you like, Louise," said Lorquin; "but, for
+all that, you are a regular dragoon, a real little warrior.  Though you
+now look so gentle, we have all seen you at work.  But where are my
+pistols?"
+
+At that moment the shrubs were pushed aside, and Marc Divès, sword in
+hand, appeared.
+
+"Ah, Mistress Catherine, these are rough adventures for you.  Zounds!
+what luck that I happened to come up.  Those villains were spoiling you
+right and left."
+
+"Yes," replied she, pushing her hair under her cap again; "it was very
+fortunate."
+
+"Very fortunate!  I should think so.  It is only ten minutes since I
+arrived with my wagon at Cuny's.  'Do not go to the Donon,' said he;
+'the sky has been red for an hour in that direction; there is certainly
+fighting going on up there.'  'You think so?'  'Faith! yes.'  'Then
+Joson must go out and reconnoitre a little and we others will drink a
+glass while waiting.'  'Good!'  Hardly had Joson left, when I heard
+shouts as though five hundred devils were let loose.  'What is it,
+Cuny?'  'I don't know.'  We pushed open the door, and saw the fray.
+Ha!" exclaimed the big smuggler, "we did not wait long.  I jumped on my
+brave horse Fox, and dashed forward.  What luck!"
+
+"Ah!" said Catherine, "if we were only sure that our affairs go as well
+on the Donon, we might then rejoice."
+
+"Yes, yes!  Frantz told me about that:--it is the devil--there must
+always be something wrong," replied Marc.  "But--but why stay here with
+our feet in the snow?  Let us hope that Piorette will not allow his
+comrades to be crushed, and let us go and empty our glasses, which we
+left half full."
+
+Four other smugglers then arrived, saying that that rascally Yégof
+would probably come back, with some more brigands like himself.
+
+"Very likely," replied Divès.  "We will return to the Falkenstein,
+since it is Jean-Claude's orders; but we can't bring our wagon with us:
+it would prevent our taking the short cuts; and in an hour all these
+bandits would be down upon us.  Let us go first to Cuny's.  Catherine
+and Louise will not be sorry to drink a little wine; and the others
+too.  It will put their hearts in the right place again.  Up, Bruno!"
+
+He led his horse by the bridle.  Two wounded men had been laid in the
+sledge; two others having been killed, as well as seven or eight
+Cossacks stretched with their boots wide apart in the snow, were
+abandoned, and they went on toward the forester's house.
+
+Frantz was consoling himself for not having been on the Donon: he had
+finished two Cossacks, and the sight of the inn made him feel in a good
+humor.  Before the door stood the small wagon full of cartridges.  Cuny
+came out, saying: "A hearty welcome, Mistress Lefèvre.  What a night
+for women!  Be seated!  What is going on up there?"
+
+While they were hastily drinking some wine, everything had to be
+explained over again.  The worthy old man in a blouse and green
+breeches, with his wrinkled face, bald head, and wide-open eyes,
+listened with clasped hands, exclaiming: "Good God!  Good God! in what
+times are we living?  One can no longer follow the high-roads without
+risk of being attacked.  It is worse than the old Swedish tales."  And
+he shook his head.
+
+"Come," said Divès, "time flies.  We must continue our way."
+
+Everybody being ready, the smugglers led the wagon, which contained
+some thousands of cartridges and two small kegs of brandy, about three
+hundred yards off, to the middle of the valley, and then unharnessed
+the horses.
+
+"Go forward!" shouted Marc; "we will rejoin you in a few minutes."
+
+"But what art thou going to do with the cart?" said Frantz.  "Since we
+have no time to take it to the Falkenstein, it had better be left under
+Cuny's shed than in the road."
+
+"Yes, to get the poor old man hanged, when the Cossacks arrive, for
+they will be here in less than an hour.  Do not trouble thyself; I have
+my own idea."
+
+Frantz rejoined the sledge, which went on its way.  In a short time
+they passed by the saw-works of the Marquis and turned sharp to the
+right, to reach the farm of Bois-de-Chênes, whose tall chimneys could
+be perceived three-quarters of a league distant on the plateau.  They
+were on the hill-side when Marc Divès and his men overtook them,
+shouting:
+
+"Halt!  Stop a bit!  Look down there!"
+
+And, looking down into the gorge, they saw the Cossacks capering round
+the wagon--about three hundred of them.
+
+"They are coming!  Let us fly!" cried Louise.
+
+"Wait a bit," said the smuggler.  "We have nothing to fear."
+
+He was still speaking, when an immense sheet of flame sped out from one
+mountain to the other, illuminating the woods, rocks, and the little
+house of the forester fifteen hundred yards below; then there was a
+report so terrible that the earth seemed to tremble.
+
+While those near him gazed in bewilderment and dumb terror at each
+other, Marc's bursts of laughter reached their ears, in spite of the
+din.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted he, "I was sure the rogues would stop round the
+wagon, to drink up my brandy.  I knew the match would have just time to
+reach the powder!"
+
+"Do you think they will pursue us?"
+
+"Their arms and legs are now hanging from the branches of the
+pine-trees!  Come along!  And may heaven grant the same fate to all
+those who have now crossed the Rhine!"
+
+The whole escort, the partisans, the doctor, all had grown silent: so
+many terrible emotions had filled them with endless thoughts such as do
+not fall within the experience of every-day life.  They said to
+themselves: "What are men that they destroy, harass, and ruin each
+other in this manner?  Why do they hate each other so?  And what spirit
+of evil is it that thus excites them?"
+
+But Divès and his men were not at all troubled by these events: they
+galloped along, laughing and boasting.
+
+"For my part," said the big smuggler, "I never saw such a farce before.
+Ha, ha, ha! if I lived a thousand years, I should laugh at it still."
+Then he became more serious, and exclaimed: "All the same, Yégof is the
+cause of this.  One must be blind not to see that it was he who led the
+Germans to the Blutfeld.  I shall be sorry if he has been struck down
+by a piece of my wagon; I have something better in store for him than
+that.  All that I wish is that he may keep in good health till we meet
+somewhere in a lonely corner of the wood.  It is no matter whether it
+be in one year, ten years, twenty years, provided only that we meet.
+The longer it is deferred, the more savage my determination becomes:
+the daintiest morsels are eaten cold, like a boar's head in white wine."
+
+He said this with an air of good-humor, but those who knew him
+perceived beneath it a serious danger for Yégof.
+
+Half an hour later, they all reached the plateau on which the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes was situated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+"ALL IS LOST"
+
+Jérome of St. Quirin had managed to make good his retreat to the farm,
+and since midnight he had occupied the plateau.
+
+"Who goes there?" cried his sentinels as the escort approached.
+
+"It is we, from the village of Charmes," shouted Marc, in his
+stentorian voice.
+
+The sentinels approached to examine them, and then they passed on their
+way.
+
+The farm was silent; a sentry, his musket over his arm, was pacing
+before the granary, where about thirty partisans were asleep upon the
+straw.  At the sight of these great dark roofs, the stables and
+outhouses belonging to the old building where she had spent her youth,
+where her father and grandfather had led their tranquil laborious lives
+in peace, and which she was now about to abandon, perhaps forever,
+Catherine felt a terrible wrenching at her heart; but no word escaped
+her.  Springing from the sledge, as in other days when she returned
+from marketing, she said: "Come, Louise, here we are at home, thank
+God."
+
+Old Duchêne pushed open the door, exclaiming: "Is that you, Madame
+Lefèvre?"
+
+"Yes, it is I.  Any news from Jean-Claude?"
+
+"No, Madame."
+
+They entered the large kitchen.  Some cinders were still smouldering on
+the hearth, and in the dark, under the broad chimney, was sitting
+Jérome of St. Quirin, with his big horsehair hood, his great stick
+between his knees, and his carbine leaning against the wall.
+
+"Good-day, Jérome," said the old farm-wife.
+
+"Good-day, Catherine," replied the grave chief of the Grosmann.  "Have
+you come from the Donon?"
+
+"Yes: things are going badly, my poor Jérome.  The 'kaiserlichs' were
+attacking the farm when we left the plateau.  Nothing but white
+uniforms was to be seen on every side.  They were already beginning to
+cross the breastworks."
+
+"Then you think Hullin will be compelled to abandon the road?"
+
+"Possibly, if Piorette does not come to his assistance."
+
+The partisans had approached near the fire.  Marc Divès bent over the
+cinders to light his pipe; on rising, he exclaimed: "I ask thee one
+thing only, Jérome; I know beforehand that they fought well under thy
+command----"
+
+"We have done our duty," replied the shoemaker.  "There are sixty men
+stretched on the slopes of the Grosmann who will tell you so at the
+last day."
+
+"Yes; but who, then, guided the Germans?  They could not have
+discovered the pass of the Blutfeld by themselves."
+
+"Yégof the madman--Yégof," said Jérome, whose gray eyes, encircled by
+deep wrinkles and thick white eyebrows, seemed to sparkle in the
+darkness.
+
+"Ah! art thou certain of it?"
+
+"Labarbe's men saw him climbing up; he led the others."
+
+The partisans looked at each other with indignation.
+
+At this moment Doctor Lorquin, who had remained outside to unharness
+the horse, opened the door, shouting: "The battle is lost!  Here are
+our men from the Donon.  I have just heard Lagarmitte's horn."
+
+It is easy to imagine the emotion of the recipients of these tidings.
+Each thought of the relations and friends that he might never see
+again; and from the kitchen and the granary everybody at once rushed on
+to the "plateau."  At the same time Robin and Dubourg, posted as
+sentinels above Bois-de-Chênes, cried out, "Who goes there?"
+
+"France!" replied a voice.
+
+Notwithstanding the distance, Louise, fancying she could recognize her
+father's voice, was seized with such a fit of trembling that Catherine
+was compelled to support her.
+
+Just then the noise of many footsteps resounded over the hardened snow,
+and Louise, unable to contain herself any longer, exclaimed, "Papa
+Jean-Claude!"
+
+"I am coming," replied Hullin, "I am coming."
+
+"My father?" exclaimed Frantz Materne, rushing to meet Jean-Claude.
+
+"He is with us, Frantz."
+
+"And Kasper?"
+
+"He has received a slight scratch, but it is nothing.  Thou wilt see
+them both again."
+
+Catherine threw herself into Jean-Claude's arms.
+
+"Oh, Jean-Claude, what joy to behold you once more!"
+
+"Yes," replied the worthy man, in a suppressed voice, "there are many
+who will never see their friends again."
+
+"Frantz," said old Materne, "here, this way!"
+
+And one could only see, on all sides, people seeking each other in the
+dim light, squeezing hands, and embracing.  Some called for, "Niclau!
+Sapheri!" but many did not answer to their names.
+
+Then the voices became hoarse, as though stifled, and relapsed into
+silence.  The joy of some, and the consternation of others, produced a
+terrible sensation.  Louise was in Hullin's arms, sobbing bitterly.
+
+"Ah, Jean-Claude," said Mother Lefèvre, "you will hear strange things
+about that child.  I will say no more now, but we have been
+attacked----"
+
+"Yes, we will talk of that later; our time is short," said Hullin.
+"The road to the Donon is lost, the Cossacks may be here at daylight,
+and we have many things to arrange."
+
+He turned the corner and entered the farm, all following him.  Duchêne
+had just thrown a fagot on the fire.  All these people, with faces
+blackened by powder, still animated by the combat, their clothes torn
+by bayonet-thrusts, some blood-stained, advancing from the darkness
+into the light, presented a strange spectacle.  Kasper, whose forehead
+was bandaged with his handkerchief, had received a sabre-cut; his
+bayonet, buff facings, and high blue gaiters, were stained with blood.
+Old Materne, thanks to his imperturbable presence of mind, returned
+safe and sound from the fray.  The remains of Jérome's and Hullin's
+troops were thus once more united.  They wore the same wild
+physiognomies, animated by the same energy and desire for vengeance.
+But Hullin's men, harassed by fatigue, sat down right and left, on the
+fagots, on the stone sink, on the low pavement of the hearth--their
+heads in their hands and elbows on their knees; while Jérome's, who
+could not be convinced of the disappearance of Hans, Joson, and Daniel,
+looked about everywhere, exchanging questions, broken by long pauses.
+Materne's two sons held each other by the arm, as though afraid of
+losing one another, and their father, behind them, leaning against the
+wall, with his elbow on his gun, watched them with an expression of
+satisfaction.
+
+"There they are, I see them," he seemed to say: "two famous fellows!
+They have saved their skins, both of them."  If any one came to ask him
+about Pierre, Jacques, or Nicolas, his son or his brother, he would
+reply hap-hazard--"Yes, yes, there are several lying down there on
+their backs.  What can you expect?  It is war!  Your Nicolas has done
+his duty.  You must console yourself."  Meanwhile he thought--"Mine are
+out of the scrimmage; that is the chief thing."
+
+Catherine and Louise were busy preparing supper.  Duchêne came up from
+the cellar with a barrel of wine on his shoulder.  He set it down, and
+knocked out the bung; and each partisan presented his flask or cup to
+be filled with the purple liquid which glittered in the firelight.
+
+"Eat and drink," said the old dame to them: "all is not lost yet; you
+will have need of your strength again.  Here, Frantz, unhook those hams
+for me.  Here is bread and knives.  Sit down, my children."
+
+Frantz reached down the hams in the chimney with his bayonet.
+
+The benches were brought forward; they sat down, and notwithstanding
+their sorrows, they ate with that vigorous appetite which neither
+present griefs nor thoughts for the future can make a mountaineer
+forget.  But it did not prevent a bitter sadness from filling the
+hearts of these brave men; and first one and then another would stop
+suddenly, letting fall his fork, and leave the table, saying--"I have
+had enough!"
+
+While the partisans were thus engaged in recruiting their strength, the
+chiefs were assembled in the next room to make some last resolutions
+for the defence.  They sat round the table, on which was placed a tin
+lamp: Doctor Lorquin, with his dog Pluto, looking inquiringly into his
+master's face; Jérome, in the corner of the window to the right; Hullin
+to the left, very pale; Marc Divès, his elbow on the table and cheek in
+his hand, and his back turned to the door, showed only his brown
+profile and the tip of his long mustache.  Materne alone remained
+standing, leaning, as was his custom, against the wall behind Lorquin's
+chair, with his carbine at his feet.  The noise of the men in the
+kitchen could be distinctly heard.
+
+When Catherine, summoned by Jean-Claude, entered the room, she heard a
+sort of groan which made her shudder.  It was Hullin who was speaking.
+
+"All these brave lads--all these fathers of families, who fell one
+after the other," he cried, in a heartrending voice, "do you think I
+did not feel it?  Do you think that I would not rather a thousand times
+have been killed myself?  You do not know what I have suffered this
+night!  To lose one's life is nothing; but to bear alone the weight of
+such a responsibility----"
+
+He paused: his trembling lips, the tear which trickled slowly down his
+cheek, his attitude, all showed the scruples of the worthy man, in face
+of one of those situations where conscience itself hesitates and seeks
+further support.  Catherine went and sat down quietly in the big
+arm-chair.  A few seconds later Hullin continued in a calmer
+tone:--"Between eleven o'clock and midnight, Zimmer came up, shouting,
+'We are turned!  The Germans are coming down the Grosmann!  Labarbe is
+crushed!  Jérome can hold out no longer!'  What was to be done!  Could
+I beat a retreat?  Could I abandon a position which had cost us so much
+blood--the road to the Donon, the road to Paris?  If I had done so,
+should I not have been a coward?  But I had only three hundred men
+against four thousand at Grandfontaine, and I know not how many
+descending from the mountain!  Well, I decided at any cost to hold it;
+it was our duty.  I said to myself, 'Life is nothing without honor!  We
+will all die; but they shall not say that we have yielded the high-road
+to France.  No, no; they shall not say that.'"
+
+At this moment Hullin's voice faltered, and his eyes filled with tears,
+as he continued--"We held out; my brave children held out till two
+o'clock.  I saw them fall: they fell shouting, 'Vive la France!'  I had
+warned Piorette in the beginning of the action.  He came up quickly,
+with fifty stout men.  It was too late.  The enemy poured in on every
+side; they held three parts of the plain, and forced us back among the
+pine-forests on the Blanru side; their fire burst upon us.  All I could
+do was to assemble my wounded, those who could still drag along, and
+put them under Piorette's escort; a hundred of my men joined him.  For
+myself, I only kept fifty to occupy the Falkenstein.  We had to pass
+right through the Germans, who wanted to cut off our retreat.  Happily,
+the night was dark; had it not been for that, not one of us would have
+escaped.  That is how we are situated.  All is lost!  The Falkenstein
+alone remains ours, and we are reduced to three hundred men.  Now the
+question is, shall we go on to the end?  I have already told you that I
+dread to bear alone such a responsibility.  So long as it concerned
+defending the road to the Donon, there was no doubt about it: every man
+belongs to his country.  But this road is lost.  We should need ten
+thousand men to retake it; and at this very moment the enemy is
+entering Lorraine.  Come, what is to be done?"
+
+"We must go on to the end," said Jérome.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried the others.
+
+"Is that your opinion, Catherine?"
+
+"Certainly," exclaimed the old dame, whose features expressed an
+inflexible tenacity.
+
+Then Hullin, in a firmer tone, explained his plan:--"The Falkenstein is
+our point of retreat.  It is our arsenal; it is there that we have our
+ammunition; the enemy knows it; he will attempt an attack on that side,
+therefore all of us here present must make an effort to defend it, so
+that the whole country may see us and say, 'Catherine Lefèvre, Jérome,
+Materne and his boys, Hullin, and Doctor Lorquin are there.  They will
+not lay down their arms.'  This idea will give fresh courage to all
+manly hearts.  Besides, Piorette will remain in the woods; his troops
+will grow more numerous day by day: the country will be filled with
+Cossacks and marauders of every description; when the enemy's army
+shall have entered Lorraine I will signal to Piorette; he will throw
+himself between the Donon and the highway, so that all the laggers
+behind scattered over the mountains will be caught as in a trap.  We
+shall also be able to profit by favorable chances to carry off the
+convoys of the Germans, to harass their reserves, and, if fortune aids
+us, as we must hope it will, and all these 'kaiserlichs' are beaten in
+Lorraine by our army, then we can cut off their retreat."
+
+Everybody got up, and Hullin going into the kitchen, pronounced this
+simple address to the mountaineers:--"My friends, we have decided that
+we must push our resistance to the end.  Nevertheless, every one is
+free to do as he likes; to lay down his arms and return to his village;
+but let those who wish to revenge themselves join us; they will share
+our last morsel of bread and our last cartridge."
+
+Colon, the old wood-floater, arose and said, "Hullin, we are all with
+thee; we began to fight together, and so will we finish."
+
+"Yes, yes!" they all shouted.
+
+"Have you all decided?  Well, listen.  Jérome's brother will take the
+command."
+
+"My brother is dead," interrupted Jérome; "he lies on the slopes of the
+Grosmann."
+
+There was a moment's pause; then in a loud voice Hullin continued:
+"Colon, thou wilt take the command of all those that remain, with the
+exception of the men who formed Catherine Lefèvre's escort, and whom I
+shall keep with me.  Thou wilt go and rejoin Piorette in the valley of
+Blanru, passing by the 'Two Rivers.'"
+
+"And the ammunition?" said Marc Divès.
+
+"I have brought up my wagon-load," said Jérome; "Colon can use it."
+
+"Let the dray be loaded," said Catherine; "the Cossacks are coming, and
+will pillage everything.  Our men must not leave empty-handed; let them
+take away the cows, oxen, and calves--everything: it will be so much
+gained on the enemy."
+
+Five minutes later the farm was being ransacked; the dray was loaded
+with hams, smoked meats, and bread; the cattle were led out of the
+stables, the horses harnessed to the great wagon, and soon the convoy
+began its march, Robin at the head, blowing on his horn, with the
+partisans behind pushing at the wheels.  When it had disappeared in the
+road, and silence had succeeded to all the noise, Catherine turning
+round, beheld Hullin behind her.
+
+"Well, Catherine," said he, "all is finished!  We are now going to make
+our way up there."
+
+Frantz, Kasper, and those of the escort, with Marc Divès and Materne,
+all armed, were waiting in the kitchen.
+
+"Duchêne," said the good woman, "go down to the village; you must not
+be ill-treated by the enemy on my account."
+
+The old servant shook his white head, and, with his eyes full of tears,
+replied:--"I may as well die here, Madame Lefèvre.  It is nearly fifty
+years since I came to the farm.  Do not make me leave; it would be the
+death of me."
+
+"Do as you like, my poor Duchêne," replied Catherine, softly; "here are
+the keys of the house."
+
+And the poor old man sat down in the chimney-corner, on a settee, with
+fixed eyes and half-open mouth, as though lost in some painful reverie.
+
+Then began the journey to the Falkenstein.  Marc Divès, on horseback,
+sword in hand, formed the rear-guard.  Frantz and Hullin watched the
+plateau to the left; Kasper and Jérome the valley to the right: Materne
+and the men of the escort surrounded the women.  It was a singular
+sight.  Before the cottages of the village of Charmes, on the
+door-steps, at the windows and loopholes, appeared the faces of young
+and old, looking at the flight of Mother Lefèvre; nor did their evil
+tongues spare her:--"Ah! they are turned out at last," cried some;
+"another time, do not meddle with what does not concern you."
+
+Others reflected with a loud voice, that Catherine had been rich long
+enough, and that every one should have his turn at poverty.  As for the
+industry, wisdom, kind-heartedness, and all the virtues of the old
+farm-wife, or Jean-Claude's patriotism, or the courage of Jérome and
+the three Maternes, the disinterested motives of Doctor Lorquin or Marc
+Divès's self-sacrifice, nobody ever mentioned them; for were they not
+vanquished?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ON THE FALKENSTEIN
+
+At the end of the valley of Bouleaux, two gun-shots from the village of
+Charmes, to the left, the little troop began slowly to ascend the path
+to the old "burg."  Hullin, remembering how he had taken the same road
+when he went to buy powder of Marc Divès, could not help feeling very
+sad.  Then, notwithstanding his journey to Phalsbourg, the spectacle of
+the wounded from Leipzig and Hanau, and the account given by the old
+sergeant, he did not despair or doubt of the success of the defence.
+Now all was lost; the enemy were descending into Lorraine, and the
+mountaineers were retreating.  Marc Divès rode by the side of the wall
+in the snow; his horse, apparently accustomed to this journey, neighed
+loudly.  The smuggler turned from time to time to look back on the
+plateau of Bois-de-Chênes.  Suddenly he exclaimed, "Look! here come the
+Cossacks!"
+
+They all halted to look.  They were already high up on the mountain,
+above the village and farm of Bois-de-Chênes.  The morning mists were
+giving way to the gray light of the winter's day, and, on the hill-side
+could be distinguished the forms of several Cossacks, with their heads
+raised, and pistols pointed, stealthily approaching the old farm-house.
+They were scattered after the manner of sharpshooters, as if they
+feared a surprise.  A few minutes later more appeared, ascending the
+valley of Houx, then still more, all in the same attitude, upright in
+their stirrups, in order to see as far as possible.  The first, having
+passed by the farm and observing nothing threatening, waved their
+lances and returned half way back.  Whereupon the others galloped up at
+full speed like a flock of crows when they have sighted their prey.  In
+a few minutes the farm was surrounded and the door opened.  In another
+moment the windows were smashed, and the furniture, mattresses, and
+linen, thrown outside.  Catherine calmly looked on at the pillage.  She
+said nothing for some time; but, on seeing Yégof, whom she had not
+perceived before, strike Duchêne with the butt-end of his lance, and
+push him out of the farm, she could not restrain a cry of indignation.
+
+"The wretch!  Could any one be cowardly enough to strike a poor old man
+unable to defend himself.  Ah! brigand, if I only held thee!"
+
+"Come along, Catherine," said Jean-Claude; "that's enough; what is the
+use of gazing at such a spectacle any longer?"
+
+"You are right," said the old mistress; "let us go on, or I shall be
+tempted to go back and revenge myself."
+
+On approaching the red rocks, incrusted with large white and black
+pebbles, overhanging the precipice like the arches of an immense
+cathedral, Louise and Catherine stopped in ecstasy.  The magnificent
+view of the streams of Lorraine, and the blue ribbon of the Rhine to
+their right, with the distant woods and valleys, filled them with joy,
+and the old dame said piously, "Jean-Claude, He who created these
+rocks, and formed these valleys, forests, heaths, and mosses, He will
+render to us the justice we merit."
+
+As they were gazing thus on the rugged precipices, Marc led his horse
+into a cavern close by, and, returning, began to climb up before them,
+saying, "Take care, or you may slip!"
+
+At the same time he pointed to the blue precipice on their right, with
+pine-trees at the bottom.  Everybody then relapsed into silence till
+the terrace was reached, where the arch commenced.  There they breathed
+more freely.  In the middle of the passage were the smugglers Brenn,
+Pfeifer, and Joubac, with their long gray mantles and black hats,
+sitting round a fire.  Marc Divès said to them, "Here we are!  The
+'kaiserlichs' are masters.  Zimmer was killed last night.  Is
+Hexe-Baizel up there?"
+
+"Yes," replied Brenn; "she is making cartridges."
+
+"They may be of use," said Marc.  "Keep your eyes open, and if any come
+up fire on them."
+
+The Maternes halted at the corner of the rock; and these three sturdy
+men, with their powerful muscular limbs, their hats pushed back, and
+carbines on their shoulders, offered a curious spectacle in the blue
+mists of the abyss.  Old Materne was pointing with outstretched hand to
+a small white speck in the distance, almost hidden in the midst of the
+pines.  "Do you recognize that, my boys?" said he; and they all three
+peered through their half-closed eyes.
+
+"It is our house," replied Kasper.
+
+"Poor Margredel!" rejoined the old hunter, after a short pause; "how
+uneasy she must have been these last eight days?  What prayers does she
+not offer up for us to Saint-Odile?"
+
+At that moment Marc Divès, who was walking on in front, uttered an
+exclamation of surprise.
+
+"Mother Lefèvre," said he, stopping short, "the Cossacks are burning
+your farm."
+
+Catherine received the tidings very calmly, and advanced to the edge of
+the terrace, Louise and Jean-Claude following.  At the bottom of the
+abyss was a great white cloud, through which could be seen a bright
+spark, as it were, on the side of Bois-de-Chênes--that was all; but at
+intervals, when the wind blew strong, the flames shot up, the two high
+black gables, the hay-loft, the small stables burned brightly, then all
+disappeared once more.
+
+"It is nearly finished," said Hullin, in a low voice.
+
+"Yes," replied Catherine; "there are the labor and trouble of forty
+years vanishing in smoke; but they cannot burn my good land, nor the
+great meadow of Eichmath.  We will begin our work over again.  Gaspard
+and Louise will repair it all.  I regret nothing I have done."
+
+A quarter of an hour later thousands of sparks arose, and the building
+crumbled to the ground.  The black gables alone remained standing.
+They continued to ascend the path.  As they were ascending the higher
+terrace, they heard the sharp voice of Hexe-Baizel.
+
+"Is it thou, Catherine?" she cried.  "Ah, I never thought thou wouldst
+have come to see me in my wretched hole."
+
+Baizel and Catherine Lefèvre had been at school together in former
+days, therefore they used the third person when speaking.
+
+"Nor I neither," replied the old farm-mistress.  "All the same,
+Baizel--one is glad to find in misfortune an old companion of one's
+childhood."
+
+Baizel seemed touched by her words.
+
+"All that is here, Catherine, is thine," she exclaimed; "everything!"
+
+She pointed to her miserable stool, the furze broom, and the five or
+six fagots on the hearth.  Catherine looked on a few moments in
+silence, and then said: "It is not grand, but it is solid; at least,
+they will not be able to burn down thy house."
+
+"No, they will not burn it," said Hexe-Baizel, laughing; "they would
+need all the wood of the province of Dabo even to warm it a little.
+Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+After so many fatigues, the partisans stood in need of repose.  They
+all placed their guns against the wall, and lay down on the ground to
+sleep, Marc Divès having opened the second cavern to them, where they
+at least were sheltered.  Marc then went out with Hullin to examine
+their position.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MARC DIVÈS'S MISSION
+
+On the rock of the Falkenstein, high up in the clouds, stands a tower,
+somewhat sunken at its base.  This tower, overgrown with brambles,
+hawthorn, and bilberries, is as old as the mountain; neither the
+French, Germans, nor Swedes have destroyed it.  The stone and cement
+are so solidly combined that not even a fragment can be detached from
+it.  It looks gloomy and mysterious, carrying one back to ancient
+times, beyond the memory of man.
+
+At that time of the year when the wild-geese migrated in flocks, Marc
+Divès, when he had nothing better to do, used to await them hidden in
+the tower, and sometimes at nightfall, when the flocks came through the
+fogs flying in large circles before resting, he would bring down two or
+three, much to the satisfaction of Hexe-Baizel, who was always very
+willing to put them on a spit.  Often, too, in the autumn, Marc laid
+traps in the bushes, where he caught thrushes.  The old tower also
+served him as a wood-house.
+
+Divès, perceiving that his wood, covered with snow and soaked by rain,
+gave more smoke than light, had covered in the old tower with a roof of
+planks.  With reference to this occasion, the smuggler related a
+curious story.  He pretended that, on laying the rafters, he had
+discovered, at the bottom of a fissure, a snow-white owl, blind and
+feeble: but supplied with quantities of bats and field-mice.  He
+therefore called it the "grandmother of the country," as he supposed
+that all the birds came to feed it on account of its extreme old age.
+
+Toward the close of the day, the partisans posted round the rock saw
+the white uniforms appearing in the neighboring gorges.  They poured in
+on all sides in large numbers, thereby clearly showing their
+determination to blockade the Falkenstein.  Perceiving this, Marc Divès
+became more thoughtful.  "If they surround us," said he, "we shall not
+be able to procure food, and shall have to surrender or die of hunger."
+
+The enemy's staff on horseback could be clearly distinguished, halting
+round the fountain of the village of Charmes.  There also stood a tall
+chief with a large paunch, who was contemplating the rock through a
+telescope.  Behind him was Yégof, whom from time to time he turned
+round to question.  The women and children formed a circle beyond them,
+apparently highly delighted, and five or six Cossacks pranced about.
+The smuggler could not contain himself any longer, and, taking Hullin
+aside, "Look," said he, "at that long line of shakos gliding along the
+Sarre, and at the others who are scaling the valley on this side like
+hares; they are 'kaiserlichs,' aren't they?  Well, what are they going
+to do, Jean-Claude?"
+
+"They are going to surround the mountain, that is clear.  How many are
+there, dost thou think?"
+
+"From three to four thousand men, without counting those who are
+walking over the country.  Well, what can Piorette do against this pack
+of vagabonds with three hundred men?  I ask thee frankly, Hullin."
+
+"He can do nothing," replied the worthy man, simply.  "The Germans know
+that our ammunition is on the Falkenstein; they dread an insurrection
+after they enter Lorraine, and wish to insure their rear.  The enemy's
+general knows that we cannot be taken by mere force, he is deciding to
+reduce us by hunger.  All that is true, Marc; but we are men: we will
+do our duty--we will die here!"
+
+There was a short silence; Marc Divès frowned, and did not seem at all
+convinced.
+
+"We will die!" he replied, scratching his head.  "I do not see why we
+should die at all; it is not our intention to die: too many people
+would be gratified by it."
+
+"What wouldst thou do?" said Hullin, dryly.  "Wouldst thou surrender?"
+
+"Surrender!" exclaimed the smuggler.  "Dost thou take me for a coward?"
+
+"Then explain thyself."
+
+"This evening I start for Phalsbourg.  I risk my skin in crossing the
+enemy's lines; but I like that better than folding my arms here, and
+perishing with hunger.  I will enter the town on the first 'sortie,' or
+I will endeavor to climb one of the gates.  The commandant, Meunier,
+knows me.  I have sold him tobacco for three years.  Like thyself, he
+has gone through the campaigns of Italy and Egypt.  Well, I will
+explain everything to him.  I shall see Gaspard Lefèvre.  I will so
+arrange that they will give us, perhaps, a company.  Dost thou see,
+Jean-Claude, that the uniform alone would save us?  All the brave men
+who remain will join Piorette; and in any case we shall be delivered,
+That is my idea.  What dost thou think of it?"
+
+He looked at Hullin, whose gloomy, fixed expression made him uneasy.
+
+"Dost thou not think that a chance?"
+
+"It is an idea," said Jean-Claude at last.  "I do not oppose it."  And,
+looking full in the smuggler's face, "Swear to me to do thy best to
+enter the town."
+
+"I will swear nothing," replied Marc, whose brown cheeks were covered
+with a flush.  "I leave all my possessions here, my wife, my comrades,
+Catherine Lefèvre, and thee, my oldest friend!  If I do not return, I
+shall be a traitor; but if I return, Jean-Claude, thou shalt explain
+what thou meanest by thy demand: we will settle this little affair
+between us."
+
+"Marc," said Hullin, "forgive me!  I have suffered much these last
+days.  I was wrong.  Misfortune makes one distrustful.  Give me thy
+hand.  Go!  Save us, save Catherine, save my child!  I say so now: our
+only resource is in thee."
+
+Hullin's voice faltered.  Divès relented; but he rejoined: "All the
+same, Hullin, thou shouldst not have said that to me at such a time.
+Never let us speak of it again.  I will leave my skin on the way, or
+return to deliver you.  This evening, when darkness sets in, I will
+leave.  The 'kaiserlichs' surround the mountain already; but no matter,
+I have a good horse, and, besides, I have always been lucky."
+
+By six o'clock the highest peaks were hid in darkness.  Hundreds of
+fires, sparkling in the depths of the gorges, announced that the
+Germans were preparing their repasts.
+
+Marc Divès felt his way down the narrow path.  Hullin listened for a
+few seconds to the retreating steps of his comrade, then walked
+anxiously toward the old tower, where their head-quarters were
+established.  He lifted the thick woollen covering which closed the
+owl's-nest, and perceived Catherine, Louise, and the others crouching
+round a small fire.  The old farm-mistress sat on an oak log, her hands
+clasped round her knees, watching the flames fixedly, with compressed
+lips.  Louise leant dreamily against the wall.  Jérome stood behind
+Catherine, his hands crossed on his stick, his otter-skin cap touching
+the mouldy roof.  All were sad and discouraged.  Hexe-Baizel, who was
+lifting the lid of a kettle, and Doctor Lorquin, who was scratching the
+softer parts of the old wall with the point of his sabre, alone
+preserved their usual expression.
+
+"Here we are," said the doctor, "returned to the days of the Triboques.
+These walls are more than two thousand years old.  A great deal of
+water must have flowed from the heights of the Falkenstein and Grosmann
+to the Sarre and Rhine since a fire was last kindled in this tower."
+
+"Yes," replied Catherine, as though awaking from a dream; "and many
+besides ourselves have suffered cold, hunger, and misery here.  Who
+knew of it?  No one.  And one, or two, or three hundred years hence,
+others, perhaps, will again come for shelter to this place.  They will
+find, as we have, the wall cold, and the earth damp; they will make a
+fire; they will look as we look; and they will say, like us, 'Who
+suffered here before ourselves?  Why did they suffer?  They must have
+been pursued and hunted, like ourselves, to be obliged to come and hide
+in this wretched hole.'  And they will think of past times; and no one
+will reply."
+
+Jean-Claude came up to them.  The old dame, raising her head, and
+looking at him, said, "Well! we are blockaded; the enemy wants to
+subdue us by famine."
+
+"True, Catherine," replied Hullin; "but I did not expect that.  I felt
+certain of a sudden attack; but the 'kaiserlichs' have not gained all
+yet.  Divès has just left for Phalsbourg.  He knows the commandant of
+the place; and if they will only send a few hundred men to our help----"
+
+"Do not count on that," interrupted the old woman.  "Marc may be taken
+or killed by the Germans: and, if not, and suppose he manages to cross
+their lines, how will he be able to enter Phalsbourg?  You well know
+that the town is besieged by the Russians."
+
+Then everybody relapsed into silence.  Hexe-Baizel brought up the soup,
+and they sat in a circle round the smoking bowl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A FLAG OF TRUCE
+
+Catherine Lefèvre came out of the ancient ruin about seven in the
+morning; Louise and Hexe-Baizel were still asleep; but broad daylight,
+the clear light of the high regions, was already penetrating the
+abysses.  In the depths, through the azure, the woods, valleys, and
+rocks could be clearly traced, like the mosses and pebbles of a lake
+beneath the blue crystal water.  Not a breath disturbed the air; and
+Catherine, gazing over this grand spectacle, felt a calmness and
+tranquillity beyond even that which comes of sleep.  "What are our
+miseries of a day," thought she, "our uneasinesses and our sufferings?
+Why pester heaven with our moans? why fear the future?  All this lasts
+but a second; our sighs are of no more avail than the chirp of the
+grasshopper in autumn; and do its cries prevent winter from coming?
+Must not time pursue its course, and everything die to be renewed?"
+
+Thus thought the old dame, and she had no longer any fears for the
+future.  She had been thus musing for a few instants, when suddenly a
+hum of voices struck her ears: she turned, and saw Hullin with the
+three smugglers, talking seriously together on the other side of the
+plateau.  They were engaged in a grave discussion, and had not noticed
+her.  Catherine approached closer to them, and heard the following
+conversation:--
+
+"Then you do not think it possible for any one to get down either side?"
+
+"No, Jean-Claude, it is quite impossible," replied Brenn; "those
+brigands know the country thoroughly well: all the paths are guarded.
+Hold, look along the paths of that stream: we never dreamt of observing
+it even; well! they are defending that now.  And over there, on the
+passage of the Rothstein, a path only for a goat, which is not trodden
+once in ten years--thou canst see a bayonet sparkle behind the rock,
+canst thou not?  And that nearer path along which I have slipped with
+my bags for these eight years past without meeting a single gendarme,
+they occupy that also: the devil certainly must have showed them all
+the defiles."
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Joubac, "if the devil has nothing to do with it, at
+least Yégof has!"
+
+"But," continued Hullin, "it seems to me that three or four men might,
+if they liked, push through one of those posts."
+
+"No, those posts lean one on the other; at the first shot one would
+have a whole regiment upon one's shoulders," replied Brenn.  "Besides,
+supposing one had the luck to get through, how could one return with
+provisions?  My opinion is, that it is impossible."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"After that," said Joubac, "if Hullin likes we will try all the same."
+
+"We will try what?" said Brenn.  "To break our legs in escaping
+ourselves, and leave the others in the trap.  I don't mind; if any
+others go, I will too.  But as for pretending to return with
+provisions, it is impossible.  Come, Joubac, by which way art thou
+going, and by which way wilt thou return?  If thou knowest of a
+passage, tell me.  For twenty years I have scoured the mountain with
+Marc.  I know all the paths and roads ten leagues round, and I see no
+other way but through the sky!"
+
+Hullin turned round at that moment and saw Mother Lefèvre, close
+behind, listening attentively.
+
+"What! were you there, Catherine?" said he.  "Our affairs are taking a
+bad turn."
+
+"Yes, I heard; there is no means of renewing our provisions."
+
+"Our provisions!" said Brenn with a queer laugh.  "Are you aware,
+Mother Lefèvre, for how long we have them?"
+
+"Why, for a fortnight," replied the old dame.
+
+"For a week," said the smuggler, shaking out the ashes from his pipe.
+
+"It is true," said Hullin, "Marc Divès and myself thought they would
+attack the Falkenstein; we never imagined the enemy would blockade it
+like a fortress.  We have been deceived!"
+
+"And what is to be done?" said Catherine, turning pale.
+
+"We are going to put everybody on half rations.  If, in a fortnight,
+Marc does not return we shall have nothing left--then we shall see."
+
+So saying, Hullin, Catherine, and the smugglers, with bowed heads, took
+the path to the breach again.  As they were coming down the slope,
+thirty feet below them they perceived Materne.  He was climbing
+breathlessly among the ruins, and clutched hold of the bushes to help
+him along faster.
+
+"Well," shouted Jean-Claude to him; "what is the matter, old fellow?"
+
+"Ah! there thou art.  I was coming to find thee; one of the enemy's
+officers has come forward on the wall of the old 'burg' with a little
+white flag; he looks as though he had something to say to us."
+
+Hullin advanced immediately to the edge of the rock, and saw a German
+officer standing on the wall, and awaiting a signal to mount.  He was
+about two gun-shots distant; farther behind five or six soldiers were
+stationed with their arms shouldered.  After having inspected this
+group, Jean-Claude turned and said: "It is a flag of truce.  He comes
+no doubt to summon us to surrender."
+
+"Fire upon them!" cried Catherine; "it is all we have to say."
+
+All the others appeared of the same advice, excepting Hullin, who,
+without making any reply descended to the terrace, where the rest of
+the partisans were assembled.
+
+"My children," said he, "the enemy sends us a flag of truce.  We do not
+know what he wants of us.  I suppose it is to order us to lay down our
+arms; but it may possibly be something else.  Frantz and Kasper will go
+to meet him; they must blindfold the officer and lead him here."
+
+No objection being made, Materne's sons shouldered their carbines and
+walked away under the lofty arch.  About ten minutes later, the two
+red-haired hunters reached the officer; there was a rapid conference
+between them, after which all three began to climb to the Falkenstein.
+By degrees, as the party ascended, the uniform of the officer and his
+face could be distinguished: he was a thin man, with light brown hair,
+well made, and determined-looking.  At the foot of the rock Frantz and
+Kasper blindfolded him, and soon the sound of their steps under the
+arch could be heard.
+
+Jean-Claude going toward them, himself unbound the handkerchief,
+saying, "You desire to communicate something to me, sir; I am
+listening."
+
+The partisans stood about fifteen paces away.  Catherine Lefèvre, the
+foremost among them, frowned; her bony, angular face, long beaked nose,
+her three or four tresses of gray hair, falling down over her temples
+and hollow cheek-bones, her compressed lips, and the fixity of her
+gaze, appeared at first to rivet the attention of the German officer.
+Next to her stood Louise, with her sweet pale face.  Jérome, with his
+long tawny beard, draped in his horse-hair tunic, and Materne, leaning
+on his short carbine, and the others around him completed the group.
+
+The officer himself was the object of particular attention.  One could
+see in him, his attitude, fine sunburnt features, clear gray eyes,
+handsome mustache, in the elegance of his limbs, hardened by the labors
+of war, a member of an aristocratic race: he combined the old soldier
+and the man of the world, the warrior and the diplomatist.
+
+This reciprocal inspection being finished, the bearer of the flag of
+truce said, in good French, "I have the honor of addressing the
+Commandant Hullin?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Jean-Claude.
+
+And seeing the other gazing hesitatingly around the circle, he
+continued, "Speak loud, sir, so that everybody may hear you.  When
+honor and the country are in question all are concerned in France; the
+women are interested as well as ourselves.  Have you any proposition to
+make me, and from whom?"
+
+"From the General Commander-in-chief.  Here is my commission."
+
+"Good; we are listening to you, sir."
+
+Then the officer, raising his voice, said in a resolute tone: "Permit
+me first, commandant, to remark that you have fulfilled your duty
+splendidly: you have called forth the esteem of your enemies."
+
+"In the matter of duty," replied Hullin, "we have all done our best."
+
+"Yes," added Catherine, dryly, "and since our enemies esteem us on that
+account, well, they will esteem us still more in eight or fifteen days,
+for we have not reached the end of the war yet.  You will live to see
+more of us."
+
+The officer turned his head, and looked with astonishment at the savage
+energy in the old woman's face.
+
+"They are noble sentiments," he retorted, after an instant's silence:
+"but humanity has its rights, and to squander blood uselessly is
+returning evil for evil."
+
+"Then why do you come into our country?" cried Catherine sharply.  "Go
+away, and we will let you alone.  You make war like brigands: you
+steal, pillage, and burn.  You all deserve to be hanged.  And to set a
+good example, you personally ought to be hurled over that rock."
+
+The officer turned pale, for the old woman seemed quite capable of
+carrying out her threat; however he soon regained his composure, and
+replied calmly: "I am aware that the Cossacks have set fire to the farm
+in front of this rock.  They are pillagers, such as are to be found in
+the rear of every army, and this isolated act proves nothing against
+the discipline of our troops.  The French soldiers did the same in
+Germany, and particularly in the Tyrol; not content with pillaging and
+burning the villages, they mercilessly shot all mountaineers suspected
+of having taken up arms for the defence of their country.  We might
+make reprisals, and should be justified in doing so; but we are not
+barbarians, we can understand that patriotism is noble and grand, even
+in its most ill-advised acts.  Besides, we are not making war on the
+French people, but on the Emperor Napoleon.  And the general, on
+learning the conduct of the Cossacks, has publicly punished this act of
+Vandalism; more, he has decided that an indemnity shall be accorded to
+the proprietor of the farm."
+
+"I will not receive anything from you," Catherine hastily interrupted;
+"I will keep my injustice and revenge myself."
+
+The officer understanding by the accent of the old woman's voice that
+he could make no impression upon her, and feeling that it was even
+dangerous for him to reply, turned toward Hullin, and said: "I am
+ordered, commandant, to offer you the honors of war if you will consent
+to give up this position.  You have no provisions, we know that.  In a
+few days you will be obliged to lay down your arms.  The esteem felt
+for you by our general has alone caused him to make you honorable
+conditions.  A longer resistance would be useless.  We are masters of
+the Donon, our battalions are entering Lorraine; the campaign will not
+be concluded here, therefore you have no interest in defending such a
+position.  We wish to spare you the horrors of famine on this barren
+rock.  Come, commandant, decide."
+
+Hullin turned toward the partisans and said to them: "You have heard?
+I refuse; but I will submit if everybody accepts the propositions of
+the enemy."
+
+"We refuse, all of us," said Jérome.
+
+"Yes, all," replied the others.
+
+Catherine Lefèvre, who had looked inflexible till then, regarded Louise
+and seemed touched; she took her by the arm, and turning toward the
+officer, said to him: "We have a child with us; is there no means by
+which we could send her to one of our relations at Saverne?"
+
+Hardly had Louise heard these words, than throwing herself into
+Hullin's arms with fear, she cried out: "No, no, I will remain with
+you, Papa Jean-Claude; I will die with you."
+
+"Well," said Hullin; "go tell your general what you have seen: tell him
+that the Falkenstein will be ours till death!  Kasper, Frantz,
+reconduct the truce-bearer."
+
+The officer appeared to hesitate, but as he opened his mouth to speak,
+Catherine, pale with rage, exclaimed, "Begone! you have not yet gained
+all the advantages you think.  It is that brigand Yégof who has told
+you that we have no provisions; but we have for two months, and by that
+time our army will have exterminated you all.  Traitors will not always
+have the best of it: bad luck to you."
+
+Seeing she was becoming more and more excited, the officer thought it
+best to take his departure: he turned to his guides, who put the
+bandages over his eyes, and conducted him to the foot of the
+Falkenstein.
+
+The instructions which Hullin had given concerning the provisions were
+executed on the same day, and each received his half ration.  A sentry
+was placed before Hexe-Baizel's cavern, where the food was kept; the
+door was barricaded, and Jean-Claude decided that the distributions
+should be made in the presence of all, so as to prevent any injustice;
+but all these precautions were destined to fail in preserving the
+unfortunate people from the horrors of famine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+"BATTLE OF THE ROCKS"
+
+For three days they had been entirely without food on the Falkenstein,
+and Divès had given no signs of life.  How often, during those long
+days of agony, did the mountaineers turn their eyes toward
+Phalsbourg!--how often had they listened, fancying they could hear the
+smuggler's step, while the vague murmur of the wind alone filled the
+space!
+
+The nineteenth day since the arrival of the partisans on the
+Falkenstein was passed amidst all the tortures of hunger.  They no
+longer spoke; they remained crouched on the earth, with pinched faces,
+and lost in endless reveries.  Sometimes they watched each other with
+sparkling eyes, as though about to devour one another, then relapsed
+into sullen calm.
+
+Occasionally Yégof's raven, flying from crag to crag, would approach
+this place of misfortune.  Then old Materne would take aim with his
+rifle, but the ill-omened bird would immediately take flight with
+dismal croakings, and the old hunter's arm fell helpless by his side.
+And as though the exhaustion of hunger was not enough to fill the
+measure of so much misery, the poor creatures only opened their mouths
+to accuse and menace one another.
+
+"Do not touch me," cried Hexe-Baizel, in a shrill voice to those who
+looked at her--"do not look at me, or I will bite you!"
+
+Louise was delirious; her great blue eyes, instead of living objects,
+saw only shadows flit across the plateau, touching the tops of the
+bushes, and resting on the old tower.
+
+"Here is food!" she said.  Then the others became enraged with the poor
+child, crying out with fury, that she was mocking them, and bidding her
+beware.
+
+Jérome alone remained perfectly calm; but the great quantity of snow he
+had swallowed to appease the pangs of ravenous hunger, had inundated
+his whole body and bony face with a cold sweat.  To appease the
+cravings of his stomach, Doctor Lorquin had bound a handkerchief round
+his loins, and tightened it more and more.  He was seated with his back
+against the tower, and his eyes closed, though he now and then opened
+them to say, "We have reached the first--the second--the third stage.
+One more day, and all will be over!"
+
+He then began to declaim about the Druids, Odin, Brahma, Pythagoras,
+quoting Latin and Greek, and announcing the near transformation of the
+people of Harberg into wolves, foxes, and animals of all sorts.  "For
+myself," he exclaimed, "I will be a lion!  I will eat fifteen pounds of
+beef every day!"
+
+Then renewing his discourse:--"No, I will be a man.  I will preach
+peace, brotherhood, justice.  Ah, my friends, we suffer for our own
+faults.  What have we done with the other side of the Rhine for the
+last ten years?  With what right did we set up masters over those
+peoples?  Why did we not exchange our ideas, our sentiments, the
+produce of our arts and of our industry with theirs?  Why did we not
+approach them like brothers, in place of wishing to subject them to us?
+We should have been well received.  What must they not have suffered,
+those unhappy people, during those ten years of violence and rapine!
+Now they are avenged, and it is just!  May the malediction of heaven
+fall on the miserable wretches who get up divisions among peoples in
+order to oppress them!"
+
+After these moments of excitement he would fall exhausted against the
+wall of the tower, and murmur--"Some bread; oh, only a morsel of bread!"
+
+Materne's two sons, crouched in the brushwood, their carbines at their
+shoulders, seemed to expect the passage of some game which never
+arrived.  Their ceaseless watching alone sustained their expiring
+strength.
+
+Others, bent double with pain, were shivering with cold, and yet were
+burning with fever: they reproached Jean-Claude with having brought
+them to the Falkenstein.
+
+Hullin, with a superhuman force of character, still went and came,
+observing what took place in the neighboring valleys, but without
+saying anything.
+
+Occasionally he would advance to the edge of the rock, and with his
+massive jaws clinched and shining eyes, looked at Yégof, seated before
+a large fire, on the plains of Bois-de-Chênes, in the midst of a band
+of Cossacks.  Since the arrival of the Germans in the valley of the
+Charmes, the madman had never quitted his post, but appeared to be
+watching the agony of his victims.
+
+Such was the position of these unfortunate people beneath the open
+heaven.
+
+In the gloom of a prison the torture of hunger is doubtless frightful,
+but in the broad light of day, in the eyes of a whole country, in face
+of all the resources of nature, its sufferings are beyond all
+description.
+
+At the close of the nineteenth day, between four and five o'clock in
+the afternoon, the weather was gloomy; large gray clouds rose behind
+the snowy summit of the Grosmann; the red sun, like a ball of fire,
+threw a few last rays into the misty horizon.  The silence on the rock
+was unbroken.  Louise no longer gave signs of life; Kasper and Frantz
+remained among the bushes immovable as stones; Catherine Lefèvre,
+crouching on the earth, her skinny arms clasped round her pointed
+knees, with hard, rigid features, her hair hanging over her clammy
+cheeks, looked like some old sibyl seated in the heather.  She had
+ceased speaking.  That evening, Hullin, Jérome, old Materne, and Doctor
+Lorquin gathered themselves around the old farm-mistress to die.  They
+were silent, and the last rays of twilight fell upon the wretched
+group.  To the right, behind a jutting rock, a few German watch-fires
+sparkled in the abyss.  Suddenly the old dame, rousing from her dreams,
+began to murmur some unintelligible words.
+
+"Divès is coming," said she, in a low voice.  "I see him.  He goes out
+from the door to the right of the arsenal.  Gaspard follows him,
+and----"
+
+Then she began to count.
+
+"Two hundred and fifty men," she exclaimed; "National Guards and
+soldiers.  They cross the ditch; they mount behind the demilune.
+Gaspard is speaking with Marc.  What does he say?"
+
+She appeared to listen.
+
+"Let us hurry!--yes, hurry!  Time flies!  There they are on the glacis!"
+
+There was a long pause; then the old woman suddenly arose, with
+outstretched arms and hair on end, and screamed aloud in a terrible
+voice:--"Courage!  Kill, kill!  Ah, ah!"  And she fell down heavily.
+
+This fearful cry awoke them all; it would have aroused the dead.  The
+besieged seemed born anew.  Something was abroad.  Was it hope, life, a
+spirit?  I know not; but all rose up on their hands and knees, like
+wild beasts, holding their breath to hear.  Louise even moved softly
+and lifted her head; Frantz and Kasper dragged themselves along; and,
+strange to say, Hullin, turning his eyes toward Phalsbourg, thought he
+saw through the darkness the flashes of a fusillade announcing a sortie.
+
+Catherine had resumed her first appearance; but her cheeks, before
+still and pale as those of a corpse, trembled now.  The others listened
+as though their salvation hung on her lips.  A quarter of an hour
+nearly had passed, when the old dame slowly recommenced:--"They have
+passed the enemy's lines; they are running toward Lutzelbourg.  I see
+them!  Gaspard and Divès are before, with Desmarets, Ulrich, Weber, and
+our friends of the town.  They come! they come!"
+
+She again became silent.  Long did they listen; but the vision was
+gone.  Seconds followed seconds slowly like centuries.  At length,
+Hexe-Baizel, in an angry voice, began to say:--"She is mad!  She saw
+nothing!  Marc, I know him: he is making fun of us.  What does it
+matter to him if we perish?  So long as he has his bottle and tobacco
+and can smoke his pipe in peace by the fireside, all the rest is
+nothing.  Ah, the wretch!"
+
+Then all relapsed into silence, and the unhappy creatures, reanimated
+for an instant by hope of a speedy deliverance, again fell into despair.
+
+"It is a dream," thought they; "Hexe-Baizel is right: we are condemned
+to die of hunger."
+
+While this was going on night arrived.  When the moon rose behind the
+high pine-trees, and lit up the gloomy group, Hullin alone kept watch,
+in spite of his raging fever.  Far off--very far off in the gorges--he
+heard the voices of the German sentries; "Wer da?  Wer da?" the rounds
+of the patrols in the woods; the shrill neighing of the horses at the
+picket, and the shouts of their keepers.  Toward midnight the worthy
+fellow fell asleep like the rest.  When he awoke, the clock of the
+village of Charmes struck four.  At the sound of the distant chimes,
+Hullin shook off his drowsiness, and he opened his eyes.  As he gazed
+unconsciously into the darkness, trying to collect his thoughts, the
+vague glimmer of a torch passed before his eyes.  A feeling of dread
+came over him, and he said to himself:--"Am I mad?  The night is dark,
+and I see torches!"
+
+Nevertheless, the flame reappeared; he looked at it, then raised
+himself quickly, resting his contracted face for a second in his hand.
+At length, hazarding one more look, he distinctly saw a fire on the
+Giromani, on the other side of Blanru--a fire which swept the heavens
+with its purple wings, causing the shadows of the pines to dance on the
+snow.  Recalling to himself that this signal had been agreed upon
+between him and Piorette to announce an attack, he trembled from head
+to foot, his face streamed with perspiration, and, walking in the dark,
+groping like a blind man with his hands outstretched, he
+stammered,--"Catherine, Louise, Jérome."  But no one answered.  Still
+groping about, thinking he was walking while he did not make a step,
+the unfortunate man fell down, exclaiming, "My children!  Catherine!
+they come!  We are saved!"
+
+A vague sound immediately arose.  One would have said that the dead
+were awaking.  There was a shrill laugh: it was Hexe-Baizel, gone mad
+from her sufferings.
+
+Then Catherine exclaimed: "Hullin!  Hullin! who spoke?"
+
+Jean-Claude, recovering from his emotion, said, in firmer tones:
+"Jérome, Catherine, Materne, and the others, are you dead?  Do you not
+see that fire down there, in the direction of Blanru?  It is Piorette,
+who is coming to our assistance."
+
+At the same instant, a deep boom rolled along the gorges of the
+Jägerthal, like the rumbling of a storm.  The summoning trumpet of the
+Judgment could not have produced a greater effect on the besieged: they
+suddenly awoke.
+
+"It is Piorette! it is Marc!" cried broken, harsh voices, such as might
+have belonged to skeletons; "they are coming to our aid!"
+
+And all the wretched creatures tried to rise: some sobbed; but they had
+no longer any tears to shed.  A second report brought them upright.
+
+"They are firing in detachments," said Hullin.  "Ours are doing so too.
+We have soldiers in lines!  France forever!"
+
+"Yes," replied Jérome.  "Mother Catherine was right; the Phalsbourgers
+are coming to our assistance; they are descending the hills of the
+Sarre; and there is Piorette, who is now attacking by Blanru."
+
+Indeed, the fusillade now began to resound on both sides at once,
+toward the plateau of Bois-de-Chênes and the heights of Kilbèri.
+
+The two chiefs embraced; and, as they groped along in the dark night,
+seeking to reach the edge of the rock, suddenly Materne cried out,
+"Take care, the precipice is near!"
+
+They stopped short and looked down; but nothing was to be seen: a
+current of cold air ascending from the abyss alone warned them of the
+danger.  The peaks and gorges round were all plunged in darkness.  On
+the hill-sides in front the flashes of the fusillade passed like
+lightning, illuminating now an old oak, now the heather, or the black
+outline of some rock; and groups of men were coming and going, as
+though in the midst of a conflagration.  Two thousand feet below, in
+the depth of the gorge, could be heard dull sounds of galloping horses,
+and the clamors of command.  Now, the shout of a mountaineer hailing
+another was prolonged from peak to peak, and arose to the Falkenstein
+like a sigh.
+
+"It is Marc!" said Hullin; "it is Marc's voice!"
+
+"Yes, it is Marc, who bids us have courage," replied Jérome.
+
+The others looked around them with outstretched necks, their hands
+grasping the rock.  The fusillade continued with a vivacity that
+betrayed the fury of the battle; but nothing could be seen.  Oh! how
+they wished to take part in this supreme struggle!  With what ardor
+would they not have thrown themselves into the fire!  The fear of being
+abandoned once more, of seeing by daylight their defenders retreating,
+rendered them speechless with terror.
+
+Day began to dawn; the pale light arose behind the black summits, and
+began to illumine the gloomy valleys, and soon the fog of the abyss
+turned to silvery mists.  Hullin, looking across the openings of these
+clouds, at length made out the position.  The Germans had lost the
+heights of Valtin, and the plain of Bois-de-Chênes.  They were massed
+in the valley of Charmes, at the foot of the Falkenstein, so as to
+obtain shelter from their adversaries' fire.  Piorette, master of
+Bois-de-Chênes, had thrown out outworks, in front of the rock, on the
+side of the descent to Charmes.  He was pacing to and fro, his pipe in
+his mouth, and carbine slung across his shoulders; and the blue axes of
+the wood-cutters glistened in the rising sun.  On the left of the
+village, toward Valtin, in the midst of the furze, Marc Divès, on a
+small black horse, with a long tail, his blade by his side, pointed to
+the ruins and the sledge road; while an infantry officer and a few
+National Guards were listening to him.  Gaspard Lefèvre stood alone, in
+front of the group, leaning on his gun; and, on the summit of the hill,
+by the wood, two or three hundred men were keeping watch.
+
+The sight of the small number of their defenders caused the hearts of
+the besieged to grow fearful; all the more so, as the Germans were
+seven or eight times superior in numbers, and had already begun to form
+columns of attack, to regain the positions they had lost.  Horsemen
+were conveying on all sides the general's orders, and the bayonets
+began to defile.
+
+"It is all over," said Hullin to Jérome.  "What are five or six hundred
+men to do against four thousand in line of battle?  The Phalsbourgers
+will return to their houses and say, 'We have done our duty.'  And
+Piorette will be crushed."
+
+The others thought so too; and their despair was brought to a climax
+when they suddenly saw a long file of Cossacks riding furiously along
+the valley of Charmes, with Yégof the madman galloping like the wind at
+their head, his beard, horse's tail, dogskin, and red hair floating
+wildly in the air.  He looked up at the rock, and brandished his lance
+above his head.  Reaching the bottom of the valley, he made at once for
+the enemy's staff, and coming up to the general, he indicated by
+gestures the other side of the plateau of Bois-de-Chênes.
+
+"Ah, the brigand!" shouted Hullin.  "See, he tells them that Piorette
+has no outworks on that side, that they must go round the mountain."
+
+In fact, a column began immediately to march in that direction, while
+another went toward the outworks to mask the movement of the first.
+
+"Materne," cried Jean-Claude, "is there no means of sending a ball into
+the madman?"
+
+The old hunter shook his head.
+
+"No," said he, "it is impossible; he is out of range."
+
+Just then, Catherine Lefèvre gave a wild scream like a hawk.
+
+"Crush them, crush them, as they did at the Blutfeld!"
+
+And the old woman, an instant before so feeble, threw herself on a mass
+of rock, lifted it with both hands, advanced, with her streaming gray
+hair, bent over to the edge of the abyss, and the rock dashed through
+the space beneath.
+
+A terrible crash resounded below, pieces of pine flew out on all sides,
+the great stone rebounded a hundred feet away, and descending the steep
+slope with fresh impulse, struck Yégof, and crushed him at the feet of
+the enemy's general.  This was but the work of a few seconds.
+
+Catherine, upright on the edge of the rock laughed with a rattling
+sound, which seemed as though it would never end.
+
+The others, as though all animated with new life, precipitated
+themselves on the ruins of the old castle, shouting: "Slay them! slay
+them!  Crush them as at the Blutfeld!"
+
+[Illustration: "LET US OVERWHELM THEM, AS AT BLUTFELD!"]
+
+It is impossible to imagine a more terrible scene.  These beings, at
+death's very door, lean and haggard as skeletons, found strength for
+the carnage.  They no longer stumbled, they trembled no more; each one
+lifted his stone and threw it down the precipice, then returned to take
+another, without even looking to see what was passing below.
+
+Imagine the stupor of the "kaiserlichs" at this deluge of ruins and
+rocks.  All had turned at the sound of the stones bounding above
+through the bushes and clumps of trees.  At first they stopped as
+though petrified; but looking higher up, and seeing more and more
+stones descending, and above it all the spectres coming and going,
+lifting their arms, and continually discharging fresh burdens--seeing
+their comrades crushed, fifteen or twenty at a time, an immense cry
+went up from the valley of Charmes to the Falkenstein, and,
+notwithstanding the fusillade which they kept up on every side, the
+Germans scampered away to escape this fearful death.
+
+In the thickest of the rout, the enemy's general contrived to rally a
+battalion, and descend slowly toward the village.
+
+There was something grand and dignified about this man, so calm in the
+midst of disaster.  He turned from time to time with a gloomy look to
+watch the bounding rocks, which made ghastly havoc in his columns.
+
+Jean-Claude observed him, and, notwithstanding the intoxication of his
+triumph and the certitude of having escaped famine, the old soldier
+could not suppress a feeling of admiration.
+
+"Look," said he to Jérome, "he acts as he did on returning from the
+Donon and Grosmann: he is the last to retire, and yields only bit by
+bit.  There are, indeed, brave fellows in every country!"
+
+Marc Divès and Piorette, the witnesses of this stroke of fortune, then
+descended into the midst of the fir-trees, to try and cut off the
+retreat of the enemy.  But the battalion, reduced to half its strength,
+formed into square behind the village of Charmes, and slowly ascended
+the valley of the Sarre, stopping sometimes, like a wounded boar who
+turns to look at the huntsmen, whenever Piorette's men or those of
+Phalsbourg tried to press too nearly upon them.
+
+Thus terminated the great battle of the Falkenstein, known in the
+mountains under the name of the Battle of the Rocks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+The combat was hardly over, when, toward eight o'clock, Marc Divès,
+Gaspard, and about thirty mountaineers, laden with provisions, ascended
+the Falkenstein.  What a spectacle awaited them!  The besieged,
+stretched on the earth, appeared to be dead.  It seemed useless to
+shake them, to cry into their ears; "Jean-Claude!  Catherine?  Jérome!"
+There came no reply.  Gaspard Lefèvre, seeing his mother and Louise
+immovable, with clinched teeth, told Marc, that if they did not return
+to life, he would blow out his brains with his gun.  Marc replied that
+each man must do as he liked; but for his part he should not do
+likewise on Hexe-Baizel's account.  At length old Colon, having laid
+his burden down on a stone, Kasper Materne opened his eyes, and seeing
+the provisions, his teeth began to chatter like those of a fox pursued
+by the hounds.
+
+They immediately understood the meaning of this symptom; and Marc
+Divès, going from one to the other, passed his gourd under their noses,
+which sufficed to bring them to.  They wanted to drink its contents all
+up at once; but Doctor Lorquin, notwithstanding his condition, had
+still enough sense to warn Marc not to allow them to do so, and the
+slightest action of choking would be fatal to them.  Each one,
+therefore, only received a morsel of bread, an egg, and a glass of
+wine, which wonderfully revived their spirits; then Catherine, Louise,
+and the others, were laid on sledges and were brought down to the
+village.
+
+It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm and joy of their friends
+when they saw them return, leaner than Lazarus when he rose from his
+grave.  They gazed at one another, and embraced, and the process was
+repeated on the arrival of every newcomer from Abreschwiller, Dagsburg,
+St. Quirin, or elsewhere.
+
+Marc Divès was obliged to relate more than twenty times the story of
+his journey to Phalsbourg.  The brave smuggler had had no luck.  After
+having miraculously escaped from the balls of the "kaiserlichs," he got
+into the valley of Spartzprod, and fell into the midst of a band of
+Cossacks, who ransacked him from top to toe.  He had been compelled to
+wander for two weeks around the Russian posts which surrounded the
+town, exposed to the continual fire of their sentries, and running
+endless risks of being taken as a spy, before being able to get into
+the town.  Then the commandant, Meunier, at first refused to give any
+succor, assigning the weakness of his garrison as an excuse, and only
+at the pressing petitions of the towns-folk at length consented to
+detach two companies.  Listening to his recital, the mountaineers gave
+vent to their admiration of Marc's courage and perseverance in the
+midst of danger.
+
+"Well," replied the tall smuggler good-humoredly to those who thus
+congratulated him, "I have only done my duty; could I have allowed my
+comrades to perish?  I well knew it would not be easy; those rascally
+Cossacks are sharper than the customs' folks; they scent you a league
+off like crows; but all the same, we have outwitted them."
+
+Five or six days later everybody was on the alert; Captain Yidal, from
+Phalsbourg, had left twenty-five men to guard the powder; Gaspard
+Lefèvre was of the number, and the sturdy fellow went down every
+morning to the village.  The allies had all passed into Lorraine, and
+were no longer seen in Alsace, except around the fortresses.  Soon
+after came the news of the victories of Champ-Aubert and Montmirail;
+but a great misfortune was at hand; for the allies, notwithstanding the
+heroism of our army and the genius of the Emperor, entered Paris.
+
+It was a terrible shock to Jean-Claude and Catherine, Materne, Jérome
+and all the mountaineers; but the history of these events does not
+belong to this tale.  It has already been related by others.
+
+Peace having been made, the farm of Bois-de-Chênes was rebuilt in the
+spring; the wood-cutters, the shoemakers, masons, wood-floaters, and
+all the workmen of the district, lent a hand in the work.
+
+Toward the same time, the army having been disbanded, Gaspard cut off
+his mustaches and his marriage with Louise took place.
+
+On the day of the wedding all the combatants of the Falkenstein and
+Donon came to the farm, where they were received with open doors and
+windows.  Each brought his present to the newly married pair; Jérome,
+small shoes for Louise; Materne and his sons, a black cock, the most
+loving of birds, as all know; and Divès, packets of smuggled tobacco
+for Gaspard; and Doctor Lorquin a fine set of baby-linen.  Tables were
+spread out, even in the granaries and sheds.  How much wine, bread,
+meat, and tarts was consumed I cannot say; but what I am sure of is,
+that Jean-Claude, who had been low-spirited ever since the entry of the
+allies into Paris, revived on that day, and sang the old song of his
+youth as cheerfully as when he shouldered his gun and set out for
+Valmy, Jemmapes, and Fleurus.  The echoes of the Falkenstein repeated
+in the distance that old patriotic song; the grandest and noblest that
+has ever been heard by man.  Catherine Lefèvre kept time on the table
+with the handle of her knife; and if it be true, as many say, that the
+dead come to listen when they are spoken of, our departed friends must
+have been happy, and "The King of Diamonds" have fumed in his red beard.
+
+Toward midnight, Hullin arose, and addressing the newly married pair,
+said: "You will have fine children; I will jump them on my knees, I
+will teach them my old song, and then I shall go to rejoin my old
+comrades!"
+
+So saying he embraced Louise, and arm in arm with Marc Divès and
+Jérome, descended to his cottage, followed by the rest, who sang
+together the fine old song.  A more beautiful night was never seen:
+numberless stars shone out in the dark blue sky; the shrubs on the
+hill-side, where so many brave fellows had found a grave, quivered
+slightly in the breeze.  Every one felt happy and softened; they shook
+hands on the threshold of the small house, and wished each other
+"good-night," and departed, to the right and to the left, to their
+different villages.
+
+"Good-night, Materne, Jérome, Divès, Piorette--good-night!" cried
+Jean-Claude.
+
+His old friends turned back, waving their hats, and said to themselves:
+"There are some days when one is very happy on the earth.  Ah, if there
+were never any plagues, or wars, or famines; if men would but agree to
+love and help each other; if they would but live in peace together,
+what a paradise this world would be!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Invasion of France in 1814, by 
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Invasion of France in 1814, by 
+Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Invasion of France in 1814
+
+Author: Émile Erckmann
+        Alexandre Chatrian
+
+Release Date: July 26, 2011 [EBook #36859]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="img-front"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="AS THEY CLIMBED UP THEY WERE CLUBBED WITH MUSKETS" BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+AS THEY CLIMBED UP THEY WERE CLUBBED WITH MUSKETS
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+HISTORICAL ROMANCES OF FRANCE
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t1">
+THE INVASION OF
+<BR>
+FRANCE IN 1814
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+ILLUSTRATED
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+<BR>
+NEW YORK::::::::::::::::::::::1911
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+COPYRIGHT, 1889, 1898
+<BR>
+BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+</P>
+
+<H4>
+<A HREF="#img-front">
+<I>As they climbed up they were clubbed with muskets . . . Frontispiece</I>
+</A>
+</H4>
+
+<H4>
+<A HREF="#img-096">
+<I>There was a general shout of</I> "<I>Long live France!</I>"
+</A>
+</H4>
+
+<H4>
+<A HREF="#img-172">
+<I>Big Dubreuil; the friend of the allies</I>
+</A>
+</H4>
+
+<H4>
+<A HREF="#img-226">
+<I>Yégof saluted each phantom with sparkling eyes</I>
+</A>
+</H4>
+
+<H4>
+<A HREF="#img-318">
+"<I>Let us overwhelm them, as at Blutfeld!</I>"
+</A>
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+INTRODUCTORY NOTE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The invasion of France by the allied armies after the battle of Leipsic
+had proved the German campaign even more disastrous than that of Russia
+the year before, was not only essentially the death-blow to the power
+of Napoleon, but was the first real taste France had had for many years
+of an experience she had so often previously meted out to her
+neighbors.  In spite of all she had suffered from the conscription and
+from exhaustion of men and treasure in offensive war&mdash;or at least war
+waged outside her own territory&mdash;the great Invasion meant for her
+something far more terrible than any reverses she had yet undergone.
+Napoleon was not only not invincible, it appeared, he was not even able
+to defend the frontiers he had found firmly established on his
+accession to power.  The allies had announced that they were warring
+not against France but against the French Emperor&mdash;"against the
+preponderance that Napoleon had too long exercised beyond the limits of
+his empire."  Everywhere in France except in the official world of
+Paris, the once enchanted name of Napoleon had become recognized as a
+synonym of national disaster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless nothing&mdash;except, perhaps, the similar circumstances of the
+Prussian invasion in 1870&mdash;has ever so well attested the fundamental
+and absorbing patriotism of the French people as their heroic
+resistance to this invasion and their instinctive and universal refusal
+to separate in this crisis the cause of their Emperor from their own.
+The presence of a foreign foe on whatever pretext within their
+boundaries sufficed to arouse them <I>en masse</I>.  No such enthusiasm had
+been known since the days of the Republic's and the Consulate's
+victories as was awakened, in the thick of national disaster and amid
+the ruin of all ambitious hopes, by the thought of an enemy within the
+borders of <I>la patrie</I>.  And in "The Invasion" of MM. Erckmann-Chatrian
+this enthusiasm and devotion find a chronicle which is most
+realistically impressive.  So soon as the peasants of the outlying
+villages of the eastern frontier learn of the impending descent of the
+Cossacks and Germans, without thought of their own comfort and
+safety&mdash;which it is, however, impartially pointed out they know would
+hardly be better secured by submission&mdash;they organize for resistance.
+They blockade the highways and defend the mountain passes.  Women and
+children aid in the work.  While the siege of Phalsbourg goes on the
+heights are occupied by sturdy peasants who oppose for a while an
+effective obstacle to the passage of the invaders.  The worst
+hardships, the most perilous adventures, are accepted by them with the
+heroic courage of regulars.  Outlaws and smugglers work and fight hand
+to hand with the respected worthies of the neighborhood.  They watch
+their farms burn from their outlook on the hill-tops, they suffer the
+pangs of starvation when their supplies are intercepted by the enemy,
+they fight to desperation when their position is finally turned by the
+treachery of a crazy German they have long harbored&mdash;and whose vagaries
+give, by the way, a most romantic color to the narrative&mdash;and they are
+finally slain or captured just as Paris capitulates and peace is made.
+None of the National Novels is more graphic or more significant
+historically than "The Invasion."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+THE INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE OLD SHOEMAKER AND HIS DAUGHTER
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+If you would wish to know the history of the great invasion of 1814,
+such as it was related to me by the old hunter Frantz du Hengst, you
+must transport yourself to the village of Charmes, in the Vosges.
+About thirty small houses, covered with shingles and dark-green
+houseleeks, stand in rows along the banks of the Sarre: you can see the
+gables carpeted with ivy and withered honeysuckles, for winter is
+approaching; the beehives closed with corks of straw, the small
+gardens, the palings, the hedges which separate them one from the other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To the left, on a high mountain, arise the ruins of the ancient château
+of Falkenstein, destroyed two hundred years ago by the Swedes.  It is
+now only a mass of stones and brambles; an old "timber-way," with its
+worn-out steps, ascends to it through the pine-trees.  To the right, on
+the side of the hill, one can perceive the farm of Bois-de-Chênes&mdash;a
+large building, with granaries, stables, and sheds, the flat roof
+loaded with great stones, in order to resist the north wind.  A few
+cows are grazing in the heather, a few goats on the rocks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everything is calm and silent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some children, in gray stuff trousers, their heads and feet bare, are
+warming themselves around their little fires on the outskirts of the
+woods; the spiral lines of blue smoke fade away in the air, great white
+clouds remain immovable above the valley; behind these clouds arise the
+arid peaks of the Grosmann and Donon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You must know that the end house of the village, whose square roof is
+pierced by two loophole windows, and whose low door opens on the muddy
+street, belonged, in 1813, to Jean-Claude Hullin, one of the old
+volunteers of '92, but now a shoemaker in the village of Charmes, and
+who was held in much consideration by the mountaineers.  Hullin was a
+short stout man, with gray eyes, large lips, a short nose, and thick
+eyebrows.  He was of a jovial, kind disposition, and did not know how
+to refuse anything to his daughter Louise, a child whom he had picked
+up among some miserable gypsies&mdash;farriers and tin-sellers&mdash;without
+house or dwelling-place, who go from village to village mending pots
+and pans, melting the ladles, and patching up cracked utensils.  He
+considered her as his own daughter, and never seemed to remember she
+came of a strange race.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Besides this natural affection, the good old fellow possessed others
+still: he loved above all his cousin, the old mistress of the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes, Catherine Lefèvre, and her son Gaspard, who had been
+carried off that year by the conscription&mdash;a handsome young fellow, the
+"fiancé" of Louise, and whose return was expected by all the family at
+the end of the campaign.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin recalled always with enthusiasm his campaigns of the
+Sambre-et-Meuse, of Italy and of Egypt.  He often thought of them, and
+sometimes in the evening, when the work was over, he would go to the
+sawmills of Valtin, that dark manufactory formed of trunks of trees
+still bearing their bark, and which you can perceive down there at the
+end of the valley.  He sat down among the wood-cutters and
+charcoal-gatherers, and sledges, in front of the great fire; and while
+the heavy wheel turned, the dam thundered and the saws grinded, he, his
+elbow on his knee, and his pipe in his mouth, would speak to them of
+Hoche, of Kleber, and finally of General Bonaparte, whom he had seen
+hundreds of times, and whose thin face, piercing eyes, and eagle
+profile, he would depict as though he were present.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such was Jean-Claude Hullin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was one of the old Gallic stock, fond of extraordinary adventures
+and heroic enterprises, but constant to his work, out of a sentiment of
+duty, from New Year's day until Saint Sylvester's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As for Louise, the child of the tramp, she was a slender creature, with
+long delicate hands, eyes of such a soft deep blue that they seemed to
+penetrate to the depths of your soul, skin of a snowy whiteness, hair
+of a pale straw-color, like silk in texture, and drooping shoulders
+like those of a virgin praying.  Her ingenuous smile, pensive
+forehead&mdash;in fact, her whole appearance&mdash;recalled the old <I>Lied</I> of the
+Minnesinger Erhart, when he said: "I have seen a ray of light pass by:
+my eyes are still dazzled by it.  Was it a moonbeam piercing the
+foliage?  Was it a smile from the dawn in the forests?  No, it was the
+beautiful Edith, my love, who passed by.  I have seen her, and my eyes
+are still dazzled."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise only cared for fields, gardens, and flowers.  In spring-time,
+the first notes of the skylark made her shed tears of delight.  She
+went to see the budding hawthorn and blue cornflowers behind the hedges
+on the hill-sides; she watched for the return of the swallows, from the
+little windows of the garret.  She was always the true child of the
+homeless vagrants, only less wild.  Hullin forgave her everything; he
+understood her nature, and would sometimes say, laughingly:&mdash;"My poor
+Louise, with the booty that thou bringest us,&mdash;thy fine sheaves of
+flowers and golden wheat-ears&mdash;we should die of hunger in three days!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she would smile so tenderly at him and embrace him so willingly,
+that he would go on with his work, saying:&mdash;"Bah! why need I grumble?
+She is right: she loves the sunshine.  Gaspard will work for two&mdash;he
+will have the happiness of four.  I do not pity him: on the contrary.
+One can find plenty of women who work, and that does not improve their
+beauty; but loving woman! what luck to have found one&mdash;what luck!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus reasoned the good old fellow; and days, weeks, and months wore
+away in the expectation of Gaspard's return.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Madame Lefèvre, an extremely energetic woman, partook of Hullin's ideas
+on the subject of Louise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As for me," she said, "I only want a daughter who loves us; I do not
+wish her to have anything to do with my household affairs.  So long as
+she is contented!  Thou wilt not bother me&mdash;is it not so, Louise?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then they would embrace each other.  But Gaspard did not return,
+and for two months they had had no tidings of him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On that same day, toward the middle of December, 1813, between three
+and four o'clock in the afternoon, Hullin, bending over his bench, was
+finishing a pair of nailed shoes for the wood-cutter Rochart.  Louise
+had just put an earthenware porringer down on the little iron stove,
+which sang and crackled in a plaintive manner, while the old clock
+counted the seconds in its monotonous tic-tac.  Outside, all along the
+street, could be perceived small pools of water, covered with a coating
+of thin white ice, announcing the approach of intense cold.  At times
+the sound of great wooden shoes, running along the hardened road, could
+be heard, and a felt hat, a cape, or a woollen cap would pass by: then
+the noise would cease, and the plaintive hissing of the green wood in
+the flames, the humming of Louise's spinning-wheel, and the boiling of
+the porridge-pot again prevailed.  This had gone on for about two
+hours, when Hullin, glancing accidentally through the little
+window-panes, stopped his work, and remained with his eyes wide open,
+staring, as though absorbed by some unusual spectacle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In fact, at the corner of the street, in front of the "Trois Pigeons,"
+there advanced, in the midst of a crowd of whistling, jumping, and
+shouting boys, who called out "The King of Diamonds!  The King of
+Diamonds!"&mdash;There advanced, I say, one of the strangest personages
+imaginable.  Picture to yourself a red-headed, red-bearded man, with a
+grave face, gloomy expression, straight nose, the eyebrows meeting on
+the forehead, a circle of tin on the head, a gray dogskin floating over
+the back, its forepaws tied around the neck; the chest covered with
+little copper crosses, the legs clothed with a sort of gray cloth
+trousers fastened above the ankle, and the feet bare.  A great raven,
+with black wings glossed over with white, was perched on his shoulder.
+From his imposing gait one would have taken him for one of the ancient
+Merovingian kings, such as are represented by the images of
+Montbéliard; he held in the left hand a short thick stick in the shape
+of a sceptre, and with the right he made ostentatious gestures, raising
+his finger toward heaven, and apostrophizing his retinue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the doors opened on his passage; behind every pane appeared
+inquisitive faces.  Some few old women on the outer stairs of their
+houses, called out to the madman, who would not deign to turn his head;
+others went down into the streets and tried to prevent him passing; but
+he, lifting his head and raising his eyebrows, with one word and a
+sign, forced them to make way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hullo!" said Hullin, "here is Yégof.  I did not expect to have seen
+him again this winter.  It is not one of his customs.  What on earth
+can bring him back in such weather?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Louise, laying down her distaff, hurried away to contemplate "The
+King of Diamonds."  It was a great event, the arrival of Yégof the
+madman at the commencement of winter: some rejoiced over it, hoping to
+keep him and make him relate his glory and fortunes in the inns;
+others, and especially the women, were filled with a sort of vague
+uneasiness, for madmen, as all know, have ideas from another world:
+they know the past and the future&mdash;they are inspired by God: the only
+thing is to know how to understand them&mdash;their words bearing always two
+meanings: one for the ordinary run of people, the other for more
+refined and delicate souls, and the wise.  This madman besides, more
+than another, had truly some sublime and extraordinary thoughts.  None
+knew from whence he came, nor where he went, nor what he wanted; for
+Yégof wandered about the country like some troubled spirit.  He spoke
+of extinct races, and pretended that he was Emperor of Australasia, of
+Polynesia, and of other lands besides.  Great books could have been
+written on his palaces, castles, and strongholds&mdash;of which he knew the
+number, the situation, the architecture&mdash;and whose beauty, riches, and
+grandeur, he would celebrate in a simple and modest manner.  He spoke
+of his stables, of his hunts, of his crown-officers, ministers,
+counsellors, of the heads of his provinces; he never made any mistakes
+as to their names or different merits; but he bitterly bewailed having
+been dethroned by the accursed race: and the old midwife, Sapience
+Coquelin, every time that she heard him groan over this subject, would
+cry bitterly, and others also did the same.  Then he would raise his
+arms to heaven and cry out,&mdash;"O women, women! remember, remember!  The
+hour approaches&mdash;the spirits of darkness flee! the old race&mdash;the
+masters of your masters&mdash;advance like the waves of the sea!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And every spring he was in the habit of making a survey of all the old
+owls' nests, the ancient castles, and all the ruins which crown the
+Vosges in the depths of their forests, at Nideck, Géroldseck,
+Lutzelbourg, and Turkestein, saying that he was going to visit his
+territories, talking of re-establishing the past splendor of his
+states, and of putting all mutinous people into slavery, with the aid
+of his cousin the "Grand Gôlo."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude Hullin made light of these things, from not having a soul
+elevated enough to enter into the invisible spheres; but Louise was
+much troubled by them&mdash;above all, when the raven flapped its wings and
+gave its hoarse cry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yégof, then, descended the street, without stopping anywhere; and
+Louise, all excitement, seeing that he looked toward their little
+house, said aloud,&mdash;"Papa Jean-Claude, I believe he is coming our way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is quite possible," replied Hullin.  "The poor devil must be in
+need of a pair of good lined shoes for the great cold, and if he were
+to ask me, I should hardly be able to refuse them to him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how kind you are!" said the young girl, embracing him
+affectionately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes! thou art flattering me," said he, laughing, "because I do
+what thou wishest.  Who will pay me for my wood and work?  It will not
+be Yégof!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise kissed him again, and Hullin, looking lovingly at her,
+murmured,&mdash;"This payment is worth the other."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yégof was then about fifteen yards from their door: the tumult still
+kept increasing; the boys hung on to the tatters of his coat, crying
+out, "Diamond!  Club!  Spade!"  Suddenly he turned, raised his sceptre,
+and called out in a dignified though furious manner,&mdash;"Go back,
+accursed race!  Go back, deafen me no longer, or I will loose my
+bloodhounds against you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This menace only made the shouts of laughter and hisses redouble; but
+as at that moment Hullin appeared on the threshold with a long strap in
+his hand, and distinguishing five or six of the most obstinate among
+them, he warned them that that evening he would go and pull their ears
+during their supper&mdash;a feat which he had already performed several
+times with the consent of the parents, the whole band dispersed in
+great consternation.  Then, going toward the madman,&mdash;"Enter, Yégof,"
+said the shoemaker, "come and warm thyself by the fire."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do not call myself Yégof," replied the unhappy man, looking
+offended.  "I call myself Luitprandt, King of Australasia and
+Polynesia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes, I know," said Jean-Claude&mdash;"I know!  Thou hast already told
+me all that.  But what does it matter that thou callest thyself Yégof,
+or Luitprandt? come in all the same.  It is cold; try to warm thyself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I come in," replied the madman; "but it is for a much more serious
+affair: it is for a state affair&mdash;to form an indissoluble alliance
+between the Germans and the Triboques."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, we will talk of that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yégof, stooping under the door, entered as though in a reverie, and
+saluted Louise by bowing and lowering his sceptre; but the raven would
+not come in.  Opening his great wings, he made a circuit around the
+house, and came and fastened himself onto the window-panes to break
+them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hans," shouted the madman, "take care!  I am coming!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the bird did not detach its sharp claws from the casement, and
+never ceased fluttering its great wings so long as its master remained
+in the cottage.  Louise did not take her eyes off it: she was afraid.
+As for Yégof, he sat down in the old leathern armchair behind the
+stove, his legs stretched out as though on a throne; and gazing around
+him in a triumphant manner, he cried out,&mdash;"I come direct from Jérome,
+to conclude an alliance with thee, Hullin.  Thou art not ignorant that
+I have deigned to cast my eyes on thy daughter, and I come to ask her
+of thee in marriage."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this proposition Louise blushed to the roots of her hair, and Hullin
+burst into a loud laugh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thou laughest!" cried the madman, in a hollow voice.  "Well! thou art
+wrong to laugh.  This alliance may alone save thee from the impending
+ruin of thyself, thy house, and all thy belongings.  At this moment my
+armies are advancing.  They are countless&mdash;they cover the earth.  What
+can you do against me?  You will be vanquished, annihilated, or reduced
+to slavery, as you have already been for centuries: for I, Luitprandt,
+King of Australasia and of Polynesia&mdash;I have decided that everything
+shall be as it once was.  Remember!"&mdash;here the madman raised his finger
+solemnly&mdash;"remember what has passed!  You have been beaten!  And we,
+the old northern races&mdash;we have put our yokes upon you.  We have
+burdened you with the largest stones for building our strong castles
+and our subterraneous prisons; we have harnessed you to our ploughs;
+you have been before us as the straw before the hurricane.  Remember,
+remember, Triboque, and tremble!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I remember very well," said Hullin, still laughing; "but we had our
+revenge.  Thou knowest?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes," interrupted Yégof, frowning; "but that time has gone by.
+My warriors are more numerous than the leaves in the forests; and your
+blood flows like the water of the brooks.  Thou, I know thee&mdash;I knew
+thee a thousand years ago!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah!" said Hullin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it was this hand&mdash;dost thou hear?&mdash;this hand that has vanquished
+thee, when, for the first time, we entered your forests.  It has made
+thy head bow beneath the yoke&mdash;it will make it bend again!  Because you
+are brave, you believe yourselves masters of this country and of all
+France forever.  Well, you are wrong!  We have spoiled you, and we will
+spoil you again.  We will restore Alsace and Lorraine to Germany,
+Brittany and Normandy to the men from the North, with Flanders and the
+South to Spain.  We will make France into a little kingdom around
+Paris&mdash;a very little kingdom&mdash;with a descendant of the ancient race at
+your head.  And you will no longer agitate yourselves&mdash;you will be very
+tranquil.  Ha, ha, ha!"  Yégof began to laugh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, who had no knowledge of history, was astonished that he should
+know so many names.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah! stop that, Yégof," said he; "and come, take a little soup to warm
+thy inside."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do not ask thee for soup; I ask thee for this girl in marriage&mdash;the
+most beautiful on my estates.  Give her to me willingly, and I raise
+thee to the steps of my throne: else my armies shall take her by force,
+and thou shalt not have the merit of giving her to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While thus speaking, the unhappy creature regarded Louise with an air
+of profound admiration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How beautiful she is!  I destine her to the greatest honors.  Rejoice,
+young girl, rejoice!  Thou shalt be queen of Australasia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Listen, Yégof," said Hullin.  "I am very much flattered by thy demand:
+it shows that thou canst appreciate beauty.  It is well.  But my
+daughter is already affianced to Gaspard Lefèvre."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I," said the madman, greatly irritated&mdash;"I will not hear of such a
+thing!"  Then rising up,&mdash;"Hullin," said he, in solemn tones, "it is my
+first demand.  I will renew it yet twice again&mdash;dost thou hear&mdash;twice!
+And if thou wilt persist in thy obstinacy&mdash;misfortune, misfortune on
+thee and thy race!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What! thou wilt not take any soup?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no!  I will accept nothing from thee so long as thou hast not
+consented.  Nothing, nothing!"  And then marching toward the door, much
+to the satisfaction of Louise, who was intent on the raven, fluttering
+its wings against the window-panes, he said, raising his
+sceptre,&mdash;"Twice again!" and departed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin went off into a shout of laughter.  "Poor devil!" he exclaimed.
+"In spite of himself, his nose turned toward the porringer.  He has
+nothing in his inside&mdash;his teeth chatter with hunger.  Well! his
+madness is stronger than either cold or hunger."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how he frightened me!" said Louise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come, come, my child, calm thyself.  He is gone.  He thinks thou art
+pretty, fool though he is; do not let that terrify thee."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But although the madman had left, Louise still trembled, and felt
+herself blushing when she thought of how he had looked at her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yégof had taken the road to Valtin.  He could still be seen, his raven
+on his shoulder, walking slowly along and making curious gestures,
+although no one was near him.  The night was drawing on, and soon the
+tall figure of "The King of Diamonds" disappeared in the gray shadows
+of the winter twilight.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE SHOEMAKER'S VISITOR
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+In the evening of that same day, after their supper, Louise, having
+taken her spinning-wheel, was gone for a little diversion to the Mother
+Rochart's where all the good women and young girls of the neighborhood
+used to assemble till near midnight.  They spent their time in relating
+old legends, talking of the rain, of the weather, of marriages,
+baptisms, of the departure or return of the conscripts, and what not,
+that enabled them to pass the hours agreeably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin remained alone before his little copper lamp, nailing the shoes
+of the old wood-cutter.  He no longer thought of the madman Yégof.  His
+hammer rose and fell, driving the great nails into the thick wooden
+shoes quite mechanically, by force of habit.  In the meantime thousands
+of ideas came into his head; he was thoughtful without knowing why.
+Now it was Gaspard, who gave no signs of being alive; then it was the
+campaign, which was being indefinitely prolonged.  The lamp threw its
+yellowish light around the smoky little room.  Outside, not a sound.
+The fire began to die away.  Jean-Claude rose to put on a fagot, then
+sat down again, muttering,&mdash;"Bah! this cannot last; we shall receive a
+letter one of these days."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old clock began to strike nine; and as Hullin was recommencing his
+work, the door opened and Catherine Lefèvre, the mistress of
+Bois-de-Chênes, appeared on the threshold, to the great stupefaction of
+the shoemaker, for it was not her custom to arrive at such a time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine Lefèvre might have been sixty years old, but she was as
+upright and strong as at thirty.  Her clear gray eyes and beaked nose
+resembled those of a bird of prey; the corners of her mouth turned
+down, and made her look somewhat gloomy and sad; two or three locks of
+gray hair fell over her forehead; a brown striped hood reached from her
+head, over her shoulders and down to her elbows.  Her physiognomy
+announced a steadfast, tenacious character, with something
+indescribably grand and mournful about it, which inspired both respect
+and fear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can it be you, Catherine?" said Hullin, in astonishment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is I," replied the old dame, calmly.  "I am come to talk with
+you, Jean-Claude....  Louise is away?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She has gone for a little amusement to Madeleine Rochart's."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is well."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Catherine pushed back her hood from her head, and sat down at the
+end of the bench.  Hullin looked fixedly at her: he perceived something
+extraordinary and mysterious about her which fascinated him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What has happened, then?" said he, putting down his hammer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instead of answering this question, she turned toward the door, and
+seemed to be listening; then hearing no sound, her serious expression
+came back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yégof the madman spent last night at the farm," said she.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He came to see me this afternoon," rejoined Hullin, without attaching
+any importance to this fact, which was totally indifferent to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied the old dame, in a low voice, "he spent the night with
+us; and yesterday evening, about this time, in the kitchen, before us
+all, this madman related terrible things!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she relapsed into silence, and the corners of her mouth seemed to
+turn down more than ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Terrible things!" murmured the shoemaker, excessively astonished: for
+he had never seen Catherine Lefèvre in such a condition before.  "But
+what then? say, what?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dreams I have had!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dreams?  You certainly want to make fun of me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, after a short pause, she slowly continued&mdash;"Yesterday evening,
+all our people were assembled in the kitchen around the large fireplace
+after supper; the table still remained covered with empty dishes,
+plates, and spoons.  Yégof had partaken of it with us, and had amused
+us with the history of his treasures, castles, and provinces.  It might
+have been toward nine o'clock: the madman was sitting at one end of the
+blazing fire; old Duchêne, my ploughboy, was mending Bruno's saddle;
+the herdsman, Robin, was plaiting a basket; Annette arranged her pans
+on the shelves: and I had brought my wheel nearer the fire to finish
+spinning a distaff-ful before going to bed.  Out of doors, the dogs
+were barking at the moon; the cold was very great.  We were all there,
+talking of the coming winter.  Duchêne said it would be very severe,
+for he had seen several flocks of wild-geese.  And Yégof's raven, on
+the edge of the mantel-piece, its head buried in its raffled feathers,
+seemed to sleep; but now and then it would elongate its neck and watch
+us, listen a moment and then cover itself again in its plumes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She remained silent a moment, as though to collect her ideas; her
+eyelids drooped, her great beaked nose seemed to bend down on to her
+lips, and a strange pallor came over her face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What the devil is coming next?" thought Hullin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old woman continued: "Yégof near the fire, with his tin crown, and
+his short stick on his knees, was dreaming of something.  He looked at
+the great black chimney, the stone mantel-piece, which is carved with
+different figures and trees, and the smoke which went up in great
+clouds around the sides of bacon: when suddenly he struck with the end
+of his stick on to the tiles and called out, as though in a
+dream&mdash;'Yes, yes, I have seen that long ago&mdash;long ago!'  And as we all
+looked at him speechless&mdash;'In those times,' he went on to say, 'the
+pine-forests were forests of oak.  The Nideck, the Dagsberg,
+Falkenstein, Géroldseck, all those old ruined castles did not exist.
+In those times the bison could be hunted in the depths of the woods,
+the salmon caught in the Sarre, and you, the fair men, were buried in
+snow six months of the year.  You lived on milk and cheese, for you had
+many flocks and herds on the Hengst, the Schneeberg, the Grosmann, the
+Donon.  In the summer you hunted: you came down to the Rhine, the
+Moselle, the Meuse.  I can recall it all!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And wonderful to relate, Jean-Claude, as the madman spoke, I seemed to
+see also these countries of years gone by, and to remember them as I
+should a dream.  I had let fall my distaff, and Duchêne, Robin,
+Jeanne&mdash;in fact, everybody&mdash;listened.  'Yes, it was long ago,' he
+continued.  'In those days you were already building these great
+chimneys; and all around, at a distance of two or three hundred yards,
+you planted palisades fifteen feet high, and with the points hardened
+by the fire.  And inside them you kept your big dogs with their hanging
+cheeks, who barked day and night.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We could see what he said, Jean-Claude; we could see it all.  But he
+paid no heed to us: he regarded the figures on the chimney-piece with
+his mouth open; but, in an instant, having stooped his head and seeing
+how attentive we all were, he laughed with a wild, mad laughter, and
+cried out:&mdash;'In those days you believed yourselves the lords of the
+country, O fair men, with your blue eyes and white skins, fed on milk
+and cheese, and only tasting blood in the autumn, at the great hunts:
+you believed yourselves the masters of the plains and mountains, when
+we, the red men, with the green eyes, out of the sea&mdash;we who drank
+always blood and only liked battles&mdash;one fine morning we arrived with
+our axes and spears, and ascended the Sarre under the shadows of the
+old oaks.  Ah! it was a cruel war, which lasted weeks and months.  And
+the old woman&mdash;there&mdash;' said he, pointing at me, with a singular smile,
+'the Margareth of the clan of Kilberix, that old woman with her beaked
+nose, in her palisades, in the midst of her dogs and warriors&mdash;she
+fought like a wolf.  But when five moons had passed, hunger arrived.
+The doors of the palisades opened for flight, and we, in ambush in the
+stream&mdash;we massacred all!&mdash;all&mdash;except the children and the beautiful
+young girls.  The old woman, alone, defended herself to the last with
+her teeth and nails; and I, Luitprandt, clove her head in two; and I
+took her father, the aged man and blind, to chain him at the door of my
+castle like a dog!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then, Hullin," continued the old woman, "the madman began to chant a
+long song&mdash;the lamentation of the old man chained to his doorway.  Wait
+till I can recall it, Jean-Claude.  It was mournful&mdash;mournful as a
+<I>Miserere</I>.  No, I cannot remember it; but I seem still to hear it.  It
+made our blood curdle; and, as he laughed without ceasing, at last all
+our servants gave a terrible cry, rage seized them.  Duchêne sprang on
+the madman to strangle him; but he, with more strength than one could
+suppose he possessed, threw him back, and raising his stick furiously,
+said to us:&mdash;'On your knees, slaves&mdash;on your knees!  My armies are
+advancing!  Do you hear?  The earth trembles with them.  These castles,
+the Nideck, the Haut-Barr, the Dagsberg, the Turkestein, you shall
+build them up again!  On your knees!'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never saw a more fearful face than Yégof's at that moment; but,
+seeing for the second time my servants rising against him, I was
+obliged to defend him myself.  'It is a madman,' I said to them.  'Are
+you not ashamed to believe in the words of a madman?'  They stopped on
+my account; but I could not close my eyes that night.  The words of
+that wretched man kept recurring to me.  I seemed to hear the chant of
+the old prisoner, the barking of our dogs, and the sounds of battle.
+For years I have never felt so uneasy.  That is why I came to see you,
+Jean-Claude.  What do you think of it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I?" exclaimed the shoemaker, in whose ruddy face both irony and pity
+were visible.  "If I did not know you so well, Catherine, I should say
+you were deranged:&mdash;you, Duchêne, Robin, and the rest of you.  All that
+has about the same effect on me as one of Geneviève de Brabant's
+tales&mdash;made up to terrify little children, and which shows us how
+foolish our ancestors were."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You do not comprehend these things," said she, in a calm, grave voice;
+"you have never had any of those ideas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you believe all that Yégof has said to you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I believe it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What, you, Catherine?&mdash;you, a sensible woman?  If it were the mother
+of Rochart I should say nothing; but you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rose as though annoyed, took off his apron, shrugged his shoulders,
+then sat down again quickly, and called out:&mdash;"This madman, do you know
+what he is?  I will tell you.  He is most assuredly one of those German
+school-masters who stuff their brains with 'Old Mother Goose' tales,
+and then gravely relate them to others.  By dint of studying, dreaming,
+ruminating, their wits get out of order; they have visions, many-sided
+ideas, and take their dreams for realities.  I have always looked upon
+Yégof as one of those poor wretches.  He knows lots of names, he speaks
+of Brittany and Australasia, of Polynesia and the Nideck, and then of
+Géroldseck, of the Turkestein, of the Rhine&mdash;in fact of everything at
+hazard; and it ends by having the appearance of something when it is
+nothing.  In ordinary times you would think as I do, Catherine; but you
+are troubled at not receiving any tidings from Gaspard.  These rumors
+of war and of invasion that are going about torment and unsettle you.
+You cannot sleep; and what a poor madman says, you regard as Bible
+truths."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Hullin; it is not that.  If you yourself had heard Yégof&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Get along!" exclaimed the good old fellow.  "If I had, I should have
+laughed at him as I did just now.  Do you know that he came to ask
+Louise of me in marriage, to make her queen of Australasia?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine Lefèvre could not restrain a smile; but, regaining almost at
+once her serious expression&mdash;"All your reasonings, Jean-Claude," said
+she, "cannot convince me; but, I confess it, the silence of Gasper
+frightens me.  I know my son: he would certainly have written to me.
+Why have his letters never reached me?  The war is going on badly,
+Hullin&mdash;we have all the world against us.  They don't want our
+revolution&mdash;you know it as well as I do.  So long as we were masters,
+and won victory after victory, they looked kindly on us; but since our
+Russian misfortunes, things wear a bad aspect."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Là, Là, Catherine, how you get carried away.  You see everything
+gloomily."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I see everything gloomily, and I am right.  What makes me so
+uneasy is, that we never get any news from the outer world; we live
+here as in a savage country: one knows of nothing that goes on.  The
+Austrians and the Cossacks could be upon us at any time, and we should
+be taken by surprise."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin observed the old dame, whose expression was very animated; and
+even he began to be influenced by the same fears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Listen, Catherine," said he, suddenly.  "When you speak in a
+reasonable manner, it is not I who would say anything against it.  All
+you now tell me is possible.  I do not believe in it; but one might as
+well make sure.  I had intended to go to Phalsbourg in a week, to buy
+sheepskins for trimming some shoes: I will go to-morrow.  At
+Phalsbourg, a garrison and post town, there must be some reliable news.
+Will you believe those I shall bring you on my return from that place?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good; it is then arranged.  I shall leave to-morrow early.  There are
+five leagues in all.  I shall return about six o'clock.  You will see,
+Catherine, that all your dismal ideas have no sense in them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope so," she replied, rising.  "I hope so.  You have somewhat
+reassured me, Hullin.  Now I will go to the farm, and may I sleep
+better than I did last night.  Good-night, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+AT PHALSBOURG
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The next day at dawn, Hullin, wearing his blue cloth Sunday breeches,
+his large brown velvet jacket and red waistcoat with brass buttons, and
+a broad beaver mountaineer's hat turned up like a cockade above his
+ruddy face&mdash;started on his way to Phalsbourg, a stout stick in his hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Phalsbourg is a small fortress, half-way on the imperial road from
+Strasbourg to Paris; it dominates Saverne, the defiles of Haut-Barr,
+Roche-Platte, Bonne-Fontaine, and of the Graufthâl.  Its bastions,
+outposts, and demilunes are cut out in zig-zags on a rocky plain: from
+afar, the walls look as though they might be cleared at a jump; but on
+coming closer one perceives the moat, a hundred feet wide, thirty deep,
+and the dark ramparts hewn in the face of the rock.  That makes one
+stop suddenly.  Besides, with the exception of the church, the
+town-hall, the two gateways of France and Germany, in shape of mitres,
+and the peaks of the two powder-magazines, all the rest is hidden
+behind the fortifications.  Such is Phalsbourg, which is not without a
+certain imposing effect, especially when one crosses its bridges and
+piers, under its thick gates, garnished with iron-spiked portcullis.
+In the interior, the houses are distributed in regular quarters; they
+are low, in straight lines, built of freestone: everything bears a
+military aspect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, owing to his robust constitution and jovial disposition, never
+had any fears for the future, and considered all rumors of retreat,
+rout, and invasion, which circulated in the country, as so many lies
+propagated by dishonest individuals; so that one may judge of his
+stupefaction when, on leaving the mountains and from the outskirts of
+the woods, he saw the whole surroundings of the town laid as bare as a
+pontoon: not a garden, not an orchard, not a promenade, or a tree, or
+even a shrub&mdash;all was destroyed within cannon-range.  A few poor
+creatures were picking up the last remnants of their little houses, and
+carrying them into the town.  Nothing was to be seen on the horizon but
+the line of ramparts standing out clearly above the hidden roads.  It
+had the effect of a thunder-bolt on Jean-Claude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For some moments he could neither articulate a word nor make a step
+forward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, ho!" said he, at last, "this is bad&mdash;this is very bad.  They
+expect the enemy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then his warlike instincts prevailed; a dark flush came over his brown
+cheeks.  "It is those rascally Austrians, Prussians, and Russians, and
+all the other wretches picked up out of the dregs of Europe, who are
+the cause of this," cried he, waving his stick.  "But beware! we will
+make them pay for the damages!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was possessed with one of those white rages such as honest people
+feel when they are driven to extremities.  Woe to him who annoyed
+Hullin just then!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Twenty minutes later he entered the town, at the rear of a long file of
+carriages, each harnessed to five or six horses, pulling, with much
+trouble, enormous trunks of trees, destined to construct block-houses
+on the <I>place-d'armes</I>.  Among the conductors, the peasants, and
+neighing, stamping horses, marched gravely a mounted <I>gendarme</I>&mdash;Father
+Kels&mdash;who did not seem to hear anything, and said, in a rough voice,
+"Courage, courage, my friends!  We will make two more journeys before
+evening.  You will have deserved well of your country!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude crossed the bridge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A new spectacle opened before him in the town.  There reigned the ardor
+of defence: all the doors were open; men, women, and children came and
+ran, helping to transport the powder and projectiles.  They stopped in
+groups of three, four, six, to make themselves acquainted with the news.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hé neighbor!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What then?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A courier has just arrived in great speed.  He entered by the French
+gate."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then he has come to announce the National Guard from Nancy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Or, perhaps, a convoy from Metz."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are right.  We want sixteen-pounders, and shot also.  The stoves
+are to be broken up to make some."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few worthy tradespeople in their shirt-sleeves, standing on tables
+along the pavement, were busying themselves with barricading their
+windows with large pieces of wood and mattresses; others rolled up to
+their doors tubs of water.  This enthusiasm reanimated Hullin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Excellent!" said he; "everybody is making holiday here.  The allies
+will be well received."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In front of the College, the squeaky voice of the Sergeant-de-ville
+Harmentier was proclaiming:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let it be known that the casemates are to be opened: therefore
+everybody may take a mattress there, and two blankets each.  And the
+commissaries of this place are going to commence their rounds of
+inspection, to ascertain that each inhabitant possesses food for three
+months in advance, which he must certify.&mdash;This day, 20th December,
+1813.&mdash;JEAN PIERRE MEUNIER, <I>Governor</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All this Hullin saw and heard in less than a minute, for the whole town
+was in the greatest excitement.  Strange, serious, and comic scenes
+succeeded each other without interruption.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Near the narrow street leading to the Arsenal, a few National Guards
+were drawing a twenty-four pounder.  These honest fellows had a very
+steep ascent to climb; they could do no more.  "Ho! all together!
+Mille tonnerres!  Once again!  Forward!"  They all shouted at once,
+pushing the wheels, and the great cannon, stretching out its long neck
+over its immense carriage, above their heads, rolled slowly along,
+making the pavement tremble.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, quite rejoiced, was no longer the same man.  His soldier-like
+instincts, the remembrance of the bivouac, of the marches, of the
+firing, and of the battles&mdash;all returned.  His eyes sparkled, his heart
+beat faster, and already thoughts of defence, of entrenchments, of
+death-struggles came and went in his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Faith!" said he, "all goes well!  I have made enough shoes in my life,
+and since the occasion to take up the musket presents itself, well, so
+much the better: we will show the Prussians and Austrians that we have
+not forgotten to charge at the double."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus reasoned the good man, carried away by his warlike instincts; but
+his joy did not last long.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before the church, on the <I>place-d'armes</I>, were standing fifteen or
+twenty carts, full of wounded, arrived from Leipzig and Hanau.  These
+unhappy creatures, pale, ghastly, heavy-eyed, some whose limbs were
+already amputated, others with their wounds still untouched, tranquilly
+awaited death.  Near them, a few worn-out jades were eating their
+meagre allowance, while the conductors, poor wretches, who had been
+brought into requisition in Alsace, wrapped in their old mantles, slept
+notwithstanding the cold&mdash;their great hats turned down over their faces
+and their arms folded&mdash;on the steps of the church.  One shuddered to
+see these sad groups of men, with their gray hoods, heaped up on the
+bloody straw&mdash;one carrying his broken arm on his knees; another with
+his head bandaged in an old handkerchief; a third, already dead, being
+used as a seat for the living, his black hands hanging down the ladder.
+Hullin, in front of this mournful spectacle, stopped rooted to the
+ground.  He could not lift his eyes from it.  Great human suffering has
+this strange power of fascination over us: we look to see men perish,
+how they regard death: the best among us are not exempt from this
+frightful curiosity.  It seems as though eternity is going to deliver
+up its secret!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There, then, near the shafts of the first cart, to the right of the
+file, were crouched two carbineers in little sky-blue vests, veritable
+giants, whose powerful natures gave way under the clutch of pain: like
+two caryatides crushed by the weight of some heavy mass.  One, with
+great red mustaches and ashy cheeks, looked at you out of his sunken
+eyes, as though from the depths of some fearful nightmare; the other,
+bent double, with blue hands, and shoulder torn by shot, sank more and
+more; then would raise himself with a jerk, talking softly as though
+dreaming.  Behind lay stretched, two and two, some infantry soldiers,
+the greater number struck by ball, with a leg or an arm broken.  They
+seemed to support their fate with more firmness than the giants.  These
+poor creatures said nothing: a few only, the youngest, furiously
+demanded water and bread; and in the next cart, a plaintive voice&mdash;the
+voice of a conscript&mdash;called, "My mother! my mother!" while the older
+men smiled gloomily, as though to say: "Yes, yes, she will come, thy
+mother!"  Perhaps they did not think of anything all the time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now and then a shudder would pass along the whole of them.  Then
+several wounded could be seen half lifting themselves, with deep
+groans, and falling back as if death had gone its rounds at that moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And again everything relapsed into silence.  While Hullin was watching,
+and feeling sick to his heart's core, a shopkeeper in the vicinity,
+Sôme the baker, came out of his house carrying a large basin of soup.
+Then you should have seen all these spectres move, their eyes sparkle,
+their nostrils dilate; they seemed born again.  The unhappy fellows
+were dying of hunger!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Good Father Sôme, with tears in his eyes, approached, saying, "I am
+coming, my children.  A little patience!  It is I, you know me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But hardly was he near the first cart, when the great carbineer with
+the ashy cheeks, reviving, plunged his arm up to the elbow in the
+boiling basin, seized the meat, and hid it under his vest.  It was done
+with the rapidity of lightning.  Savage yells arose on all sides: those
+men, if they had had strength to move, would have devoured their
+comrade.  He, his arms pressed tightly to his chest, the teeth on has
+prey, and glaring round him, appeared to hear nothing.  At these cries
+an old soldier, a sergeant, rushed out of the nearest inn.  He was an
+old hand; he understood at once what it was about, and, without useless
+reflections, he tore away the meat from the wild beast, saying to him,
+"Thou dost not deserve any!  It must be divided into parts.  We will
+cut ten rations!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are only eight!" said one of the wounded, very calm to all
+appearance, but with eyes gleaming out of their bronze mask.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How, eight?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You can see, sergeant, that those two are dying fast: it would be so
+much food lost!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old sergeant looked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Eight," said he; "eight rations!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin could bear it no longer.  He went over to the innkeeper
+Wittmann's opposite, as white as death; Wittmann was also a fur and
+leather merchant.  Seeing him enter, "Hé! is it you, Master
+Jean-Claude?" he exclaimed.  "You arrive sooner than usual; I did not
+expect you till next week."  Then seeing how he staggered&mdash;"But say,
+you are ill?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have just seen the wounded."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, yes! the first time, it shocks you; but if you had seen fifteen
+thousand pass, as we have, you would not think anything more about it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A glass of wine, quick?" said Hullin, who felt badly.  "Oh, mankind,
+mankind!  And to think that we are brothers!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, brothers until it touches your purse," replied Wittmann.  "Come,
+drink! that will set you right."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you have seen fifteen thousand go by?" rejoined the shoemaker.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"At the least, for two months, without speaking of those who have
+remained in Alsace and the other side of the Rhine; for, you
+comprehend, they cannot find carts enough for all, and then many are
+not worth the trouble of being carried away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I comprehend!  But why are they there, those poor creatures?  Why
+do they not go into the hospital?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The hospital!  What is one hospital, ten hospitals, for fifty thousand
+wounded?  Every hospital, from Mayence and Coblentz as far as
+Phalsbourg, is crowded.  And, besides, that terrible fever, typhus, you
+see, Hullin, kills more than the bullet.  All the villages of the plain
+twenty leagues round are infected with it; they die everywhere like
+flies.  Luckily the town has been in a state of siege these three days;
+the gates will be closed, and no more will enter.  I have lost, for my
+part, my Uncle Christian and my Aunt Lisbeth, as healthy, solid people
+as you and I, Master Jean-Claude.  At last the cold has arrived; last
+night there was a white frost."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the wounded remained on the pavements all night?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, they came from Saverne this morning; in an hour or two, when the
+horses are rested, they will leave for Sarrebourg."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment, the old sergeant, who had re-established order in the
+carts, came in rubbing his hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hé! hé!" said he, "it freshens, Papa Wittmann.  You did well to light
+the fire in the stove.  A little glass of cognac to drive away the fog.
+Hum! hum!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His small half-closed eyes, his beaked nose, the cheek-bones being
+separated from it by two flourishing wrinkles, which were lost to sight
+in a long reddish imperial&mdash;everything looked gay in his face, and told
+of a jovial, kind disposition.  It was a regular military face,
+scorched, burnt by the open air, full of frankness, but also of a
+cheery slyness; his great shako, his blue-gray cloak, the
+shoulder-belt, the epaulette, seemed to partake of his individuality.
+One could not have represented him without them.  He walked up and down
+the room, continuing to rub his hands, while Wittmann poured him a
+glass of brandy.  Hullin, seated near the window, had at once noticed
+the number of his regiment&mdash;6th Light Infantry.  Gaspard, the son of
+Madame Lefèvre, served in this regiment.  Jean-Claude could now obtain
+some tidings of the lover of Louise; but, as he was going to speak, his
+heart beat loud.  If Gaspard was dead; if he had perished like so many
+others!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The worthy shoemaker felt nearly suffocated; he kept silent.  "Better
+to know nothing," thought he.  However, a few minutes later, he could
+do so no longer.  "Sergeant," said he, in a hoarse voice, "you are in
+the 6th Light Infantry?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, my citizen," said the other, turning round in the middle of the
+room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you know one called Gaspard Lefèvre?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gaspard Lefèvre, of the 2d division of the 1st?  Parbleu, if I know
+him!  It is I who taught him his drill.  A brave soldier! hardened
+against fatigue.  If we had a hundred thousand of that stamp&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then he lives? he is well?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, citizen.  Eight days ago I left the regiment at Fredericsthal to
+escort this convoy of wounded.  You understand, it is hot there&mdash;one
+cannot answer for anything.  From one moment to the other, each of us
+may have his business settled for him.  But eight days ago, at
+Fredericsthal&mdash;the 15th December&mdash;Gaspard Lefèvre still answered to the
+roll-call."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude breathed.  "But then, sergeant, have the goodness to tell
+me why Gaspard has not written to his village for two months?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old soldier smiled, and blinked his little eyes.  "Ah! now,
+citizen, do you then believe that one has nothing else to do on the
+march but to write?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No.  I have served; I was in the campaigns of Sambre-et-Meuse, of
+Egypt and Italy, but that did not prevent me from giving some news of
+myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One instant, comrade," interrupted the sergeant.  "I have passed
+through Egypt and Italy also; the campaign we are finishing is
+altogether different."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It has then been very severe?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Severe! one must have one's soul driven into every part of one's
+members, so as not to leave one's bones there.  All was against us:
+sickness, traitors, peasants, townsfolk, our allies&mdash;in fact all!  From
+our company, which was complete when we quitted Phalsbourg, the 21st of
+last January, only thirty-four men remain.  I believe Gaspard Lefèvre
+is the only conscript left.  Those poor conscripts! they fought well;
+but they were not accustomed to endure hardships: they melted like
+butter in an oven."  So saying, the old sergeant approached the counter
+and drank his glass off at one draught.  "To your health, my citizen.
+Are you perchance the father of Gaspard?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, I am a relation."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you can pride yourselves on being stoutly built in your family.
+What a man at twenty!  He has gone through everything&mdash;he has, while
+the others fell away in dozens."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But," rejoined Hullin, after an instant's silence, "I cannot see
+anything so very different in this last campaign; for we also had
+sickness and traitors."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Anything different!" exclaimed the sergeant.  "Everything was
+different!  Formerly, if you have gone through the war in Germany, you
+ought to remember that, after one or two victories, it was over: the
+people received you well; one drank the little white wines, and ate
+sauerkraut and ham with the townsfolk; one danced with the buxom wives.
+The husbands and grandpapas laughed heartily, and when the regiment
+left, everybody cried.  But this time, after Lutzen and Bautzen,
+instead of feeling kindly, the people regarded us with diabolical
+faces; we could get nothing out of them but by force; one could have
+fancied one's self in Spain or Vendée.  I do not know what stuff they
+had in their heads against us.  Better had we only been French, had we
+not had Saxons and other allies, who only awaited the moment to spring
+at our throats: we should then have pulled through all the same, one
+against five!  But the allies&mdash;don't talk to me of the allies!  Why, at
+Leipzig, the 18th of October last, in the hottest part of the battle,
+our allies turned against us and shot at us from behind; those were our
+good friends the Saxons.  A week later, our former friends the
+Bavarians came and threw themselves across our retreat: we had to pass
+over them at Hanau.  The day after, near Frankfort, another column of
+good friends presented themselves, and we had to crush them.  The more
+one kills, the more they come!  Here we are now this side of the Rhine.
+Well, there are decidedly more of these good friends marching from
+Moscow.  Ah! if we could have foreseen it after Austerlitz, Jena,
+Friedland, Wagram!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin had become very thoughtful.  "And now how do we stand, sergeant?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have had to repass the Rhine, and all our strongholds on the other
+side are blockaded.  The 10th of November last the Prince of Neufchâtel
+reviewed the regiment at Bleckheim.  The 3d battalion had been
+amalgamated with the 2d, and the 'cadre' received orders to be in
+readiness to leave for the depot.  Cadres are not wanting, but men.  As
+for twenty years we have been bled on all sides, it is not astonishing.
+All Europe is down upon us.  The Emperor is at Paris; he is laying down
+a plan of the campaign.  If we may only have breathing time till the
+spring&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then Wittmann, who was standing by the window, said,&mdash;"Here is the
+governor come from inspecting the clearings around the town."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was the commandant, Jean-Pierre Meunier, wearing a three-cornered
+hat, and a tricolor scarf around his waist, who crossed over the square.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah," said the sergeant, "I must get him to sign my papers.  Pardon,
+citizen; I must leave you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do so, sergeant; and thank you.  If you meet Gaspard, tell him that
+Jean-Claude Hullin embraces him, and that they expect tidings from him
+in the village."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good&mdash;good.  I will not fail to do so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sergeant went out, and Hullin finished his wine in a reverie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Father Wittmann," said he, after a pause, "what of my parcel?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is ready, Master Jean-Claude."  Then, looking into the kitchen,
+"Grédel!  Grédel! bring Hullin's parcel."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A little woman appeared, and put down on the table a roll of
+sheepskins.  Jean-Claude passed his stick through it, and lifted it
+over his shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What, you are going to leave us so soon?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Wittmann.  The days are short, and the roads difficult through
+the forests after six o'clock.  I must get back early."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then a safe journey to you, Master Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin left, and crossed the square, turning away his face from the
+convoy, which still remained before the church.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The innkeeper from his window watched him hurrying away, and thought to
+himself, "How white he looked on entering; he could hardly keep
+upright.  It is queer that such a sturdy man, and an old soldier too,
+should not have energy enough for a cat.  As for me, I would see fifty
+regiments go by on those carts without minding it any more than I did
+my first pipe."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+MADAME LEFÈVRE
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+While Hullin was learning the disaster of our armies, and was walking
+slowly, his head bent, and an anxious expression on his face, toward
+the village of Charmes, everything went on as usual at the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes.  No one thought of Yégof's wonderful stories, or of the
+war: old Duchêne led his oxen to their drinking-place, the herdsman
+Robin turned over their litter; Annette and Jeanne skimmed their
+curdled milk.  Only Catherine Lefèvre was silent and gloomy&mdash;thinking
+of days gone by&mdash;all the while superintending with an impassible face
+the occupations of her domestics.  She was too old and too serious to
+forget from one day to another what had so much troubled her.  When
+night came on, after the evening's repast, she entered the great room,
+where her servants could hear her drawing the large register-book from
+the closet and putting it on the table, to sum up her accounts, as she
+was in the habit of doing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They soon began to load the cart with corn, vegetables, and poultry:
+for the next day there was a market at Sarrebourg, and Duchêne had to
+start early.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Picture to yourself the great kitchen, and all these worthy folks
+hurrying to finish their work before going to rest: the black kettle,
+full of beetroot and potatoes destined for the cattle, boiling on an
+immense pinewood fire; the plates, dishes, and soup-tureens shining
+like suns on the shelves; the bunches of garlic and of reddish-brown
+onions hung up in rows to the beams of the ceiling, among the hams and
+flitches of bacon; Jeannie, in her blue cap and little red petticoat,
+stirring up the contents of the kettle with a big wooden spoon; the
+wicker cages, with the cackling fowls and great cock, who pushed his
+head through the bars and looked at the flames with a wondering eye and
+raised crest; the bull-dog Michel, with his flat head and hanging jowl,
+in search of some forgotten dish; Dubourg coming down the creaking
+staircase to the left, his back bent with a sack on his shoulder; while
+outside, in the dark night, old Duchêne, upright on the cart, lifted
+his lantern and called out, "That makes the fifteenth, Dubourg; two
+more."  One could see also, hanging against the wall, an old hare,
+brought by the hunter Heinrich to be sold at the market, and a fine
+grouse, with its purple and green plumage, dimmed eye, and a drop of
+blood at the end of its beak.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was about half-past seven when the sound of footsteps was heard at
+the entrance to the yard.  The bull-dog went toward the door growling.
+He listened, sniffed the night air, then went back quietly, and began
+licking his dish again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is some one belonging to the farm," said Annette.  "Michel does not
+move."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nearly at the same time, old Duchêne from outside called,&mdash;"Good-night,
+Master Jean-Claude.  Is it you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  I come from Phalsbourg; and I am going to rest myself a minute
+before going down to the village.  Is Catherine here?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then the good man came forward to the light, his hat pushed off his
+face, and his roll of sheepskins on his back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-night, my children," said he; "good-night!  Always at work!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Monsieur Hullin, as you see," replied Jeanne, laughing.  "If one
+had nothing to do, life would be very wearisome."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"True, my pretty girl, true.  It is only work which gives you your
+roses and brilliant eyes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jeanne was going to answer, when the door of the great room opened, and
+Catherine Lefèvre advanced, looking piercingly at Hullin, as though to
+guess beforehand what news he brought.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Jean-Claude, you have returned."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Catherine; with good tidings and bad."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They entered the large room&mdash;a high and spacious apartment wainscoted
+with wood to the ceiling, with its oak closets and their shining
+clasps, its iron stove opening into the kitchen, its old clock counting
+the seconds in its walnut-wood case, and the leathern arm-chair, worn
+and used by ten generations of aged men.  Jean-Claude never went into
+this room without its bringing back to his remembrance Catherine's
+grandfather, whom he seemed still to see, with his white head, sitting
+behind the oven in the dark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well?" demanded the old dame, offering a chair to the old shoemaker,
+who was just putting his pack down on the table.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, from Gaspard the tidings are good; the boy is in good health.
+He has had hardships.  All the better: it will be the making of him.
+But for the rest, Catherine, it is bad.  The war! the war!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He shook his head, and the old woman, her lips pressed, sat down facing
+him, upright in the armchair, her eyes attentively fastened on him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So things look badly&mdash;decidedly&mdash;we shall have the war among us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Catherine, from day to day we may expect to see the allies in our
+mountains."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought so.  I was sure of it; but speak, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, then, his elbows on his knees, his red ears between his hands,
+and lowering his voice, began to relate all he had seen: the clearing
+of everything around the town, the placing of batteries on the
+ramparts, the proclamation of the state of siege, the cart-loads of
+wounded on the great square, his meeting with the old sergeant at
+Wittmann's, and the story of the campaign.  From time to time he
+paused, and the old mistress of the farm blinked her eyes slowly, as
+though to impress more deeply the various circumstances on her mind.
+When Jean-Claude told about the wounded, the good woman murmured
+softly&mdash;"Gaspard has then escaped it all!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, at the end of this mournful tale, there was a long silence, and
+both looked at each other without pronouncing a word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How many reflections, how many bitter feelings filled their souls!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After some seconds, Catherine recovering from these terrible
+thoughts&mdash;"You see, Jean-Claude," said she, in a serious tone.  "Yégof
+was not wrong."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly, certainly, he was not wrong," replied Hullin; "but what
+does that prove?  A madman, who goes from village to village, who
+descends into Alsace, and from thence to Lorraine&mdash;who wanders from
+right to left&mdash;it would be very astonishing if he saw nothing, and if
+he did not sometimes tell the truth in his madness.  Everything gets
+muddled in his head, and others believe they understand what he does
+not understand himself.  But what of these wild stories, Catherine?
+The Austrians are upon us.  It only concerns us to know if we shall
+allow them to pass, or if we shall have courage to defend ourselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To defend ourselves!" cried the old woman, whose white cheeks
+trembled: "if we shall have courage to defend ourselves!  Surely it is
+not to me that you speak, Hullin.  What! are we not worthy of our
+ancestors?  Did they not defend themselves?  Were they not
+exterminated&mdash;men, women, and children?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you are for the defence, Catherine?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes; so long as there remains to me a bit of skin on my bones.
+Let them come!  The oldest of the women is ready!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her masses of gray hair shook on her head, her pale rigid cheeks
+quivered, and her eyes sent forth lightnings.  She was beautiful to
+see&mdash;beautiful, like that old Margareth of whom Yégof had spoken.
+Hullin held out his hand silently, and gave an enthusiastic smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Excellent," said he&mdash;"excellent!  We are always the same in this
+family.  I know you, Catherine: you are ready now; but be calm and
+listen to me.  We are going to fight, and in what way?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In every way; all are good&mdash;axes, scythes, pitchforks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No doubt; but the best are muskets and the balls.  We have muskets:
+every mountaineer keeps his above his door; unfortunately powder and
+balls are scarce."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old dame became quieter all of a sudden; she pushed her hair back
+under her cap, and looked anxiously about.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," she rejoined brusquely; "the powder and balls are wanting, it is
+true, but we shall have some.  Marc Divès, the smuggler, has some.  You
+shall go and see him to-morrow from me.  You shall tell him that
+Catherine Lefèvre will buy all his powder and balls; that she will pay
+him; that she will sell her cattle, her farm, land,
+everything&mdash;everything&mdash;to have some.  Do you understand, Hullin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I understand.  What you would do, Catherine, is noble."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah! it is noble&mdash;it is noble!" replied the old dame.  "It is quite
+simple; I wish to revenge myself.  These Austrians&mdash;these red men who
+have already exterminated us&mdash;well!  I hate them, I detest them, from
+father to son.  There! you will buy powder, and these mad ruffians
+shall see if we will rebuild their castles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin then perceived that she still thought of Yégof's tale; but
+seeing how exasperated she was, and that, besides, her idea contributed
+to the defence of the country, made no observation on that subject, and
+said calmly,&mdash;"So, Catherine, it is settled; I am to go over to Marc
+Divès's to-morrow!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes! you shall buy all his powder and lead.  Some one ought also to go
+the round of the mountain villages, to warn the people of what is
+coming, and to arrange a signal beforehand for bringing them together
+in case of attack."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do not fear," said Jean-Claude.  "I will undertake to charge myself
+with that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Both rose and turned toward the door.  For about half an hour no sounds
+were heard in the kitchen; the farm-servants had gone to bed.  The old
+dame put down her lamp on the corner of the hearth, and drew the bolts.
+Outside the cold was intense, the air still and clear.  All the peaks
+round, and the pine-trees of the Jägerthal, stood out against the sky
+in dark or light masses.  In the distance, far away behind the
+hill-side, a fox giving chase could be heard yelping in the valley of
+Blanru.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-night, Hullin," said Catherine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude walked quickly away on the heath-covered slopes, and the
+mistress of the farm, after watching him for a second, shut her door
+again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I leave you to imagine the joy of Louise when she learnt that Gaspard
+was safe and sound.  The poor child had hardly been living for two
+months.  Hullin took care not to show her the dark cloud which was
+coming over the horizon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Through the night he could hear her prattling in her little room,
+talking as though congratulating herself, murmuring Gaspard's name,
+opening her drawers and boxes, without doubt so as to hunt up some
+relics in them and tell them of her love.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So the linnet drenched in the storm, will, while yet shivering, begin
+to sing and hop from branch to branch with the first sunbeam.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE DEPOT
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+When Jean-Claude Hullin, in his shirt-sleeves, opened the shutters of
+his little house the next morning, he saw all the neighboring
+mountains&mdash;the Jägerthal, the Grosmann, the Donon&mdash;covered with snow.
+This first appearance of winter, coming in our sleep, is very striking
+to us: the old pines, the mossy rocks, adorned only the night before
+with verdure, and now sparkling with rime, fill our souls with an
+indefinable sadness.  "Another year gone by," one says to one's self;
+"another hard season to pass before the return of the flowers!"  And
+one hastens to put on the great-coat and to light the fire.  Your
+sombre habitation is filled with a white light, and outside, for the
+first time, you hear the sparrows&mdash;the poor sparrows huddled under the
+thatch, their feathers ruffled&mdash;calling, "No breakfast this morning&mdash;no
+breakfast!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin drew on his big iron-nailed, double-soled shoes, and over his
+vest a great thick cloth waistcoat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He heard Louise walking overhead in the little garret.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Louise," he cried, "I am going."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What! you are going away to-day also?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, my child: it must be so: my affairs are not yet finished."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, having doffed his large hat, he went up the stair, and said, in a
+low tone: "Thou must not expect me back so soon, my child.  I have to
+make some distant rounds.  Do not be uneasy.  If any one ask where I
+am, thou art to reply, 'He is with Cousin Mathias at Saverne.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will not have breakfast before leaving?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No: I have a crust of bread and the small flask of brandy in my
+pocket.  Adieu, my child!  Rejoice, and dream of Gaspard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, without waiting for fresh questions, he took his stick and left
+the house, going in the direction of the hill of Bouleaux to the left
+of the village.  In a quarter of an hour he had passed it by, and
+reached the path of the Trois-Fontaines, which winds round the
+Falkenstein along by a little wall of dry stones.  The first snow,
+which never lasts in the damp shades of the valleys, was beginning to
+melt and run down the path.  Hullin got on the wall to climb the
+ascent.  On giving an accidental look toward the village, he saw a few
+women sweeping before their doors, a few old men wishing each other the
+"Good-day" while smoking their first pipes on the threshold of their
+cottages.  The deep calm of life, in presence of his agitating
+thoughts, affected him much.  He continued his way pensively, saying to
+himself, "How quiet everything is down there!  Nobody has any idea of
+anything; yet in a few days, what clamors, what rolls of musketry, will
+rend the air!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the first thing to be done was to procure powder, Catherine Lefèvre
+had very naturally cast her eyes on Marc Divès the smuggler, and his
+virtuous spouse, Hexe-Baizel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These people lived on the other side of the Falkenstein, under the base
+of the old ruined castle.  They had hollowed inside a sort of den, very
+comfortable, possessing one door and two skylights, but according to
+certain rumors, communicating with ancient caves by a rift in the rock.
+The custom-house officers had never been able to discover these caves,
+notwithstanding numerous domiciliary visits for that purpose.
+Jean-Claude and Marc Divès had known each other from infancy; they had
+gone nesting together after hawks and owls, and since that time had
+seen each other nearly every week at the saw-mills of Valtin.  Hullin,
+therefore, believed himself sure of the smuggler, but he had some
+doubts of Madame Hexe-Baizel, a most cautious person, who would not, in
+all probability, have the war-like instinct sufficiently developed.
+"But we shall see," he said to himself as he went along.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had lit his pipe, and from time to time turned round to contemplate
+the immense landscape, whose limits were extending more and more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nothing could be grander than those wooded mountains, rising one above
+the other in the pale sky&mdash;those vast heather plains, stretching as far
+as the eye could see, white with snow; those black ravines, shut in
+between the woods, with torrents at the bottom, dashing over the
+greenish pebbles polished like bronze.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then the silence&mdash;the great silence of winter!  The soft snow
+falling from the top of the loftiest pine-trees onto their lower
+drooping branches: the birds of prey circling in couples above the
+forests, screaming out their war-cry: all this ought to be seen for it
+cannot be described.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+An hour after his departure from the village of Charmes, Hullin,
+climbing the summit of the peak, reached the base of the rock of the
+Arbousiers.  All round this granite mass extends a sort of rugged
+terrace, three or four feet wide.  This narrow passage, surrounded by
+the tall pines growing out from the precipice, looks dangerous, but it
+is safe; unless one feels dizzy, there is no danger in going along it.
+Overhead projects, in a vaulted arch, the rock covered with ruins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude was approaching the retreat of the smuggler.  He halted a
+minute on the terrace, put back his pipe into his pocket, then advanced
+along the passage, which forms a half-circle, and ends on the other
+side with a chasm.  Quite at the farthest extremity of it, and almost
+on the edge of the chasm, he perceived the two skylight windows of the
+den and the partly opened door.  A great heap of manure was collected
+in front of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same time Hexe-Baizel appeared, tossing, with a broom made of
+green furze, the manure into the abyss.  This woman was small and
+hard-looking; she had shaggy red hair, hollow cheeks, pointed nose,
+little eyes, bright like two sparks, thin lips, very white teeth, and a
+florid complexion.  As for her costume, it was composed of a short
+dirty woollen petticoat, and a coarse but clean chemise; her brown,
+muscular arms, covered with yellow hairs, were bare to the elbows,
+notwithstanding the excessive cold of the winter at this height; and,
+lastly, all she had on her feet were a pair of long shoes hanging in
+shreds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ha! good-day, Hexe-Baizel," Jean-Claude called out, good naturedly but
+with a tone of raillery.  "You are always fair and fat, happy and
+lively!  It gives me pleasure!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hexe-Baizel turned sharply, like a weasel surprised on the watch; her
+red hair stiffened, and her little eyes flashed fire.  However, she
+calmed down immediately, and exclaimed, in a curt voice, as though
+speaking to herself, "Hullin&mdash;the shoemaker!  What does he want?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am come to see my friend Marc, fair Hexe-Baizel," replied
+Jean-Claude; "we have some business to settle together."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What business?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, it only concerns us.  Here let me pass that I may speak to him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Marc is asleep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he must be awakened then; the time is precious."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So saying, Hullin stooped under the door, and penetrated into a cavern,
+whose vault, instead of being round, was composed of irregular curves,
+scored with fissures.  Close to the entrance, two feet from the ground,
+the rock formed a sort of natural fireplace, on which burned a few
+coals and branches of juniper.  Hexe-Baizel's culinary utensils
+consisted of an iron kettle, a stone pot, two broken plates, and three
+or four tin forks; her furniture comprised a wooden stool, a hatchet to
+split wood, a salt box fastened to the rock, and her large furze broom.
+To the left of this kitchen was another cavern, with a curious door,
+larger at the top than at the bottom, closing by aid of two planks and
+a cross-bar.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, where is Marc?" said Hullin, seating himself near the hearth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have already told you that he is asleep.  He returned home late
+yesterday.  My husband must sleep, don't you hear?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hear very well, dear Hexe-Baizel; but I have no time to wait."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then go away!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go away?  It is easy said; only I won't go away.  I did not walk three
+miles, to turn back with my hands in my pockets."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it thou, Hullin?" interrupted a brusque voice coming from the
+neighboring cavern.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Marc."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah!  I'm coming."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sound of straw in motion could be heard; then the wooden barrier
+was withdrawn; and a huge frame, three feet broad from one shoulder to
+the other, wiry, bony, with neck and ears brick-color, and thick brown
+hair, appeared in the doorway, and Marc Divès drew himself up before
+Hullin, yawning and stretching his long arms with a short sigh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first sight, the physiognomy of Marc Divès seemed peaceable enough:
+his low broad forehead, bare temples, short curly hair coming down in a
+point almost to the eyebrows, his straight nose and long chin&mdash;above
+all the quiet expression in his brown eyes&mdash;would have caused him to be
+classed among the ruminating rather than the wilder animals; but one
+would have been wrong in thinking so.  Certain rumors were prevalent in
+the country that Marc Divès, when attacked by the custom-house people,
+had never any hesitation to use his axe or carbine to decide the
+dispute; to him were attributed several serious accidents which had
+happened to the fiscal agents; but proofs were completely wanting.  The
+smuggler, owing to his thorough knowledge of all the mountain defiles
+and by-roads from Dagsburg to Sarrbrück, and from Raon-l'Etape to Bâle
+in Switzerland, was always fifteen leagues from any place where a
+wicked action had been committed.  And then he had such an ingenuous
+look! and those who connected him with sinister tales generally
+finished badly: which clearly shows the justice with which Providence
+sways the world.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Faith, Hullin," said Marc, after having left his lair, "I was thinking
+of thee yesterday evening, and if thou hadst not appeared, I should
+have gone expressly to the saw-mills of Valtin to meet thee.  Sit down!
+Hexe-Baizel, give a chair to Hullin!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he placed himself on the hearth, his back to the fire, in front of
+the open door, which was raked by all the winds of Alsace and
+Switzerland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Through this opening there was a magnificent view: it might be compared
+to a picture framed in the rock&mdash;an enormous picture, embracing the
+whole valley of the Rhine, and the mountains beyond, which melted away
+in the mist.  And then one could breathe so freely! and the little
+fire, which glimmered in the owl's-nest, was a place to look on, with
+its red light, after one had gazed into the azure expanse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Marc," said Hullin, after a short pause, "may I speak before thy wife?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are as one, she and I."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Marc, I am come to buy powder and lead of thee."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To kill hares, is it not so?" observed the smuggler, winking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, to fight against the Germans and Russians."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a moment's silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And thou wilt want much powder and lead?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All that thou canst supply."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can supply as much as three thousand francs' worth to-day," said the
+smuggler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I'll take it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And as much more in a week," added Marc, with the same calm manner and
+eager look.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I take that also."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will take it!" cried Hexe-Baizel.  "You will take it!  I should
+think so!  But who is to pay?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hold thy tongue!" said Marc, roughly, "Hullin takes it: and his word
+is enough for me."  And holding out his large hand cordially:
+"Jean-Claude, here is my hand: the powder and lead are thine: but I
+must have my price, dost thou understand?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Marc: only I intend paying thee at once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He will pay, Hexe-Baizel, dost thou hear?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Eh, I am not deaf, Baizel.  Go and find a bottle of 'brimbelle-wasse'
+for us, so that we may warm our hearts a little.  What Hullin tells me
+rejoices me.  These rascally 'kaiserlichs' will not have the easy game
+against us that I thought.  It appears that we are going to defend
+ourselves, and right well."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, right well!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And there are people who can pay?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Catherine Lefèvre pays, and she it is who sends me," said Hullin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Marc Divès rose, and in a solemn tone, and pointing toward the
+precipice, exclaimed, "She is a woman indeed&mdash;a woman as grand as that
+rock down there, the Oxenstein, the greatest I have ever seen in my
+life.  I drink to her health.  Drink also, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin drank, then Hexe-Baizel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now everything has been said," continued Divès; "but listen, Hullin.
+Do not believe that it will be an easy matter to check the enemy: all
+the hunters, all the sawyers, all the wood-cutters and carriers on the
+mountains will not be too many.  I come from the other side of the
+Rhine.  They are so many&mdash;those Russians, Austrians, Bavarians,
+Prussians, Cossacks, and Hussars&mdash;they are so many, that the earth is
+black with them.  The villages cannot hold them: they camp on the
+plains, in the valleys, on the hills, in the towns, in the open
+air&mdash;they are to be found everywhere."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment a shrill cry was heard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a buzzard chasing something," said Marc, stopping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But just then a shadow came over the rock.  A cloud of chaffinches
+cleared the abyss, and hundreds of buzzards and hawks fought above them
+in their rapid flight, uttering loud screams to terrify their prey,
+while the mass seemed stationary, so dense was it.  The regular
+movement of these thousands of wings produced, in the silence, a sound
+like that of dead leaves blown in the wind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is the departure of the chaffinches of the Ardennes," said Hullin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is the last passage: the beech-nuts are buried under the snow,
+and the seeds also.  Well, then, look! there are more men over there
+than birds in this pass.  All the same, Jean-Claude, we will get over
+them, so long as every one bears a hand in it!  Hexe-Baizel, light the
+lantern: I am going to show Hullin our supplies of powder and lead."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hexe-Baizel made a face at this proposition.  "For twenty years," said
+she, "no one has gone into the cave.  He can surely believe our word.
+We believe, for our part, that he will pay us.  I will not light the
+lantern&mdash;no, indeed!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marc, without saying anything, put out his hand and caught up a cudgel
+from the pile of wood; thereupon the old woman darted into the nearest
+hole like a weasel, and, two seconds later, came out with a big horn
+lantern, which Divès quietly lit at the fire on the hearth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Baizel," said he, replacing the stick in its corner, "thou must know
+that Jean-Claude is an old friend of my childhood, and that I confide
+much more in him than in thee, old wench; for wert thou not afraid of
+being hanged the same day as myself, I should long ago have been
+swinging to a rope's end.  Come, Hullin, follow me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They went out, and the smuggler, turning to the left, walked straight
+toward the chasm, which projected over the Valtin two hundred feet in
+the air.  He pushed aside the branches of a little oak, which had its
+roots down below, put forth his leg, and disappeared as though pitched
+into the abyss.  Jean-Claude shuddered, but directly after he saw,
+against the side of the rock, the head of Divès, who called to
+him,&mdash;"Hullin, put out thy hand to the left&mdash;there is a hole.  Stretch
+thy leg out boldly&mdash;thou wilt feel a step, and then turn around."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Master Jean-Claude obeyed, with some trepidation.  He could feel the
+hole in the rock, he found the step, and turning slightly, was face to
+face with his comrade in a sort of arched niche, evidently abutting on
+a sally-port in times past.  At the end of the niche there was a low
+vault.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How the devil didst thou discover that?" exclaimed Hullin, much
+astonished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In seeking after nests thirty-five years ago.  I was one day on the
+rock, and I had often observed flying from there a horned-owl and its
+mate, two splendid birds: their heads were the size of my fists, and
+the wings six feet broad.  I could hear their young calling, and I said
+to myself, 'They are near the cavern, at the end of the terrace.  If I
+could get round a little beyond the chasm I should have them!  By dint
+of looking and bending over, I perceived at last a corner of the step
+above the precipice.  There was a strong holly-bush at one side.  I
+caught hold of it, put out my leg, and, faith, I found myself here.
+What a fight, Hullin!  The old birds wanted to tear out my eyes.
+Luckily, it was broad daylight.  They went at me like cocks, opened
+their beaks and hissed, but the sun dazzled them.  I kicked them.
+Finally, they fell on to the top of an old pine-tree down there, and
+all the jays in the country, the thrushes, chaffinches and tom-tits,
+flew about them till nightfall, plucking out their feathers.  Thou
+canst not imagine, Jean-Claude, the quantity of bones, rat-skins,
+leverets, and carrion of all sorts that they had heaped up in this
+niche.  It was pestilential.  I threw it all into the Jägerthal, and I
+discovered this passage.  But I must also tell thee that there were two
+young ones.  I twisted their necks and poked them into my bag.
+Afterward, I quietly entered, and thou shalt see what I found.  Come!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They slipped under the narrow archway, formed of enormous red stones,
+where the light threw only a flickering glimmer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thirty paces farther on, a vast circular cave, low in the middle, and
+formed in the rock itself, appeared to Hullin.  About fifty little
+casks were arranged at the bottom in shape of pyramids, and, at the
+sides, a large number of ingots of lead and bales of tobacco, which
+filled the air with its smell.  Marc deposited his lantern at the
+entrance of the vault, and regarded his hiding-place with gratification
+and a smile upon his lips.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is what I discovered," said he; "the cave was empty, only in the
+centre of it was the carcass of an animal, snowy white,&mdash;no doubt some
+fox, dead of old age.  The rascal had known of the passage before I
+had.  He slept safely here.  Who on earth would have dreamed of
+pursuing him?  In those days, Hullin, I was twelve years old.  I
+immediately thought that this place might one day be of use to me.  I
+did not know then what use.  But, later on, when I had begun my first
+attempts at smuggling&mdash;at Landau, Kehl, Bâle&mdash;with Jacob Zimmer, and
+during two winters all the custom-house people were after us, the idea
+of my old cavern began to haunt me from morning till evening.  I had
+made the acquaintance of Hexe-Baizel, who was then one of the
+farm-servants at Bois-de-Chênes with Catherine's father.  She brought
+me twenty-five louis as marriage-portion, and we settled ourselves in
+the cavern of the Arbousiers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Divès paused; and Hullin, who had become very thoughtful, asked
+him,&mdash;"This hole, then, pleases thee much, Marc?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pleases me!  Why, I would not go and live in the most beautiful house
+in Strasbourg for two thousand pounds a year.  For twenty-three years I
+have here hidden my wares: sugar, coffee, powder, tobacco,
+brandy&mdash;everything goes in here.  I have eight horses always
+travelling."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But thou hast no happiness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have no happiness!  Dost thou think it is nothing to laugh at the
+gendarmes, excisemen, custom-house people; to enrage them, to outdo
+them, to hear on all sides, 'That rascally Marc&mdash;isn't he a sharp one!
+How he manages his business!  He can do as he likes with the law and
+its agents,' and this and that.  Hé! hé! hé!  I can tell thee, I can,
+that it is the greatest pleasure in the world.  And then the people
+like it: they get everything half price; one helps the poor, and keeps
+himself warm and well-off."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, but what dangers!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah! a customs'-guard would never think of crossing the chasm."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should suppose not," thought Hullin, remembering that he must cross
+the precipice again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"At the same time thou art not altogether wrong, Jean-Claude.  When I
+first had to enter this place with those little barrels on my back, I
+streamed with perspiration; now I am accustomed to it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And if thy foot slipped?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There would be an end of me!  I would as soon die, spiked on a pine,
+as to cough weeks and months on a mattress."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Divès then shed the light of his lantern on the piles of kegs reaching
+to the top of the vault.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is the finest English powder," said he; "it runs like silver grains
+in the hand, and fires like Old Nick.  No need to use much of it&mdash;a
+thimbleful is enough.  And here is lead, unmixed with tin.  From this
+very evening, Hexe-Baizel shall begin casting balls.  She knows all
+about it, thou wilt see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were beginning to return by the path leading to the chasm, when
+suddenly a confused murmur of words began to fill the air.  Marc blew
+out his lantern, and they stopped still in the darkness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Some one is walking up there," the smuggler softly said.  "Who on
+earth has been able to climb up the Falkenstein in such snow?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They listened, holding their breath, and their eyes fixed on the ray of
+bluish light which came down through a small chink into the cavern.
+Around the cleft grew a few shrubs, sparkling with frost; above, could
+be perceived the ridge of an old wall.  While they were watching,
+keeping profound silence, there appeared at the foot of the wall a
+large shaggy head bound round with a shining circle, a long face, then
+a pointed red beard,&mdash;the whole standing out in curious relief against
+the white winter sky.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is 'The King of Diamonds,'" observed Marc, laughing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poor devil!" said Hullin, gravely; "he has come to walk about his
+castle, his bare feet on the ice, and a tin crown on his head!  But
+look! he is speaking: he is giving orders to his courtiers; he points
+with his sceptre to the north and to the south&mdash;all belongs to him; he
+is master of the heavens and earth!  Poor devil! merely to see him in
+those trousers of his, with his dog-skin on his back, makes me cold all
+over."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Jean-Claude, it produces on me the effect of a burgomaster or
+village mayor, who puffs himself out like a bullfinch, and blows his
+cheeks up, saying, 'I am Hans Aden; I have ten acres of fine meadows; I
+have two houses; I have a vineyard, an orchard, a garden, h-m! h-m!  I
+have this and that!'  The next day a little fit lays hold of him,
+and&mdash;good-evening.  Mad, mad! who is not mad?  Let us go, Hullin; the
+sight of this unfortunate who talks to the winds, and of his raven that
+croaks of famine, makes my teeth chatter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They entered the passage, and the daylight almost blinded Hullin.
+Happily, the great height of his companion standing in front of him,
+prevented his becoming giddy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Lean firmly," said Marc; "imitate me: the right hand in the hole, the
+right foot on the step, turn a bit&mdash;here we are!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They returned to the kitchen, where Hexe-Baizel told them that Yégof
+was in the ruins of the old <I>Burg</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We knew it," replied Marc: "we have just seen him breathing the fresh
+air over there.  Each man to his taste."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then the raven Hans, sailing above the abyss, passed the door with
+a hoarse cry; they heard the frost crackling on the bushes, and the
+madman appeared upon the terrace.  He was haggard; and after glancing
+toward the hearth, cried out&mdash;"Marc Divès, clear out quickly.  I warn
+thee I am tired of this disorder.  The fortifications of my domains
+ought to be free.  I cannot allow vermin to lodge where I am;
+consequently, thou must make thy arrangements."  Then perceiving
+Jean-Claude, his face brightened&mdash;"Thou here, Hullin?" said he, "Art
+thou at length clear-sighted enough to accept the proposals that I have
+condescended to make thee?  Dost thou feel that an alliance such as
+mine, is the only resource to preserve thee from the total destruction
+of thy race?  If it is so, I congratulate thee; thou showest more sense
+than I gave thee credit for."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin could not help laughing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Yégof, no! heaven has not yet enlightened me, or I might accept
+the honor thou wouldst make me.  Besides, Louise is not old enough to
+be married."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The madman became again serious and gloomy.  Standing on the edge of
+the terrace, his back to the abyss, he seemed quite at home, and his
+raven, hovering from right to left, did not trouble him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He raised his sceptre, frowned, and exclaimed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then this is the second time, Hullin, that I have made my demand, and
+for the second time thou darest refuse me.  Now, I will renew it once
+again&mdash;once, dost thou hear?  Then the fate shall be accomplished!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, Marc Divès, and Hexe-Baizel herself burst into fits of laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He is a great madman," said Hexe-Baizel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think thou art right there," replied the smuggler.  "Poor Yégof!
+decidedly he is out of his wits.  But never mind!  Baizel, attend to
+me.  Thou must commence melting balls of all sizes.  I am going to
+start for Switzerland.  In a week, at latest, the remainder of our
+ammunition will be here.  Give me my boots."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then stamping down his heels, and twisting round his neck a thick scarf
+of red wool, he unhooked from the wall one of those dark-green mantles
+such as herdsmen wear, threw it over his shoulders, put on an old worn
+hat, took a gourd, and shouted: "Don't forget what I have been telling
+thee, old woman, or beware!  Let us go, Jean-Claude!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin followed him on the terrace without wishing good-by to
+Hexe-Baizel, who, for her part, did not deign even to go to the
+doorstep to see them depart.  When they were come to the base of the
+rock, Marc Divès drew up and said, "Thou art going into the mountain
+villages, art thou not, Hullin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes: that must first be done.  I must warn the wood-cutters,
+charcoal-burners, and others, of what is going on."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Without doubt.  Do not forget Materne of Hengst and his two boys,
+Labarbe of Dagsburg, and Jérome of St. Quirin.  Tell them that there
+will he powder and balls; that we are of the number, Catherine Lefèvre,
+myself, Marc Divès, and all the honest folks of the country."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Calm thyself, Marc&mdash;I know my men."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then good-by for the present."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They shook hands warmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The smuggler took the path to the right, toward Donon; Hullin that to
+the left, toward the Sarre.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were now at some distance from each other, when Hullin called out
+to his comrade: "Hé!  Marc, inform Catherine Lefèvre, as thou passest
+by, that all goes on well.  Tell her I am going into the mountains."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other assented by a nod, and they both continued their different
+ways.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+AMONG THE MOUNTAINEERS
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+An extraordinary agitation reigned at that time all along the line of
+the Vosges: the tidings of the invasion which was approaching spread
+from village to village, and among the farm-houses and woodmen's
+cottages of the Hengst and the Nideck.  The hawkers, wagoners, tinkers,
+all that floating population which is continually moving from the
+mountains to the plains and from the plains to the mountains, brought
+every day, from Alsace and the borders of the Rhine, many strange
+reports.  "The towns," so these people said, "were being put into a
+state of defence; expeditions were being made to provision them with
+corn and meat; the roads to Metz, Nancy, Huningue, and Strasbourg were
+swarming with convoys.  Everywhere you met powder and ammunition
+wagons, cavalry, infantry, artillery, going to their posts.  Marshal
+Victor still held the route to Saverne; but the bridges of the
+fortresses were already raised from seven in the evening to eight in
+the morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No one thought that all this could bode any good.  Nevertheless, though
+many were seriously afraid of war, and though the old women lifted up
+their hands to heaven, crying, "Jesus!  Mary!  Joseph!" the greater
+number were preparing the means of defence.  Under such circumstances,
+Jean-Claude Hullin was well received by all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The same day, toward five in the evening, he reached the summit of the
+Hengst, and halted with the patriarch of forest-hunters, old Materne.
+He spent the night there; for in winter the days are short and the
+roads difficult.  Materne promised to keep watch over the defile of the
+Zorn, with his two sons Kasper and Frantz, and to reply to the first
+signal which was made from the Falkenstein.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the following day, Jean-Claude started early for Dagsburg, so as to
+come to an understanding with his friend Labarbe, the wood-cutter.
+They visited together the nearest hamlets, reanimating the love of
+country in the people's hearts; and the next day Labarbe accompanied
+Hullin into Christ-Nickel's, the anabaptist farmer of Painbach&mdash;a
+sensible and respectable man, but who could not be prevailed upon to
+participate in their glorious enterprise.  Christ-Nickel had only one
+reply for all their observations; "It is well, it is just, but the
+Bible saith, 'Put up thy sword into its place.  He who lives by the
+sword shall perish by the sword.'"  He promised them, however, to pray
+for the good cause: it was all they could obtain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They went from there to Walsch, and had some hearty shakes of the hand
+with Daniel Hirsch, a former marine gunner, who agreed to collect all
+the people of his district.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this place Labarbe left Jean-Claude to make his way by himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For eight days longer he beat about the mountain, from Soldatenthal, to
+Léonsberg, Meienthal, Abreschwiller, Voyer, Loëttenbach, Cirey,
+Petit-Mont, and Saint-Sauveur; and on the ninth day he reached St.
+Quirin and saw the bootmaker Jérome.  They visited the pass of Blanru
+together; after which Hullin, satisfied with what he had done, took his
+way to the village.  He had been walking briskly for about two hours,
+picturing to himself the life of the camp,&mdash;the bivouac, marches and
+counter-marches&mdash;all that life of a soldier which he had so often
+regretted, and which he now saw returning with enthusiasm&mdash;when in the
+far distance, amidst the shades of the twilight, he perceived the
+hamlet of Charmes in a bluish mist, his little cottage sending forth a
+scarcely perceptible line of smoke, the small gardens surrounded with
+palisades, the stone-covered roofs, and to the left, bordering the
+hill, the great farm of Bois-de-Chênes, with the saw-mills of Valtin at
+the end of the now dark ravine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then suddenly, and without knowing why, his soul was filled with a
+great sadness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He slackened his pace, and thought of the calm, peaceable life he was
+abandoning&mdash;perhaps forever; of his little room, so warm in the winter,
+and cheerful in spring when he opened his windows to the breath of the
+woods; of the tic-tac of the old timepiece, and then of Louise, his
+good little Louise, spinning in the silence with downcast eyes, and in
+the evenings singing some quaint strain with her pure penetrating voice
+when they were both feeling weary.  These reflections laid such hold of
+him that the slightest objects, every instrument used in his
+profession,&mdash;the long shining augers, the round-handled hatchet, the
+mallets, the little stove, the old closet, the platters of varnished
+wood, the ancient figure of Saint Michael nailed to the wall, the old
+four-post bed at the bottom of the alcove, the stool, the trunk, the
+copper lamp,&mdash;all these things impressed themselves on his mind like a
+living picture, and the tears came into his eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it was Louise, his darling child, whom he pitied.  How she would
+weep, and implore him to renounce the war!  And how she would hang on
+his neck, saying:&mdash;"Oh! do not leave me, Papa Jean-Claude!  Oh, I will
+love you so much!  Oh, surely you will not abandon me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the honest fellow could see the terror in her beautiful eyes&mdash;he
+could feel her arms round his neck.  For a moment he fancied that he
+might deceive her, make her believe anything, no matter what, and so
+account for his absence to her satisfaction; but such means were not in
+accordance with his character, and his sadness increased the more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Arrived at the farm of Bois-de-Chênes, he went in to tell Catherine
+Lefèvre that all was going well, and that the mountaineers were only
+awaiting the signal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A quarter of an hour after, Master Jean-Claude came down by the Houx
+road in front of his own little house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before pushing open the creaking door, the idea struck him to see what
+Louise was about at that moment.  He glanced into the little room
+through the window: Louise was standing by the curtains of the alcove;
+she seemed very animated, arranging, folding and unfolding clothes on
+the bed.  Her sweet face beamed with happiness, and her large blue eyes
+sparkled with a sort of enthusiasm; she even talked aloud.  Hullin
+listened; but a cart happening to pass at the time in the street, he
+could hear nothing.  Making a firm resolve, he entered, saying quietly:
+"Louise, I have returned."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Immediately the young girl, joyous and skipping like a deer, ran to
+embrace him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! it is you, Papa Jean-Claude!  I was expecting you.  Mon Dieu! mon
+Dieu! how long you stayed away!  At length you are back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was, my child," replied the honest fellow, in a more undecided
+tone, putting his stick behind the door and his hat on the table, "it
+was because&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He could say nothing else.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes, you went to see our friends," said Louise, laughing: "I know
+all about it&mdash;Mamma Lefèvre has told me everything."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What! thou knowest?  And dost thou not mind?  So much the better, so
+much the better!  it shows thy sense.  And I, who fancied thou wouldst
+have cried!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cry! and what for, papa Jean-Claude?  Oh, I am courageous; you don't
+know me yet&mdash;go!"  She put on a resolute air, which made Hullin smile;
+but he did not smile long when she continued: "We are going to war&mdash;we
+are going to fight&mdash;we are going to pass up the mountain!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hullo! we are going! we are going!" exclaimed he in astonishment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly.  Then are we not going?" said she, regretfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is to say&mdash;I must leave thee for a little time, my child."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Leave me&mdash;oh, no!  I go with thee; it is all agreed upon.  Look, see!
+my small parcel is ready, and here is yours, which I have arranged.
+Don't trouble yourself, let me alone, and you will be satisfied!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin could not get over his stupefaction.  "But, Louise," he
+exclaimed, "thou canst not think of such a thing.  Consider: we must
+pass nights abroad, and march and run; consider the cold, the snow, the
+musketry!  It cannot be."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come," said the young girl, in a tearful voice, throwing herself into
+his arms, "do not pain me!  You are only making fun of your little
+Louise.  You cannot forsake her!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But thou wilt be much safer here&mdash;thou wilt be warm&mdash;thou wilt hear
+from us every day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, no.  I will not&mdash;I must go too.  The cold does not harm me.  Only
+too long have I been shut up.  I, too, must breathe a little.  Are not
+the birds out of doors?  The robins are out all the winter.  Have I not
+known what cold was when I was quite tiny? and hunger also?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stamped, and, for the third time, putting her arms round
+Jean-Claude's neck,&mdash;"Come then, Papa Hullin," said she softly, "Mamma
+Lefèvre said yes.  Would you be more naughty than she was?  Ah, if you
+only knew how much I love you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The good man had sat down and turned away his head, so as not to yield,
+and did not allow himself to be embraced.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, how naughty you are to-day, Papa Jean-Claude!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is for thy sake, my child."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, all the worse.  I will run away after you.  Cold&mdash;what is cold?
+And if you are wounded&mdash;if you ask to see your little Louise for the
+last time, and she is not there&mdash;near you, to take care of you, and
+love you to the end&mdash;oh, you must think me very cold-hearted."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sobbed, and Hullin could not stand it any longer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it true that Mamma Lefèvre consents?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes&mdash;oh, yes&mdash;she told me so.  She said to me,&mdash;'Try and make Papa
+Jean-Claude decide.  I am willing, and quite satisfied.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, what can I do against two of you.  Thou shalt come with us; it
+is quite decided."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gave a scream of delight which ran through the cottage,&mdash;"Oh, how
+kind you are!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And with one rub she wiped all her tears away,&mdash;"We are going to be
+off, to take to the woods and to make war."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah," said Hullin, shaking his head, "I see it now; thou art always the
+little gypsy.  As soon try to tame a swallow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then making her sit on his knees:&mdash;"Louise, it is now twelve years
+since I found thee in the snow: thou wast blue, poor little one.  And
+when we were in the cottage, near a good fire, and thou wert slowly
+reviving, the first thing thou didst was to smile at me.  And since
+that time thy will has always been mine.  With that smile thou hast led
+me wherever thou wouldst."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Louise began again to smile at him, and they embraced each other.
+"Now we will look at the packages," he said, sighing.  "Are they well
+made, I wonder?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He approached the bed, and was surprised to see his warmest clothes,
+his flannel-waistcoats, all well brushed, folded, and packed; and
+Louise's bundle, with her best dresses, petticoats, and stout shoes, in
+nice order.  At last he could not help laughing and crying out&mdash;"O
+gypsy, gypsy! you are the one for making fine bundles, and going away
+without ever turning the head."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise smiled.  "Are you satisfied?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose I must be.  But during all this piece of work, I will
+venture to say thou hast never thought of preparing my supper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it will soon be ready.  I did not know you would return this
+evening, Papa Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is true, my child.  Bring me something&mdash;no matter what&mdash;quickly,
+for I am hungry.  Meanwhile I shall smoke a pipe."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, that's it; smoke a pipe."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He sat down on the side of the bench and struck the tinder-box quite
+dreamily.  Louise rushed right and left like a sprite, seeing to the
+fire, breaking the eggs, and turning out an omelette with surprising
+celerity.  Never had she appeared so lively, smiling, and pretty.
+Hullin, his elbow on the table and his face in his hand, watched her
+gravely, thinking how much will, firmness, and resolution there was in
+this girl&mdash;as light as a fairy, yet determined as a hussar.  In a few
+seconds she served him with the omelette on a large china plate, with
+bread, and the glass and bottle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There, Papa Jean-Claude, be hungry no longer."  She observed him
+eating with a look of tenderness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The flame sprang up in the stove, lighting clearly the low beams, the
+wooden stair in the shadow, the bed at the end of the alcove, the whole
+of the abode, so often cheered by the joyous humor of the shoemaker,
+the little songs of his daughter, and the industry of both.  And all
+this Louise was leaving without any hesitation: she cared only for the
+woods, the snow-covered paths, and the endless mountains, reaching from
+the village into Switzerland, and even beyond.  Ah, Master Jean-Claude
+had reason to cry "gypsy, gypsy!"  The swallow cannot be tamed: it
+needs the open air, the broad sky&mdash;continual motion.  Neither storms,
+nor wind, nor rain in torrents frighten it, when the hour of its
+departure is at hand.  It has only one thought, one desire, one
+cry&mdash;"Let us away!  Let us away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The meal finished, Hullin rose and said to his daughter, "I am tired,
+my child; kiss me, and let us go to bed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; but do not forget to awake me, Papa Jean-Claude, if you start
+before daybreak."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do not trouble thyself.  It is understood thou shalt come with us."
+And seeing her mount the stair and disappear in the garret: "Isn't she
+afraid of stopping in the nest, that's all!" said he to himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The silence was great outdoors.  Eleven o'clock had struck from the
+village church.  The good man was sitting down to take off his boots,
+when he caught sight of his musket suspended above the door: he took it
+down, wiped it, and drew the trigger.  His whole soul was intent on the
+business in hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is all right," he murmured: and then in a grave tone: "It is
+curious....  The last time I held it ... at Marengo ... was fourteen
+years ago, and yet it seems like yesterday!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly the hardened snow cracked under a quick footstep.  He
+listened: "Someone!"  At the same time two little sharp taps resounded
+on the panes.  He ran to the window and opened it.  The head of Marc
+Divès, with his broad hat stiff with the frost, bent forward from the
+darkness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Marc, what news?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hast thou warned the mountaineers&mdash;Materne, Jérome, Labarbe?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was time: the enemy has passed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Passed?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, along the whole line.  I have walked fifteen leagues through the
+snow since this morning to announce it to thee."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good; the signal must be given: a great fire on the Falkenstein."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin was very pale.  He put on his boots.  Two minutes later, his
+large blouse on his shoulders and his stick in his hand, he softly
+opened the door, and with long strides followed Marc Divès on the way
+to the Falkenstein.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+RISING OF THE PARTISANS
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+From midnight till six in the morning a flame shone through the
+darkness on the summit of the Falkenstein, and the whole mountain was
+on the alert.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the friends of Hullin, Marc Divès, and of Mother Lefèvre, their
+long gaiters on their legs and old muskets on their shoulders,
+journeyed, through the silent woods, toward the gorges of the Valtin.
+The thought of the enemy traversing the plains of Alsace to surprise
+the passes, was present to the minds of all.  The tocsins of Dagsburg,
+Abreschwiller, Walsch, and St. Quirin, and of all the other villages,
+began to call the defenders of the country to arms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now you must picture to yourself the Jägerthal, at the foot of the old
+castle, in unusually snowy weather, at that early hour when the clumps
+of trees begin to creep out of the shadow, and when the extreme cold of
+night softens at the approach of day.  Picture, also, to yourself the
+old Sawyerie, with its flat roof, its heavy wheel burdened with
+icicles, the low interior dimly lit up by a pine-wood fire, whose blaze
+fades away in the glimmer of the coming dawn; and, around the fire, fur
+bonnets, caps, and black profiles, gazing one over the other, and
+squeezing close together like a wall; and farther on, in the woods,
+more fires lighting up groups of men and women squatting in the snow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The agitation began to decrease.  As the sky became grayer the people
+recognized each other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, it is Cousin Daniel of Soldatenthal.  You have come too?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, as you see, Heinrich, with my wife also."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What, Cousin Nanette!  Where is she?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Down there, near the old oak, by Uncle Hans' fire."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They shook hands.  Many could be heard yawning loudly: others threw on
+the fire bits of planks.  The gourds went round; some retired from the
+circles to make room for their shivering neighbors.  Meanwhile the
+crowd began to grow impatient.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah," cried some, "we did not come here only to get our feet warmed.
+It is time to see and come to an understanding."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes!  Let them hold a council, and name the chiefs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; everybody is not yet arrived.  See, there are more coming from
+Dagsburg and St. Quirin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Indeed, the lighter it became, the more people could be seen hastening
+along all the mountain paths.  At that time there must have been many
+hundreds of men in the valley&mdash;wood-cutters, charcoal-burners,
+raftsmen&mdash;without counting the women and children.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nothing could be more picturesque than that gathering in the midst of
+the snows, in the depths of the defile, closed in as it was by tall
+pines losing themselves in the clouds.  To the right, the valleys
+opening away into each other as far as the eye could reach; to the
+left, the ruins of the Falkenstein rising into the sky.  From a
+distance one would have said it was a flock of cranes settled on the
+ice; but, nearer, these hardy men could be distinguished, with stiff
+beards bristling like a boar, gloomy fierce eyes, broad square
+shoulders, and horny hands.  Some few, taller than the rest, belonged
+to the fiery race of red men, white-skinned, and hairy to the tips of
+their fingers, with strength enough to pull an oak up by the roots.
+Among this number was old Materne of Hengst, with his two sons Kasper
+and Frantz.  These sturdy fellows&mdash;all three armed with little rifles
+from Innsprück&mdash;having blue cloth gaiters with leathern buttons
+reaching above their knees, their loins girdled with goat-skin, and
+their felt hats coming down low over their necks&mdash;did not deign to
+approach the fire.  For an hour they had been sitting on a trunk by the
+river-side, on the watch, with their feet in the snow.  From time to
+time the old man would say to his sons, "What do they shiver for over
+there?  I never knew a milder night for the season: it is nothing&mdash;the
+rivers are not even touched."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the forest-hunters of the country passing by came to shake hands
+with them, then congregated round them and formed a circle apart.
+These fellows spoke little, being used to silence for whole days and
+nights, for fear of frightening away their game.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marc Divès, standing in the middle of another group, a head taller than
+any of them, spoke and gesticulated&mdash;pointing now to one part of the
+mountain, now to another.  In front of him was the old herdsman
+Lagarmitte, with his large gray smock, a long bark trumpet on his
+shoulder, and his dog at his feet.  He listened to the smuggler,
+open-mouth, and kept on bowing his head.  The others all seemed
+attentive: they were composed of charcoal-burners and wood-carriers,
+with whom the smuggler had daily intercourse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Between the saw-mills and the first fire, on the bridge over the dam,
+sat the bootmaker Jérome of St. Quirin&mdash;a man of from fifty to sixty
+years of age, with a long brown face, hollow eyes, big nose&mdash;his ears
+covered with a badger-skin cap&mdash;and a yellow beard reaching to his
+waist in a peak.  His hands, enveloped in great green woollen gloves,
+were clasped over an immense stick of knotty service-tree.  He wore a
+long sackcloth hood; and might easily have been taken for a hermit.  At
+every rumor that arose, Father Jérome would slowly turn his head, and
+try to catch what it was, frowning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean Labarbe, grasping his axe, remained immovable.  He was a
+white-faced man, with an aquiline nose and thin lips.  He exercised
+great influence over the men of Dagsburg, owing to his resolution and
+the clearness of his ideas.  When they shouted around him, "We must
+deliberate; we cannot stay here doing nothing," he simply contented
+himself with saying, "Let us wait: Hullin has not arrived, nor
+Catherine Lefèvre.  There is no hurry."  Everybody then was silenced,
+and looked impatiently toward the path from Charmes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sawyer Piorette&mdash;a small, brisk, thin, energetic man, whose black
+eyebrows met above his eyes&mdash;stood on the threshold of his hut, with
+his pipe between his teeth, contemplating the general appearance of
+this scene.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meanwhile, the impatience increased every moment.  Some village
+mayors&mdash;in square-cut coats and three-cornered hats&mdash;advanced in the
+direction of the saw-mills, calling on their communes to come and
+decide what was to be done.  Most fortunately, at last Catherine
+Lefèvre's cart appeared, and a thousand enthusiastic shouts arose on
+all sides:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There they are! they come!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Old Materne gravely mounted on a trunk and quietly descended, saying,
+"It is they."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Great agitation showed itself.  The farthest groups gathered together
+in one crowd.  A sort of impatient shiver passed over the mass.
+Scarcely has the old farmer's wife become visible, whip in hand, on her
+straw box with little Louise, than from all parts came cries of "Vive
+la France!  Vive la mère Catherine!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, who had remained behind, his broad hat pushed back, his musket
+slung across his shoulder, was now crossing the meadow of Eichmath,
+distributing vigorous shakes of the hand: "Good-day, Daniel; good-day,
+Colon.  Good-day&mdash;good-day!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! it is going to be warm, Hullin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes&mdash;yes; we are going to hear the chestnuts popping this winter.
+Good-day, my old Jérome!  We have serious business on hand."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Jean-Claude.  We must hope to pull through it by the grace of
+God."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine, on arriving at the saw-works, told Labarbe to set on the
+ground a keg of brandy which she had brought away from the farm, and to
+get a jug from the sawyer's cottage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Soon after, Hullin, coming up to the fire, met Materne and his two sons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have come late," said the old hunter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! yes.  What was to be done?  I had to descend the Falkenstein, get
+my gun, and start the women.  But as we are now here, let us lose no
+more time; Lagarmitte, blow thy horn, so that all the men may assemble.
+The first thing is to appoint the leaders."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lagarmitte blew his long trumpet, his cheeks puffed out to his ears:
+then those who were still on the hill-sides or paths hastened their
+pace to be in time.  Soon all those brave fellows were assembled in
+front of the saw-works.  Hullin got up on a pile of tree-trunks, and
+looking seriously upon the crowd, said, amidst deep silence: "The enemy
+crossed the Rhine the day before yesterday: they are marching over the
+mountain into Lorraine: Strasbourg and Huningue are blockaded.  We may
+expect to see the Germans and Prussians in three or four days."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a loud shout of "Vive la France!"
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-096"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-096.jpg" ALT="THERE WAS A GENERAL SHOUT OF &quot;LONG LIVE FRANCE!&quot;" BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+THERE WAS A GENERAL SHOUT OF &quot;LONG LIVE FRANCE!&quot;
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, vive la France!" continued Hullin; "for if the allies enter Paris
+they can do what they choose; they can re-establish statute-labor,
+tithes, convents, monopolies, and the gallows.  If you wish to see that
+over again, you have only to let them pass."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It would be impossible to depict the savage fierceness of the audience
+at that moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is what I had to tell you," cried Hullin, quite white.  "Since
+you are here, it can only be to fight."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is well; but listen to me.  I will be open with you.  Among you are
+fathers of families.  We shall be one against ten, against fifty: we
+must expect to perish.  So let the men who have not reflected on it,
+who feel they have not heart to do their duty to the end, go&mdash;none will
+take notice of them.  Each man is free."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he paused and looked around him.  Everybody remained stationary:
+then with a firmer voice, he concluded thus: "No one goes away; you are
+all, all resolved to fight.  Well, I am rejoiced to see there is not
+one coward among us.  Now a leader must be chosen.  In great dangers,
+the first thing is order and discipline.  The leader you are going to
+name will have the right of commanding and being obeyed.  So reflect
+seriously, for on that man will hang the fate of you all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So saying, Jean-Claude descended from the tree-trunk, and the agitation
+became extreme.  Every village deliberated apart by itself&mdash;every mayor
+proposed his friend&mdash;and the hours wore on.  Catherine Lefèvre was
+burning with impatience.  At length she could no longer contain
+herself, and standing up on her bench, signed that she was going to
+speak.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine was held in great esteem.  At first only a few, then a larger
+number approached to know what she wished to communicate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My friends," said she, "we are losing time.  What do you wish for?  A
+trustworthy man, is it not so? a soldier&mdash;a man who has seen service,
+and who knows how to profit by our positions?  Well, why do you not
+choose Hullin?  Can any one find a better?  If so, let him speak, and
+we will decide.  I propose Jean-Claude Hullin.  Hé! do you hear&mdash;over
+there?  If this continues, the Austrians will have arrived before a
+leader has been decided on."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes,&mdash;yes!  Hullin!" shouted Labarbe, Divès, Jérome, and several
+others.  "Let us see how many are for and against him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Marc Divès, clambering on to the trunks, cried out in a voice like
+thunder: "Those who do not want Jean-Claude Hullin for leader must lift
+up their hands."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Not one hand was uplifted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those who want Jean-Claude Hullin for their leader must raise their
+hands."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every hand was put up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Jean-Claude," said the smuggler, "mount up here, look&mdash;they have
+chosen you for their leader."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Master Jean-Claude having done so, saw he was named, and said
+immediately in a stern voice: "Good! you name me to be your chief.  I
+accept!  Let Materne the elder, Labarbe of Dagsburg, Jérome of St.
+Quirin, Marc Divès, Piorette the sawyer, and Catherine Lefèvre, come
+into the saw-works.  We are going to take counsel.  In a quarter of an
+hour or twenty minutes, I shall give my orders.  Meanwhile, each
+village must put two men under the orders of Marc Divès, to fetch
+powder and ball from the Falkenstein."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE LEADER
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The persons indicated by Jean-Claude Hullin met together in the shed of
+the Sawyerie, before the great fireplace; a species of good-humor
+beaming on their faces.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For twenty years have I heard speak of the Russians, Austrians, and
+Cossacks," said old Materne, smiling, "and I shall not be sorry to see
+a few within reach of my musket: it gives a change to one's ideas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied Labarbe, "we shall see queer things; the little children
+of the mountains will be able to relate something of what their fathers
+and grandfathers did!  And the old women, of an evening&mdash;won't they
+tell long tales in fifty years' time?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Comrades," said Hullin, "you know the whole country: you have the
+mountain under your eyes from Thann to Wissembourg.  You know that the
+great roads, imperial roads&mdash;traverse Alsace and the Vosges.  They both
+commence at Bâle: one runs along the Rhine to Strasbourg, from whence
+it ascends to Saverne and enters Lorraine.  Huningue, Neuf-Brisach,
+Strasbourg, and Phalsbourg defend it.  The other turns to the left and
+passes by Schlestadt: at Schlestadt it enters the mountain and reaches
+Saint-Dié, Raon-l'Etape, Baccarat, and Lunéville.  The enemy will want
+to force these two roads first,&mdash;being the best for cavalry, artillery,
+and baggage,&mdash;but as they are defended, we need not trouble ourselves
+about them.  If the allies besiege the fortresses&mdash;which would lengthen
+the campaign&mdash;we have nothing to fear; but it is not probable they will
+do so.  After having summoned Huningue to surrender, Belfort,
+Schlestadt, Strasbourg, and Phalsbourg, on this side the
+Vosges&mdash;Bitsche, Lutzelstein, and Sarrebrück on the other&mdash;I imagine
+they will fall upon us.  Now attend to me.  Between Phalsbourg and
+Saint-Die, there are several defiles for the infantry; but there is
+only one way practicable for cannon: this is the road from Strasbourg
+to Raon-les-Leaux by Urmatt, Mutzig, Lutzelhouse, Phramond,
+Grandfontaine.  Once masters of this passage, the allies will be able
+to come out on Lorraine.  This road passes the Donon, two leagues from
+here, on our right The first thing to be done is to make a firm stand
+there, in the most favorable part for defence, that is to say, on the
+plateau of the mountain; to intersect it, to break down the bridges,
+and to erect solid breastworks across it.  A few hundreds of great
+trees across the road with all their branches are worth as much as
+ramparts.  They are the best ambuscades: one is well sheltered behind
+them and can see everything coming.  Those large trees hold like death.
+They must be taken away piece by piece; bridges cannot be thrown over
+them:&mdash;in fact it is the best thing to be done.  All that, comrades,
+must be accomplished to-morrow evening, or next day at the latest.  I
+charge myself with it.  But it is not sufficient to occupy a position
+and put it in a good state of defence: it must be so managed that the
+enemy shall not be able to turn it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was just thinking of that," said Materne.  "Once in the valley of
+Bruche, the Germans can march with their infantry into the hills of
+Haslack and turn our left.  Nothing can prevent their trying the same
+manoeuvre on our right, if they reach Raon-l'Etape."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, but to take these ideas out of their heads, we have a very simple
+thing to do: it is to occupy the defiles of the Zorn and the Sarre on
+our left, and that of Blanru on our right.  One can only keep a defile
+by holding the heights; that is why Piorette must place himself with a
+hundred men on the side of Raon-les-Leaux; Jérome on the Grosmann, with
+the same number, to close the valley of the Sarre; and Labarbe, at the
+head of the remainder on the great slopes to watch over the hills of
+Haslach.  You must choose your men from those of the nearest villages.
+The women ought not to have a long distance to carry provisions; and
+then the wounded will be nearer their homes, which must also be thought
+of.  There is all I have to say to you just now.  The chiefs of posts
+must take care to send me every day on the Donon, where I shall
+establish our head-quarters this evening, a good walker, to inform me
+of what happens, and to receive the countersign.  We shall also
+organize a reserve; but as we must make haste, we will speak of that
+when you are all in position, and there is no longer cause to fear a
+surprise from the enemy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I," exclaimed Marc Divès, "I shall have nothing to do then?  I am
+to remain with my arms folded, watching the others fight?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thou&mdash;thou art to survey the transport of ammunition.  None of us know
+how to treat the powder as thou dost, to preserve it from fire and
+damp, to melt the balls, and make cartridges."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it is woman's work, that is," exclaimed the smuggler.
+"Hexe-Baizel could do it as well as I.  What! am I not even to fire
+once?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Softly, Marc," replied Hullin, laughing; "occasions will not be
+wanting.  In the first place, the Falkenstein is the centre of our
+line; it is our arsenal and our retreating place in case of misfortune.
+The enemy will know through his spies that our convoys come from there;
+he will try, probably, to take them: the balls and bayonet-thrusts will
+come in thy way.  Besides, to have thee in safety will be all the
+better, for thy cellars and caves must not be confided to the first
+comer.  But if thou really wouldst like&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," said the smuggler, who had been touched by Hullin's reference to
+his caves&mdash;"no! all things considered, I believe thou art right,
+Jean-Claude.  I have my men&mdash;they are well armed&mdash;we will defend the
+Falkenstein; and if the opportunity of firing a shot should present
+itself, I shall be all the freer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then that is a decided and well-understood business?" demanded Hullin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes, it is decided."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, comrades," said the worthy fellow, joyously, "let us warm
+ourselves with a few good glasses of wine.  It is ten o'clock; let each
+one return to his village, and make his preparations.  To-morrow
+morning all the defiles must be vigorously occupied."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They quitted the shed, and Hullin, in the presence of his followers,
+named Labarbe, Jérome, and Piorette chiefs of the defiles: then he told
+those of the Sarre to assemble as soon as possible near the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes, with axes, mattocks, and muskets.  "We shall leave at
+two o'clock, and encamp on the Donon across the route," said he to
+them.  "To-morrow, at dawn, we will begin the breastworks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He retained Materne and his two sons Frantz and Kasper, announcing to
+them that the battle would commence undoubtedly on the Donon, and that
+good shots would be wanted on that side, which gave them pleasure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mistress Lefèvre had never looked happier than when she got into her
+cart again, and, kissing Louise, said in her ear:&mdash;"All goes well.
+Jean-Claude is a man: he sees everything; he draws people to him.  I
+have known him forty years, yet he surprises even me."  Then turning
+round&mdash;"Jean-Claude," cried she, "we have a ham waiting for us down
+there and a few old bottles, which the Germans shall not drink."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Catherine, they shall not drink them.  Go on, I am coming."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But just as they were starting, and when already a number of
+mountaineers were climbing the hillsides to regain their villages,
+quite in the distance, on the path of Trois-Fontaines, appeared a large
+thin man on a big roan cob, with a flat-brimmed cap of rabbit-skin
+covering the whole back of his neck: a great sheep-dog with a black
+shaggy coat bounded along near him; and the ends of his enormous
+surtout flapped behind him like wings.  Every one cried out,&mdash;"It is
+Doctor Lorquin from the plain&mdash;the one who attends poor people gratis.
+He comes with his dog Pluto.  He is a good man."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In fact he it was.  He galloped on, shouting, "Halt! stop! halt!"  And
+his red face, sharp eyes, red-brown beard, broad shoulders, great horse
+and dog, all cleaved the air and grew upon the view.  In two seconds he
+had reached the foot of the mountain, crossed the meadow, and appeared
+at the bridge, before the shed.  Instantly, in breathless tones, he
+began to say:&mdash;"Ah! the cunning rogues who want to enter on a campaign
+without me; they shall pay for it!"  And tapping a small box he carried
+at his crupper,&mdash;"Listen, my good fellows, listen!  I have something
+inside there of which you shall give me an account: every description
+of knife, large, small, round and pointed, to take from you the balls
+and shot of all kinds which you are going to be regaled with!"
+Whereupon he burst out laughing, and all those near him felt a cold
+shiver in all their veins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having delivered himself of this pleasantry, Doctor Lorquin continued
+in a graver tone:&mdash;"Hullin, I must pull your ears!  What, when the
+country has to be defended, you forget me! others have to warn me.  It
+appears to me, however, that a doctor will not be out of the way here.
+I must call you to account."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pardon me, doctor, I was wrong," said Hullin, squeezing his hand.
+"During the last week so many things have happened!  One does not
+always think of everything; and besides, such a man as you are, need
+not be told how to fulfil his duty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The doctor was appeased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All that is right and good," he cried; "but nevertheless by your fault
+I am too late; the good places are taken, the crosses distributed.
+Come, where is the general, that I may make complaints to him?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am the general."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh! oh! really?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, doctor, I am the general; and I promote you to be our head
+surgeon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Chief surgeon of the partisans of the Vosges!  Well, it suits me.  No
+malice now, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Approaching the cart, the worthy man told Catherine that he relied on
+her for the organization of the ambulances.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Everything shall be ready, doctor," replied the farm-mistress.
+"Louise and I are going to set to work this evening.  Is it not so,
+Louise?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, Mamma Lefèvre," said she, enchanted to perceive that the
+campaign was going to begin.  "We shall work well; we will spend the
+night at it even.  M. Lorquin shall be well pleased with us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, then, let us go.  You will dine with us, doctor?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They trotted away.  While keeping pace with them, the good doctor
+related to Catherine laughingly how the tidings of the general rising
+had reached him; the affliction of his old housekeeper, Marie, who
+wanted to prevent his going to be massacred by the "kaiserlichs," and
+the various episodes of his journey from Quibolo to the village of
+Charmes.  Hullin, Materne, and his sons were coming on behind, their
+carbines on their shoulders; and thus they ascended the hill-side
+toward the farm of Bois-de-Chênes.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IX
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE CONSCRIPT
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+You can imagine the animation at the farm, the bustling of the
+domestics, the shouts of enthusiasm, the chinking of glasses and forks,
+the joy depicted on all faces, when Jean-Claude, Doctor Lorquin, the
+Maternes, and all those who had followed the cart of Catherine Lefèvre
+were installed in the large room around a magnificent ham, and began to
+celebrate their future triumphs, glass in hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was on a Tuesday, baking-day at the farm.  Excitement had prevailed
+in the kitchen all the morning: old Duchêne, with shirt-sleeves turned
+up and a cotton cap on his head, was taking out of the oven numberless
+loaves of bread, the good odor of which pervaded the whole house.
+Annette received them and piled them on the hearth; Louise waited on
+the guests; and Catherine Lefèvre superintended everything, crying
+out,&mdash;"Make haste, my children&mdash;make haste!  The third batch must be
+ready when the men from the Sarre arrive.  It will make six pounds of
+bread for each man."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, from his seat, watched the movements of the old farm-mistress.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What a woman!" said he; "what a woman!  She forgets nothing.  Could
+one find another such in the whole country?  To the health of Catherine
+Lefèvre!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To the health of Catherine Lefèvre!" replied the others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The glasses met together, and they began again to talk over combats,
+assaults, and intrenchments.  Each one felt animated with an invincible
+confidence; every one said in himself, "All will go well!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But heaven had in store for them yet another satisfaction on that day,
+especially for Louise and the Mother Lefèvre.  About noon, just as a
+beautiful gleam of winter sunshine whitened the snow and made the frost
+melt on the window-panes, and the great cock, putting his head out of
+his coop, uttered his triumphant crow, flapping his wings&mdash;just then
+the watch-dog, old "Yohan," half blind and toothless, began to bark so
+joyously and plaintively, that everyone listened with the greatest
+attention.  The kitchen was all excitement with the fourth batch coming
+out of the oven, and even Catherine Lefèvre herself stopped.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Something is going on," said she, in a low voice: and then added, all
+trembling, "Since my boy left, Yohan has never barked like that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same moment, rapid steps traversed the court.  Louise sprang
+toward the door, crying,&mdash;"It is he!  It is he!" and almost immediately
+a hand tried to hasp.  The door opened, and a soldier appeared on the
+threshold; but such a soldier, so worn, so bronzed, so emaciated! his
+gray hood, with its pewter buttons, so ragged&mdash;his high leathern
+gaiters so torn, that all present were astonished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He appeared unable to advance a step farther, and slowly put the
+butt-end of his musket on the ground.  The tip of his aquiline
+nose&mdash;the nose of Mother Lefèvre&mdash;shone like bronze; his red mustaches
+shook like one of those great lean hawks which are forced by hunger to
+come to the very doors of the stables in winter.  He looked into the
+kitchen, pale beneath the brown coating of his cheeks, and with his
+great hollow eyes filled with tears, he seemed unable to advance or say
+a word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Outside, the old dog leaped, whined, and shook his chain; in the
+interior, one could hear the fire blazing, so great was the silence;
+but soon Catherine Lefèvre, with a piercing voice,
+exclaimed,&mdash;"Gaspard! my child!  It is thou!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, my mother," replied the soldier, softly, as though suffocating.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And at the same moment Louise began to weep, while in the great room
+there arose a shout like thunder.  All the friends ran out, Master
+Jean-Claude at their head, crying,&mdash;"Gaspard!  Gaspard Lefèvre!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then they saw Gaspard and his mother embracing each other.  This
+strong, courageous woman was weeping: he did not weep; he held her
+pressed to his breast, his red mustaches mingling with her gray locks,
+and murmured,&mdash;"My mother!&mdash;my mother!  Ah, how often have I thought of
+you!"  Then, in a louder voice, he said, "Louise!  Where is Louise?  I
+saw Louise!"  And Louise threw herself into his arms, and their kisses
+were mingled together.  "Ah, thou didst not recognize me, Louise!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes!&mdash;oh, yes!  I knew thee, even by thy step!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Old Duchêne, with his cotton cap in his hands, stammered out by the
+fireplace,&mdash;"Lord! is it possible?  My poor child!  What does he look
+like?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had brought up Gaspard, and always fancied him, ever since his
+departure, fresh and ruddy in a beautiful uniform with red facings.  It
+completely deranged his ideas to see him otherwise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment Hullin, raising his voice, said,&mdash;"And the rest of us,
+Gaspard,&mdash;thy old friends&mdash;art thou not going to take notice of us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the brave fellow turned round and exclaimed with
+enthusiasm,&mdash;"Hullin!  Doctor Lorquin!  Materne!  Frantz!  Why, they
+are all here!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the embraces recommenced, but this time more joyously, with shouts
+of laughter and shaking of hands that seemed endless.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, doctor, it is you!  Ah, my old father, Jean-Claude!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They looked closely at each other, with bright, beaming faces, and went
+arm-in-arm up and down the great room; and Mother Catherine with the
+knapsack, Louise with the gun, and Duchêne with the shako, followed
+them, laughing and drying their cheeks and eyes&mdash;nothing had ever been
+seen like it before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us sit down and drink!" exclaimed Doctor Lorquin.  "This is the
+bouquet of the feast."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, my poor Gaspard, how happy I am to behold thee safe and sound,"
+said Hullin.  "Ha, ha!  Without flattery, I like thee better as thou
+art now than with thy great red cheeks.  Parbleu! thou art a man now.
+Thou remindest me of the old fellows of my time, those of the Sambre
+and Egypt&mdash;ha, ha, ha! we had not round noses, we were not sleek and
+fat; we looked like lean rats watching a cheese, and our teeth were
+long and white!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes, that does not surprise me, Papa Jean-Claude.  Come, let us
+sit down; we can talk more at ease.  Ah, now, why are you all at the
+farm?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What, dost thou not know?  All the country is up, from Houpe to
+Saint-Sauveur, to defend itself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, the anabaptist of Painbach just mentioned it as I passed.  It is
+then true?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is true.  Everybody is in it; and I am the general in chief."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Excellent&mdash;excellent!  That these rogues of 'kaiserlichs' should not
+carry everything with a high hand in our own country gives me pleasure.
+But hand me the knife.  Anyway one is happy to find one's self at home
+again.  Hé!  Louise, come here and sit down a little while.  Look, Papa
+Jean-Claude: with this girl on one side of me, the ham on the other,
+and the bottle to the front, I should not need a fortnight to pick up
+again; and my comrades would not know me when I joined the company."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody was now sitting down and astonished to see with what appetite
+the brave fellow ate and drank, while regarding Louise and his mother
+tenderly, and replying to one and the other, without losing a single
+mouthful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The farm-people, Duchêne, Annette, Robin, and Dubourg, arranged in a
+half-circle, watched Gaspard in ecstasies; Louise refilled his glass;
+the Mother Lefèvre, seated by the stove, got up and went to his
+knapsack, and, on only finding two old black shirts with holes wide
+enough to put one's, hand through, with worn-out shoes and a bit of wax
+for cartridges, a comb with two teeth and an empty bottle, she lifted
+her hands to heaven and hastening to open the linen chest, saying,
+"Lord, can one be astonished that so many die of sheer want!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Doctor Lorquin, in presence of such a vigorous appetite, rubbed his
+hands joyfully, and murmured to himself, "What a sturdy fellow!  What a
+digestion!  What a set of teeth!  He could crunch pebbles like nuts."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And even old Materne said to his sons:&mdash;"In other days, after two or
+three days of hunting in the high mountains in winter, I also used to
+feel the hunger of a wolf, and to eat a haunch of venison right off:
+now I am getting old, one or two pounds of meat are sufficient for
+me&mdash;-which shows what age does."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin had lit his pipe, and seemed in a reverie: evidently something
+worried him.  After a few minutes, seeing that Gaspard's appetite was
+less lively, he brusquely asked, "Say, then, Gaspard, without
+interrupting thyself, how the devil hast thou managed to come?  We
+believed that thou wast still on the borders of the Rhine, on the
+Strasbourg side."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! ah! old soldier, I comprehend," said young Lefèvre, winking.
+"There are so many deserters, are there not?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh! such an idea would never enter my head, and yet&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You would not be sorry to know that I had done nothing wrong?  I
+cannot blame you, Papa Jean-Claude: you are right.  He who is missing
+at the roll-call when the 'kaiserlichs' are in France, deserves to be
+shot.  Be composed, here is my leave."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, who possessed no false delicacy, read,&mdash;"Leave for twenty-four
+hours to the grenadier Gaspard Lefèvre, of the 2d of the 1st.  This
+day, 3d January, 1814.&mdash;GEMEAU, Head of Battalion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good, good," exclaimed he.  "Put that carefully in thy knapsack, thou
+mightest lose it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All his good-humor had returned:&mdash;"Do you see, my children, I know what
+love is?  There is both good and bad in it: but it is particularly bad
+for young soldiers who come too close to their village after a
+campaign.  They are capable of forgetting themselves and of not
+returning unless in company of two or three gendarmes.  I have seen it.
+But come, since everything is in order, let us drink a glass of
+'rikevir.'  What say you, Catherine?  The men of the Sarre may arrive
+at any moment, and we have not an instant to lose?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are right, Jean-Claude," replied the old farm-mistress sadly.
+"Annette, go down and bring three bottles from the small cellar."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The servant obeyed quickly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But this leave, Gaspard," continued Catherine&mdash;"how long has it
+lasted?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I received it yesterday, at eight in the evening, at Vasselonne, my
+mother.  The regiment is retreating on Lorraine; I must rejoin it this
+evening at Phalsbourg."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is well; thou hast still seven hours; thou wilt not need more than
+six to reach there, although there is much snow on the Foxthal."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The good woman came and sat down again by her son, with a full heart.
+Every one was moved.  Louise, with her arm on the old tattered epaulet
+of Gaspard and her cheek against his, was sobbing.  Hullin emptied the
+ashes from his pipe at the end of the table, frowning, without saying
+anything; but when the bottles arrived and were uncorked, "Come,
+Louise," said he, "take courage! this cannot last forever; it must end
+in one way or another, and I venture to affirm that it will end well.
+Gaspard will come back to us, and then we shall have the wedding."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He refilled the glasses, and Catherine dried her eyes, murmuring, "To
+think that those brigands are the cause of all this.  Ah! let them
+come&mdash;let them come here!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all drank with a melancholy air; but the old "rikevir," entering
+the hearts of these brave people quickly enlivened them.  Gaspard,
+stronger than he had appeared at first, began to relate the terrible
+battles of Bautzen, Lutzen, Leipzig, and Hanau, where the conscripts
+had fought like tried soldiers, winning victory after victory, till
+traitors began to appear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every one listened in silence.  Louise, when he spoke of any great
+danger&mdash;of the passage over rivers under the enemy's fire, or the
+taking of a battery by the bayonet&mdash;squeezed his arm as though to
+defend him.  Jean-Claude's eyes sparkled; the doctor demanded each time
+the position of the ambulance; Materne and his sons stretched out their
+necks and clinched their jaws; and with help of the old wine the
+enthusiasm increased every moment.  "Ah, the rascals! ah, the brigands!
+But look out! it is not over yet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mother Lefèvre admired the courage and luck of her son in the midst of
+these events, which will be remembered centuries to come.  But when
+Lagarmitte, looking solemn and grave in his long gray cloth coat, with
+his broad black felt on his white head, and with his bark trumpet on
+his shoulder, crossed the kitchen, and appeared at the entrance to the
+large room, saying,&mdash;"The men of the Sarre are come,"&mdash;then all this
+enthusiasm, disappeared, and the company rose, thinking of the terrible
+struggle which would soon take place in the mountains.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise, throwing her arms round Gaspard's neck, cried, "Gaspard, do not
+go away!  Remain with us!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He became very pale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am a soldier," said he.  "I am called, Gaspard Lefèvre.  I love thee
+a thousand times more than my own life; but a Lefèvre only knows his
+duty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And he unwound her arms.  Louise then, sinking on the table, began to
+moan aloud.  Gaspard rose.  Hullin stood between them, and grasping his
+hands tightly, with trembling lips, said: "Excellently well!  Thou hast
+spoken like a man."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His mother came forward with a calm countenance to buckle his knapsack
+on his shoulders.  She did it with knitted eyebrows and pressed lips,
+without one sigh escaping her; but two great tears slowly ran down the
+wrinkles of her cheeks.  And when she had done it, she turned away, and
+with her sleeve over her eyes, said: "It is well!  Go&mdash;go, my child!
+thy mother blesses thee.  Whatever thy fortune thou wilt yet not be
+lost to us.  Look, Gaspard: there is thy place&mdash;there between Louise
+and myself&mdash;thou wilt always be there.  This poor child is not old
+enough yet to know that to live is to suffer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody left; only Louise remained lamenting in the room.  A few
+seconds later, as the butt end of the musket sounded on the slabs of
+the kitchen, and the outer door was opened, she gave a piercing shriek,
+and darted after him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gaspard, Gaspard, look!  I will be courageous; I will not cry; I will
+not keep thee back.  Oh, no; but do not leave me in anger.  Have pity
+on me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Angry! angry with thee, my Louise!  Oh, no!  But to see thee so
+unhappy breaks my heart.  Ah! if thou wert a little braver now, I
+should feel happier."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I am.  Let us kiss each other!  See, I am no longer the same.  I
+would be like Maman Lefèvre."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They calmly gave each other a parting embrace, Hullin held the gun;
+Catherine motioned with her hands, as though to say, "Go, go! it is
+enough!"  And he, suddenly seizing his musket, walked away resolutely,
+without looking back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the other side, the men of the Sarre, with their axes and hatchets,
+were climbing the steep ascent of the Valtin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Five minutes later, on passing by the great oak, Gaspard turned round,
+lifting his hands.  Catherine and Louise replied to it.  Hullin
+advanced to meet his people.  Doctor Lorquin alone remained with the
+women; and when Gaspard, continuing his way, had disappeared, he
+exclaimed, "Catherine Lefèvre, you can pride yourself on having an
+affectionate son.  God grant him good fortune!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the distant voices of the new-comers could be heard laughing among
+themselves, as they were marching to war as gayly as to a wedding.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER X
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+ROBIN'S VISION
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+As Hullin, at the head of the mountaineers, was taking his measures for
+the defence of his country, the madman Yégof, with his tin crown, that
+sad spectacle of humanity shorn of its noblest attribute,
+intelligence&mdash;the madman Yégof, his breast exposed to the fierce wind,
+his feet bare, reckless of cold, like the reptile in his prison, was
+wandering from mountain to mountain, in the midst of the snows of
+winter.  How comes it that the madman is able to resist the sharpest
+severity of the atmosphere, while an intelligent being would succumb to
+it?  Does it arise from a more powerful concentration of life, a more
+rapid circulation of the blood, a state of continued fever?  Or is it
+the effect of the extraordinary excitement of the senses, or any other
+unknown cause?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Science tells us nothing.  She admits only material causes, without
+giving an account of such phenomena.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So Yégof went on at random, and night came.  The cold was redoubled,
+the fox gnashed his teeth in the pursuit of an invisible prey; the
+famished buzzard fell back with empty claws among the bushes, uttering
+a cry of distress.  He, with his raven on his shoulder, gesticulating,
+jabbering, as if in a dream, kept walking on, from Holderloch to
+Sonneberg, from Sonneberg to Blutfeld.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now, on this particular night, the old shepherd, Robin, of the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes, was destined to be the witness of a most strange and
+fearful sight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some days ago, having been overtaken by the first fall of snow at the
+bottom of the ravine of the Blutfeld, he had left his cart there to
+conduct his flock back to the farm; but having discovered that he had
+forgotten his sheepskin, and left it in a shed there, he had on this
+day, when his work was done, set out about four o'clock in the
+afternoon to go and fetch it.  The Blutfeld, situated between the
+Schneeberg and the Grosmann, is a narrow gorge, bounded by rocks.  A
+narrow stream of water winds through it, under shadow of the tall
+shrubs, and in its depths extends a vast pasturage, all covered with
+large gray stones, that lie thickly scattered about.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This gorge is very little frequented, for there is a wild look about
+the Blutfeld, especially by the light of a winter moon.  The learned
+folks of these regions, the school-master of Dagsburg, and he of
+Hazlach, say that in that spot occurred the famous battle of the
+Triboques against the Germans, who wished to penetrate into Gaul, under
+the command of a leader named Luitprandt.  They say that the Triboques,
+from the neighboring heights, hurling upon their enemies huge masses of
+rocks, crushed them there as in a mortar, and that, on account of this
+great carnage, the gorge has preserved to this day the name of
+<I>Blutfeld</I>.  Fragments of broken pots, of rusty lances, of helmets, and
+long swords with cross hilts, are often found there.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At night, when the moon sheds her light upon this field and those
+immense stones, all covered with snow, when the north wind blows among
+the frost-covered branches, making them rattle and clatter like
+cymbals, you might fancy you heard the wild cry of the Germans at the
+moment of surprise, the shrieks of the women, the neighings of the
+horses, the rumbling of the chariots in the defile; for it seems that
+these people brought with them, in their skin-covered carriages, women,
+children, old men, and all that they possessed in gold, and silver, and
+movables, like the Germans setting out for America.  The Triboques
+never ceased to massacre them during two days, and on the third day
+they returned to the Donon, the Schneeberg, the Grosmann, the Giromani,
+the Hengst,&mdash;their broad shoulders stooping under the weight of their
+booty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This is what is related concerning the Blutfeld, and certainly to see
+this gorge enclosed within the mountains like an immense trap, without
+any other outlet than a narrow footpath, it is easy to understand how
+the Germans were taken at a disadvantage and fell an easy prey to their
+conquerors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Robin did not reach the spot till between seven and eight o'clock, just
+as the moon was rising.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The worthy fellow had descended the precipice a hundred times, but
+never had he beheld the place so brightly illuminated, and at the same
+time of so gloomy an aspect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At a distance, his white cart, at the bottom of the abyss, looked to
+him exactly like one of those enormous stones, covered with snow,
+beneath which the Germans had been buried.  It was at the entrance of
+the gorge, behind a thick cluster of shrubs, and beside it the little
+torrent ran murmuring in a slender stream, bright as steel, and
+sparkling like diamonds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he arrived there, the shepherd began to look for the key of the
+padlock; then, having unlocked the shed, he crept in on his hands and
+knees, and found, very fortunately, not only his sheepskin, but an old
+hatchet, which he had quite forgotten.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But judge of his surprise when, on issuing from it, he saw the madman
+Yégof appear at the turn of the footpath, and come straight toward him
+in the bright moonlight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The honest man immediately remembered the fearful story told in the
+kitchen of Bois-de-Chênes, and he felt afraid; but quite another
+feeling came over him when behind the fool, at fifteen or twenty paces,
+he beheld, stealthily approaching in their turn, five gray wolves, two
+big and three smaller ones.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first he took them for dogs, but they were wolves.  They followed
+Yégof step by step, and he did not appear to see them; his raven
+hovered overhead, flitting from the full moonlight to the shadow of the
+rocks, and then returning; the wolves, with flaming eyes, their sharp
+muzzles turned up, were sniffing the air; the fool raised his sceptre.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The shepherd pulled-to the door of the shed as quick as lightning, but
+Yégof did not see him.  He advanced into the gorge as into a spacious
+chamber, to the right and left rose the steep rocks, above which
+myriads of stars were shining.  You might have heard a fly move; the
+wolves made no noise in walking; all was silent, and the raven had just
+perched on the top of an old withered oak that grew upon one of the
+rocks opposite; his shining plumage looked still darker than usual, as
+he turned his head, and seemed to be listening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a strange sight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Robin said to himself:&mdash;"The fool sees nothing, hears nothing; they
+will devour him.  If he stumbles, if his foot slips, it is all over
+with him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But in the middle of the gorge, Yégof, having turned round, sat down
+upon a stone, and the five wolves round him, still sniffing the air,
+squatted on their haunches in the snow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then, a really terrible sight&mdash;the fool raising his sceptre, made
+them a speech, calling them each by his name.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wolves answered him with dismal howls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now this is what he said to them:&mdash;"Hé, Child, Bléd, Merweg, and thou,
+Sirimar, my ancient, we are met together, then, once again!  You have
+returned fat.  There has been good cheer in Germany, eh?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, pointing to the snow-covered gorge:&mdash;"You remember the great
+battle?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+First one of the wolves began to howl slowly in a dismal voice, then
+another, then all the five together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This lasted a good ten minutes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The raven, perched on the withered branch, did not stir.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Robin would gladly have fled.  He put up his prayers, invoked all the
+saints, and, in particular, his own patron, for whom all the shepherds
+of the mountain have the highest veneration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the wolves still continued howling, awakening all the echoes of the
+Blutfeld.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last one, the oldest of the number, was silent, then another, then
+all, and Yégof continued:&mdash;"Yes, yes: that is a dismal story.  Look!
+there is the river down which our blood flowed in streams!  No matter,
+Merweg, no matter; the others have left their bones to whiten on the
+common, and the cold moon has seen their women tearing their hair for
+three days and three nights!  Oh, that frightful day!  Oh, the dogs!
+were they proud of their great victory?  Let them be
+accursed&mdash;accursed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fool had cast his crown to the ground.  He now picked it up,
+groaning as he did so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wolves, still crouching round, listened to him like attentive
+spectators.  The biggest among them began to howl, and Yégof answered
+his complaint.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are hungry, Sirimar; take comfort, take comfort; you will not want
+for food much longer; the men of our side are coming, and the strife
+will begin afresh."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then rising, and striking his sceptre on a stone, "See," said he,
+"behold thy bones!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He approached another.  "And thine, Merweg, behold them!" said he.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the troop followed him, while he, raising himself upon a low rock,
+and glancing round upon the silent gorge, exclaimed:&mdash;"Our war-song is
+silent! our war-song is now a groan!  The hour is near; it will
+reawaken, and you will be among the warriors; you will possess once
+more these valleys and these mountains.  Oh! that sound of wheels,
+those cries of women, those blows from crushing rocks and stones; I
+hear them; the air is full of them.  Yes, yes; they fell on us from
+above, and we were surrounded.  And now all is dead; hear!  all is
+dead; your bones sleep, but your children are on their way, and your
+turn will come.  Sing! sing!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And this time he himself began to howl, while the wolves took up again
+their savage song.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These dismal howls grew more and more loud and appalling; and the
+silence of the rocks around, some plunged in darkness, while others
+were fully revealed in the moon's rays, the solemn stillness of every
+tree and shrub beneath its weight of snow, the distant echoes replying
+with a sad voice to the mournful concert, all were calculated to strike
+terror into the breast of the old shepherd.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But by degrees his fears grew less, for Yégof and his gloomy procession
+were getting farther and farther away from him, and gradually
+retreating toward Hazlach.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The raven, in his turn, with a hoarse cry unfurled his wings, and took
+his flight through the sky.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The whole scene vanished like a dream.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Robin heard for a long while after the howlings of the retreating
+wolves.  They had completely ceased for more than twenty minutes.  The
+silence of winter reigned on all sides, when the worthy man felt
+himself sufficiently recovered from his fright to come out of his
+hiding-place, and take his way back at full speed to the farm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On arriving at Bois-de-Chênes, he found everybody stirring.  They were
+preparing to kill an ox for the troops from the Donon.  Hullin, Doctor
+Lorquin, and Louise were already set out with those from the Sarre.
+Catherine Lefèvre was loading her great four-horse wagon with bread,
+meat, and brandy.  People were coming and going in all directions, and
+all lending a helping hand in the preparations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Robin could not bring himself to relate to any one all that he had seen
+and heard.  Besides, it seemed to himself so incredible that he really
+dared not open his mouth about it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he had retired to rest in his crib in the middle of the stable, he
+said to himself that no doubt Yégof had, during the winter, tamed a
+litter of young wolves, and that he talked nonsense to them just as one
+talks sometimes to one's dog.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But, for all that, this strange encounter left a superstitious dread
+upon his mind, and even when he had arrived at a great age, the old
+fellow never spoke of these things without shuddering.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+A RECONNOISSANCE
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Hullin's orders had all been carried out; the defiles of the Zorne and
+of the Sarre were well guarded; while that of Blanru, the extreme point
+of the position, had been put into a state of defence by Jean-Claude
+himself and the three hundred men who composed his principal force.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We must now transport ourselves to the southern slopes of the Donon,
+two kilomètres from Grandfontaine, and await further events.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Above the high-road which winds round the hillside up to within
+two-thirds of the summit, was a farm, surrounded with a few acres of
+tilled land, the freehold of Pelsly the anabaptist: it was a large
+building with a flat roof, much needed, so as to prevent its being
+blown away by the high winds.  The out-houses and pigsties were
+situated at the back, toward the summit of the mountain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The partisans were encamped near: at their feet lay Grandfontaine and
+Framont; in a narrow gorge farther on, at the point where the valley
+takes a turn, rose Schirmeck and its old mass of feudal ruins; lastly,
+among the undulations of the chain, the Bruche disappears in a zigzag,
+under the grayish mists of Alsace.  To their left arose the arid peak
+of the Donon, covered with rocks and a few stunted pines.  Before them
+was the rugged road, its shelving banks thrown down over the snow, and
+great trees flung across it with all their branches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The melting snow let the yellow soil be seen in patches here and there,
+or else formed great drifts, heaped up by the north wind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a grand and severe spectacle.  Not a single traveller, not a
+carriage appeared along the whole length of the road in the valley,
+winding as far as the eye can reach: it was like a desert.  The fires
+scattered round the farm-house sent up their puffs of damp smoke to the
+sky, and alone indicated the position of the bivouac.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mountaineers, seated by their kettles, with their hats slouched
+over their faces, were very melancholy: three days they had been
+awaiting the enemy.  Among one of the groups, sitting with their legs
+doubled up, bent shoulders, and pipes in their mouths were old Materne
+and his two sons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From time to time Louise appeared on the step of the farm, then quickly
+re-entered, and set herself again to her work.  A great cock was
+scratching up the manure with his claws, and crowing hoarsely; two or
+three fowls were strutting up and down among the bushes.  All that was
+pleasant to look upon; but the chief pleasure of the partisans was to
+contemplate some magnificent quarters of bacon, with red-and-white
+sides, which were spitted on greenwood sticks, the fat melting drop by
+drop on to the small coals&mdash;and to fill their flasks at a small cask of
+brandy placed on Catherine Lefèvre's cart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toward eight o'clock in the morning a man suddenly appeared between the
+great and little Donon; the sentinels perceived him at once; he
+descended, waving his hat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few minutes later Nickel Bentz, the old forest-keeper of the Houpe,
+was recognized.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The whole camp was roused; they ran to awaken Hullin, who had been
+sleeping for an hour in the farm-house, on a great straw mattress, side
+by side with Doctor Lorquin and his dog Pluto.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The three came out, accompanied by the herdsman Lagarmitte, nicknamed
+Trumpet, and the anabaptist Pelsly&mdash;a silent man, having his arms
+buried to the elbows in the deep pockets of his gray woollen tunic
+trimmed with pewter clasps, with an immense beard, and the tassel of
+his cotton cap half way down his back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude seemed light-hearted.  "Well, Nickel, what is going on down
+there?" cried he.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"At present, nothing new, Master Jean-Claude; only on the Phalsbourg
+side one hears something like the rumbling of a storm.  Labarbe says
+that it is cannon, for all night we have seen flashes through the
+forest of Hildehouse, and since the morning gray clouds have been
+spreading over the plain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The town is attacked," said Hullin; "but what about the Lutzelstein
+side?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One can hear nothing," replied Bentz.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then the enemy is trying to turn the place.  In any case, the allies
+are down there: there must be hosts of them in Alsace."  And turning
+toward Materne, who was standing behind him, "We cannot remain any
+longer in uncertainty," said he; "thou, with thy two sons, go on a
+reconnoissance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old hunter's face brightened.  "So be it!  I can stretch my legs a
+little," said he, "and see if I can't knock over one of those rascally
+Austrians or Cossacks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stop an instant, my old fellow! it is not now a question of knocking
+anybody over; we want to see what is going on.  Frantz and Kasper will
+remain armed; but I know thee: thou must leave thy carbine here, thy
+powder-flask, and thy hunting-knife."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What for?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Because thou wilt have to go into the villages, and if thou art taken
+in arms, thou wilt be shot directly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shot?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly.  We do not belong to the regular troops; they do not take
+us prisoners; they shoot us.  Thou wilt follow, then, the road to
+Schirmeck, stick in hand, and thy sons will accompany thee at a
+distance, in the underwood, within musket-range.  If any marauders
+attack thee, they will come to thy rescue; if it is a column, or a
+handful of troops, they must allow thee to be taken."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are to let me be taken!" cried the old hunter, indignantly.  "I
+should like to see that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Materne; it will be the best plan: for an unarmed man would be
+released, an armed shot.  I do not need to tell thee not to sing out to
+the Germans that thou art come to spy upon them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, ah!  I comprehend.  Yes, yes, that is not badly planned.  As for
+me, I never quit my gun, Jean-Claude, but war is war.  Hold! there is
+my carbine, and my powder-flask, and my knife.  Who will lend me his
+blouse and his stick?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nickel Bentz handed him his blue blouse and his cap.  They were
+surrounded by an admiring crowd.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After he had changed his clothes, notwithstanding his large gray
+mustaches, one would have taken the old hunter for a simple peasant
+from the high mountains.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His two sons, proud to be of this first expedition, looked to the
+priming of their muskets, and fixed to the end of the barrel a
+boar-spear, straight and long as a sword.  They felt their
+hunting-knives, flung their bags upon their backs, and confident that
+all was in order, they glanced proudly round them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah," said Doctor Lorquin, laughing, "do not forget Master
+Jean-Claude's advice.  Be careful.  One German more or less in a
+hundred thousand would not make much difference in our affairs; whereas
+if one or the other of you came back to us injured, you would be
+replaced with difficulty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, fear nothing, doctor: we shall have our eyes open."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My boys," replied Materne, haughtily, "are true hunters; they know how
+to wait the moment and profit by it.  They will only fire when I call.
+You can rest assured! and now, let us start; we must be back before
+night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They departed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good luck to you!" shouted Hullin, while they mounted the snow in
+order to avoid the breastworks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They soon descended toward the narrow path, which turns sharply on the
+right of the mountain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The partisans watched them.  Their red frizzy hair, long muscular legs,
+their broad shoulders, and supple, quick movements,&mdash;all showed that in
+case of an encounter, five or six "kaiserlichs" would have little
+chance against such fine fellows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a quarter of an hour they had reached the pine-forest and
+disappeared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Hullin quietly returned to the farm, talking to Nickel Bentz.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Doctor Lorquin walked behind, followed by Pluto, and all the others
+returned to their places round the bivouac fires.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE LANDLORD OF THE "PINEAPPLE"
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Materne and his two boys walked for some time in silence.  The weather
+had become fine; the pale winter sun shone over the brilliant snow
+without melting it, and the ground remained firm and hard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the distance, along the valley, stood out, with surprising
+clearness, the tops of the fir-trees, the reddish peaks of the rocks,
+the roofs of the hamlets, with their icy stalactites hanging from the
+eaves, their small sparkling windows, and sharp gables.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+People were walking in the street of Grandfontaine.  A troupe of young
+girls were standing round the washing-place; a few old men in cotton
+caps were smoking their pipes on the doorsteps of the little houses.
+All this little world, lying in the depths of the blue expanse, came,
+and went, and lived, without a sound or sigh reaching the ears of the
+foresters.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old hunter halted on the outskirts of the wood, and said to his
+sons: "I am going down to the village to see Dubreuil, the innkeeper of
+the 'Pineapple.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And he pointed with his stick to a long white building, the doors and
+windows of which were surrounded with a yellow bordering, a pine-branch
+being suspended to the wall as a signboard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must await me here.  If there is no danger, I will come out on to
+the doorstep and raise my hat; you can then come and take a glass of
+wine with me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He immediately descended the snowy slopes to the little gardens lying
+above Grandfontaine, which took about ten minutes; he then made his way
+between two furrows, reached the meadow, and crossed the village
+square: his two sons, with their arms at their feet, saw him enter the
+inn.  A few seconds after he reappeared on the doorstep and raised his
+hat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fifteen minutes later they had rejoined their father in the great room
+of the "Pineapple."  It was a rather low room with a sanded floor, and
+heated by a large iron stove.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Excepting the innkeeper Dubreuil, the biggest and most apoplectic
+landlord in the Vosges, with immense paunch, round eyes, flat nose, a
+wart on his left cheek, and a triple chin reaching over his
+collar&mdash;with the exception of this curious individual, seated near the
+stove in a leather arm-chair, Materne was alone.  He had just filled
+the glasses.  The clock was striking nine, and its wooden cock flapped
+its wing with a peculiar scraping sound.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-day, Father Dubreuil," said the two youths in a gruff voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-day, my brave fellows," replied the innkeeper, trying to smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, in an oily voice, he asked them, "Nothing new?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Faith, no!" replied Kasper; "here is winter, the time for hunting
+boars."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And they both, putting their carbines in the corner of the window,
+within reach, in case of attack, passed one leg across the bench, and
+sat down, facing their father, who was at the head of the table.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same time they drank, saying, "To our healths!" which they were
+always very careful to do.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thus," said Materne, turning to the fat man, as though taking up the
+threads of an interrupted conversation, "you think, Father Dubreuil,
+that we have nothing to fear from the wood of Baronies, and that we may
+hunt boar peaceably?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, as to that, I know nothing!" exclaimed the innkeeper; "only at
+present the allies have not passed Mutzig.  Besides, they harm no one;
+they receive all well-disposed people to fight against the usurper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The usurper?  Who is he?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, Napoleon Bonaparte, the usurper, to be sure.  Just look at the
+wall."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He pointed to a great placard stuck on the wall, near the clock.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look at that, and you will see that the Austrians are our true
+friends."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Old Materne's eyebrows nearly met, but, repressing his feelings, "Oh,
+ah!" said he.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, read that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I do not know how to read, Monsieur Dubreuil, nor my boys either.
+Explain to us what it is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the old innkeeper, leaning with his hands on the arms of his
+chair, arose, breathing like a calf, and placed himself in front of the
+placard, with his arms folded on his enormous paunch; and in a majestic
+tone he read a proclamation from the allied sovereigns, declaring "that
+they made war on Napoleon personally, and not on France.  Therefore
+everybody ought to keep quiet and not meddle in their affairs, under
+pain of being burnt, pillaged, and shot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The three hunters listened, and looked at each other with a strange air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Dubreuil had finished, he reseated himself and said, "Now do you
+see?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And where did you get that?" demanded Kasper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That, my boy, is put up everywhere!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, we are pleased with that," said Materne, laying his hand on
+Frantz's arm, who had risen with sparkling eyes.  "Dost thou want a
+light, Frantz?  Here is my flint."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz sat down again, and the old man continued, good-naturedly: "And
+our good friends the Germans take nothing from any one?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quiet, orderly people have nothing to fear; but as to the rascals who
+rise, all is taken from them.  And it is just&mdash;the good ought not to
+suffer for the wicked.  For example, instead of doing you any harm, the
+allies would receive you well at their head-quarters.  You know the
+country: you would serve as guides, and you would be richly paid."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a slight pause.  The three hunters again looked at each
+other: the father had spread his hands on the table, as though to
+recommend calm to his sons; but even he was very pale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The innkeeper, observing nothing, continued: "You would have much more
+to fear in the woods of Baronies from those brigands of Dagsburg,
+Sarre, and Blanru, who have all revolted, and wish to have '93 over
+again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you sure of that?" demanded Materne, making an effort to control
+himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Am I sure!  You have only to look out of the window and you will see
+them on the road to the Donon.  They have surprised the anabaptist
+Pelsly, and bound him to the foot of his bed.  They pillage, rob, break
+up the roads.  But beware!  In a few days they will see strange things.
+It is not with a thousand men that they will be attacked, not with ten
+thousand, but with millions.  They will all be hung."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne rose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is time for us to be going," said he briefly.  "At two o'clock we
+must be at the wood, and here we are talking quietly like magpies!  Au
+revoir, Father Dubreuil."  They rushed out hastily, no longer able to
+contain their passion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Think of what I have said," cried the innkeeper to them from his chair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once in the open air, Materne, turning round, said, with trembling
+lips: "If I had not restrained myself, I should have broken the bottle
+on his head."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I," said Frantz, "should have run him through with my bayonet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kasper, one foot on the step, seemed about to re-enter the inn; he
+grasped the handle of his hunting-knife, and his face bore a terrible
+expression.  But his father took him by the arm and dragged him off,
+saying: "Come, come, we will deal with him later on.  To counsel me to
+betray the country!  Hullin told us to be on our guard: he was right."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They went down the street, looking to the right and left with haggard
+eyes.  The people asked among themselves: What is the matter with them?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On reaching the end of the village, they halted, in front of the old
+cross, close to the church, and Materne in a calmer tone, pointing out
+the path which winds round Phramond over the heath, said to his sons:
+"You must take that road.  I shall follow the route to Schirmeck.  I
+shall not go too fast, so that you may have time to come up with me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They parted, and the old hunter, with bowed head, walked on
+thoughtfully for a long time, asking himself by what inward strength he
+had been able to keep from breaking the fat innkeeper's head.  He said
+to himself that no doubt it was from fear of compromising his sons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While thinking over these things, Materne kept continually meeting
+herds of cattle, sheep and goats, which were being led into the
+mountain.  Some came from Wisch, Urmatt, and even from Mutzig; the poor
+beasts could scarcely stand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where the devil are you running so fast?" shouted the old hunter to
+the melancholy herdsmen.  "Have you then no confidence in the
+proclamation of the Austrians and Russians?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And they angrily answered: "It is easy for you to laugh.
+Proclamations! we know what they are worth now.  They pillage and rob
+everything, make forced contributions, carry off the horses, cows,
+oxen, and carts."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nonsense! impossible!  What are you talking about?" said Materne.
+"You astound me!  Such worthy people, such good friends, the saviours
+of France.  I cannot believe you.  Such a beautiful proclamation as it
+was."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, go down to Alsace, and you will see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poor creatures went on, shaking their heads in extreme indignation,
+and he laughed slyly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The farther Materne advanced, the number of herds became greater.
+There were not only troops of cattle bellowing and lowing, but flocks
+of geese, as far as the eye could reach, screeching and cackling,
+dragging themselves along the road with wings spread and half-frozen
+feet: it was piteous to see.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was worse still on approaching Schirmeck.  The people were flying in
+crowds, with their great wagons loaded with barrels, smoked meats,
+furniture, women and children.  They were lashing their horses almost
+to death on the road, and screaming in terrified voices: "We are lost;
+the Cossacks are coming."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The cry of "The Cossacks! the Cossacks!" ran along the whole line like
+a puff of wind; the women turned round open-mouthed, and the children
+stood up on the wagons to get a better view.  You never beheld anything
+like it before; and Materne, angered, blushed for the terror of these
+people, who might have defended themselves; while selfishness and their
+desire to save their property, made them fly like cowards.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the crossing of the Fond-des-Saules quite close to Schirmeck, Kasper
+and Frantz rejoined their father, and the three entered the "Golden
+Key" tavern, kept by the Widow Faltaux, on the right side of the road.
+The poor woman and her two daughters were watching from a window the
+great migration with streaming eyes and clasped hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In fact, the tumult increased every minute; the cattle, wagons, and
+people seemed eager to get away over each other's shoulders.  They no
+longer had any command of themselves: they were howling and striking
+about them in their desire to escape.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne pushed the door open, and seeing the women more dead than
+alive, white and dishevelled, he shouted, striking his stick on the
+ground: "What, mother, have you too gone mad?  What! you, who owe a
+good example to your daughters,&mdash;have you lost courage?  it is a shame."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old woman turned round and said in a broken voice: "Ah, my poor
+Materne, if you only knew&mdash;if you only knew!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, what then?  The enemy is coming: they won't eat you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; but they devour everything without mercy.  Old Ursula, of
+Schlestadt, came here yesterday evening.  She says that the Austrians
+only want 'Knöpfe' and 'Nudel,' the Russians 'Schnapps,' and the
+Bavarians 'Sauerkraut.'  And when they have stuffed all that down their
+throats, they cry out with their mouths still full, 'Schocolat!
+schocolat!'  O Lord, how can we feed all these people?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know well that is difficult," said the old hunter: "you can never
+satisfy a jay with white cheese.  But, first of all, where are these
+Cossacks, these Bavarians, these Austrians?  All the way from
+Grandfontaine we have not met even one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are in Alsace, on the Urmatt side, and they are coming here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"While waiting for them," said Kasper, "give us a bottle of wine.  Here
+is a three-crown piece: you will hide it easier than your barrels."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One of the girls went to the cellar, and, at the same time, several
+other persons entered: an almanac-seller from Strasbourg, a wagoner
+from Sarrebrück in a blouse, and two or three townspeople from Hutzig,
+Wisch, and Schirmeck, who were flying with their herds, and were
+exhausted with shouting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All sat down at the same table, before the windows overlooking the
+road.  Wine was served them, and each began to relate what he knew.
+One said the allies were in such numbers that they had to sleep side by
+side in the valley of Hirschenthal, and they were so covered with
+vermin that, after their departure, the dead leaves walked of
+themselves in the woods; another, that the Cossacks had set fire to a
+village in Alsace, because they had been refused candles for dessert
+after dinner; that some of them, especially the Calmucks, ate soap like
+cheese and bacon-rind like cake; that many drank brandy by the pint,
+after having taken care to season it with handfuls of pepper; and that
+it was necessary to hide everything from them, for nothing came amiss
+to them for eating and drinking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wagoner said, at this point, that three days before, a Russian
+corps-d'armée having passed the night under the ramparts of Bitsch, it
+had been compelled to remain more than an hour on the ice in the little
+village of Rorbach, and that the whole of this army corps had drunk out
+of a warming-pan left on the window-sill of an old woman's house; that
+this race of savages broke the ice to bathe, and afterward crept into
+the brick-kilns to dry; lastly, that they only feared Corporal Knout.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These worthy folks communicated such singular things to each other,
+which they pretended to have seen with their own eyes, or heard from
+trustworthy sources, that one could with difficulty believe them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Outside, the tumult, rolling of wagons, lowing of herds, shouts of the
+drivers, and clamors of the fugitives, continued unceasingly, and
+produced the effect of a vast murmur.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toward noon Materne and his sons were going to leave, when a more
+prolonged shout than any of the others was heard: "The Cossacks! the
+Cossacks!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then everybody rushed outside, except the hunters, who contented
+themselves with opening a window and looking out: they all ran away
+across the fields: men, herds, wagons and all, were dispersed like
+leaves in autumn.  In less than two minutes the road was deserted,
+except in Schirmeck, which was so encumbered, that it would have been
+impossible to walk four steps.  Materne, gazing far away along the
+road, cried, "I look in vain&mdash;I can see nothing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nor do I," rejoined Kasper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come, come," cried the old hunter, "I see clearly that the fear of all
+these people gives more strength to the enemy than he in fact
+possesses.  It is not in such a way we shall receive the Cossacks in
+the mountains; they will find who they have to deal with."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, shrugging his shoulders with an expression of disgust, he said:
+"Fear is an odious thing, and after all we have only one poor life to
+lose.  Let us go."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They quitted the inn, and the old man having taken the road to the
+valley, in order to climb the summit of the Hirschberg in front of
+them, his sons followed him.  They soon reached the outskirts of the
+wood, when Materne said that they must mount as high as possible, so as
+to see the whole plain, and bring back some positive news to the
+bivouac; that all the accounts of those cowards were not worth one good
+look by themselves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kasper and Frantz agreed, and all three began to climb the slope, which
+forms a sort of advanced promontory commanding the plain.  When they
+reached the peak they distinctly saw the enemy's position, three
+leagues distant, between Urmatt and Lutzelhouse.  They formed great
+black lines on the snow: farther off were a few dark masses&mdash;no doubt,
+the artillery and baggage.  Other masses surrounded the villages, and,
+notwithstanding the distance, the sparkling of the bayonets announced
+that a column had just commenced marching toward Visch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After having contemplated this spectacle in silence for some minutes,
+the old man said, "We have decidedly thirty thousand men under our
+eyes.  They are advancing in our direction; we shall be attacked
+to-morrow, or the day after at the latest.  It will not be a trumpery
+affair, my boys; but if they are numerous we have the best of the
+position.  And then it is always agreeable to fire into a heap; there
+are no balls lost."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having made these judicious reflections, he looked at the height of the
+sun, and added: "It is now two o'clock; we know all we want.  Let us
+return to the bivouac."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The youths slung their carbines crossways, and leaving to their left
+the valley of the Brocque, Schirmeck, and Framont, they climbed the
+steep banks of the Hengsbach, which overlook the Little Donon&mdash;two
+leagues distant&mdash;and came down again on the other side, without
+following any regular path through the snow, and only guiding
+themselves by the peaks in order to take a short cut.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They continued thus for about two hours: the winter sun was going down
+to the horizon, night was approaching, bright and calm.  They had now
+only to descend, and then mount, on the other side, the solitary gorge
+of Kiel, forming a large circular basin in the midst of the woods, and
+enclosing a bluish pond, where the deer came sometimes to quench their
+thirst.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly, as they were coming out from the underwood, not dreaming of
+anything, the old man, stopping behind a thick screen of shrubs, said
+"Chut!" and lifting his hand, pointed to the little lake, which was
+covered with thin clear ice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two young fellows needed only to glance toward it to be greeted by
+a most strange sight.  About twenty Cossacks, with yellow shaggy
+beards, heads covered with old fur caps in the shape of stove-pipes,
+their lean legs draped in long rags, and their feet in rope stirrups,
+were seated on their little horses, with long floating manes and thin
+tails, their bodies speckled yellow, black and white, like goats.  Some
+had for their only weapon a long lance, others a sword, others an axe
+suspended by a cord to their saddle, and a large horse-pistol passed
+through their belts.  Several were looking upward with ecstasy on the
+green tops of the pines, rising by stages above each other into the
+clouds.  One great lanky fellow had broken the ice with the butt-end of
+his lance; and his little horse was drinking with outstretched neck and
+overhanging mane.  A few having dismounted, were clearing the snow and
+pointing to the wood&mdash;no doubt to indicate that it was a good place for
+encamping.  Their comrades on horseback were conversing and pointing to
+the bottom of the valley on their right, which descends in the form of
+a gap toward Grinderwald.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anyway it was a halt.  It is impossible to describe the strange and
+picturesque aspect of these fellows from a strange country, with their
+copper-colored faces, long beards, black eyes, flat heads, squat noses,
+and grayish tatters, on the banks of this lake, under the lofty
+perpendicular rocks lifting up their green pines to the skies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It seemed a new world in ours,&mdash;a sort of unknown and strange game,
+which the three red hunters at first contemplated with intense
+interest.  Having remained so for about five minutes, Kasper and Frantz
+fixed their long bayonets at the muzzle of their carbines, and then
+retired about twenty paces into the underwood.  They reached a rock,
+fifteen or twenty feet high, which Materne climbed, having no arms;
+then, after a few words exchanged in whispers, Kasper examined his
+priming and raised his musket slowly to his shoulder, while his brother
+stood by in readiness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One of the Cossacks&mdash;he who was letting his horse drink&mdash;was about two
+hundred paces from them.  The gun went off, awakening the deep echoes
+of the gorge; and the Cossack, spinning over his horse's head, plunged
+through the ice of the lake.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is impossible to describe the stupor of the party at this report.
+They looked round them in every direction: the echo replied as though
+it had been a general fusillade; while a puff of smoke rose above the
+clump of trees where the hunters were hiding.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kasper had reloaded his piece in a moment; but in the same space of
+time the dismounted Cossacks had bounded on their horses, and all took
+flight over the slope of the Hartz, one after the other, like roebucks,
+screaming wildly, "Hourah! hourah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This flight was but the work of a moment: the instant Kasper took aim
+for the second time, the tail of the last horse disappeared in the
+bushes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The horse of the dead Cossack alone remained at the water's edge, held
+there by a singular circumstance: his master, whose head and part of
+whose body was in the water, had his foot still in the stirrup.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne listened from his rock, then said joyously&mdash;"They are gone!
+Well, let us go and see.  Frantz, remain here.  Suppose any of them
+should return&mdash;&mdash;?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Notwithstanding this recommendation, they all three approached near the
+horse.  Materne immediately took the bridle, saying:&mdash;"Come, old
+fellow, we are going to teach you to speak French."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us be off," exclaimed Kasper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, we must see what we have shot.  Don't you see that will be good
+for our comrades?  Dogs who have not sniffed the skin of the game are
+never well trained."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whereupon they fished the Cossack out of the pool, and having placed
+him across the horse, began to climb the side of the Donon by such a
+steep path, that Materne repeated, a hundred times at least,&mdash;"The
+horse will never go up there."  But the horse, with its long goat-like
+legs, passed more easily than they did; so that the old hunter wound up
+by remarking&mdash;"These Cossacks have famous horses.  If ever I grow old,
+I will keep him to go after the deer with.  We have a famous horse, my
+boys; with all his look of a cow, he is strong as a cart-horse."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From time to time he also made reflections on the Cossack:&mdash;"What a
+queer face, eh!  A round nose and a forehead like a cheese-box.  There
+are certainly queer folks in the world!  Thou hast hit him well,
+Kasper; right in the middle of the chest.  And look! the ball came out
+at the back.  Capital powder!  Divès always keeps good articles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toward six they heard the first shout of their sentinels: "Who goes
+there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"France," replied Materne, advancing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody ran to meet them.  "Here is Materne!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin himself was as curious as the rest, and could not help hastening
+toward them with Doctor Lorquin.  The partisans were soon collected
+round the horse, with outstretched necks and open mouths, by the side
+of a large fire where the supper was cooking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a Cossack," said Hullin, squeezing Materne's hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Jean-Claude; we caught him at the pond of Kiel: it was Kasper who
+shot him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They stretched the corpse out near the fire.  His yellow face had
+strange shadows on it in the firelight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Doctor Lorquin, having looked at him, said: "It is a fine specimen of
+the Tartar race; if I had time, I should put it in a lime-bath, so as
+to obtain a skeleton of this tribe."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He then knelt down, and opening the long tunic,&mdash;"The ball has
+traversed the pericardium, and has produced almost the same effect as
+aneurism of the heart."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The others kept silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kasper, with his hand on the muzzle of his rifle, seemed quite
+contented with his game; and old Materne, rubbing his hands, said: "I
+was sure I would bring you back something: my boys and I never return
+empty-handed.  There now!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin then pulled him aside.  They entered the farm together, and
+after the first surprise was over, every man began to make his own
+personal reflections on the Cossack.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+ROUND THE WATCHFIRES
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+That night, which was on a Friday, the anabaptist's little farm-house
+never ceased for an instant to be filled with people coming in and
+going out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin had established his head-quarters in the large room on the
+ground floor, to the right of the barn, facing Framont: on the other
+side of the passage was the ambulance: the upper part was inhabited by
+the farm people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Although the night was very still and the stars were shining in
+myriads, the cold was so intense that there was nearly an inch of ice
+on the panes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Outside, one could hear the challenge of the sentinel, the passing of
+the patrols, and, on the surrounding peaks, the howling of the wolves,
+who followed our armies in hundreds since 1812.  These wild beasts
+crouched on the ice, their sharp muzzles between their paws, with
+hunger at their entrails, calling each other, from the Grosmann to the
+Donon, with moaning sounds like that of the north wind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It made more than one mountaineer grow pale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is Death who calls," thought they; "he scents the battle, he
+summons us!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The oxen lowed in the stables, and the horses gave frightful neighs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About thirty fires blazed on the plateau; all the anabaptist's wood was
+taken; fagots were heaped one upon another.  Their faces were scorched,
+and their backs frozen; they warmed their backs, and the ice hung from
+their mustaches.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, alone, before the great pinewood table, was taking thought for
+all.  According to the latest tidings of the evening, announcing the
+arrival of the Cossacks at Framont, he was convinced that the first
+attack would take place the next day.  He had distributed cartridges,
+doubled the sentries, appointed patrols, and marked all the posts along
+the outworks.  Every one knew beforehand what place he was to occupy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin had also sent orders to Piorette, Jérome of St. Quirin, and
+Labarbe, to send him their best marksmen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little dark pathway, lit by a dim lantern, was full of snow, and
+passing under the immovable light every instant one could see the
+chiefs of the ambush, with their hats pressed down to their ears, the
+ample sleeves of their great-coats pulled down over their wrists, with
+their dark eyes and beards stiffened with ice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pluto no longer growled at the heavy step of these men.  Hullin, with
+his head between his hands and his elbows on the table, listened
+thoughtfully to all their reports:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Master Jean-Claude, there is a movement in the direction of
+Grandfontaine; and the sounds of galloping are distinguishable."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Master Jean-Claude, the brandy is frozen."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Master Jean-Claude, many of the men are in want of powder."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are in want of this: they are in want of that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let some one be sent to watch Grandfontaine, and let the sentries on
+that side be changed every half-hour."  "Let the brandy be brought to
+the fire."  "Wait until Divès comes: he brings us ammunition.  Let the
+remainder of the cartridges be distributed.  Let those who have more
+than twenty give some to their comrades."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And so it went on all the night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At five in the morning, Kasper, Materne's son, came to tell Hullin that
+Marc Divès, with a load of cartridges, Catherine Lefèvre on a cart, and
+a detachment from Labarbe, had just arrived together, and that they
+were already on the plateau.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The tidings pleased him, especially on account of the cartridges, for
+he had feared delay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He immediately rose and went out with Kasper.  The plateau presented a
+curious spectacle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the approach of day, clouds of mist began to rise from the valley,
+the fires hissed with the damp, and all around could be seen sleeping
+men: one stretched on his back, with his arms thrown under his hat, a
+blue face, and doubled-up legs; another with his cheek on his arm and
+his back to the fire; the greater number seated, with bent heads and
+their muskets slung across their shoulders.  All was silent, wrapped in
+purple light or gray tints, just as the fire blazed or smouldered.
+Then, in the distance, could be discerned the profile of the sentinels,
+with their muskets across their arms or clubbed upon the ground, gazing
+into the cloud-filled abyss beneath them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To the right, fifty paces from the last fire, could be heard the
+neighing of horses, and people stamping with their feet to warm
+themselves, and talking aloud.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Master Jean-Claude is coming," said Kasper, going toward them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One of the partisans having thrown a few sticks of dry wood on to the
+fire, there was a bright blaze; and Marc Divès's men on horseback,
+twelve tall fellows, wrapped in their long gray cloaks, their felts
+slouched back over their shoulders, with their long mustaches either
+turned up or falling down to their necks, their sabres in their grasp,
+stood motionless round the load of cartridges.  Farther on Catherine
+Lefèvre crouched down in her cart, her hood over her face, her feet in
+the straw, her back against a large barrel.  Behind her was a caldron,
+a gridiron, a fresh-killed pig, scalded all white and red, with some
+strings of onions and cabbages for making soup.  All stood out of the
+darkness for a second, and then relapsed into night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Divès, having quitted the convoy, advanced on his powerful horse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it you, Jean-Claude?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Marc."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have some few thousand cartridges there.  Hexe-Baizel is working day
+and night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, old fellow.  And Catherine Lefèvre brings provisions as well; she
+killed yesterday."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right, Marc: we shall want all that.  The battle is impending."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes, I thought so; we came quickly.  Where is the powder to be
+put?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There, under the cart-house behind the farm.  Ah, is that you,
+Catherine?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, Jean-Claude.  It is dreadfully cold this morning!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are always the same.  Have you no fear?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What! should I be a woman if I were not curious?  I must poke my nose
+everywhere."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, you always make excuses for the fine and noble things you do."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hullin, you are wearisome with your repetitions; let me alone with
+your compliments.  Must not all those people eat?  Can they live on air
+in such weather as this?  And is not air fattening on a day so
+cold&mdash;like needles and razors.  So I took my measures.  Yesterday we
+slaughtered an ox&mdash;poor Schwartz, you know&mdash;he weighed a good nine
+hundred.  I have brought his hind-quarters for this morning's soup."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Catherine, it is in vain I have known you so long," cried Jean-Claude,
+quite touched; "you are always astonishing me.  No sacrifice is too
+great for you, neither money, care, nor trouble."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah," replied the old farm-wife, rising and springing from her cart,
+"you tease and worry me, Jean-Claude.  I am going to warm myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gave Dubourg the reins of her horse, and looking back, said,
+"Jean-Claude, those fires are a pleasure to behold.  But where is
+Louise?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Louise spent the night cutting and sewing bandages with Pelsly's two
+daughters.  She is at the ambulance: over there you see, where the
+light is shining."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poor child!" said Catherine, "I will go and help her.  That will warm
+me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin watched her retreating figure, and made a gesture, as though
+saying, "What a woman!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this moment, Divès and his people were carrying the powder into the
+shed, and as Jean-Claude approached the nearest fire, what was his
+surprise to see, among the crowd of partisans, Yégof the madman,
+crowned as usual, gravely seated on a stone, with his feet in the
+ashes, and draped in his rags as though they were a royal mantle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anything more strange than this figure by the fire-light could not be
+imagined.  Yégof was the only one awake of the crowd, and might readily
+have been taken for some barbarian king musing in the midst of his
+sleeping horde.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin only saw in him a madman, and laying his hand softly on his
+shoulder, said, ironically:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I salute thee, Yégof!  Thou art come, then, to lend us the help of thy
+invincible arm and of thy countless armies?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The madman, without showing the least surprise, replied: "That depends
+on thee, Hullin; thy fate, and that of all these people, is in thy
+hands.  I have suspended my anger, and I will allow thee to pronounce
+sentence."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What sentence?" demanded Jean-Claude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other, without replying, continued, in a low solemn voice: "Behold
+us two on the eve of a great battle, as we were sixteen hundred years
+ago.  At that time, I, the chief of so many people, came among thy
+tribe to ask a passage."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sixteen hundred years ago!" said Hullin.  "Zounds!  Yégof, that makes
+us terribly old!  But it is of no consequence&mdash;each to his taste."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," rejoined the madman, "but, with thy usual obstinacy, thou
+wouldst hear nothing.  Men died on the Blutfeld&mdash;men who now call for
+vengeance!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, the Blutfeld!" said Jean-Claude.  "Yes, yes, an old story; I seem
+to have heard it before."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yégof reddened, and his eyes sparkled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thou pridest thyself on thy victory!" cried he; "but take care&mdash;take
+care! blood calls for blood!"  And in a calmer tone, "Listen," he
+added.  "I am not angry with thee.  Thou art brave; the children of thy
+race might mingle with those of mine.  I am anxious for an alliance
+with thee&mdash;thou knowest it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There, he is going to begin about Louise," thought Jean-Claude.  And,
+foreseeing a formal demand, he said: "Yégof, I am sorry, but I must
+leave thee.  I have so much to see after&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The madman did not wait the end of this leave-taking, and rising, with
+his face distorted by indignation, "Thou refusest me thy daughter?"
+cried he, lifting his finger solemnly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will talk of that later on."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thou refusest!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yégof, thy shouts will awaken every one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thou refusest, and it is for the third time!  Beware! beware!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, despairing of making him become more reasonable, walked rapidly
+away, but the madman furiously pursued him with these strange words:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Huldrix, woe on thee!  Thy last hour is at hand; the wolves are coming
+to feed upon thy carcass.  All is over.  I let loose the tempests of my
+wrath; and neither to thee nor thine shall mercy, pity, or pardon be
+shown.  Thou hast so willed it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, flinging his rags over his shoulder, the poor wretch went away in
+the direction of the peak of Donon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some of the volunteers, awakened by his cries, looked up drowsily, and
+saw him disappearing in the darkness.  They heard the fluttering of
+wings round the fire; then, as though it were a dream, they turned
+round and fell asleep again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About an hour later, Lagarmitte sounded the <I>reveille</I>; and in a few
+minutes all were on their feet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The chiefs of the ambuscade collected their men: some went toward the
+shed, to obtain cartridges; others filled their gourds with brandy from
+the cask.  All this was done in good order, their chiefs being at the
+head of each body of men; then the several companies disappeared in the
+gray morning light toward the out-posts on the hill-sides.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the sun rose, the plateau was quite deserted, and, with the
+exception of five or six fires which were still burning, there was no
+sign that the partisans were in possession of all the posts on the
+mountain, or in what place they had passed the night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin hurriedly ate a crust and drank a glass of wine with his friends
+Doctor Lorquin and Pelsly the anabaptist.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lagarmitte was with them, for he was not allowed to leave Master
+Jean-Claude all day, and had to transmit his orders in case of need.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+"FORWARD!  FORWARD!"
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+At seven o'clock there was no sign of any movement in the valley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From time to time, Doctor Lorquin opened one of the windows in the
+large room and looked out.  Nothing was stirring; the fires had
+smouldered away; all was still.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In front of the farm, on a bank, about a hundred feet distant, the
+Cossack could be seen who had been killed the previous evening by
+Kasper.  He was white with the frost, and as hard as a stone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the interior, a fire had been made in the great iron stove.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise sat near her father, looking at him with an inexpressible
+affection, as though she feared never to see him again.  Her red eyes
+showed that she had been crying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, though firm, looked not a little moved.  The doctor and the
+anabaptist, both grave and serious, talked over the present position of
+affairs, and Lagarmitte, from behind the stove, listened to them with
+deep interest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are not only right, but it is our duty to defend ourselves," said
+the doctor.  "Our fathers cleared these woods and cultivated them: they
+are our legitimate inheritance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No doubt," returned the anabaptist, sententiously; "but it is written,
+'Thou shalt not kill.  Thou shalt not shed thy brother's blood!'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine Lefèvre, who was in the act of cutting a slice of ham,
+evidently felt impatient at this conversation, and, turning round
+sharply, replied to him: "If that were true, and your religion were
+right, the Germans, Russians, and all these red men might take the
+clothes off our backs.  'Tis fine, that religion of yours; yes, fine,
+for it gives the rogues such an advantage!  It helps them to pillage
+people of substance.  I am sure the allies would wish for us no better
+religion than yours.  Unfortunately, everybody does not care to live
+like sheep.  As for me, Pelsly&mdash;and I say it without wishing to annoy
+you&mdash;I consider it folly to grow rich for the benefit of others.  But,
+after all, you are honest folks; one cannot be angry with you: you have
+been brought up from father to son in the same notions: what the
+grandfather thought, the grandson thinks also.  But we will defend you
+in spite of yourselves; and afterward we will let you tell us of the
+peace eternal.  I am fond of discourses on peace, when I have nothing
+else to do, and when I am thinking after dinner: then it rejoices my
+heart."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After having said this, she turned round and went on carving her ham.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pelsly opened his mouth and eyes, and Doctor Lorquin burst out laughing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then the door opened, and one of the sentries who had been
+stationed on the edge of the plateau, cried out, "Master Jean-Claude,
+come and see.  I believe they are mounting the hill."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is well, Simon; I am coming," said Hullin, rising.  "Louise, kiss
+me.  Have courage, my child.  Do not fear; all will go well."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He pressed her to his breast, her eyes swollen with tears.  She seemed
+more dead than alive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Above all," said the worthy man, addressing Catherine, "let no one go
+outside or near the windows."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he darted out into the road.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All those present turned pale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Master Jean-Claude had reached the verge of the hill, and cast his
+eyes over Grandfontaine and Framont, three thousand mètres below, the
+following sight presented itself to his eyes:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Germans, who had arrived the evening before, a few hours after the
+Cossacks, and had passed the night (about five or six thousand of them)
+in the barns, stables, and sheds, were moving about like ants.  They
+appeared on all sides in bodies of ten, fifteen, and twenty, buckling
+their knapsacks and swords, and fixing their bayonets.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Besides these, the cavalry&mdash;the Uhlans, Cossacks, Hussars&mdash;in green,
+blue, and gray uniforms striped with red and yellow&mdash;with their glazed
+linen and sheepskin caps, colbacks, and helmets&mdash;were saddling their
+horses and hastily rolling up their long cloaks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meanwhile the officers, in their great military cloaks, came down the
+small staircase: some were looking up at the country; others were
+embracing the women on the doorsteps.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Trumpeters, with their hands on their sides, were sounding the
+roll-call at all the corners of the streets, and the drummers
+tightening the cords of their instruments.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In short, through the broad expanse, one could see all their military
+attitudes as they were on the point of starting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few peasants, leaning out of their windows, were watching the scene;
+women were showing themselves at the loopholes of the garrets; and the
+innkeepers were filling the gourds, Corporal Knout watching them
+meanwhile.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-172"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-172.jpg" ALT="BIG DUBREUIL, THE FRIEND OF THE ALLIES." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+BIG DUBREUIL, THE FRIEND OF THE ALLIES.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+Hullin's sight was keen, and nothing escaped him; besides, for years he
+had been accustomed to this sort of thing; but Lagarmitte, who had
+never seen anything like it, was stupefied: "There are great numbers of
+them," he exclaimed, shaking his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah! what does that matter?" said Hullin.  "In my days we exterminated
+three armies of them, of fifty thousand each, in six months; we were
+not one against four.  All that thou seest there would not have been a
+breakfast for us.  And besides, you may be sure, we shall not have to
+kill them all; they will run like hares.  I have seen it before."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After these remarks, he resolved to inspect his men.  "Come on," he
+said to the herdsman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the two made their way behind the abatis, following a trench made
+two days before in the snow, which had been frozen as hard as ice: the
+felled trees in front of it, formed an insurmountable barrier, which
+extended about six hundred mètres.  Below this was the broken-up road.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On coming near, Jean-Claude saw the mountaineers of Dagsburg crouching
+at distances of twenty paces from each, other, in a sort of round nests
+which they had dug out for themselves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All these fine fellows were sitting on their knapsacks, with their
+gourds to their right hand, their felts or foxskin caps drawn down upon
+their heads, and their guns between their knees.  They had only to rise
+to have a clear view of the road fifty feet below, at the foot of a
+slippery descent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude's arrival pleased them much.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ho, Master Hullin, shall we soon begin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, my boys, never fear; before an hour we shall be at it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, so much the better!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, but take care to aim at the breast: do not hurry, and show
+yourselves no more than you can help."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You may rest assured, Master Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He passed on; but everywhere he met with a like reception.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do not forget," said he, "to stop firing when Lagarmitte sounds his
+horn: it would be only powder lost."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coming up to old Materne, who commanded all these men&mdash;numbering about
+two hundred and fifty&mdash;he found him smoking his pipe, his nose fiery
+red, and his beard stiffened with the cold.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"At, it is thou, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I have come to shake your hand."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In good time.  But why are they so slow in coming&mdash;tell me that?  Are
+they going to march off in another direction?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't be afraid: they need the road for their artillery and baggage.
+Hark! they are sounding 'to horse.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I have seen already that they are preparing."  Then, chuckling to
+himself: "Thou dost not know, Jean-Claude, what a funny thing I saw, a
+few minutes ago, as I was looking toward Grandfontaine."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What was it, my old friend?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I saw four Germans lay hold of big Dubreuil, the friend of the allies:
+they stretched him on the stone bench by his door, and one great lanky
+fellow gave him I know not how many cuts with a stick across his back.
+Ha, ha, ha, he must have yelled, the old rascal!  I will wager that he
+refused something to his good friends,&mdash;his wine of the year XI. for
+instance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin heard no more: for, casting his eyes accidentally down the
+valley, he caught sight of an infantry regiment coming up the road.
+Farther back in the street, cavalry were seen coming, five or six
+officers galloping in front of them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, ah! there they come!" cried the old soldier, whose face glowed
+suddenly with an expression of strange energy and enthusiasm.  "At last
+they have made up their minds!"  Then he rushed out of the trench,
+shouting: "Attention, my children!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Passing by, he saw Riffi, the little tailor of Charmes, bending over a
+long musket: the little man had been piling up the snow to give him a
+better position for aiming.  Farther up, he saw the old wood-cutter
+Rochart, his great shoes trimmed with sheepskin: he had taken a gulp at
+his gourd, and was rising deliberately, having his carbine under his
+arm and his cotton cap over his ears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That was all: for in order to command the whole of the action, he had
+to climb almost to the summit of the Donon, where there is a rock.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lagarmitte followed, striding till his long legs looked like stilts.
+Ten minutes after, when they had reached the top of the rock,
+half-breathless, they perceived, fifteen hundred mètres below them, the
+enemy's column, three thousand strong, with white great-coats, leather
+belts, cloth gaiters, tall shakos, and red mustaches; and in the spaces
+formed by the companies, the young officers, with flat caps, waving
+their swords, and shouting in shrill voices: "Forward! forward!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These troops were bristling with bayonets, and advancing at the charge
+toward the breastworks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Old Materne, his beaked nose rising above a juniper branch and his brow
+erect, was also watching the arrival of the Germans; and as he was very
+clear-sighted, he could distinguish even faces among the crowd, and
+choose the man he wished to knock over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the centre of the column, on a large bay horse, an old officer was
+advancing right ahead, with a white wig, a three-cornered hat trimmed
+with gold, his waist encircled with a yellow scarf, and his breast
+decorated with ribbons.  When this personage raised his head, the peak
+of his hat, surmounted by a tuft of black plumes, formed a vizor.  He
+had great wrinkles along his cheeks, and looked sufficiently stern.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is my man!" thought the old hunter, deliberately taking aim.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He fired, and when he looked again the old officer had disappeared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Immediately the whole hill-side became enveloped in fire all along the
+intrenchment; but the Germans, without replying, continued to advance
+toward the breastworks, their guns on their shoulders, and as steadily
+as though on parade.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To tell the truth, more than one brave mountaineer, father of a family,
+seeing this forest of bayonets coming up, and notwithstanding the
+excitement of battle, felt that he would have done better had he
+remained in his village, than to have mixed himself up in such an
+affair.  But, as the proverb says, "The wine was drawn, and it had to
+be drunk."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Riffi, the little tailor, recalled the words of his wife Sapience:
+"Riffi, you will get yourself crippled, and it will serve you right."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He vowed a costly offering to St. Leon's Chapel should he return from
+the war; but at the same time he resolved to make good use of his
+musket.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When they were about two hundred feet from the breastworks, the Germans
+halted and began a rolling fire, such as had never been heard in the
+mountain before.  It was a regular storm of shot: the balls in hundreds
+tore away the branches, sent bits of broken ice flying in all
+directions, or flattened themselves on the rocks on every side, leaping
+up with a strange hissing noise, and passing by like flocks of pigeons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All this did not stop the mountaineers from continuing their fire, but
+it could no longer be heard.  The whole hill-side was wrapped in blue
+smoke, which prevented their taking any aim.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About ten minutes later, there was the rolling of a drum, and all this
+mass of men made a rush at the breastworks, their officers shouting,
+"Forward!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The earth shook with them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne, springing up in the trench, with quivering lips and in a
+terrible voice, cried out, "To your feet! to your feet!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was time: for a good number of these Germans,&mdash;nearly all students
+in philosophy, law, and medicine, heroes of the taverns of Munich,
+Jena, and other places&mdash;who fought against us, because they had been
+promised great things after Napoleon's fall&mdash;all these intrepid fellows
+were climbing the icy slope, and endeavoring to jump into the
+intrenchment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But they were received with the butt-end of the musket, and fell back
+in disorder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was then that the gallant conduct of the old wood-cutter Rochart was
+observable, knocking over, as he did, more than ten "kaiserlichs," whom
+he took by the shoulder and hurled down the incline.  Old Materne's
+bayonet was red with blood; and little Riffi never ceased loading his
+musket and firing into the mass of Germans with great spirit.  Joseph
+Larnette, who unluckily received a bullet in his eye; Hans Baumgarten,
+who had his shoulder smashed; Daniel Spitz, who lost two fingers by a
+sabre-cut, and many others, whose names should be honored and revered
+for ages&mdash;all these never once left off firing and reloading their guns.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Below the slope fearful cries were heard, while above nothing but
+bristling bayonets and men on horseback were to be seen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This lasted a good quarter of an hour.  No one knew what the Germans
+would do, since there was no passage; when they suddenly decided on
+going away.  Most of the students had fallen, and the others&mdash;old
+campaigners used to honorable retreats&mdash;no longer fought with the same
+steadiness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first they retreated slowly, then more quickly.  Their officers
+struck them from behind with the flat end of their swords; the
+musketry-fire pursued them; and, finally, they ran away with as much
+precipitation as they had been orderly in advancing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne, and fifty others, rose upon the barricades, the old hunter
+brandishing his carbine, and bursting into hearty roars of laughter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the foot of the bank were heaps of wounded dragging themselves along
+the ground.  The trodden-down snow was red with blood.  In the midst of
+the piles of dead were two young officers, still alive, but unable to
+disengage themselves from their dead horses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was horrible!  But men are, in fact, savages: there was not one
+among the mountaineers who pitied those poor wretches; but, on the
+contrary, they seemed to rejoice at the sight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Little Riffi, transported with a noble enthusiasm, just then glided out
+along the bank.  To the left, underneath the breastworks, he had caught
+sight of.  a superb horse, which had belonged to the colonel killed by
+Materne, and had retired unhurt into his nook.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thou shalt be mine," said he to himself.  "Sapience will be
+astonished!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the others envied him.  He seized the horse by the bridle and
+sprang upon him; but judge of the general stupefaction, and of Riffi's
+in particular, when this noble animal began to shape his course toward
+the Germans in full gallop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little tailor lifted his hands to heaven, imploring God and all the
+saints.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne would have liked much to fire; but he dared not, the horse went
+so fast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At last Riffi disappeared amid the bayonets of the enemy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody thought he had been killed.  However, an hour later, he was
+to be seen passing along the main street of Grandfontaine, his hands
+tied behind him, and Corporal Knout at his back, bearing his emblem of
+office.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Poor Riffi!  He alone did not partake of the triumph, and his comrades
+laughed at his misfortune, as though he had been but a "kaiserlich."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such is the character of men; so long as they are happy themselves, the
+misery of others grieves them but little.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE BATTLE RENEWED
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The mountaineers were almost beside themselves with enthusiasm: they
+lifted their hands and bepraised one another, as if they were the cream
+of mankind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine, Louise, Doctor Lorquin and all the others came out of the
+farm, cheering and congratulating each other, gazing at the marks of
+the bullets and at the bank blackened with powder; then at Joseph
+Larnette stretched in his hole, having his head smashed; at Baumgarten,
+who, with his arm hanging down, walked in great pallor toward the
+ambulance; and then at Daniel Spitz, who, in spite of his sabre-cut,
+wanted to stay and fight; but the doctor would not hear of it, and
+forced him to enter the farm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise came up with the little cart, and poured out brandy for the
+combatants; while Catherine Lefèvre, standing at the edge of the
+sloping bank, watched the dead and wounded scattered over the road, and
+led up to by long lines of blood.  There were both young and old among
+them, with faces white as wax, wide-opened eyes, and outstretched arms.
+Some few tried to raise themselves, but no sooner had they done so than
+they fell back again; others looked up as though they were afraid of
+receiving some more bullets, and dragged themselves along the bank in
+order to get under shelter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Many of them seemed resigned to their fate, and were looking for a
+place to die, or else watching their retreating regiment on its way to
+Framont&mdash;that regiment with which they had quitted their homes, with
+which they had made a long campaign, and which was now abandoning them!
+"It will see old Germany again!" they thought.  "And when some one asks
+the captain or the sergeant, 'Did you know such a one&mdash;Hans, Kasper,
+Nickel, of the 1st or of the 2d company?' they will reply, 'Ah!  I
+think so.  Had he not a scar on the ear, or on the cheek? fair or dark
+hair? five feet six in height?  Yes, I know him.  He was buried in
+France, near a little village whose name I do not remember.  Some
+mountaineers killed him the same day big Major Yéri-Peter was killed.
+He was a fine fellow!'  And then it is, 'Good-day to you.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps, too, there were some of them who dreamed of their mother, or
+of a pretty girl left behind them, Gretchen or Lotchen, who had given,
+them a ribbon, and shed hot tears when they left: "I will await thy
+return, Kasper.  I will only marry thee!  Yes, yes, thou wilt have to
+wait long!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was not pleasant to think of.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Madame Lefèvre, seeing this, thought of Gaspard.  Hullin, who came up
+with Lagarmitte, cried out in a joyous tone, "Well, my boys, you have
+been under fire.  Bravo! everything goes well.  The Germans will have
+no occasion to boast of this day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he embraced Louise, and hurried up to Catherine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you satisfied, Catherine?  There! our success is certain.  But
+what is the matter?  You do not smile."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Jean-Claude, all goes well.  I am satisfied.  But look down at
+the road.  What a butchery!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is only what happens in war," replied Hullin, gravely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Could we not go and help that little fellow down there, who watches us
+with his large blue eyes?  He makes me feel so sad.  Or that tall, dark
+man, who is binding his leg with his handkerchief?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Impossible, Catherine.  I am very sorry.  We should have to cut steps
+in the ice to get down, and the Germans, who will be back in an hour or
+two, would take advantage of them.  Let us go.  The victory must be
+announced in all the villages&mdash;to Labarbe, Jérome, and Piorette.  Ho!
+Simon, Niklo, Marchal, come here.  You will have to set out
+immediately, and carry the great tidings to our comrades.  Materne,
+keep thy eyes open, and warn me at the slightest movement."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They approached the farm, and, as he passed, Jean-Claude took a look at
+the reserve, Marc Divès being on horseback surrounded by his men.  The
+smuggler complained bitterly of being left with nothing to do, as if
+his honor were tarnished thereby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah!" said Hullin, "so much the better!  Besides, thou keepest guard
+over our right.  Look at that flat ground down there.  If we are
+attacked from that point, thou wilt have to march!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Divès made no answer; he looked both sad and indignant, nor did his
+stalwart smugglers, wrapped in their cloaks, their long swords hanging
+by their sides, seem at all in a better humor; one might have said that
+they were meditating some revenge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, not succeeding in consoling them, entered the farm-house.
+Doctor Lorquin was extracting the ball from Baumgarten's wound, who was
+making terrible cries.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pelsly, on the doorstep, was trembling all over.  Jean-Claude asked him
+for paper and ink, in order to transmit his orders through the
+mountain; but the poor anabaptist could hardly give them to him, so
+great was his trouble.  However, he succeeded at last, and the
+messengers departed, proud of being charged to announce the first
+battle and victory.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few mountaineers were in the large room, warming themselves at the
+oven and talking animatedly.  Daniel Spitz had already undergone
+amputation of his two fingers, and sat behind the stove with his hand
+bound up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Those who had been posted behind the abatis before daybreak, not having
+breakfasted, were now eating a crust of bread and drinking a glass of
+wine, shouting, gesticulating, and making great bravado meanwhile.
+Then they went out, looked at the intrenchments, came back to warm
+themselves again, and laughed fit to split their sides when they spoke
+of Riffi, and his wails and cries on horseback.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was eleven o'clock.  These incomings and outgoings lasted till
+twelve, when Marc Divès suddenly came into the room, calling
+out:&mdash;"Hullin!  Where is Hullin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here I am."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, then, come!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The smuggler's tone had something remarkable about it: from being a
+moment before furious at having taken no part in the fight, he had now
+become triumphant.  Jean-Claude followed him, feeling very uneasy: and
+the large room was immediately deserted, everybody being convinced,
+from Marc's manner, that there was something serious the matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To the right of the Donon extends the ravine of Minières, through which
+runs a foaming torrent when the snows melt&mdash;descending from the summit
+of the mountain to the valley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Exactly in front of the plateau defended by the partisans, and on the
+other side of this ravine, at a distance of five or six hundred mètres,
+projects a sort of open terrace with rugged sides, which Hullin had
+considered unnecessary to occupy for the time, wishing not to divide
+his forces, and seeing, besides, that it would be easy for him to turn
+this position by the pine-clumps, and to establish himself there, if
+the enemy showed any intention to take it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now imagine the consternation of the worthy man when, on reaching the
+door of the farm-house, he saw two companies of Germans climbing this
+ascent, among the gardens of Grandfontaine, having two field-pieces
+yoked to powerful horses, which appeared to hang over the precipice.  A
+troop was pushing at the wheels, and in a few seconds the guns would
+have reached the plateau.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was like a thunder-bolt for Jean-Claude; he turned pale, and then
+into a great passion with Divès.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Couldst thou not have warned me sooner?" he cried.  "Did I not command
+thee to watch over the ravine?  Our position is turned.  They will hem
+us in, and cut us off from the road farther on.  Everything is going to
+the deuce."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The people present, and old Materne himself, who had come up in great
+haste, were startled by the glance he darted at the smuggler; who,
+notwithstanding his usual audacity, was quite confused, not knowing
+what to reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come, come, Jean-Claude," said he at last, "be calm.  It is not so
+serious as thou sayest.  We have not fought yet&mdash;we others; and
+besides, we have no cannons&mdash;so it will be the very thing for us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, the very thing for us, imbecile!  Thy self-love made thee wait
+till the last minute, did it not?  Thou wert too eager to fight, and
+have an opportunity for boasting and making bravado; and for that thou
+didst not hesitate to risk all our lives.  Look! there are other troops
+being got ready at Framont."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In fact, another column, much stronger than the first, was just then
+marching out of Framont at the charge, and advancing against the
+breastworks.  Divès did not say a word.  Hullin controlled his anger,
+and became suddenly calm in the presence of danger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go back to your posts," he said briefly to those around him.  "Let all
+be ready for the coming attack.  Materne, listen!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old hunter inclined his head.  Meanwhile, Marc Divès had recovered
+his self-possession.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Instead of screaming like a woman," said he, "thou wouldst do better
+to give me orders to attack down there, by turning the ravine at the
+pine-clumps."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then do it!" replied Jean-Claude; and in a calmer tone: "Listen, Marc!
+I am very angry with thee.  We were conquerors; and by thy fault the
+battle has to be fought over again.  If thou failest in thy attack, all
+is lost for us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good! good!  The affair is altogether mine: I will answer for it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, springing on his horse, and throwing the end of his mantle over
+his shoulder, he drew his long blade with a defiant air.  His men did
+the same.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He then turned to the reserve, composed of five hundred mountaineers,
+and showing the plateau to them with the point of his sword, said,
+"Look there, my men! we must carry that position.  The men of Dagsburg
+must not say that they are braver than the men of the Sarre.  Forward!"
+And, full of ardor, they advanced, skirting the ravine.  Hullin shouted
+to them&mdash;"At the point of your bayonets!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The big smuggler, on his great sleek roan, turned round, laughing out
+of the corners of his mustache, and waved his sword in a significant
+way; then the whole body dashed into the pine-wood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same time the Germans, with their eight-pounders, had gained the
+plateau, and were putting them in position, while the column from
+Framont was ascending the hill-side.  Thus everything was in the same
+condition as before the battle,&mdash;with this difference, that the
+enemies' bullets would now come into play and take the mountaineers in
+the rear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One could see distinctly the two field-pieces with their cramp-irons,
+levers, sponges, artillerymen, and the officer commanding, a great
+lanky fellow, with broad shoulders and fair mustaches floating in the
+wind.  The blue shades of the valley seeming to diminish the distance,
+they looked as though you might have touched them; but Hullin and
+Materne were not to be deceived; it was a good six hundred mètres
+across.  No carbine could reach so far.  Nevertheless, the old hunter,
+before returning to the abatis, wished to have his mind set quite at
+rest.  He advanced as close as possible to the ravine, followed by
+his-son Kasper and a few mountaineers; and, leaning against a tree, he
+raised his gun deliberately and took aim at the tall officer with the
+fair mustaches.  All those about him held their breath for fear of
+balking the attempt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne fired, but when he laid down his weapon to see what had
+occurred, no change had taken place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is astonishing how age weakens the sight," he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your weakened sight!" cried Kasper.  "There is not a man from the
+Vosges to Switzerland who can boast of hitting his mark at two hundred
+mètres like you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old hunter knew well it was the case, but he did not wish to
+discourage the others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," he replied, "we have no time for disputing.  Here is the enemy
+again; let each do his duty."  Although these words seemed simple and
+calm enough, Materne was very much troubled in reality.  On entering
+the trench confused sounds met his ear&mdash;the clattering of arms and the
+regular tramp of many feet.  He looked down over the steep bank, and
+now saw the Germans, who this time carried long ladders with hooks at
+the end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was not a pleasant sight for the brave fellow: he made a sign to his
+son to approach, and said to him, in a low voice, "Kasper, that looks
+bad&mdash;very bad; the rascals are coming with ladders.  Give me thy hand!
+I should like to have thee near me, and Frantz as well; but we must
+defend ourselves with steadiness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this moment a great explosion shook the abatis, and a hoarse voice
+was heard crying out, "Ah, my God!"  Then a hundred paces distant there
+was a heavy sound, and a fine tree bent down slowly and fell into the
+abyss.  It was the first cannon-ball: it had cut off old Rochart's
+legs.  It was followed by another immediately after, which covered all
+the mountaineers with broken ice, and made a great rumbling.  Old
+Materne himself had bent down under the force of the explosion, but
+raising himself quickly, he shouted, "Let us revenge ourselves, my
+children.  They are before you.  To conquer or die!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortunately the panic of the mountaineers only lasted a second: they
+all understood that the slightest hesitation and they were lost.  Two
+ladders had already been raised, notwithstanding the fusillade, and
+were being attached to the bank by their iron hooks.  This sight made
+the partisans furious, and the fight became more terrible and desperate
+than before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin had noticed the ladders before Materne had, and his wrath
+against Divès increased; but as in such a case indignation is of no
+avail, he had sent Lagarmitte to tell Frantz Materne, who had been
+posted on the other side of the Donon, to come to him quickly with half
+his men.  We may well believe the brave fellow, warned of the danger
+his father was in, lost not a moment.  Already their large black hats
+could be seen climbing the hill-side amid the snows, their carbines
+slung across their shoulders.  They came with all despatch,
+nevertheless Jean-Claude met them, with a haggard expression in his
+eyes, and shouted in a vibrating voice, "Come quicker! at that rate you
+will never reach us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was in a towering passion, and attributed all the misfortune to the
+smuggler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meanwhile Marc Divès, in about half an hour, had gone round the ravine,
+and, from the back of his tall horse, began to perceive the two
+companies of Germans, with grounded arms, about a hundred feet behind
+the guns, which were being fired upon the trench.  Then, approaching
+the mountaineers, he said to them, in a stifled voice, while the
+reports of the cannon were re-echoed in the gorge and in the distance
+the noise of battle was heard: "Comrades, you must attack the infantry
+with your bayonets: I and my men will be answerable for the rest.  Is
+it understood?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is understood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then, forward!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The whole troop advanced in good order toward the outskirts of the
+wood, big Piercy of Soldatenthal at their head.  Nearly at the same
+instant the <I>Wer da?</I> ("Who there?") of a sentinel was heard; then two
+shots; a loud cry of "Vive la France!" and the trampling of many feet
+in a charge.  The brave mountaineers threw themselves like wolves on
+the enemy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Divès stood up in his stirrups and watched them with great glee.  "That
+is well," said he.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The <I>mêlée</I> was a terrible one; the ground trembled with it.  The
+Germans were firing no more than the partisans: the affair was passing
+in silence; the clashing of bayonets and the sound of sabre-strokes,
+with here and there a rifle-shot, shouts of anger and a great tumult:
+except these, one could hear nothing else.  The smugglers, with
+outstretched necks and sword in hand, sniffed the carnage and awaited
+the signal from their chief with impatience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, it is our turn," said Divès, at length.  "The guns must be ours."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And out of the underwood they sprang, and their large cloaks flying
+behind them like wings, they dashed forward, bending in their saddles
+and pointing their swords.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind cutting!  Run them through!" cried Divès once more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That was all he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a second, the twelve vultures were down upon the guns.  Among their
+number were four old Spanish dragoons and two cuirassiers of the guard,
+whom a life of danger had attached to Marc: so I leave you to imagine
+how they fought.  Blows from lever, rammer, and sabre, the only arms
+the gunners had to hand, rained upon them like hail; they parried them
+all, and every cut they made brought down a man.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marc Divès received two pistol-shots, of which one singed his left
+cheek and the other carried away his hat.  But, at the same time,
+bending over his saddle, his long arms stretched out, he transfixed the
+big officer with the fair mustaches to his gun; then raising himself
+deliberately, and gazing round him with a frown, said, in a sententious
+manner: "We have cleared out the rubbish! the guns are ours."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To get a good idea of this terrible scene, you must imagine the crowd
+on the plateau of Minières.  The cries, the neighings of horses, the
+flight of some, who threw down their arms in order to run the faster,
+the desperation of others;&mdash;beyond the ravine, the ladders covered with
+white uniforms and bristling with bayonets; the mountaineers above the
+escarpment defending themselves with obstinacy; the hill-sides, the
+road, and, above all, the space outside the breastworks, encumbered
+with dead and wounded;&mdash;the great numbers of the enemy, their muskets
+over their shoulders and their officers in the midst of them, pressing
+forward into action; and, finally, Materne standing on the crest of the
+hill, his bayonet in the air, his mouth opened wide, shouting wildly to
+his son Frantz, who was advancing with his troop, Master Jean-Claude at
+their head, to aid the mountaineers.  You should have heard the
+fusillade, the platoon and file firing, and, above all, the distant
+confused shouts, intermixed with sharp wails dying away among the
+mountain echoes.  To gain a good idea of the scene, you should imagine
+all these as concentrated into one moment and surveyed with a rapid
+glance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Divès was not of a contemplative turn: he lost no time in making
+poetical reflections on the uproar and savagery of the battle.  With
+one look he had taken in the whole situation; so, springing from his
+horse, he went up to the first gun, which was still loaded, aimed it at
+the ladders, and fired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then there arose wild clamors, and the smuggler, peering through the
+smoke, saw that fearful havoc had been made in the enemy's ranks.  He
+waved his hands in sign of triumph, and the mountaineers on the
+breastworks answered with a general hurrah.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now then, dismount," said he to his men, "and don't go to sleep.  A
+cartridge, a ball, and some turf.  We will sweep the road.  Look out!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The smugglers put themselves in position, and continued to fire with
+enthusiasm upon the white coats.  The bullets rained into their ranks.
+At the tenth discharge there was a general <I>sauve-qui-peut</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fire! fire!" shouted Marc.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the partisans, now supported by Frantz's troop, regained, under
+Hullin's directions, the positions which they had for the moment lost.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The whole of the hill-side was soon covered with dead and wounded.  It
+was then four in the evening; night was approaching.  The last ball
+fell into the street of Grandfontaine, and rebounding on the angle of
+the pavement, knocked down the chimney of the "Red Ox."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About six hundred men perished that day: there were, of course, many
+mountaineers among them, but the greater number were "kaiserlichs."
+Had it not been for the fire of Marc Divès's cannon, all would have
+been lost; the partisans were not one against ten, and the enemy had
+already begun to gain on the trenches.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap16"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+PAINFUL SCENES
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The Germans, huddled together in Grandfontaine, fled in crowds in the
+direction of Framont, on foot and on horseback, hurrying, dragging
+along their ammunition-wagons, strewing the road with their knapsacks,
+and looking behind as though they feared to find the partisans at their
+heels.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In Grandfontaine they destroyed everything out of sheer revenge; they
+smashed in doors and windows, maltreated the people, demanded food and
+drink indiscriminately.  Their shouts and curses, the commands of their
+officers, the murmurs of the townsfolk, the artillery rolling over the
+bridge of Framont, the shrill cries of the wounded horses, were heard
+as a confused murmur at the breastworks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The hill-side was covered with arms, shakos, and dead; in fact, with
+all the signs of a great rout.  In front was Marc Divès's cannon
+directed down the valley, ready to fire in case of a fresh attack.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All was finished, and finished well.  Yet no shout of triumph rose from
+the intrenchments: the losses of the mountaineers, in this last
+assault, had been too great for that.  There was something solemn in
+this silence succeeding to the uproar; all these men who had escaped
+the carnage, looked grave, as though astonished to see each other
+again.  Some few called a friend, others a brother, who did not answer;
+and then they searched for them in the trenches, along the breastworks,
+or on the slopes, calling "Jacob, Philip, is it thou?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Night came on; and the gray shadow creeping over everything, added
+mystery to these fearful scenes.  The people came and went among the
+wrecks of the battle without recognizing each other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne, having wiped his bayonet, called hoarsely to his
+boys:&mdash;"Kasper!  Frantz!" and seeing them approach in the darkness, he
+asked, "Is that you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, we are here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you safe? are you wounded?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old hunter's voice became hoarser and more trembling still:&mdash;"Then
+we are all three united once more," said he, in a low tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And he, whom none would have thought to be so tender, embraced his sons
+warmly.  They could hear his chest heaving with suppressed sobs.  They
+were both much moved, and said to each other,&mdash;"We never dreamed that
+he loved us so much!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the old man, soon recovering from his emotion, called out, "It was
+a hard day, though, my boys.  Let us have something to drink, for I am
+thirsty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, casting one last look on the dark slopes, and seeing that Hullin
+had placed sentinels at short distances apart, they proceeded toward
+the farmhouse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they were picking their way carefully through the trenches,
+encumbered with the dead, they heard a stifled voice, which said to
+them, "Is it thou, Materne?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! forgive me, my poor old Rochart," replied the hunter, bending over
+him, "if I touched thee.  What, art thou still here?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I cannot get away, for I have no longer any legs to carry me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They remained silent for a moment, when the old wood-cutter
+continued,&mdash;"Thou wilt tell my wife that in a bag behind the closet,
+there are five pieces of six.  I have saved them up, in case we either
+of us fell ill.  I no longer need them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is to say&mdash;that is to say&mdash;But thou mayst recover still, my poor
+old fellow.  We will carry thee away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; it is not worth the trouble: I cannot last more than an hour.  It
+would only make me linger."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne, without answering, signed to Kasper to place his carbine with
+his own, so as to form a stretcher, and Frantz placed the old
+wood-cutter upon them, notwithstanding his moans.  In this way they
+arrived at the farm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the wounded who during the combat had had strength to drag
+themselves to the ambulance were now assembled there; and Doctor
+Lorquin and his comrade Dubois, who had arrived during the day, had
+work enough to do.  But all was far from being over yet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As Materne, his boys, and Rochart were traversing the dark alley under
+the lantern, they heard to their left a cry which made their blood run
+cold, and the old wood-cutter, half dead, called out, "Why do you take
+me there?  I will not go; I will not have anything done to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Open the door, Frantz," said Materne, his face streaming with
+perspiration.  "Open it!  Be quick!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz having pushed open the door, they beheld in the centre of the
+low room with its large brown beams, Colard's son stretched out full
+length on a great kitchen-table, a man at each arm and a bucket beneath
+him.  Doctor Lorquin, his shirtsleeves turned up to his elbows, and a
+short saw in his hand, was cutting off the poor fellow's leg, while
+Dubois stood by with a large sponge.  The blood trickled into the pail.
+Colard was as white as death.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine Lefèvre was there with a roll of lint on her arm.  She seemed
+calm; but her teeth were clinched, and she fastened her eyes on the
+ground as though determined to witness nothing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is finished," said the doctor, turning round; and perceiving the
+new-comers, "Ha! it is you, Father Rochart!" he exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is I; but I will not let any one touch me.  I would rather die
+as I am."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The doctor lifted up a candle, looked at him, and made a grimace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is time to see to you, my poor old fellow.  You have lost much
+blood, and if we wait longer it will be too late."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So much the better!  I have suffered enough in my life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As you like.  Let us pass on to another."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He cast his eyes over a long line of straw mattresses at the end of the
+room; the two last were empty, but covered with blood.  Materne and
+Kasper laid the old wood-cutter down on the last, while Dubois,
+approaching another wounded man, said, "Nicolas, it is thy turn!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nicolas Cerf raised his pale face and his eyes glistened with fright.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let him have a glass of brandy," said the doctor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, I would rather smoke my pipe."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where is thy pipe?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In my waistcoat pocket."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good, I have found it.  And the tobacco?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In my trousers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right.  Fill his pipe, Dubois.  He is a plucky fellow; it gives
+one pleasure to see a man like that.  We are going to take off thy arm
+in a trice."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is there no way of saving it, Monsieur Lorquin, to bring up my poor
+children?  It is their only resource."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; it is no use; the bone is smashed.  Light the pipe, Dubois.  Now,
+Nicolas, smoke away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The unhappy fellow began, though evidently without relish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is all ready?" asked the doctor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied Nicolas, in a husky voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good.  Attention, Dubois!  Sponge away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And he made a rapid turn in the flesh with a great knife.  Nicolas
+ground his teeth.  The blood spurted up, and Dubois bound up something
+tightly.  The saw grated for two seconds, and the arm fell heavily on
+the boards.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is what I call a well-performed operation," said Lorquin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nicolas was no longer smoking; the pipe had fallen from his lips.
+David Schlosser, of Walsch, who had held him, let go.  They bound up
+the stump with linen, and, all unaided, Nicolas went to lie down on the
+straw.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One more finished!  Sponge the table well, Dubois, and let us go on to
+another," said the doctor, washing his hands in a large bowl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Each time that he said, "Let us go on to another," the wounded moved
+uneasily, terrified by the screams they heard and the glittering knives
+they saw.  But what was to be done?  Every room in the farm, the
+granary, and the lofts was full.  They were thus obliged to operate
+under the eyes of those who would soon in their turns come beneath the
+painful knife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The operation had taken but a few seconds.  Materne and his sons looked
+on for the same reason as one looks at other horrible things,&mdash;to know
+what they are like.  Then in the corner, under the old china clock,
+they saw a heap of amputated limbs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nicolas's arm had already been cast among them, and a ball was now
+being extracted from the shoulder of a red-whiskered mountaineer of the
+Harberg.  They opened deep gashes in his back; his flesh quivered, and
+the blood coursed down his powerful limbs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The dog Pluto, behind the doctor, looked on with an attentive air, as
+though he understood, and from time to time stretched himself and
+yawned loudly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne could look on no longer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us get out of this," said he.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hardly were they outside the door, when they heard the doctor exclaim,
+"I have got the ball!" which must indeed have been satisfactory to the
+man from the Harberg.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once outside, Materne, inhaling the cold air with, delight, exclaimed:
+"Only think that the same might have happened to us!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"True," said Kasper; "to get a ball in one's head is nothing; but to be
+cut up in that style, and then to beg one's bread for the rest of one's
+days!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah!  I should do the same as old Rochart," said Frantz.  "I should
+die quietly.  The old fellow was right.  When one has done one's duty,
+why should one be afraid?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then the hum of voices was heard on their right.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is Marc Divès and Hullin," said Kasper, listening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; they must be just returning from throwing up breastworks behind
+the pine-wood, to protect the cannon," added Frantz.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They listened again; the footsteps came nearer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thou must be very much bothered with these three prisoners," said
+Hullin, roughly.  "Since thou returnest to the Falkenstein to-night to
+get ammunition, what prevents thee from taking them away?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where are they to be put?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, in the communal prison of Abreschwiller, to be sure.  We cannot
+keep them here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right, I understand, Jean-Claude.  And if they try to escape on
+the way, I am to use my sword?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By this time they had reached the door, and Hullin, perceiving Materne,
+could not suppress a shout of enthusiasm: "Ah!  Is it thou, old fellow?
+I have been searching for thee an hour.  Where the devil wert thou?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have been carrying poor Rochart to the ambulance, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! it is a sad affair, isn't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; it is sad."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a moment's pause, and the satisfaction of the worthy man
+again became visible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is not at all lively," said he; "but what is to be done when one
+goes to the war?  You are not hurt any of you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; we are all three safe and sound."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So much the better.  Those who are left can boast of being lucky."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"True," cried Marc Divès, laughing.  "At one time I thought Materne was
+going to give way.  Without those cannon-balls at the finish, things
+would have gone badly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne colored, and glanced sideways at the smuggler.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps so," said he, dryly; "but without the cannon-balls at the
+beginning, we should not have needed those at the end.  Old Rochart,
+and fifty other brave men, would still have had their arms and legs,
+and our victory would not have been clouded."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah!" interrupted Hullin, anticipating a dispute between the two brave
+fellows, neither of whom was remarkable for his conciliatory
+disposition.  "Leave that alone.  Every one has done his duty; and that
+is the chief thing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, addressing Materne: "I have just sent a flag of truce to Framont,
+to bid the Germans carry away their wounded.  In an hour, I dare say,
+they will be here.  Our sentries must be warned to let them approach if
+they come without arms and with torches.  If in any other way, let them
+be received with a volley."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I will go at once," answered the old hunter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Materne, thou wilt afterward sup at the farm with thy boys."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Agreed, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And he went off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin then bade Frantz and Kasper light great bivouac fires; Marc was
+at once to feed his horses, so that he might go without delay to
+procure ammunition.  Seeing them hurrying away, Hullin turned into the
+farm.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap17"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+ROUND THE FESTIVE BOARD
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+At the end of the dark alley was the yard of the farm, into which one
+descended by five or six well-worn steps.  On the left were the granary
+and the wine-press; to the right the stables and pigeon-cot, the gables
+of which stood out black on the dark cloudy sky; and in front of the
+door was the laundry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No sound from the outside reached the yard.  After so many tumultuous
+scenes, Hullin was impressed by the deep silence.  He looked up at the
+piles of straw hanging from the beams of the granary roof, the ploughs
+and carts in the shadows of the outhouses, and an inexpressible feeling
+of calm and repose came over him.  A cock was roosting quietly among
+the hens on the wall.  A big cat, darting quickly by, disappeared
+through a hole into the cellar.  Hullin thought himself in a dream.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a few moments spent in silent contemplation, he walked slowly
+toward the laundry, the three windows of which shone brightly in the
+darkness: for the farm-kitchen not being large enough for preparing
+food for three or four hundred men, it was now being used for the
+purposes of cooking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Master Jean-Claude heard Louise's clear voice giving orders in a
+resolute tone, which astonished him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, Katel, quick! supper-time is near.  Our people must be hungry.
+Since six in the morning they have taken nothing, and have been
+fighting all the time.  They must not be kept waiting.  Come, bestir
+yourself, Lesselé; bring the salt and pepper!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude's heart leaped within him at the sound of this voice.  He
+could not help gazing for a minute through the window before entering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The kitchen was large, with low whitewashed ceiling.  A beechwood fire
+crackled on the hearth, its red flames encircling the sides of an
+immense kettle.  The charming figure of Louise, wearing her short
+petticoat so as to move unimpeded, a bright color in her face, the
+short red body of her dress leaving uncovered her round shoulders and
+white neck, stood out clearly in the foreground.  She was in all the
+bustle of the occasion, coming and going, tasting the soup and sauces
+with a knowing air, and approving and criticising everything.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A little more salt!  Lesselé, have you almost done plucking that great
+lean cock?  At this rate we shall never have finished!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was delightful to see her thus busily commanding.  It brought tears
+into Hullin's eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two daughters of the anabaptist&mdash;one tall, thin, and pale, with her
+large flat feet encased in round shoes, her red hair fastened up in a
+little black cap, her blue stuff dress falling in folds to her heels;
+the other fat, slowly lifting up one foot after the other, and waddling
+along like a duck&mdash;forming a striking contrast to Louise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The stout Katel went panting about without saying a word, while Lesselé
+performed everything in her sleepy methodical way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The worthy anabaptist himself, seated at the end of the room, with his
+legs crossed on a wooden chair, his cotton cap on his head, and his
+hands in his blouse pockets, looked on with a wondering air, addressing
+to them sententious exhortations from time to time: "Lesselé, Katel! be
+obedient, my children.  Let this be for your instruction.  You have not
+yet seen the world.  You must be quicker and sharper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes, you must bestir yourselves," added Louise.  "Gracious! what
+should become of us if we stood thinking months and weeks before
+putting a little onion into a sauce!  Lesselé, you are the tallest,
+unhook me that parcel of onions from the ceiling."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl obeyed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin had never felt prouder in his life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How she makes them move about!" thought he.  "Ah! ha! ha! she is like
+a little hussar.  I never should have believed it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After having watched them for five minutes, he went into the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well done, my children!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise was holding a soup-ladle at the time.  She let it fall, and
+threw herself into his arms, crying: "Papa Jean-Claude, is it you? you
+are not wounded?  Nothing is the matter with you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the sound of this voice, Hullin turned pale, and could make no
+reply.  After a long silence, pressing her to his heart, he said: "No,
+Louise, I am quite well; I am very happy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sit down, Jean-Claude," said the anabaptist, seeing him trembling with
+emotion; "here, take my chair."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin sat down, and Louise, with her arms on his shoulder, began to
+cry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is the matter, my child?" said the worthy man, kissing her.
+"Come, calm thyself.  Only a few seconds ago thou wert so courageous."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, but I was only acting; I was very much afraid.  I thought,
+'Why does he not come?'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She threw her arms round his neck.  Then a strange idea came into her
+head.  She took him by the hand, crying: "Papa Jean-Claude, let us
+dance, let us dance!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And they made three or four turns.  Hullin could not help laughing, and
+turning toward the grave anabaptist, said: "We are rather mad, Pelsly;
+do not let that astonish you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Master Hullin, it is quite natural.  King David himself danced
+before the ark after his great victory over the Philistines."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude, astonished to find that he was like King David, made no
+reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And thou, Louise," he continued, stopping, "thou wert not afraid
+during this last battle?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, at first, with all the noise and the roaring of the cannons; but
+afterward I only thought of you and of Mamma Lefèvre."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Master Jean-Claude grew silent again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I knew," thought he, "that she was a brave girl.  She has everything
+in her favor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise taking him by the hand, then led him to a regiment of pans
+around the fire, and showed him with delight her kitchen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here is the beef and roast mutton, here is General Jean-Claude's
+supper, and here is the soup for our wounded.  Haven't we been busy!
+Lesselé and Katel would tell you so.  And here is our bread," said she,
+pointing to a long row of loaves arranged on the table.  "Mamma Lefèvre
+and I mixed up the flour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin looked on astonished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But that is not all," said she; "come over here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She took off the lid of a saucepan, and the kitchen was immediately
+filled with a savory odor which would have rejoiced the heart of a
+gourmand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude was deeply touched by all these proofs of attention to the
+wants of his men.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then Mother Lefèvre came in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," said she, "prepare the table; everybody is waiting over there.
+Come, Katel, go and lay the cloth."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl went running out to do so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all crossed the dark yard and made their way toward the large
+room.  Doctor Lorquin, Dubois, Marc Divès, Materne, and his two boys,
+all very hungry, were awaiting the soup impatiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How about our wounded, doctor?" said Hullin, on entering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They have all been attended to, Master Jean-Claude.  You have given us
+plenty of work to do; but the weather is favorable; there is nothing to
+fear from putrid fevers; things wear a pleasant aspect."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Katel, Lesselé, and Louise soon came in bearing an immense tureen of
+smoking soup and two sirloins of roast beef, which they deposited on
+the table.  They all sat down without ceremony&mdash;old Materne to the
+right of Jean-Claude, Catherine Lefèvre to the left; and from that time
+the clatter of spoons and forks and the gurgling of the bottles took
+the place of conversation till half-past eight in the evening.  The
+glow which might be seen from the outside upon the windows, proved that
+the volunteers were doing justice to Louise's cookery, which
+contributed greatly to the enjoyment of her guests.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At nine o'clock Marc Divès was on his way to Falkenstein with the
+prisoners.  At ten everybody was asleep at the farm, on the plateau,
+and around the watchfires.  The silence was only broken by the passing
+of the patrols and the challenge of the sentinels.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus terminated, this great day, after the mountaineers had proved that
+they had not degenerated from their ancestors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Other events, not less important, were soon to succeed those which had
+already taken place: for in this world, when one obstacle is
+surmounted, others present themselves.  Human life resembles a restless
+sea: one wave follows another from the old world to the new, and
+nothing arrests its ever-lasting movement.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap18"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVIII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE CAVE OF LUITPRANDT
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+All through the battle, till the close of night, the good people of
+Grandfontaine had observed the poor crazy Yégof standing upon the crest
+of the Little Donon, and, his crown on his head, with his sceptre held
+aloft, like a Merovingian king, shouting commands to his phantom
+armies.  What passed through his mind when he saw the utter rout of the
+Germans no one can say; but at the last cannon-shot he disappeared.
+Where did he betake himself?  On this point the people of Tiefenbach
+have the following story:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that time there lived upon the Bocksberg two singular
+creatures&mdash;sisters&mdash;one named "little Kateline," and the other "great
+Berbel."  These creatures, who were almost in tatters, had taken up
+their abode in the "Cave of Luitprandt," so called, according to old
+chronicles, because the German king, before invading Alsace, had caused
+to be interred in that immense vault of red sandstone the savage chiefs
+who had fallen in the battle of Blutfeld.  The hot spring which always
+bubbles in the middle of the cavern protected the eerie sisters from
+the sharp colds of winter; and the woodcutter, Daniel Horn, of
+Tiefenbach, had been good enough to fill up the largest entrance to the
+rock with heaps of brushwood.  By the side of the hot spring there is
+another, cold as ice and clear as crystal.  Kateline, who always drank
+of its waters, was scarce four foot high, thick-set and bloated; and
+her cowering figure, her round eyes and enormous goitre, rendered her
+whole appearance peculiarly suggestive of a big turkey-hen in a
+reverie.  Every Sunday she carried into Tiefenbach a great basket,
+which the people of the place filled with boiled potatoes, crusts of
+bread, and occasionally, on high days, with cakes and other remains of
+their festivals;&mdash;with which she reascended breathlessly to her rocky
+home, muttering, gibbering, and behaving in the absurdest way.
+Meanwhile Berbel took care to drink from the cold spring: she was
+gaunt, one-eyed, scraggy as a bat, with a flat nose, large ears, a
+gleaming eye, and thrived upon the booty obtained by her sister.
+Seldom did she descend from the Bocksberg, except in July, at the time
+of greatest heat&mdash;when she proceeded to launch her incantations&mdash;her
+enchanting-wand a withered thistle&mdash;against the crops of those who had
+failed to contribute to her sister's basket.  These imprecations were
+always believed to be followed by dire storms, hail, and destructive
+vermin without stint: whence they came to be dreaded as the plague, and
+the hag herself to be regarded as a weather-witch (<I>Wetterhexe</I>), while
+"little Kateline" was looked upon as the good genius of Tiefenbach and
+its neighborhood.  In such wise Berbel folded her arms and took her
+ease in her cave, while her sister went gibbering along the highways.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Unfortunately for the sisters, Yégof had for many years established his
+winter-quarters in "Luitprandt's cavern;" and it was thence he set
+forth every spring on a visit to his innumerable châteaux and
+feudatories, as far as Geierstein in the Hundsrück.  Every year,
+therefore, toward the end of November, after the first snows, he
+arrived with his raven, to the accompaniment of piercing cries from
+Wetterhexe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What have you to grumble at?" he would say, while installing himself
+in the place of honor.  "Are you not intruders upon my domain, and am I
+not truly good to permit two such useless old hags (<I>Valkyries</I>) to
+stay in the Valhalla of my fathers?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Berbel, in a rage, used to overwhelm him with abuse, while
+Kateline gave vent to her dissatisfaction in thick unintelligible
+utterances; but he, regardless of both, lit his old box pipe and set
+himself to describe his endless peregrinations to the ghosts of the
+German warriors buried in the cavern sixteen centuries before, calling
+upon each of them by name, and addressing them as personages still
+living.  From this it will be understood with what disgust the arrival
+of the maniac came to be regarded by Kateline and Berbel; in fact for
+both it was nothing less than a calamity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now in the year we are speaking of, Yégof, having failed to return to
+them at the proper time, induced the sisters to believe that he was
+dead and to rejoice at the idea of seeing no more of him.  But for many
+days Wetterhexe had remarked an extraordinary movement going on in the
+neighboring gorges, and men marching off in bodies, shouldering their
+muskets, from the sides of Falkenstein and Donon.  Clearly something
+was taking place out of the common.  Recollecting that the year before
+Yégof had informed the phantoms of the cave that his armies, in
+countless hosts, were coming to invade the country, the sorceress was
+seized with a vague apprehension and anxiety to learn the cause of so
+much agitation; but no one came up to the cave, and Kateline having
+made her rounds on the previous Sunday, could not have been induced to
+stir out for the gift of a kingdom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In this state of apprehension, Wetterhexe went and came upon the side
+of the mountain and became hourly more restless and irritable.  During
+the whole of that Saturday events assumed quite another aspect.  From
+nine o'clock in the morning deep and heavy explosions began to growl
+like a continuous storm among the thousand echoes of the mountain;
+while far away in the direction of Donon, the swift lightnings swept up
+across the sky among the peaks; then toward night the discharges
+deepening in intensity filled the silent gorges with an indescribable
+tumult.  At every report the Hengst, the Gantzlee, the Giromani, and
+the Grosmann cliffs seemed to echo to their lowest depths.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What can it be?" cried Berbel.  "Has the end of the world come?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then re-entering her lurking-place, and finding Kateline crouched in
+her corner and munching a potato, Berbel shook her roughly and hissed
+out:&mdash;"Fool! have you got no ears?  Is there anything that you fear?
+You are good for nothing but eating, drinking, and mumbling.  Oh, you
+idiot!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She snatched away the potato in a rage, and then seated herself by the
+side of the hot spring, which was sending up its gray fumes to the
+roof.  Half an hour after, the darkness having become intense and the
+cold excessive, she made a fire of brushwood, which shed its pale
+gleams upon the blocks of red sandstone and lit up the farthest corner
+of the cave, where Kateline was now asleep, huddled in the straw, with
+her chin upon her knees.  Without, the noisy tumult had ceased.  Then
+withdrawing the brushwood curtain from the mouth of the cave, she
+peered out into the darkness, and returned to crouch down, by the
+spring.  With her large lips compressed, her eyes closed, and the great
+round wrinkles playing upon her cheeks, she drew round her knees an old
+woollen covering, and appeared to fall asleep.  Throughout the cavern
+there was no sound, except that of the congealed vapor, which fell back
+at long intervals into the spring with a strange splashing noise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This silence lasted for about two hours; midnight was approaching, when
+all of a sudden a distant sound of footsteps, mingled with discordant
+cries, was heard outside the cave.  Berbel listened, and at once
+perceived that they were human cries.  Then she rose, trembling, and,
+armed with her thistle-wand, proceeded to the entrance of the cave;
+whence, through the screen of brushwood, she saw, at fifty paces
+distant, Yégof advancing toward her in the moonlight.  He was alone,
+but gesticulating and waving his sceptre, as if myriads of invisible
+beings were about him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hark, ye red men!" he was shrieking, with, beard sticking up on end,
+his hair streaming about his head, and his dog-skin upon his arm.
+"Hark, ye red men!  Roog!  Bled!  Adelrik! hark!  Will ye not hear me
+at last?  Do you not see they are coming?  Behold them cleaving the sky
+like vultures.  Hark to me.  Let this miserable race be annihilated!
+Ha, ha! it is you, Minau! it is you, Rochart ... ha! ha!"  And
+addressing the dead upon the Donon, he called upon them defiantly, as
+if they were standing before him; and then fell back a step at a time,
+striking the air, uttering imprecations, encouraging his phantoms, and
+casting about him as if in close fight.  The sight of this terrible
+struggle against beings who were invisible caused Berbel to shudder
+with fright, and to fancy her hair stiffening upon her head.  She
+sought to hide herself; but just at the moment a strange noise from
+behind drew her attention, and her terror may be imagined when she saw
+the hot spring bubbling with more than usual activity and sending out
+clouds of steam, which rose and broke away in separate masses toward
+the entrance of the cavern; and while these clouds like phantoms were
+slowly advancing in close order, Yégof appeared upon the scene,
+shouting hoarsely:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You come at last! you heard me then!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus saying, he removed with an impatient effort all obstructions from
+the mouth of the cave: the cold air rushed down the vault and the
+steaming vapors rose far into the sky, writhing and glancing above the
+cliff, as if the slain of that day and those of the ages gone by had
+recommenced beyond the earth a battle that would never end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yégof, with face which appeared shrunken in the pale moonlight, his
+sceptre held high, his great beard flowing down his breast, and his
+eyes flaming, saluted each phantom with a wave of the hand, addressing
+it by name:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hail, Bled!  Roog, hail! and you, my brave men, all hail!  The hour
+you have been expecting for ages is at hand: the eagles are whetting
+their beaks and the soil is thirsting for blood.  Remember Blutfeld!"
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-226"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-226.jpg" ALT="YÉGOF SALUTED EACH PHANTOM WITH SPARKLING EYES." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+YÉGOF SALUTED EACH PHANTOM WITH SPARKLING EYES.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+At this point Berbel's terror seemed to hold her transfixed; but soon
+the last volumes of gray mist disappeared out of the cavern and melted
+into the sky.  Seeing which the crazy montagnard marched fiercely into
+the cave, and seating himself by the spring, with his great head
+between his hands, and his elbows on his knees, looked down into the
+boiling water with a haggard stare.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kateline was now awake and venting her guttural moans; while
+Wetterhexe, more dead than alive, was furtively watching the maniac
+from the farthest corner of the cave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They have all gone up from the earth!" exclaimed Yégof, suddenly.
+"All, all!  They have gone to reanimate the courage of my youths, and
+inspire them with contempt of death!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And again lifting up his face, which seemed impressed with deep
+anguish, he cried, fixing his wolfish eyes on Wetterhexe:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, thou descendant of the sterile valkyries, thou who hast nurtured
+within thy bosom no life-breath of warriors, nor ever filled their deep
+goblets at the festive board, nor regaled them with the smoking flesh
+of the wild boar, for what purpose art thou good?  To spin shrouds for
+the dead.  Ha! take thy distaff and spin night and day; for thousands
+of brave men are slumbering in the snow!  ... They fought well....
+Yes, they did all that men could do; but the time had not come, ... now
+the ravens are fighting for their carcasses!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then in accents of uncontrollable rage, snatching the crown off his
+head together with handfuls of hair&mdash;"Ah, cursed race," he exclaimed,
+"will you always be barring our passage?  Were it not for you we had
+already conquered Europe; the red men would have been masters of the
+world....  And I have bowed my head before the leader of this race of
+curs....  I asked him for his daughter, instead of seizing and carrying
+her away as the wolf carries the lamb! ... Ah!  Huldrix, Huldrix!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then changing this rhapsody&mdash;"Listen, listen, valkyrie!" he cried in a
+hoarse voice, and pointing his finger with great solemnity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wetterhexe listened.  A great gust of wind rose up through the night,
+shaking the old forest-trees heavy with their load of frost.  Often and
+often had the sorceress in the winter nights heard the soughing of the
+north wind and paid it no attention, but now she was overwhelmed with
+fear!  And as she stood there all trembling, a hoarse cry was heard
+without; and almost at the same time the raven Hans, sweeping beneath
+the rock, set himself to describe great circles overhead, flapping his
+wings with a frightened air, and uttering melancholy cries.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yégof became pale as death.  "Vod, Vod! what has thy son Luitprandt
+done for thee?  Why choose him rather than another?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For some seconds he stood as though amazed: then, suddenly transported
+by savage enthusiasm and brandishing his sceptre, he dashed out of the
+cavern.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two minutes afterward, Wetterhexe, standing at the entrance of the
+rock, followed him with anxious eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He went straight on, with neck stretched forward and long strides.  You
+would have thought him a wild beast upon the prowl.  Hans went before
+him, hopping from place to place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a moment they disappeared down the Blutfeld gorge.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap19"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIX
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+GASPARD'S LETTER
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Toward two o'clock the next morning, snow began to fall.  At daybreak
+the Germans had left Grandfontaine, Framont, and even Schirmeck.  In
+the distance, on the plains of Alsace, could be seen the black lines,
+which indicated their retreating battalions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin arose early and made the round of the bivouacs.  He stopped for
+a few seconds on the plateau, to look at the cannons in position, the
+sleeping partisans, and the watchful sentries; then, satisfied with his
+inspection, he re-entered the farm, where Louise and Catherine were
+still asleep.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The gray light was spreading everywhere.  A few wounded in the next
+room were growing feverish; they were calling for their wives and
+children.  Soon the hum of voices and the noise of busy feet broke the
+stillness of the night.  Catherine and Louise awoke.  They saw
+Jean-Claude sitting in a corner of the window watching them, and
+ashamed of having slept longer than he, they arose and approached him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well?" asked Catherine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, they have left; and we are masters of the field, as I expected."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This assurance did not appear to satisfy the old dame.  She looked
+through the window to see for herself that the Germans were retreating
+into Alsace; and during the whole of that day she seemed both anxious
+and troubled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Between eight and nine the curé Saumaize came in from the village of
+Charmes.  Some mountaineers then descended the slopes to pick up the
+dead, and dug a deep pit to the right of the farm, where partisans and
+"kaiserlichs," with their clothes, hats, shakos, and uniforms, were
+laid side by side.  The curé Saumaize, a tall old man with white hair,
+read the prayers for the dead in that solemn, mysterious voice which
+seems to penetrate to the depths of one's soul, and to summon from the
+tomb the spirits of extinct generations to attest to the living the
+terrors of the grave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All day carts and sledges continued to arrive to carry away the
+wounded, who demanded, with loud cries, to be allowed to see their
+villages once more.  Doctor Lorquin, fearing to increase their
+irritation, was forced to consent.  And toward four o'clock, Catherine
+and Hullin were alone in the great room: Louise had gone out to prepare
+the supper.  Outside, large flakes of snow continued to fall, and, from
+time to time, a sledge might be seen silently passing along, bearing a
+wounded man laid in straw.  Catherine, seated near the table, was
+folding bandages with an absent air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What ails you, Catherine?" demanded Hullin.  "You have seemed so
+thoughtful since morning: and yet our affairs are going on well."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old dame, pushing the linen slowly away from her, replied,&mdash;"Yes,
+Jean-Claude, I am uneasy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Uneasy about what?  The enemy is in full retreat.  Only this moment,
+Frantz Materne, whom I had sent to reconnoitre, and all the messengers
+from Piorette, Jérome, and Labarbe, told me that the Germans are
+returning to Mutzig.  Old Materne and Kasper, having gathered up the
+dead, learned at Grandfontaine that nothing is to be seen in the
+direction of Saint-Blaize-la-Roche.  All this proves that our Spanish
+dragoons gave the enemy a warm reception on the way to Senones, and
+that they fear an attack from Schirmeck.  What is it, then, Catherine,
+that troubles you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And seeing that Hullin looked at her inquiringly, "You may laugh at
+me," said she; "but I have had a dream."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A dream?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, the same as at the farm of Bois-de-Chênes."  And getting
+animated, she continued, in an almost angry tone, "You may say what you
+like, Jean-Claude, but a great danger menaces us.  Yes, yes! you don't
+see any sense in all this; but it was not a dream, it was like an old
+tale which comes back to one: something one sees in sleep and
+remembers.  Listen!  We were as we are now, after a great victory&mdash;in
+some place&mdash;I don't know where&mdash;in a sort of large wooden shed, with
+beams across it, and palisades around.  We were not thinking of
+anything: all the faces I saw I knew: you were among them, Marc Divès,
+Duchêne, and old men already dead: my father and old Hugues Rochart of
+Harberg, the uncle of him who has just died: and they all had coarse
+gray cloth blouses, with long beards and bare necks.  We had won a like
+victory, and were drinking out of red earthenware pots, when a cry
+arose: 'The enemy is coming!'  And Yégof, on horseback, with his long
+beard and pointed crown, an axe in his hand, and with his eyes gleaming
+like a wolf's, appeared before me in the darkness.  I rushed on him
+with a club, he waited for me&mdash;and from that moment I saw no more.  I
+only felt a great pain in my neck; a cold wind passed over my face, and
+my head seemed to be dangling at the end of a cord: it was that
+wretched Yégof who had hung my head to his saddle and was galloping
+away!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a short pause; and then Jean-Claude, rousing from his stupor,
+replied: "It is a dream.  I also have had dreams.  Yesterday you were
+agitated, Catherine, by all that tumult, that noise."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," she exclaimed in a firm tone, taking up her task again: "no, it
+was not that.  And to tell you the truth, during the battle, and even
+when, the cannons were thundering against us, I was not afraid; I was
+certain beforehand that we should not be beaten; I had seen it long
+ago.  But now I am afraid."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the Germans have evacuated Schirmeck; the whole line of the Vosges
+is defended.  We have more men than we need; they are coming every
+minute in great numbers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No matter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin shrugged his shoulders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come, come! you are feverish, Catherine; try to be calm, and think of
+pleasanter things.  As for all these dreams, you see, I make no more
+account of them than I do of the Grand Turk, with his pipe and blue
+stockings.  The chief thing is to keep a good look-out, and to have
+plenty of ammunition, men, and guns: that is infinitely better than the
+most rose-colored dreams."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are mocking me, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; but to hear a sensible, courageous woman speak as you do, reminds
+one in spite of himself of Yégof, who pretends to have lived sixteen
+hundred years ago."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who knows?" said the old woman, in an obstinate tone; "it is possible
+he may remember what others have forgotten."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin was going to relate to her his conversation of the evening
+before at the bivouac-fire with the madman, thus hoping to overthrow
+all her gloomy fancies; but seeing she agreed with Yégof about the
+sixteen hundred years, the worthy man said no more, but resumed his
+walk up and down, with his head bent and an anxious face: "She is mad,"
+thought he; "one more shock and it is all over with her!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine after a pause was going to speak, when Louise entered like a
+swallow, calling out, in her sweetest voice, "Maman Lefèvre, Maman
+Lefèvre, a letter from Gaspard!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whereupon the old farm-wife, whose hooked nose almost touched her lips,
+so angry was she to see Hullin turning her dream into ridicule, raised
+her head, the long wrinkles in her face relaxing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She took the letter, looked at the red seal, and said to the young
+girl: "Embrace me, Louise: it is a good letter!"  And Louise at once
+embraced her with joy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin came close up to them, delighted at this incident; and the
+postman Brainstein, his big boots dyed red with the snow, his two hands
+on his stick, and drooping his shoulders, stationed himself at the door
+with a tired look.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old dame put on her spectacles, slowly opened the letter under the
+impatient eyes of Jean-Claude and Louise, and read aloud:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This, my mother, is to announce to you that all goes well, and that I
+reached Phalsbourg on Tuesday evening just as the gates were being
+closed.  The Cossacks were already on the Saverne road; we had to fire
+all night against their advanced guard.  The following day, an envoy
+was sent demanding the surrender of the place.  The commandant,
+Meunier, told him to go and be hanged; and three days after great
+showers of bombs and shells began to rain upon the town.  The Russians
+have three batteries&mdash;one on the side of Hittelbronn, the other at the
+Baraques above, and the third behind the tilery of Pernette near the
+drinking-tank; but the red-hot shot do us the most harm: they burn down
+the houses, and when a fire has broken out the bombs then come in
+quantities and prevent the people from extinguishing it.  The women and
+children do not leave the block-houses; the townsmen remain with us on
+the ramparts: they are fine fellows.  Among them are some old soldiers
+of the Sambre-et-Meuse, Italy, and Egypt, who have not forgotten how to
+manage the guns.  I felt sorry to see the graybeards bending over the
+carronades to take aim.  I will answer for it that there are no balls
+lost with them; but all the same, when one has made the world tremble,
+it is hard to be obliged, in one's old days, to fight for one's home
+and last morsel of bread."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is hard," exclaimed Catherine, drying her eyes.  "Only to
+think of it makes one's heart bleed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she continued:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The day before yesterday, the governor decided on our making a sortie
+against the tile-kiln battery.  You must know that these Russians break
+the ice of the tank, and bathe in it, in groups of from twenty to
+thirty; afterward drying themselves in the oven of the brick-kiln.
+Well! about four o'clock, as the day was closing, we went out by the
+Arsenal gateway, ascending the covered way, and filing along the
+Allée-des-Vaches, with our muskets under our arms, and marching at the
+double.  Ten minutes after we commenced a rolling fire on the men that
+were in the tank.  Then their comrades rushed out of the brick-kilns:
+they had only time to put on their cartouche-boxes, seize their
+muskets, and form, all naked as they were, on the snow, like regular
+savages.  Notwithstanding that, the rogues were ten times more numerous
+than we, and they began a movement to the right, in the direction of
+the little chapel of St. John, in order to surround us, when the guns
+from the Arsenal began to send such a storm of shot at them as I never
+saw before; it carried whole files clean off.  A quarter of an hour
+later they retreated in a body to Quatre-Vents, without waiting to pick
+up their breeches&mdash;their officers at their head, and the hail from the
+fortress bringing up the rear.  Papa Jean-Claude would have laughed at
+the rout immensely.  At last, toward nightfall, we returned to the
+town, having destroyed one of their batteries and thrown two
+eight-pounders into the well of the kiln.  It was our first sortie.  I
+am now writing to you from the Baraques du Bois-de-Chênes, where we
+have been sent to get provisions for the fortress.  All this may last
+months.  It is said that the allies are reascending the valley of
+Dosenheim as far as Weschem, and that thousands of them are marching on
+Paris.  Oh, if the Emperor once obtained the upper hand in Lorraine and
+Champagne, not one of them would escape!  But who lives will see.  They
+are sounding the retreat on Phalsbourg.  We have collected a pretty
+good number of oxen, cows, and goats about here; but shall have to
+fight in order to get them in safely.  Good-by, my good mother, my
+dearest Louise, and Papa Jean-Claude.  I embrace you as though I held
+you in my arms."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the close of the letter, Catherine Lefèvre was overwhelmed with
+emotion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What a brave boy!" said she.  "He only knows his duty.  There! thou
+hearest, Louise?  He embraces thee!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise then throwing herself into her arms, they embraced each other;
+and Catherine, notwithstanding the firmness of her character, could not
+keep back two large tears from trickling down her cheeks; then,
+recovering herself, "Come," said she, "all is well!  Come, Brainstein,
+you must eat some meat and drink a glass of wine.  And here is a
+crown-piece for your journey; I would give you the same sum every day
+of the week for such a letter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The postman, delighted with his present, followed the old dame.  Louise
+walked after them, and Jean-Claude, also, being eager to interrogate
+Brainstein as to what he had learnt on the road, touching the events
+taking place; but he could get nothing new out of him, except that the
+allies were besieging Bitsche and Lutzelstein, and that they had lost
+some hundreds of men in trying to force the Graufthal pass.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap20"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XX
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE SURPRISE
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Toward ten o'clock, Catherine Lefèvre and Louise, after having wished
+Hullin good-night, went up to sleep in the room over the large kitchen;
+in which there were two feather-beds, with curtains, striped with blue
+and red, reaching to the ceiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come," exclaimed the old woman, climbing up to hers on a chair&mdash;"come,
+sleep well, my child.  As for me, I am tired out, and almost asleep
+already."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She drew the bedclothes round her, and five minutes after was sound
+asleep.  Louise soon followed her example.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now this had lasted about two hours, when the old dame was awakened
+suddenly by a tremendous noise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To arms! to arms!  Ho! this way quick!  A thousand thunders! they are
+upon us!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Five or six shots then followed each other, lighting up the dark
+windows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To arms! to arms!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then there was more firing, and the noise of people rushing about
+everywhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin's voice, sharp and vibrating, could be heard giving orders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, to the left of the farm, a great way off, there came a low dull
+crackling sound, from the gorges of the Grosmann.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Louise!  Louise!" cried the old farm-wife,&mdash;"dost thou hear?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes!  Oh, my God! it is terrible."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine sprang out of bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Get up, my child," said she, "and let us dress."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The firing redoubled, and flashed like lightning upon the panes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Attention!" shouted Materne.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One could also hear the neighing of a horse outside, and the tramping
+of a great crowd in the alley, the yard, and before the farm: the house
+seemed shaken to its foundations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly, the firing came from the windows of the large room on the
+ground-floor.  The two women dressed in haste.  Just at that moment, a
+heavy foot creaked on the stairs; the door opened, and Hullin appeared
+with a lantern, showing signs of great agitation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Make haste!" cried he; "we have not an instant to lose."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What has happened then?" asked Catherine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fusillade came nearer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Eh!" exclaimed Jean-Claude, throwing up his arms, "have I time now to
+explain to you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old dame understood that the only thing to be done was to obey.
+She put on her hood and descended the staircase with Louise.  By the
+flickering light of the shots, Catherine saw Materne, bare-necked, and
+his son Kasper, firing from the entrance of the alley upon the abatis,
+and ten others behind handing them muskets, so that they had only to
+aim and fire.  All these men, in a throng, loading, shouldering, and
+firing, had a terrible aspect.  Three or four dead bodies lying against
+the old wall added to the horror of the scene.  The smoke was at the
+point of reaching the dwelling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coming down the stairs, Hullin cried, "Here they are, thank heaven!"
+And all the brave fellows who were there, looking up, cried out,
+"Courage, Mother Lefèvre!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whereupon the poor old lady, worn out by her emotions, began to weep
+and lean on Jean-Claude's shoulder; but he lifted her up like a
+feather, and ran along by the wall to the right.  Louise followed,
+sobbing loudly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Out of doors, one could only hear the whizzing of bullets and the dull
+heavy blows against the wall; the bricks and mortar were tumbling down,
+the tiles rolling about; while in front, near the abatis, and three
+hundred yards off, one could see the white uniforms in line, lit up by
+their own fire in the dark night; and, to their left, on the other side
+of the ravine of Minières, the mountaineers attacking them in flank.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin disappeared at the corner of the farm,&mdash;where all was in
+darkness;&mdash;Doctor Lorquin, on horseback in front of a sledge, having a
+large cavalry sword in his hand and two pistols passed through his
+belt, with Frantz Materne and a dozen other armed men, being barely
+distinguishable.  Hullin placed Catherine in the sledge, on some straw,
+and Louise by her side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There you are!" exclaimed the doctor.  "It is well for you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Frantz Materne added:&mdash;"If it were not for you, Mother Lefèvre, you
+may well believe that not one of us would quit the plateau this night;
+but there is nothing to be said since you are in the case."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," cried the others, "there is nothing to be said!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just at that moment, a tall fellow, with legs long as a heron's and a
+round back, came running behind the wall and shouting, "They are
+coming!  Fly! fly!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin turned pale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is the big knife-grinder of the Harberg!" he exclaimed, grinding
+his teeth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz without saying a word put his musket to his shoulder, aimed and
+fired; and Louise saw the grinder at thirty yards in the dim light,
+throw up his arms and fall face downward on the ground.  Frantz
+reloaded, smiling grimly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin then said: "Comrades, here is our mother&mdash;she who has given us
+powder and furnished us with food for the defence of our country; and
+here is my child: save them!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all replied: "We will save, or die with, them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And do not forget to warn Divès to stay at the Falkenstein till
+further orders."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All right, Jean-Claude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then forward, doctor, forward!" cried the gallant man.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you, Hullin?" exclaimed Catherine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My place is here; our position must be defended till death!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Papa Jean-Claude!" cried Louise, holding out her arms to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But he had already turned the corner,&mdash;the doctor flicked his horse,
+and the sledge passed quickly along the snow.  Frantz Materne and his
+men, with their muskets on their shoulders, marched behind; while a
+rolling fire of musketry was still kept up around the farm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That was what Catherine Lefèvre and Louise saw in the space of a few
+minutes.  No doubt something strange and terrible had happened in the
+night.  The old farm-mistress, recalling her dream, became very
+thoughtful.  Louise dried her eyes and looked toward the plateau, which
+was lighted up as by a fire.  The horse bounded away under the doctor's
+whip, so that the mountaineers could hardly keep up.  For some distance
+the tumult and clamor of the battle, the explosions, and whizzing of
+the balls among the branches, were distinctly heard; but all this grew
+fainter and fainter, and soon, at the descent of the path, vanished as
+in a dream.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sledge had reached the opposite side of the mountain, and was
+flying like an arrow through the darkness.  The only sounds which broke
+the silence were the galloping of the horse, the quick breathing of the
+escort, and from time to time the doctor's cry, "Here, Bruno! here
+then!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A current of cold wind, coming up from the valley of the Sarre, carried
+upon its breeze, like a great sigh, the endless roar of the torrents
+and soughing of the woods.  The moon was peering out from behind a
+cloud, and looking down on the black forests of Blanru, with their tall
+pines loaded with snow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ten minutes later the sledge had gained an angle of the woods, and
+Doctor Lorquin, turning round in his saddle, exclaimed,&mdash;"Now, Frantz,
+what have we to do?  Here is the way which leads toward the hills of
+St. Quirin, and there is another road which descends to Blanru.  Which
+shall we take?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz and the men of the escort came up.  As they were then on the
+western slope of the Donon, they began to see again, high in the air,
+on the other side of the hill, the fusillade of the Germans, who were
+advancing by way of the Grosmann.  First they saw the flashes, and then
+heard the rolling echoes in the depths of the valleys.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The road by the hills of St. Quirin," said Frantz, "is the shortest
+cut to the farm of Bois-de-Chênes; it would save at least
+three-quarters of an hour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," rejoined the doctor, "but we should risk being stopped by the
+Germans, who now occupy the defile of the Sarre.  See, they are already
+masters of the heights; they have no doubt sent detachments to the
+Sarre-Rouge in order to turn the Donon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us take the Blanru road, then," said Frantz; "it is longer, but
+safer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sledge passed down the left along the woods.  The partisans, gun in
+hand, advanced one after the other along the top of the bank, while the
+doctor on his horse swept along the snow in the roadway.  Above, the
+great pine-branches met across the road, and enveloped it with their
+deep shadows, while the moon lit up the surrounding scenery.  This road
+was so majestic and picturesque, that, under any other circumstances,
+Catherine would have been astonished at it, and Louise would not have
+failed to admire the garlands of icicles, looking like crystals in the
+pale rays of the moon; but just then they were filled with uneasiness;
+and, moreover, when the sledge entered the gorge, all the brightness
+vanished, and only the summits of the high mountains around remained
+visible.  They had been going in this way for a quarter of an hour,
+when Catherine, having kept silence for some time, at last could
+contain herself no longer, but exclaimed: "Doctor Lorquin, now that you
+have us in the depths of Blanru, and can do with us what you please,
+will you explain to me why we have been dragged away by force?
+Jean-Claude carried me off, and flung me on this heap of straw&mdash;and
+here I am!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Up, Bruno," cried the doctor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he gravely answered her: "This night, Dame Catherine, a great
+misfortune has overtaken us.  You must not attribute it to Jean-Claude:
+it is by another's fault that we have lost the fruit of all our
+sacrifices!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Through whose fault?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That unlucky Labarbe's, who did not guard the defile of the Blutfeld.
+He died afterward fulfilling his duty; but that does not repair the
+disaster; and if Piorette does not come up in time to aid Hullin, all
+is lost; it will be necessary to abandon the road and to fight
+retreating."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What! the Blutfeld is taken?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Mistress Catherine.  Who the deuce could ever have thought that
+the Germans would enter that?  A defile almost impracticable for
+foot-passengers, enclosed by rugged rocks, where the goatherds can
+barely descend with their flocks.  Well, they marched that way, two at
+a time; they turned Roche-Creuse, crushed Labarbe, and then fell upon
+Jérome, who defended himself like a lion till nine in the evening; but,
+at last, he was obliged to take refuge in the pine-woods, and leave the
+pass to the 'kaiserlichs.'  That is the whole story.  It is shocking.
+Indeed, there must be some one among us base and vile enough to have
+guided the enemy, and would deliver us over to him bound hands and
+feet.  Oh, the wretch!" cried Lorquin, furiously.  "I am not
+revengeful, but if he came into my clutches, how I would serve him!
+Up, Bruno! up, then!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The partisans were marching along the bank like spectres, without
+saying a word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old farm-mistress became silent in order to collect her ideas.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I begin to understand," said she at last.  "We were attacked to-night
+on both sides."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Exactly so, Catherine.  Fortunately, ten minutes before the attack,
+one of Marc Divès's smugglers, Zimmer, the old dragoon, had come full
+gallop to warn us.  Had it not been for that, we would have been lost.
+He fell in with our vanguard, after having run the gauntlet of a
+detachment of Cossacks on the plateau of Grosmann.  The poor fellow had
+received a terrible sabre-thrust; and his bowels were protruding over
+the saddle&mdash;was it not so, Frantz?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied the hunter, sadly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And what did he say?" demanded Catherine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He had only time to cry, 'To arms!  We are hemmed in!  Jérome sends
+me.  Labarbe is dead!  The Germans have passed the Blutfeld!'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He was a gallant fellow," exclaimed Catherine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, a gallant fellow," replied Frantz, with his head bent down.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then they relapsed into silence, and for some time the sledge swept
+through the winding valley.  Now and then they were obliged to stop,
+the snow was so deep&mdash;when three or four mountaineers would take the
+horse by the bridle&mdash;and so they continued their way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All the same," said Catherine, suddenly rousing up from her reverie,
+"Hullin might have told me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But if he had mentioned these two attacks," interrupted the doctor,
+"you would have wanted to remain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And who can hinder me from doing what I like?  If it pleased me to get
+out of the sledge this very moment, should I not be free?  I had
+forgiven Jean-Claude, but I am sorry for it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Maman Lefèvre, supposing he is killed while you are saying that!"
+murmured Louise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She is right, poor child," thought Catherine; and then quickly added,
+"I said I was sorry for it; but he is such a good man, that one cannot
+be angry with him.  I forgive him with all my heart; in his place I
+should have done the same."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two or three hundred yards farther on they entered the defile of
+Roches.  The snow had ceased falling, and the moon was shining between
+great white clouds.  The narrow gorge, hemmed in by steep precipices,
+expanded in the distance, its sides covered with tall pines.  Nothing
+disturbed the deep calm of the woods; one could have imagined one's
+self far away from all human agitation.  The silence was so great that
+every step the horse made in the snow could be heard, and even his
+sharp quick breathing.  Frantz Materne halted at times to gaze upon the
+black slopes, and then hurried on to overtake the others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They crossed valley after valley; the sledge mounted and descended, now
+to the right and then to the left; and the partisans, with their
+bayonets fixed, followed continually.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toward three in the morning they reached the meadow of Brimbelles,
+where at the present day an old oak can still be seen bending over the
+valley.  To the left, in the midst of the snow-covered, heather, behind
+a low stone wall, stood the old house of the guard Cuny.  Three
+beehives were placed on a bench, a gnarled vine hung down from the roof
+and a small pine-bough was suspended over the door by way of
+sign-board, for Cuny carried on the business of innkeeper in this
+solitary place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this spot the road runs close under the meadow wall, and as a large
+cloud obscured the light of the moon, the doctor, fearing to be upset,
+halted beneath the oak.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have only one hour's journey more, Mother Lefèvre," said he; "take
+courage; there is no hurry."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," said Frantz; "the heaviest part of the road is over, and the
+horse may breath a while."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The small party collected round the sledge, and the doctor got down.
+Some lit their pipes; but no one spoke: they were all busy thinking of
+the Donon.  What was going on there?  Would Jean-Claude be able to
+defend the plateau till Piorette arrived?  So many dread thoughts and
+dismal reflections passed through the minds of the worthy people, that
+not one seemed able to speak.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had been standing thus about five minutes, when the black cloud
+passed slowly away, and the pale moonlight lit up the gorge.  Suddenly,
+a dark figure on horseback appeared two hundred paces from them, in the
+path between the pine-trees.  By the light of the moon they quickly
+perceived that it was the figure of a Cossack with his sheepskin cap,
+and bearing a lance under his arm.  He was advancing slowly; Frantz was
+already taking aim, when other Cossacks with their lances appeared
+behind him.  They advanced deliberately in the direction of the sledge,
+like people on the search, some with their heads turned upward, others
+peering into the shrubs from their saddles.  They numbered more than
+thirty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Imagine the feelings of Louise and Catherine, seated in the middle of
+the road.  They looked on open-mouthed.  In another minute they would
+be surrounded by these bandits.  The mountaineers were stupefied; it
+was impossible to return: they were hemmed in on one side by the meadow
+wall, on the other by the mountain-side.  The old farm-wife seized
+Louise by the hand, and said, in a stifled voice, "Let us escape to the
+woods!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sprang from the sledge, leaving her shoe in the straw.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly one of the Cossacks uttered a guttural cry, which was repeated
+along the whole line.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are discovered!" exclaimed the doctor, as he drew his sword.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The words had scarcely escaped his lips when twelve musket-shots lit up
+the path from end to end; a regular savage whoop answered the report of
+the muskets.  The Cossacks made off from the path to the meadow in
+front, gave their horses the reins, bent down in their saddles, and
+flew toward the guard-house like deer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ha! they are off like the devil!" said the doctor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the worthy man was too hasty.  Suddenly, when they had gone two or
+three hundred yards along the valley, the Cossacks again wheeled round
+and massed themselves firmly together; then, with their lances in rest,
+and bending over their horses' heads, they rushed straight at the
+partisans, shouting in hoarse voices&mdash;"Hourah! hourah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a terrible moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz and the others sprang toward the wall, to protect the sledge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In another second, the clashing of lances and screams of rage could
+alone be heard, mingled with imprecations.  Under the shadow of the old
+oak, through the straggling moonbeams, could be seen the horses
+prancing with tossing manes, as they endeavored to clear the meadow
+wall; while the barbarian Cossacks, with gleaming eyes and uplifted
+arms, struck furiously with their lances, advancing, retreating, and
+uttering piercing yells.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise, deathly pale, and Catherine, with her gray dishevelled hair,
+stood up in the straw.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Doctor Lorquin, in front of them, parried the strokes with his sabre,
+and all the time kept shouting to them&mdash;"Lie down! lie down!"  But they
+did not hear him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise, in the midst of the tumult and shouting, thought only of
+sheltering Catherine; and the old dame, in the midst of her terror, had
+recognized Yégof, on a tall, gaunt horse&mdash;Yégof, with his tin crown,
+bristling beard, long lance, and dog-skin floating from his shoulders.
+She saw him as distinctly as though it were broad daylight.  He stood
+about ten feet distant, with sparkling eyes, brandishing his blue lance
+in the darkness, and striving to reach her.  What could she do?  Submit
+to her fate!  Thus do the most resolute characters succumb to
+inevitable destiny.  The old dame thought her fate was sealed.  She saw
+all these people tearing like wolves, thrusting and parrying in the
+moonlight.  She saw some fall; and horses running, riderless through
+the fields.  She saw the topmost window of the guard-house thrown open;
+and old Cuny, in his shirt-sleeves, shoulder his gun, though not daring
+to fire into the crowd.  All passed before her eyes with wonderful
+clearness.  "The madman has returned," she said to herself.  "Do what
+they will, he will hang my head to the side of his saddle.  It will end
+as I saw in my dream."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, indeed, everything seemed to justify her fears: the mountaineers,
+inferior in numbers, were giving way.  The Cossacks had cleared the
+wall, and were already on the footpath.  A well-aimed thrust passed
+through the old dame's back-hair, and she felt the cold iron against
+her neck.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, the murderers!" she screamed, falling back and clutching fast at
+the reins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Doctor Lorquin himself had been hurled against the sledge.  Frantz and
+the others, surrounded by twenty Cossacks, could afford them no help.
+Louise felt a hand on her shoulder: it was the hand of the madman,
+seated on his great horse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this fearful moment, the poor child, mad with terror, uttered a
+scream of distress; then she saw something gleaming in the darkness: it
+was Lorquin's pistols.  Quick as lightning, tearing them from the
+doctor's belt, she fired them off both at once, singeing Yégof's beard,
+and blowing out the brains of a Cossack who was bending toward her with
+flaming eyes.  She then seized Catherine's whip, and pale as death,
+lashed the horse, who bounded away.  The sledge flew through the
+bushes, swaying from right to left.  Suddenly there was a shock.
+Catherine, Louise, the straw, and all rolled in the snow on the slopes
+of the ravine.  The horse stopped short on its haunches, its mouth full
+of bloody foam.  It had struck against an oak-tree.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rapid as was the fall, Louise had seen figures passing like the wind
+behind the underwood.  She had heard a powerful voice, that of Divès,
+crying out, "Forward!  Cut them down!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was like a vision&mdash;one of those confused apparitions which pass
+before the eyes in moments of supreme danger; but, on rising, the young
+girl had no longer any doubts.  Fighting was going on only a few paces
+distant behind the cover of some trees, and the voice of Marc was heard
+shouting, "Go it, my old fellows!  Give them no quarter!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she saw a dozen Cossacks clambering up the hill in front, like
+hares among the heather; below Yégof was crossing the valley in the
+moonlight with the speed of a terrified bird on the wing.  Several
+shots were sent after him, but the madman remained unscathed, and,
+standing upright in his stirrups, with his horse at full gallop, he
+turned, waving his lance with bravado, and shouting "Hourah!"  Two more
+shots whizzed by from the guard-house; a bit of rag fell from his
+loins, but the madman continued his course, crying "Hourah!" in a
+hoarse tone, and toiled up the path which his companions had taken
+before him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All this passed before Louise like a dream.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, turning round, she saw Catherine by her side, stupefied and
+absorbed like herself.  They gazed at each other for a moment, and then
+embraced with an inexpressible feeling of happiness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are saved!" murmured Catherine; and they both wept.  "Thou hast
+behaved bravely.  Jean-Claude, Gaspard, and I have good reason to be
+proud of thee!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise was deeply agitated and trembled all over.  The danger being
+passed, her gentle nature again resumed its sway, and she could not
+understand whence came her courage of a few minutes before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were recovering from their fright and about to get into the
+sledge, when they saw five or six partisans with the doctor coming
+toward them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! you may cry as much as you like, Louise," said Lorquin; "but, for
+all that, you are a regular dragoon, a real little warrior.  Though you
+now look so gentle, we have all seen you at work.  But where are my
+pistols?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment the shrubs were pushed aside, and Marc Divès, sword in
+hand, appeared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, Mistress Catherine, these are rough adventures for you.  Zounds!
+what luck that I happened to come up.  Those villains were spoiling you
+right and left."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied she, pushing her hair under her cap again; "it was very
+fortunate."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very fortunate!  I should think so.  It is only ten minutes since I
+arrived with my wagon at Cuny's.  'Do not go to the Donon,' said he;
+'the sky has been red for an hour in that direction; there is certainly
+fighting going on up there.'  'You think so?'  'Faith! yes.'  'Then
+Joson must go out and reconnoitre a little and we others will drink a
+glass while waiting.'  'Good!'  Hardly had Joson left, when I heard
+shouts as though five hundred devils were let loose.  'What is it,
+Cuny?'  'I don't know.'  We pushed open the door, and saw the fray.
+Ha!" exclaimed the big smuggler, "we did not wait long.  I jumped on my
+brave horse Fox, and dashed forward.  What luck!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah!" said Catherine, "if we were only sure that our affairs go as well
+on the Donon, we might then rejoice."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes!  Frantz told me about that:&mdash;it is the devil&mdash;there must
+always be something wrong," replied Marc.  "But&mdash;but why stay here with
+our feet in the snow?  Let us hope that Piorette will not allow his
+comrades to be crushed, and let us go and empty our glasses, which we
+left half full."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Four other smugglers then arrived, saying that that rascally Yégof
+would probably come back, with some more brigands like himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very likely," replied Divès.  "We will return to the Falkenstein,
+since it is Jean-Claude's orders; but we can't bring our wagon with us:
+it would prevent our taking the short cuts; and in an hour all these
+bandits would be down upon us.  Let us go first to Cuny's.  Catherine
+and Louise will not be sorry to drink a little wine; and the others
+too.  It will put their hearts in the right place again.  Up, Bruno!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He led his horse by the bridle.  Two wounded men had been laid in the
+sledge; two others having been killed, as well as seven or eight
+Cossacks stretched with their boots wide apart in the snow, were
+abandoned, and they went on toward the forester's house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz was consoling himself for not having been on the Donon: he had
+finished two Cossacks, and the sight of the inn made him feel in a good
+humor.  Before the door stood the small wagon full of cartridges.  Cuny
+came out, saying: "A hearty welcome, Mistress Lefèvre.  What a night
+for women!  Be seated!  What is going on up there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While they were hastily drinking some wine, everything had to be
+explained over again.  The worthy old man in a blouse and green
+breeches, with his wrinkled face, bald head, and wide-open eyes,
+listened with clasped hands, exclaiming: "Good God!  Good God! in what
+times are we living?  One can no longer follow the high-roads without
+risk of being attacked.  It is worse than the old Swedish tales."  And
+he shook his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come," said Divès, "time flies.  We must continue our way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody being ready, the smugglers led the wagon, which contained
+some thousands of cartridges and two small kegs of brandy, about three
+hundred yards off, to the middle of the valley, and then unharnessed
+the horses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go forward!" shouted Marc; "we will rejoin you in a few minutes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But what art thou going to do with the cart?" said Frantz.  "Since we
+have no time to take it to the Falkenstein, it had better be left under
+Cuny's shed than in the road."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, to get the poor old man hanged, when the Cossacks arrive, for
+they will be here in less than an hour.  Do not trouble thyself; I have
+my own idea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz rejoined the sledge, which went on its way.  In a short time
+they passed by the saw-works of the Marquis and turned sharp to the
+right, to reach the farm of Bois-de-Chênes, whose tall chimneys could
+be perceived three-quarters of a league distant on the plateau.  They
+were on the hill-side when Marc Divès and his men overtook them,
+shouting:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Halt!  Stop a bit!  Look down there!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, looking down into the gorge, they saw the Cossacks capering round
+the wagon&mdash;about three hundred of them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are coming!  Let us fly!" cried Louise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wait a bit," said the smuggler.  "We have nothing to fear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was still speaking, when an immense sheet of flame sped out from one
+mountain to the other, illuminating the woods, rocks, and the little
+house of the forester fifteen hundred yards below; then there was a
+report so terrible that the earth seemed to tremble.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While those near him gazed in bewilderment and dumb terror at each
+other, Marc's bursts of laughter reached their ears, in spite of the
+din.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted he, "I was sure the rogues would stop round the
+wagon, to drink up my brandy.  I knew the match would have just time to
+reach the powder!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you think they will pursue us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Their arms and legs are now hanging from the branches of the
+pine-trees!  Come along!  And may heaven grant the same fate to all
+those who have now crossed the Rhine!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The whole escort, the partisans, the doctor, all had grown silent: so
+many terrible emotions had filled them with endless thoughts such as do
+not fall within the experience of every-day life.  They said to
+themselves: "What are men that they destroy, harass, and ruin each
+other in this manner?  Why do they hate each other so?  And what spirit
+of evil is it that thus excites them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Divès and his men were not at all troubled by these events: they
+galloped along, laughing and boasting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For my part," said the big smuggler, "I never saw such a farce before.
+Ha, ha, ha! if I lived a thousand years, I should laugh at it still."
+Then he became more serious, and exclaimed: "All the same, Yégof is the
+cause of this.  One must be blind not to see that it was he who led the
+Germans to the Blutfeld.  I shall be sorry if he has been struck down
+by a piece of my wagon; I have something better in store for him than
+that.  All that I wish is that he may keep in good health till we meet
+somewhere in a lonely corner of the wood.  It is no matter whether it
+be in one year, ten years, twenty years, provided only that we meet.
+The longer it is deferred, the more savage my determination becomes:
+the daintiest morsels are eaten cold, like a boar's head in white wine."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He said this with an air of good-humor, but those who knew him
+perceived beneath it a serious danger for Yégof.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Half an hour later, they all reached the plateau on which the farm of
+Bois-de-Chênes was situated.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap21"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+"ALL IS LOST"
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Jérome of St. Quirin had managed to make good his retreat to the farm,
+and since midnight he had occupied the plateau.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who goes there?" cried his sentinels as the escort approached.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is we, from the village of Charmes," shouted Marc, in his
+stentorian voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sentinels approached to examine them, and then they passed on their
+way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The farm was silent; a sentry, his musket over his arm, was pacing
+before the granary, where about thirty partisans were asleep upon the
+straw.  At the sight of these great dark roofs, the stables and
+outhouses belonging to the old building where she had spent her youth,
+where her father and grandfather had led their tranquil laborious lives
+in peace, and which she was now about to abandon, perhaps forever,
+Catherine felt a terrible wrenching at her heart; but no word escaped
+her.  Springing from the sledge, as in other days when she returned
+from marketing, she said: "Come, Louise, here we are at home, thank
+God."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Old Duchêne pushed open the door, exclaiming: "Is that you, Madame
+Lefèvre?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is I.  Any news from Jean-Claude?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Madame."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They entered the large kitchen.  Some cinders were still smouldering on
+the hearth, and in the dark, under the broad chimney, was sitting
+Jérome of St. Quirin, with his big horsehair hood, his great stick
+between his knees, and his carbine leaning against the wall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-day, Jérome," said the old farm-wife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-day, Catherine," replied the grave chief of the Grosmann.  "Have
+you come from the Donon?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes: things are going badly, my poor Jérome.  The 'kaiserlichs' were
+attacking the farm when we left the plateau.  Nothing but white
+uniforms was to be seen on every side.  They were already beginning to
+cross the breastworks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you think Hullin will be compelled to abandon the road?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Possibly, if Piorette does not come to his assistance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The partisans had approached near the fire.  Marc Divès bent over the
+cinders to light his pipe; on rising, he exclaimed: "I ask thee one
+thing only, Jérome; I know beforehand that they fought well under thy
+command&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have done our duty," replied the shoemaker.  "There are sixty men
+stretched on the slopes of the Grosmann who will tell you so at the
+last day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; but who, then, guided the Germans?  They could not have
+discovered the pass of the Blutfeld by themselves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yégof the madman&mdash;Yégof," said Jérome, whose gray eyes, encircled by
+deep wrinkles and thick white eyebrows, seemed to sparkle in the
+darkness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! art thou certain of it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Labarbe's men saw him climbing up; he led the others."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The partisans looked at each other with indignation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this moment Doctor Lorquin, who had remained outside to unharness
+the horse, opened the door, shouting: "The battle is lost!  Here are
+our men from the Donon.  I have just heard Lagarmitte's horn."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is easy to imagine the emotion of the recipients of these tidings.
+Each thought of the relations and friends that he might never see
+again; and from the kitchen and the granary everybody at once rushed on
+to the "plateau."  At the same time Robin and Dubourg, posted as
+sentinels above Bois-de-Chênes, cried out, "Who goes there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"France!" replied a voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Notwithstanding the distance, Louise, fancying she could recognize her
+father's voice, was seized with such a fit of trembling that Catherine
+was compelled to support her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then the noise of many footsteps resounded over the hardened snow,
+and Louise, unable to contain herself any longer, exclaimed, "Papa
+Jean-Claude!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am coming," replied Hullin, "I am coming."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My father?" exclaimed Frantz Materne, rushing to meet Jean-Claude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He is with us, Frantz."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Kasper?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He has received a slight scratch, but it is nothing.  Thou wilt see
+them both again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine threw herself into Jean-Claude's arms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Jean-Claude, what joy to behold you once more!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied the worthy man, in a suppressed voice, "there are many
+who will never see their friends again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Frantz," said old Materne, "here, this way!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And one could only see, on all sides, people seeking each other in the
+dim light, squeezing hands, and embracing.  Some called for, "Niclau!
+Sapheri!" but many did not answer to their names.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the voices became hoarse, as though stifled, and relapsed into
+silence.  The joy of some, and the consternation of others, produced a
+terrible sensation.  Louise was in Hullin's arms, sobbing bitterly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, Jean-Claude," said Mother Lefèvre, "you will hear strange things
+about that child.  I will say no more now, but we have been
+attacked&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, we will talk of that later; our time is short," said Hullin.
+"The road to the Donon is lost, the Cossacks may be here at daylight,
+and we have many things to arrange."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He turned the corner and entered the farm, all following him.  Duchêne
+had just thrown a fagot on the fire.  All these people, with faces
+blackened by powder, still animated by the combat, their clothes torn
+by bayonet-thrusts, some blood-stained, advancing from the darkness
+into the light, presented a strange spectacle.  Kasper, whose forehead
+was bandaged with his handkerchief, had received a sabre-cut; his
+bayonet, buff facings, and high blue gaiters, were stained with blood.
+Old Materne, thanks to his imperturbable presence of mind, returned
+safe and sound from the fray.  The remains of Jérome's and Hullin's
+troops were thus once more united.  They wore the same wild
+physiognomies, animated by the same energy and desire for vengeance.
+But Hullin's men, harassed by fatigue, sat down right and left, on the
+fagots, on the stone sink, on the low pavement of the hearth&mdash;their
+heads in their hands and elbows on their knees; while Jérome's, who
+could not be convinced of the disappearance of Hans, Joson, and Daniel,
+looked about everywhere, exchanging questions, broken by long pauses.
+Materne's two sons held each other by the arm, as though afraid of
+losing one another, and their father, behind them, leaning against the
+wall, with his elbow on his gun, watched them with an expression of
+satisfaction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There they are, I see them," he seemed to say: "two famous fellows!
+They have saved their skins, both of them."  If any one came to ask him
+about Pierre, Jacques, or Nicolas, his son or his brother, he would
+reply hap-hazard&mdash;"Yes, yes, there are several lying down there on
+their backs.  What can you expect?  It is war!  Your Nicolas has done
+his duty.  You must console yourself."  Meanwhile he thought&mdash;"Mine are
+out of the scrimmage; that is the chief thing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine and Louise were busy preparing supper.  Duchêne came up from
+the cellar with a barrel of wine on his shoulder.  He set it down, and
+knocked out the bung; and each partisan presented his flask or cup to
+be filled with the purple liquid which glittered in the firelight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Eat and drink," said the old dame to them: "all is not lost yet; you
+will have need of your strength again.  Here, Frantz, unhook those hams
+for me.  Here is bread and knives.  Sit down, my children."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz reached down the hams in the chimney with his bayonet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The benches were brought forward; they sat down, and notwithstanding
+their sorrows, they ate with that vigorous appetite which neither
+present griefs nor thoughts for the future can make a mountaineer
+forget.  But it did not prevent a bitter sadness from filling the
+hearts of these brave men; and first one and then another would stop
+suddenly, letting fall his fork, and leave the table, saying&mdash;"I have
+had enough!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While the partisans were thus engaged in recruiting their strength, the
+chiefs were assembled in the next room to make some last resolutions
+for the defence.  They sat round the table, on which was placed a tin
+lamp: Doctor Lorquin, with his dog Pluto, looking inquiringly into his
+master's face; Jérome, in the corner of the window to the right; Hullin
+to the left, very pale; Marc Divès, his elbow on the table and cheek in
+his hand, and his back turned to the door, showed only his brown
+profile and the tip of his long mustache.  Materne alone remained
+standing, leaning, as was his custom, against the wall behind Lorquin's
+chair, with his carbine at his feet.  The noise of the men in the
+kitchen could be distinctly heard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Catherine, summoned by Jean-Claude, entered the room, she heard a
+sort of groan which made her shudder.  It was Hullin who was speaking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All these brave lads&mdash;all these fathers of families, who fell one
+after the other," he cried, in a heartrending voice, "do you think I
+did not feel it?  Do you think that I would not rather a thousand times
+have been killed myself?  You do not know what I have suffered this
+night!  To lose one's life is nothing; but to bear alone the weight of
+such a responsibility&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He paused: his trembling lips, the tear which trickled slowly down his
+cheek, his attitude, all showed the scruples of the worthy man, in face
+of one of those situations where conscience itself hesitates and seeks
+further support.  Catherine went and sat down quietly in the big
+arm-chair.  A few seconds later Hullin continued in a calmer
+tone:&mdash;"Between eleven o'clock and midnight, Zimmer came up, shouting,
+'We are turned!  The Germans are coming down the Grosmann!  Labarbe is
+crushed!  Jérome can hold out no longer!'  What was to be done!  Could
+I beat a retreat?  Could I abandon a position which had cost us so much
+blood&mdash;the road to the Donon, the road to Paris?  If I had done so,
+should I not have been a coward?  But I had only three hundred men
+against four thousand at Grandfontaine, and I know not how many
+descending from the mountain!  Well, I decided at any cost to hold it;
+it was our duty.  I said to myself, 'Life is nothing without honor!  We
+will all die; but they shall not say that we have yielded the high-road
+to France.  No, no; they shall not say that.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this moment Hullin's voice faltered, and his eyes filled with tears,
+as he continued&mdash;"We held out; my brave children held out till two
+o'clock.  I saw them fall: they fell shouting, 'Vive la France!'  I had
+warned Piorette in the beginning of the action.  He came up quickly,
+with fifty stout men.  It was too late.  The enemy poured in on every
+side; they held three parts of the plain, and forced us back among the
+pine-forests on the Blanru side; their fire burst upon us.  All I could
+do was to assemble my wounded, those who could still drag along, and
+put them under Piorette's escort; a hundred of my men joined him.  For
+myself, I only kept fifty to occupy the Falkenstein.  We had to pass
+right through the Germans, who wanted to cut off our retreat.  Happily,
+the night was dark; had it not been for that, not one of us would have
+escaped.  That is how we are situated.  All is lost!  The Falkenstein
+alone remains ours, and we are reduced to three hundred men.  Now the
+question is, shall we go on to the end?  I have already told you that I
+dread to bear alone such a responsibility.  So long as it concerned
+defending the road to the Donon, there was no doubt about it: every man
+belongs to his country.  But this road is lost.  We should need ten
+thousand men to retake it; and at this very moment the enemy is
+entering Lorraine.  Come, what is to be done?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We must go on to the end," said Jérome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes!" cried the others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is that your opinion, Catherine?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly," exclaimed the old dame, whose features expressed an
+inflexible tenacity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Hullin, in a firmer tone, explained his plan:&mdash;"The Falkenstein is
+our point of retreat.  It is our arsenal; it is there that we have our
+ammunition; the enemy knows it; he will attempt an attack on that side,
+therefore all of us here present must make an effort to defend it, so
+that the whole country may see us and say, 'Catherine Lefèvre, Jérome,
+Materne and his boys, Hullin, and Doctor Lorquin are there.  They will
+not lay down their arms.'  This idea will give fresh courage to all
+manly hearts.  Besides, Piorette will remain in the woods; his troops
+will grow more numerous day by day: the country will be filled with
+Cossacks and marauders of every description; when the enemy's army
+shall have entered Lorraine I will signal to Piorette; he will throw
+himself between the Donon and the highway, so that all the laggers
+behind scattered over the mountains will be caught as in a trap.  We
+shall also be able to profit by favorable chances to carry off the
+convoys of the Germans, to harass their reserves, and, if fortune aids
+us, as we must hope it will, and all these 'kaiserlichs' are beaten in
+Lorraine by our army, then we can cut off their retreat."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Everybody got up, and Hullin going into the kitchen, pronounced this
+simple address to the mountaineers:&mdash;"My friends, we have decided that
+we must push our resistance to the end.  Nevertheless, every one is
+free to do as he likes; to lay down his arms and return to his village;
+but let those who wish to revenge themselves join us; they will share
+our last morsel of bread and our last cartridge."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Colon, the old wood-floater, arose and said, "Hullin, we are all with
+thee; we began to fight together, and so will we finish."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, yes!" they all shouted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Have you all decided?  Well, listen.  Jérome's brother will take the
+command."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My brother is dead," interrupted Jérome; "he lies on the slopes of the
+Grosmann."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a moment's pause; then in a loud voice Hullin continued:
+"Colon, thou wilt take the command of all those that remain, with the
+exception of the men who formed Catherine Lefèvre's escort, and whom I
+shall keep with me.  Thou wilt go and rejoin Piorette in the valley of
+Blanru, passing by the 'Two Rivers.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the ammunition?" said Marc Divès.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have brought up my wagon-load," said Jérome; "Colon can use it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let the dray be loaded," said Catherine; "the Cossacks are coming, and
+will pillage everything.  Our men must not leave empty-handed; let them
+take away the cows, oxen, and calves&mdash;everything: it will be so much
+gained on the enemy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Five minutes later the farm was being ransacked; the dray was loaded
+with hams, smoked meats, and bread; the cattle were led out of the
+stables, the horses harnessed to the great wagon, and soon the convoy
+began its march, Robin at the head, blowing on his horn, with the
+partisans behind pushing at the wheels.  When it had disappeared in the
+road, and silence had succeeded to all the noise, Catherine turning
+round, beheld Hullin behind her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Catherine," said he, "all is finished!  We are now going to make
+our way up there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Frantz, Kasper, and those of the escort, with Marc Divès and Materne,
+all armed, were waiting in the kitchen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Duchêne," said the good woman, "go down to the village; you must not
+be ill-treated by the enemy on my account."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old servant shook his white head, and, with his eyes full of tears,
+replied:&mdash;"I may as well die here, Madame Lefèvre.  It is nearly fifty
+years since I came to the farm.  Do not make me leave; it would be the
+death of me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do as you like, my poor Duchêne," replied Catherine, softly; "here are
+the keys of the house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the poor old man sat down in the chimney-corner, on a settee, with
+fixed eyes and half-open mouth, as though lost in some painful reverie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then began the journey to the Falkenstein.  Marc Divès, on horseback,
+sword in hand, formed the rear-guard.  Frantz and Hullin watched the
+plateau to the left; Kasper and Jérome the valley to the right: Materne
+and the men of the escort surrounded the women.  It was a singular
+sight.  Before the cottages of the village of Charmes, on the
+door-steps, at the windows and loopholes, appeared the faces of young
+and old, looking at the flight of Mother Lefèvre; nor did their evil
+tongues spare her:&mdash;"Ah! they are turned out at last," cried some;
+"another time, do not meddle with what does not concern you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Others reflected with a loud voice, that Catherine had been rich long
+enough, and that every one should have his turn at poverty.  As for the
+industry, wisdom, kind-heartedness, and all the virtues of the old
+farm-wife, or Jean-Claude's patriotism, or the courage of Jérome and
+the three Maternes, the disinterested motives of Doctor Lorquin or Marc
+Divès's self-sacrifice, nobody ever mentioned them; for were they not
+vanquished?
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap22"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+ON THE FALKENSTEIN
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+At the end of the valley of Bouleaux, two gun-shots from the village of
+Charmes, to the left, the little troop began slowly to ascend the path
+to the old "burg."  Hullin, remembering how he had taken the same road
+when he went to buy powder of Marc Divès, could not help feeling very
+sad.  Then, notwithstanding his journey to Phalsbourg, the spectacle of
+the wounded from Leipzig and Hanau, and the account given by the old
+sergeant, he did not despair or doubt of the success of the defence.
+Now all was lost; the enemy were descending into Lorraine, and the
+mountaineers were retreating.  Marc Divès rode by the side of the wall
+in the snow; his horse, apparently accustomed to this journey, neighed
+loudly.  The smuggler turned from time to time to look back on the
+plateau of Bois-de-Chênes.  Suddenly he exclaimed, "Look! here come the
+Cossacks!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They all halted to look.  They were already high up on the mountain,
+above the village and farm of Bois-de-Chênes.  The morning mists were
+giving way to the gray light of the winter's day, and, on the hill-side
+could be distinguished the forms of several Cossacks, with their heads
+raised, and pistols pointed, stealthily approaching the old farm-house.
+They were scattered after the manner of sharpshooters, as if they
+feared a surprise.  A few minutes later more appeared, ascending the
+valley of Houx, then still more, all in the same attitude, upright in
+their stirrups, in order to see as far as possible.  The first, having
+passed by the farm and observing nothing threatening, waved their
+lances and returned half way back.  Whereupon the others galloped up at
+full speed like a flock of crows when they have sighted their prey.  In
+a few minutes the farm was surrounded and the door opened.  In another
+moment the windows were smashed, and the furniture, mattresses, and
+linen, thrown outside.  Catherine calmly looked on at the pillage.  She
+said nothing for some time; but, on seeing Yégof, whom she had not
+perceived before, strike Duchêne with the butt-end of his lance, and
+push him out of the farm, she could not restrain a cry of indignation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The wretch!  Could any one be cowardly enough to strike a poor old man
+unable to defend himself.  Ah! brigand, if I only held thee!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come along, Catherine," said Jean-Claude; "that's enough; what is the
+use of gazing at such a spectacle any longer?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are right," said the old mistress; "let us go on, or I shall be
+tempted to go back and revenge myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On approaching the red rocks, incrusted with large white and black
+pebbles, overhanging the precipice like the arches of an immense
+cathedral, Louise and Catherine stopped in ecstasy.  The magnificent
+view of the streams of Lorraine, and the blue ribbon of the Rhine to
+their right, with the distant woods and valleys, filled them with joy,
+and the old dame said piously, "Jean-Claude, He who created these
+rocks, and formed these valleys, forests, heaths, and mosses, He will
+render to us the justice we merit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they were gazing thus on the rugged precipices, Marc led his horse
+into a cavern close by, and, returning, began to climb up before them,
+saying, "Take care, or you may slip!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same time he pointed to the blue precipice on their right, with
+pine-trees at the bottom.  Everybody then relapsed into silence till
+the terrace was reached, where the arch commenced.  There they breathed
+more freely.  In the middle of the passage were the smugglers Brenn,
+Pfeifer, and Joubac, with their long gray mantles and black hats,
+sitting round a fire.  Marc Divès said to them, "Here we are!  The
+'kaiserlichs' are masters.  Zimmer was killed last night.  Is
+Hexe-Baizel up there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied Brenn; "she is making cartridges."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They may be of use," said Marc.  "Keep your eyes open, and if any come
+up fire on them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Maternes halted at the corner of the rock; and these three sturdy
+men, with their powerful muscular limbs, their hats pushed back, and
+carbines on their shoulders, offered a curious spectacle in the blue
+mists of the abyss.  Old Materne was pointing with outstretched hand to
+a small white speck in the distance, almost hidden in the midst of the
+pines.  "Do you recognize that, my boys?" said he; and they all three
+peered through their half-closed eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is our house," replied Kasper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poor Margredel!" rejoined the old hunter, after a short pause; "how
+uneasy she must have been these last eight days?  What prayers does she
+not offer up for us to Saint-Odile?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that moment Marc Divès, who was walking on in front, uttered an
+exclamation of surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mother Lefèvre," said he, stopping short, "the Cossacks are burning
+your farm."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine received the tidings very calmly, and advanced to the edge of
+the terrace, Louise and Jean-Claude following.  At the bottom of the
+abyss was a great white cloud, through which could be seen a bright
+spark, as it were, on the side of Bois-de-Chênes&mdash;that was all; but at
+intervals, when the wind blew strong, the flames shot up, the two high
+black gables, the hay-loft, the small stables burned brightly, then all
+disappeared once more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is nearly finished," said Hullin, in a low voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied Catherine; "there are the labor and trouble of forty
+years vanishing in smoke; but they cannot burn my good land, nor the
+great meadow of Eichmath.  We will begin our work over again.  Gaspard
+and Louise will repair it all.  I regret nothing I have done."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A quarter of an hour later thousands of sparks arose, and the building
+crumbled to the ground.  The black gables alone remained standing.
+They continued to ascend the path.  As they were ascending the higher
+terrace, they heard the sharp voice of Hexe-Baizel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it thou, Catherine?" she cried.  "Ah, I never thought thou wouldst
+have come to see me in my wretched hole."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Baizel and Catherine Lefèvre had been at school together in former
+days, therefore they used the third person when speaking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nor I neither," replied the old farm-mistress.  "All the same,
+Baizel&mdash;one is glad to find in misfortune an old companion of one's
+childhood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Baizel seemed touched by her words.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All that is here, Catherine, is thine," she exclaimed; "everything!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She pointed to her miserable stool, the furze broom, and the five or
+six fagots on the hearth.  Catherine looked on a few moments in
+silence, and then said: "It is not grand, but it is solid; at least,
+they will not be able to burn down thy house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, they will not burn it," said Hexe-Baizel, laughing; "they would
+need all the wood of the province of Dabo even to warm it a little.
+Ha! ha! ha!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After so many fatigues, the partisans stood in need of repose.  They
+all placed their guns against the wall, and lay down on the ground to
+sleep, Marc Divès having opened the second cavern to them, where they
+at least were sheltered.  Marc then went out with Hullin to examine
+their position.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap23"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+MARC DIVÈS'S MISSION
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+On the rock of the Falkenstein, high up in the clouds, stands a tower,
+somewhat sunken at its base.  This tower, overgrown with brambles,
+hawthorn, and bilberries, is as old as the mountain; neither the
+French, Germans, nor Swedes have destroyed it.  The stone and cement
+are so solidly combined that not even a fragment can be detached from
+it.  It looks gloomy and mysterious, carrying one back to ancient
+times, beyond the memory of man.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that time of the year when the wild-geese migrated in flocks, Marc
+Divès, when he had nothing better to do, used to await them hidden in
+the tower, and sometimes at nightfall, when the flocks came through the
+fogs flying in large circles before resting, he would bring down two or
+three, much to the satisfaction of Hexe-Baizel, who was always very
+willing to put them on a spit.  Often, too, in the autumn, Marc laid
+traps in the bushes, where he caught thrushes.  The old tower also
+served him as a wood-house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Divès, perceiving that his wood, covered with snow and soaked by rain,
+gave more smoke than light, had covered in the old tower with a roof of
+planks.  With reference to this occasion, the smuggler related a
+curious story.  He pretended that, on laying the rafters, he had
+discovered, at the bottom of a fissure, a snow-white owl, blind and
+feeble: but supplied with quantities of bats and field-mice.  He
+therefore called it the "grandmother of the country," as he supposed
+that all the birds came to feed it on account of its extreme old age.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toward the close of the day, the partisans posted round the rock saw
+the white uniforms appearing in the neighboring gorges.  They poured in
+on all sides in large numbers, thereby clearly showing their
+determination to blockade the Falkenstein.  Perceiving this, Marc Divès
+became more thoughtful.  "If they surround us," said he, "we shall not
+be able to procure food, and shall have to surrender or die of hunger."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The enemy's staff on horseback could be clearly distinguished, halting
+round the fountain of the village of Charmes.  There also stood a tall
+chief with a large paunch, who was contemplating the rock through a
+telescope.  Behind him was Yégof, whom from time to time he turned
+round to question.  The women and children formed a circle beyond them,
+apparently highly delighted, and five or six Cossacks pranced about.
+The smuggler could not contain himself any longer, and, taking Hullin
+aside, "Look," said he, "at that long line of shakos gliding along the
+Sarre, and at the others who are scaling the valley on this side like
+hares; they are 'kaiserlichs,' aren't they?  Well, what are they going
+to do, Jean-Claude?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are going to surround the mountain, that is clear.  How many are
+there, dost thou think?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"From three to four thousand men, without counting those who are
+walking over the country.  Well, what can Piorette do against this pack
+of vagabonds with three hundred men?  I ask thee frankly, Hullin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He can do nothing," replied the worthy man, simply.  "The Germans know
+that our ammunition is on the Falkenstein; they dread an insurrection
+after they enter Lorraine, and wish to insure their rear.  The enemy's
+general knows that we cannot be taken by mere force, he is deciding to
+reduce us by hunger.  All that is true, Marc; but we are men: we will
+do our duty&mdash;we will die here!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a short silence; Marc Divès frowned, and did not seem at all
+convinced.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will die!" he replied, scratching his head.  "I do not see why we
+should die at all; it is not our intention to die: too many people
+would be gratified by it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What wouldst thou do?" said Hullin, dryly.  "Wouldst thou surrender?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Surrender!" exclaimed the smuggler.  "Dost thou take me for a coward?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then explain thyself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This evening I start for Phalsbourg.  I risk my skin in crossing the
+enemy's lines; but I like that better than folding my arms here, and
+perishing with hunger.  I will enter the town on the first 'sortie,' or
+I will endeavor to climb one of the gates.  The commandant, Meunier,
+knows me.  I have sold him tobacco for three years.  Like thyself, he
+has gone through the campaigns of Italy and Egypt.  Well, I will
+explain everything to him.  I shall see Gaspard Lefèvre.  I will so
+arrange that they will give us, perhaps, a company.  Dost thou see,
+Jean-Claude, that the uniform alone would save us?  All the brave men
+who remain will join Piorette; and in any case we shall be delivered,
+That is my idea.  What dost thou think of it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He looked at Hullin, whose gloomy, fixed expression made him uneasy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dost thou not think that a chance?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is an idea," said Jean-Claude at last.  "I do not oppose it."  And,
+looking full in the smuggler's face, "Swear to me to do thy best to
+enter the town."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I will swear nothing," replied Marc, whose brown cheeks were covered
+with a flush.  "I leave all my possessions here, my wife, my comrades,
+Catherine Lefèvre, and thee, my oldest friend!  If I do not return, I
+shall be a traitor; but if I return, Jean-Claude, thou shalt explain
+what thou meanest by thy demand: we will settle this little affair
+between us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Marc," said Hullin, "forgive me!  I have suffered much these last
+days.  I was wrong.  Misfortune makes one distrustful.  Give me thy
+hand.  Go!  Save us, save Catherine, save my child!  I say so now: our
+only resource is in thee."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin's voice faltered.  Divès relented; but he rejoined: "All the
+same, Hullin, thou shouldst not have said that to me at such a time.
+Never let us speak of it again.  I will leave my skin on the way, or
+return to deliver you.  This evening, when darkness sets in, I will
+leave.  The 'kaiserlichs' surround the mountain already; but no matter,
+I have a good horse, and, besides, I have always been lucky."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By six o'clock the highest peaks were hid in darkness.  Hundreds of
+fires, sparkling in the depths of the gorges, announced that the
+Germans were preparing their repasts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marc Divès felt his way down the narrow path.  Hullin listened for a
+few seconds to the retreating steps of his comrade, then walked
+anxiously toward the old tower, where their head-quarters were
+established.  He lifted the thick woollen covering which closed the
+owl's-nest, and perceived Catherine, Louise, and the others crouching
+round a small fire.  The old farm-mistress sat on an oak log, her hands
+clasped round her knees, watching the flames fixedly, with compressed
+lips.  Louise leant dreamily against the wall.  Jérome stood behind
+Catherine, his hands crossed on his stick, his otter-skin cap touching
+the mouldy roof.  All were sad and discouraged.  Hexe-Baizel, who was
+lifting the lid of a kettle, and Doctor Lorquin, who was scratching the
+softer parts of the old wall with the point of his sabre, alone
+preserved their usual expression.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here we are," said the doctor, "returned to the days of the Triboques.
+These walls are more than two thousand years old.  A great deal of
+water must have flowed from the heights of the Falkenstein and Grosmann
+to the Sarre and Rhine since a fire was last kindled in this tower."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied Catherine, as though awaking from a dream; "and many
+besides ourselves have suffered cold, hunger, and misery here.  Who
+knew of it?  No one.  And one, or two, or three hundred years hence,
+others, perhaps, will again come for shelter to this place.  They will
+find, as we have, the wall cold, and the earth damp; they will make a
+fire; they will look as we look; and they will say, like us, 'Who
+suffered here before ourselves?  Why did they suffer?  They must have
+been pursued and hunted, like ourselves, to be obliged to come and hide
+in this wretched hole.'  And they will think of past times; and no one
+will reply."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude came up to them.  The old dame, raising her head, and
+looking at him, said, "Well! we are blockaded; the enemy wants to
+subdue us by famine."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"True, Catherine," replied Hullin; "but I did not expect that.  I felt
+certain of a sudden attack; but the 'kaiserlichs' have not gained all
+yet.  Divès has just left for Phalsbourg.  He knows the commandant of
+the place; and if they will only send a few hundred men to our help&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do not count on that," interrupted the old woman.  "Marc may be taken
+or killed by the Germans: and, if not, and suppose he manages to cross
+their lines, how will he be able to enter Phalsbourg?  You well know
+that the town is besieged by the Russians."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then everybody relapsed into silence.  Hexe-Baizel brought up the soup,
+and they sat in a circle round the smoking bowl.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap24"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+A FLAG OF TRUCE
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Catherine Lefèvre came out of the ancient ruin about seven in the
+morning; Louise and Hexe-Baizel were still asleep; but broad daylight,
+the clear light of the high regions, was already penetrating the
+abysses.  In the depths, through the azure, the woods, valleys, and
+rocks could be clearly traced, like the mosses and pebbles of a lake
+beneath the blue crystal water.  Not a breath disturbed the air; and
+Catherine, gazing over this grand spectacle, felt a calmness and
+tranquillity beyond even that which comes of sleep.  "What are our
+miseries of a day," thought she, "our uneasinesses and our sufferings?
+Why pester heaven with our moans? why fear the future?  All this lasts
+but a second; our sighs are of no more avail than the chirp of the
+grasshopper in autumn; and do its cries prevent winter from coming?
+Must not time pursue its course, and everything die to be renewed?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus thought the old dame, and she had no longer any fears for the
+future.  She had been thus musing for a few instants, when suddenly a
+hum of voices struck her ears: she turned, and saw Hullin with the
+three smugglers, talking seriously together on the other side of the
+plateau.  They were engaged in a grave discussion, and had not noticed
+her.  Catherine approached closer to them, and heard the following
+conversation:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you do not think it possible for any one to get down either side?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Jean-Claude, it is quite impossible," replied Brenn; "those
+brigands know the country thoroughly well: all the paths are guarded.
+Hold, look along the paths of that stream: we never dreamt of observing
+it even; well! they are defending that now.  And over there, on the
+passage of the Rothstein, a path only for a goat, which is not trodden
+once in ten years&mdash;thou canst see a bayonet sparkle behind the rock,
+canst thou not?  And that nearer path along which I have slipped with
+my bags for these eight years past without meeting a single gendarme,
+they occupy that also: the devil certainly must have showed them all
+the defiles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," exclaimed Joubac, "if the devil has nothing to do with it, at
+least Yégof has!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But," continued Hullin, "it seems to me that three or four men might,
+if they liked, push through one of those posts."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, those posts lean one on the other; at the first shot one would
+have a whole regiment upon one's shoulders," replied Brenn.  "Besides,
+supposing one had the luck to get through, how could one return with
+provisions?  My opinion is, that it is impossible."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a pause.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"After that," said Joubac, "if Hullin likes we will try all the same."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will try what?" said Brenn.  "To break our legs in escaping
+ourselves, and leave the others in the trap.  I don't mind; if any
+others go, I will too.  But as for pretending to return with
+provisions, it is impossible.  Come, Joubac, by which way art thou
+going, and by which way wilt thou return?  If thou knowest of a
+passage, tell me.  For twenty years I have scoured the mountain with
+Marc.  I know all the paths and roads ten leagues round, and I see no
+other way but through the sky!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin turned round at that moment and saw Mother Lefèvre, close
+behind, listening attentively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What! were you there, Catherine?" said he.  "Our affairs are taking a
+bad turn."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I heard; there is no means of renewing our provisions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Our provisions!" said Brenn with a queer laugh.  "Are you aware,
+Mother Lefèvre, for how long we have them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, for a fortnight," replied the old dame.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For a week," said the smuggler, shaking out the ashes from his pipe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is true," said Hullin, "Marc Divès and myself thought they would
+attack the Falkenstein; we never imagined the enemy would blockade it
+like a fortress.  We have been deceived!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And what is to be done?" said Catherine, turning pale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are going to put everybody on half rations.  If, in a fortnight,
+Marc does not return we shall have nothing left&mdash;then we shall see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So saying, Hullin, Catherine, and the smugglers, with bowed heads, took
+the path to the breach again.  As they were coming down the slope,
+thirty feet below them they perceived Materne.  He was climbing
+breathlessly among the ruins, and clutched hold of the bushes to help
+him along faster.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," shouted Jean-Claude to him; "what is the matter, old fellow?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah! there thou art.  I was coming to find thee; one of the enemy's
+officers has come forward on the wall of the old 'burg' with a little
+white flag; he looks as though he had something to say to us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin advanced immediately to the edge of the rock, and saw a German
+officer standing on the wall, and awaiting a signal to mount.  He was
+about two gun-shots distant; farther behind five or six soldiers were
+stationed with their arms shouldered.  After having inspected this
+group, Jean-Claude turned and said: "It is a flag of truce.  He comes
+no doubt to summon us to surrender."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Fire upon them!" cried Catherine; "it is all we have to say."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the others appeared of the same advice, excepting Hullin, who,
+without making any reply descended to the terrace, where the rest of
+the partisans were assembled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My children," said he, "the enemy sends us a flag of truce.  We do not
+know what he wants of us.  I suppose it is to order us to lay down our
+arms; but it may possibly be something else.  Frantz and Kasper will go
+to meet him; they must blindfold the officer and lead him here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No objection being made, Materne's sons shouldered their carbines and
+walked away under the lofty arch.  About ten minutes later, the two
+red-haired hunters reached the officer; there was a rapid conference
+between them, after which all three began to climb to the Falkenstein.
+By degrees, as the party ascended, the uniform of the officer and his
+face could be distinguished: he was a thin man, with light brown hair,
+well made, and determined-looking.  At the foot of the rock Frantz and
+Kasper blindfolded him, and soon the sound of their steps under the
+arch could be heard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude going toward them, himself unbound the handkerchief,
+saying, "You desire to communicate something to me, sir; I am
+listening."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The partisans stood about fifteen paces away.  Catherine Lefèvre, the
+foremost among them, frowned; her bony, angular face, long beaked nose,
+her three or four tresses of gray hair, falling down over her temples
+and hollow cheek-bones, her compressed lips, and the fixity of her
+gaze, appeared at first to rivet the attention of the German officer.
+Next to her stood Louise, with her sweet pale face.  Jérome, with his
+long tawny beard, draped in his horse-hair tunic, and Materne, leaning
+on his short carbine, and the others around him completed the group.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The officer himself was the object of particular attention.  One could
+see in him, his attitude, fine sunburnt features, clear gray eyes,
+handsome mustache, in the elegance of his limbs, hardened by the labors
+of war, a member of an aristocratic race: he combined the old soldier
+and the man of the world, the warrior and the diplomatist.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This reciprocal inspection being finished, the bearer of the flag of
+truce said, in good French, "I have the honor of addressing the
+Commandant Hullin?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, sir," replied Jean-Claude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And seeing the other gazing hesitatingly around the circle, he
+continued, "Speak loud, sir, so that everybody may hear you.  When
+honor and the country are in question all are concerned in France; the
+women are interested as well as ourselves.  Have you any proposition to
+make me, and from whom?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"From the General Commander-in-chief.  Here is my commission."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good; we are listening to you, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the officer, raising his voice, said in a resolute tone: "Permit
+me first, commandant, to remark that you have fulfilled your duty
+splendidly: you have called forth the esteem of your enemies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In the matter of duty," replied Hullin, "we have all done our best."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," added Catherine, dryly, "and since our enemies esteem us on that
+account, well, they will esteem us still more in eight or fifteen days,
+for we have not reached the end of the war yet.  You will live to see
+more of us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The officer turned his head, and looked with astonishment at the savage
+energy in the old woman's face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are noble sentiments," he retorted, after an instant's silence:
+"but humanity has its rights, and to squander blood uselessly is
+returning evil for evil."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then why do you come into our country?" cried Catherine sharply.  "Go
+away, and we will let you alone.  You make war like brigands: you
+steal, pillage, and burn.  You all deserve to be hanged.  And to set a
+good example, you personally ought to be hurled over that rock."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The officer turned pale, for the old woman seemed quite capable of
+carrying out her threat; however he soon regained his composure, and
+replied calmly: "I am aware that the Cossacks have set fire to the farm
+in front of this rock.  They are pillagers, such as are to be found in
+the rear of every army, and this isolated act proves nothing against
+the discipline of our troops.  The French soldiers did the same in
+Germany, and particularly in the Tyrol; not content with pillaging and
+burning the villages, they mercilessly shot all mountaineers suspected
+of having taken up arms for the defence of their country.  We might
+make reprisals, and should be justified in doing so; but we are not
+barbarians, we can understand that patriotism is noble and grand, even
+in its most ill-advised acts.  Besides, we are not making war on the
+French people, but on the Emperor Napoleon.  And the general, on
+learning the conduct of the Cossacks, has publicly punished this act of
+Vandalism; more, he has decided that an indemnity shall be accorded to
+the proprietor of the farm."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I will not receive anything from you," Catherine hastily interrupted;
+"I will keep my injustice and revenge myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The officer understanding by the accent of the old woman's voice that
+he could make no impression upon her, and feeling that it was even
+dangerous for him to reply, turned toward Hullin, and said: "I am
+ordered, commandant, to offer you the honors of war if you will consent
+to give up this position.  You have no provisions, we know that.  In a
+few days you will be obliged to lay down your arms.  The esteem felt
+for you by our general has alone caused him to make you honorable
+conditions.  A longer resistance would be useless.  We are masters of
+the Donon, our battalions are entering Lorraine; the campaign will not
+be concluded here, therefore you have no interest in defending such a
+position.  We wish to spare you the horrors of famine on this barren
+rock.  Come, commandant, decide."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin turned toward the partisans and said to them: "You have heard?
+I refuse; but I will submit if everybody accepts the propositions of
+the enemy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We refuse, all of us," said Jérome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, all," replied the others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine Lefèvre, who had looked inflexible till then, regarded Louise
+and seemed touched; she took her by the arm, and turning toward the
+officer, said to him: "We have a child with us; is there no means by
+which we could send her to one of our relations at Saverne?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hardly had Louise heard these words, than throwing herself into
+Hullin's arms with fear, she cried out: "No, no, I will remain with
+you, Papa Jean-Claude; I will die with you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," said Hullin; "go tell your general what you have seen: tell him
+that the Falkenstein will be ours till death!  Kasper, Frantz,
+reconduct the truce-bearer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The officer appeared to hesitate, but as he opened his mouth to speak,
+Catherine, pale with rage, exclaimed, "Begone! you have not yet gained
+all the advantages you think.  It is that brigand Yégof who has told
+you that we have no provisions; but we have for two months, and by that
+time our army will have exterminated you all.  Traitors will not always
+have the best of it: bad luck to you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Seeing she was becoming more and more excited, the officer thought it
+best to take his departure: he turned to his guides, who put the
+bandages over his eyes, and conducted him to the foot of the
+Falkenstein.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The instructions which Hullin had given concerning the provisions were
+executed on the same day, and each received his half ration.  A sentry
+was placed before Hexe-Baizel's cavern, where the food was kept; the
+door was barricaded, and Jean-Claude decided that the distributions
+should be made in the presence of all, so as to prevent any injustice;
+but all these precautions were destined to fail in preserving the
+unfortunate people from the horrors of famine.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap25"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+"BATTLE OF THE ROCKS"
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+For three days they had been entirely without food on the Falkenstein,
+and Divès had given no signs of life.  How often, during those long
+days of agony, did the mountaineers turn their eyes toward
+Phalsbourg!&mdash;how often had they listened, fancying they could hear the
+smuggler's step, while the vague murmur of the wind alone filled the
+space!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The nineteenth day since the arrival of the partisans on the
+Falkenstein was passed amidst all the tortures of hunger.  They no
+longer spoke; they remained crouched on the earth, with pinched faces,
+and lost in endless reveries.  Sometimes they watched each other with
+sparkling eyes, as though about to devour one another, then relapsed
+into sullen calm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Occasionally Yégof's raven, flying from crag to crag, would approach
+this place of misfortune.  Then old Materne would take aim with his
+rifle, but the ill-omened bird would immediately take flight with
+dismal croakings, and the old hunter's arm fell helpless by his side.
+And as though the exhaustion of hunger was not enough to fill the
+measure of so much misery, the poor creatures only opened their mouths
+to accuse and menace one another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do not touch me," cried Hexe-Baizel, in a shrill voice to those who
+looked at her&mdash;"do not look at me, or I will bite you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Louise was delirious; her great blue eyes, instead of living objects,
+saw only shadows flit across the plateau, touching the tops of the
+bushes, and resting on the old tower.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here is food!" she said.  Then the others became enraged with the poor
+child, crying out with fury, that she was mocking them, and bidding her
+beware.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jérome alone remained perfectly calm; but the great quantity of snow he
+had swallowed to appease the pangs of ravenous hunger, had inundated
+his whole body and bony face with a cold sweat.  To appease the
+cravings of his stomach, Doctor Lorquin had bound a handkerchief round
+his loins, and tightened it more and more.  He was seated with his back
+against the tower, and his eyes closed, though he now and then opened
+them to say, "We have reached the first&mdash;the second&mdash;the third stage.
+One more day, and all will be over!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He then began to declaim about the Druids, Odin, Brahma, Pythagoras,
+quoting Latin and Greek, and announcing the near transformation of the
+people of Harberg into wolves, foxes, and animals of all sorts.  "For
+myself," he exclaimed, "I will be a lion!  I will eat fifteen pounds of
+beef every day!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then renewing his discourse:&mdash;"No, I will be a man.  I will preach
+peace, brotherhood, justice.  Ah, my friends, we suffer for our own
+faults.  What have we done with the other side of the Rhine for the
+last ten years?  With what right did we set up masters over those
+peoples?  Why did we not exchange our ideas, our sentiments, the
+produce of our arts and of our industry with theirs?  Why did we not
+approach them like brothers, in place of wishing to subject them to us?
+We should have been well received.  What must they not have suffered,
+those unhappy people, during those ten years of violence and rapine!
+Now they are avenged, and it is just!  May the malediction of heaven
+fall on the miserable wretches who get up divisions among peoples in
+order to oppress them!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After these moments of excitement he would fall exhausted against the
+wall of the tower, and murmur&mdash;"Some bread; oh, only a morsel of bread!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Materne's two sons, crouched in the brushwood, their carbines at their
+shoulders, seemed to expect the passage of some game which never
+arrived.  Their ceaseless watching alone sustained their expiring
+strength.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Others, bent double with pain, were shivering with cold, and yet were
+burning with fever: they reproached Jean-Claude with having brought
+them to the Falkenstein.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hullin, with a superhuman force of character, still went and came,
+observing what took place in the neighboring valleys, but without
+saying anything.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Occasionally he would advance to the edge of the rock, and with his
+massive jaws clinched and shining eyes, looked at Yégof, seated before
+a large fire, on the plains of Bois-de-Chênes, in the midst of a band
+of Cossacks.  Since the arrival of the Germans in the valley of the
+Charmes, the madman had never quitted his post, but appeared to be
+watching the agony of his victims.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such was the position of these unfortunate people beneath the open
+heaven.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the gloom of a prison the torture of hunger is doubtless frightful,
+but in the broad light of day, in the eyes of a whole country, in face
+of all the resources of nature, its sufferings are beyond all
+description.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the close of the nineteenth day, between four and five o'clock in
+the afternoon, the weather was gloomy; large gray clouds rose behind
+the snowy summit of the Grosmann; the red sun, like a ball of fire,
+threw a few last rays into the misty horizon.  The silence on the rock
+was unbroken.  Louise no longer gave signs of life; Kasper and Frantz
+remained among the bushes immovable as stones; Catherine Lefèvre,
+crouching on the earth, her skinny arms clasped round her pointed
+knees, with hard, rigid features, her hair hanging over her clammy
+cheeks, looked like some old sibyl seated in the heather.  She had
+ceased speaking.  That evening, Hullin, Jérome, old Materne, and Doctor
+Lorquin gathered themselves around the old farm-mistress to die.  They
+were silent, and the last rays of twilight fell upon the wretched
+group.  To the right, behind a jutting rock, a few German watch-fires
+sparkled in the abyss.  Suddenly the old dame, rousing from her dreams,
+began to murmur some unintelligible words.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Divès is coming," said she, in a low voice.  "I see him.  He goes out
+from the door to the right of the arsenal.  Gaspard follows him,
+and&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she began to count.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Two hundred and fifty men," she exclaimed; "National Guards and
+soldiers.  They cross the ditch; they mount behind the demilune.
+Gaspard is speaking with Marc.  What does he say?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She appeared to listen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us hurry!&mdash;yes, hurry!  Time flies!  There they are on the glacis!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was a long pause; then the old woman suddenly arose, with
+outstretched arms and hair on end, and screamed aloud in a terrible
+voice:&mdash;"Courage!  Kill, kill!  Ah, ah!"  And she fell down heavily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This fearful cry awoke them all; it would have aroused the dead.  The
+besieged seemed born anew.  Something was abroad.  Was it hope, life, a
+spirit?  I know not; but all rose up on their hands and knees, like
+wild beasts, holding their breath to hear.  Louise even moved softly
+and lifted her head; Frantz and Kasper dragged themselves along; and,
+strange to say, Hullin, turning his eyes toward Phalsbourg, thought he
+saw through the darkness the flashes of a fusillade announcing a sortie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine had resumed her first appearance; but her cheeks, before
+still and pale as those of a corpse, trembled now.  The others listened
+as though their salvation hung on her lips.  A quarter of an hour
+nearly had passed, when the old dame slowly recommenced:&mdash;"They have
+passed the enemy's lines; they are running toward Lutzelbourg.  I see
+them!  Gaspard and Divès are before, with Desmarets, Ulrich, Weber, and
+our friends of the town.  They come! they come!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She again became silent.  Long did they listen; but the vision was
+gone.  Seconds followed seconds slowly like centuries.  At length,
+Hexe-Baizel, in an angry voice, began to say:&mdash;"She is mad!  She saw
+nothing!  Marc, I know him: he is making fun of us.  What does it
+matter to him if we perish?  So long as he has his bottle and tobacco
+and can smoke his pipe in peace by the fireside, all the rest is
+nothing.  Ah, the wretch!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then all relapsed into silence, and the unhappy creatures, reanimated
+for an instant by hope of a speedy deliverance, again fell into despair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a dream," thought they; "Hexe-Baizel is right: we are condemned
+to die of hunger."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While this was going on night arrived.  When the moon rose behind the
+high pine-trees, and lit up the gloomy group, Hullin alone kept watch,
+in spite of his raging fever.  Far off&mdash;very far off in the gorges&mdash;he
+heard the voices of the German sentries; "Wer da?  Wer da?" the rounds
+of the patrols in the woods; the shrill neighing of the horses at the
+picket, and the shouts of their keepers.  Toward midnight the worthy
+fellow fell asleep like the rest.  When he awoke, the clock of the
+village of Charmes struck four.  At the sound of the distant chimes,
+Hullin shook off his drowsiness, and he opened his eyes.  As he gazed
+unconsciously into the darkness, trying to collect his thoughts, the
+vague glimmer of a torch passed before his eyes.  A feeling of dread
+came over him, and he said to himself:&mdash;"Am I mad?  The night is dark,
+and I see torches!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless, the flame reappeared; he looked at it, then raised
+himself quickly, resting his contracted face for a second in his hand.
+At length, hazarding one more look, he distinctly saw a fire on the
+Giromani, on the other side of Blanru&mdash;a fire which swept the heavens
+with its purple wings, causing the shadows of the pines to dance on the
+snow.  Recalling to himself that this signal had been agreed upon
+between him and Piorette to announce an attack, he trembled from head
+to foot, his face streamed with perspiration, and, walking in the dark,
+groping like a blind man with his hands outstretched, he
+stammered,&mdash;"Catherine, Louise, Jérome."  But no one answered.  Still
+groping about, thinking he was walking while he did not make a step,
+the unfortunate man fell down, exclaiming, "My children!  Catherine!
+they come!  We are saved!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A vague sound immediately arose.  One would have said that the dead
+were awaking.  There was a shrill laugh: it was Hexe-Baizel, gone mad
+from her sufferings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Catherine exclaimed: "Hullin!  Hullin! who spoke?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude, recovering from his emotion, said, in firmer tones:
+"Jérome, Catherine, Materne, and the others, are you dead?  Do you not
+see that fire down there, in the direction of Blanru?  It is Piorette,
+who is coming to our assistance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the same instant, a deep boom rolled along the gorges of the
+Jägerthal, like the rumbling of a storm.  The summoning trumpet of the
+Judgment could not have produced a greater effect on the besieged: they
+suddenly awoke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is Piorette! it is Marc!" cried broken, harsh voices, such as might
+have belonged to skeletons; "they are coming to our aid!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And all the wretched creatures tried to rise: some sobbed; but they had
+no longer any tears to shed.  A second report brought them upright.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are firing in detachments," said Hullin.  "Ours are doing so too.
+We have soldiers in lines!  France forever!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," replied Jérome.  "Mother Catherine was right; the Phalsbourgers
+are coming to our assistance; they are descending the hills of the
+Sarre; and there is Piorette, who is now attacking by Blanru."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Indeed, the fusillade now began to resound on both sides at once,
+toward the plateau of Bois-de-Chênes and the heights of Kilbèri.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two chiefs embraced; and, as they groped along in the dark night,
+seeking to reach the edge of the rock, suddenly Materne cried out,
+"Take care, the precipice is near!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They stopped short and looked down; but nothing was to be seen: a
+current of cold air ascending from the abyss alone warned them of the
+danger.  The peaks and gorges round were all plunged in darkness.  On
+the hill-sides in front the flashes of the fusillade passed like
+lightning, illuminating now an old oak, now the heather, or the black
+outline of some rock; and groups of men were coming and going, as
+though in the midst of a conflagration.  Two thousand feet below, in
+the depth of the gorge, could be heard dull sounds of galloping horses,
+and the clamors of command.  Now, the shout of a mountaineer hailing
+another was prolonged from peak to peak, and arose to the Falkenstein
+like a sigh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is Marc!" said Hullin; "it is Marc's voice!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is Marc, who bids us have courage," replied Jérome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The others looked around them with outstretched necks, their hands
+grasping the rock.  The fusillade continued with a vivacity that
+betrayed the fury of the battle; but nothing could be seen.  Oh! how
+they wished to take part in this supreme struggle!  With what ardor
+would they not have thrown themselves into the fire!  The fear of being
+abandoned once more, of seeing by daylight their defenders retreating,
+rendered them speechless with terror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Day began to dawn; the pale light arose behind the black summits, and
+began to illumine the gloomy valleys, and soon the fog of the abyss
+turned to silvery mists.  Hullin, looking across the openings of these
+clouds, at length made out the position.  The Germans had lost the
+heights of Valtin, and the plain of Bois-de-Chênes.  They were massed
+in the valley of Charmes, at the foot of the Falkenstein, so as to
+obtain shelter from their adversaries' fire.  Piorette, master of
+Bois-de-Chênes, had thrown out outworks, in front of the rock, on the
+side of the descent to Charmes.  He was pacing to and fro, his pipe in
+his mouth, and carbine slung across his shoulders; and the blue axes of
+the wood-cutters glistened in the rising sun.  On the left of the
+village, toward Valtin, in the midst of the furze, Marc Divès, on a
+small black horse, with a long tail, his blade by his side, pointed to
+the ruins and the sledge road; while an infantry officer and a few
+National Guards were listening to him.  Gaspard Lefèvre stood alone, in
+front of the group, leaning on his gun; and, on the summit of the hill,
+by the wood, two or three hundred men were keeping watch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sight of the small number of their defenders caused the hearts of
+the besieged to grow fearful; all the more so, as the Germans were
+seven or eight times superior in numbers, and had already begun to form
+columns of attack, to regain the positions they had lost.  Horsemen
+were conveying on all sides the general's orders, and the bayonets
+began to defile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is all over," said Hullin to Jérome.  "What are five or six hundred
+men to do against four thousand in line of battle?  The Phalsbourgers
+will return to their houses and say, 'We have done our duty.'  And
+Piorette will be crushed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The others thought so too; and their despair was brought to a climax
+when they suddenly saw a long file of Cossacks riding furiously along
+the valley of Charmes, with Yégof the madman galloping like the wind at
+their head, his beard, horse's tail, dogskin, and red hair floating
+wildly in the air.  He looked up at the rock, and brandished his lance
+above his head.  Reaching the bottom of the valley, he made at once for
+the enemy's staff, and coming up to the general, he indicated by
+gestures the other side of the plateau of Bois-de-Chênes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, the brigand!" shouted Hullin.  "See, he tells them that Piorette
+has no outworks on that side, that they must go round the mountain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In fact, a column began immediately to march in that direction, while
+another went toward the outworks to mask the movement of the first.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Materne," cried Jean-Claude, "is there no means of sending a ball into
+the madman?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The old hunter shook his head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," said he, "it is impossible; he is out of range."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just then, Catherine Lefèvre gave a wild scream like a hawk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Crush them, crush them, as they did at the Blutfeld!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the old woman, an instant before so feeble, threw herself on a mass
+of rock, lifted it with both hands, advanced, with her streaming gray
+hair, bent over to the edge of the abyss, and the rock dashed through
+the space beneath.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A terrible crash resounded below, pieces of pine flew out on all sides,
+the great stone rebounded a hundred feet away, and descending the steep
+slope with fresh impulse, struck Yégof, and crushed him at the feet of
+the enemy's general.  This was but the work of a few seconds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Catherine, upright on the edge of the rock laughed with a rattling
+sound, which seemed as though it would never end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The others, as though all animated with new life, precipitated
+themselves on the ruins of the old castle, shouting: "Slay them! slay
+them!  Crush them as at the Blutfeld!"
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-318"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-318.jpg" ALT="&quot;LET US OVERWHELM THEM, AS AT BLUTFELD!&quot;" BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+&quot;LET US OVERWHELM THEM, AS AT BLUTFELD!&quot;
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+It is impossible to imagine a more terrible scene.  These beings, at
+death's very door, lean and haggard as skeletons, found strength for
+the carnage.  They no longer stumbled, they trembled no more; each one
+lifted his stone and threw it down the precipice, then returned to take
+another, without even looking to see what was passing below.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Imagine the stupor of the "kaiserlichs" at this deluge of ruins and
+rocks.  All had turned at the sound of the stones bounding above
+through the bushes and clumps of trees.  At first they stopped as
+though petrified; but looking higher up, and seeing more and more
+stones descending, and above it all the spectres coming and going,
+lifting their arms, and continually discharging fresh burdens&mdash;seeing
+their comrades crushed, fifteen or twenty at a time, an immense cry
+went up from the valley of Charmes to the Falkenstein, and,
+notwithstanding the fusillade which they kept up on every side, the
+Germans scampered away to escape this fearful death.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the thickest of the rout, the enemy's general contrived to rally a
+battalion, and descend slowly toward the village.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was something grand and dignified about this man, so calm in the
+midst of disaster.  He turned from time to time with a gloomy look to
+watch the bounding rocks, which made ghastly havoc in his columns.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jean-Claude observed him, and, notwithstanding the intoxication of his
+triumph and the certitude of having escaped famine, the old soldier
+could not suppress a feeling of admiration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look," said he to Jérome, "he acts as he did on returning from the
+Donon and Grosmann: he is the last to retire, and yields only bit by
+bit.  There are, indeed, brave fellows in every country!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marc Divès and Piorette, the witnesses of this stroke of fortune, then
+descended into the midst of the fir-trees, to try and cut off the
+retreat of the enemy.  But the battalion, reduced to half its strength,
+formed into square behind the village of Charmes, and slowly ascended
+the valley of the Sarre, stopping sometimes, like a wounded boar who
+turns to look at the huntsmen, whenever Piorette's men or those of
+Phalsbourg tried to press too nearly upon them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus terminated the great battle of the Falkenstein, known in the
+mountains under the name of the Battle of the Rocks.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap26"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXVI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+CONCLUSION
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The combat was hardly over, when, toward eight o'clock, Marc Divès,
+Gaspard, and about thirty mountaineers, laden with provisions, ascended
+the Falkenstein.  What a spectacle awaited them!  The besieged,
+stretched on the earth, appeared to be dead.  It seemed useless to
+shake them, to cry into their ears; "Jean-Claude!  Catherine?  Jérome!"
+There came no reply.  Gaspard Lefèvre, seeing his mother and Louise
+immovable, with clinched teeth, told Marc, that if they did not return
+to life, he would blow out his brains with his gun.  Marc replied that
+each man must do as he liked; but for his part he should not do
+likewise on Hexe-Baizel's account.  At length old Colon, having laid
+his burden down on a stone, Kasper Materne opened his eyes, and seeing
+the provisions, his teeth began to chatter like those of a fox pursued
+by the hounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They immediately understood the meaning of this symptom; and Marc
+Divès, going from one to the other, passed his gourd under their noses,
+which sufficed to bring them to.  They wanted to drink its contents all
+up at once; but Doctor Lorquin, notwithstanding his condition, had
+still enough sense to warn Marc not to allow them to do so, and the
+slightest action of choking would be fatal to them.  Each one,
+therefore, only received a morsel of bread, an egg, and a glass of
+wine, which wonderfully revived their spirits; then Catherine, Louise,
+and the others, were laid on sledges and were brought down to the
+village.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm and joy of their friends
+when they saw them return, leaner than Lazarus when he rose from his
+grave.  They gazed at one another, and embraced, and the process was
+repeated on the arrival of every newcomer from Abreschwiller, Dagsburg,
+St. Quirin, or elsewhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marc Divès was obliged to relate more than twenty times the story of
+his journey to Phalsbourg.  The brave smuggler had had no luck.  After
+having miraculously escaped from the balls of the "kaiserlichs," he got
+into the valley of Spartzprod, and fell into the midst of a band of
+Cossacks, who ransacked him from top to toe.  He had been compelled to
+wander for two weeks around the Russian posts which surrounded the
+town, exposed to the continual fire of their sentries, and running
+endless risks of being taken as a spy, before being able to get into
+the town.  Then the commandant, Meunier, at first refused to give any
+succor, assigning the weakness of his garrison as an excuse, and only
+at the pressing petitions of the towns-folk at length consented to
+detach two companies.  Listening to his recital, the mountaineers gave
+vent to their admiration of Marc's courage and perseverance in the
+midst of danger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," replied the tall smuggler good-humoredly to those who thus
+congratulated him, "I have only done my duty; could I have allowed my
+comrades to perish?  I well knew it would not be easy; those rascally
+Cossacks are sharper than the customs' folks; they scent you a league
+off like crows; but all the same, we have outwitted them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Five or six days later everybody was on the alert; Captain Yidal, from
+Phalsbourg, had left twenty-five men to guard the powder; Gaspard
+Lefèvre was of the number, and the sturdy fellow went down every
+morning to the village.  The allies had all passed into Lorraine, and
+were no longer seen in Alsace, except around the fortresses.  Soon
+after came the news of the victories of Champ-Aubert and Montmirail;
+but a great misfortune was at hand; for the allies, notwithstanding the
+heroism of our army and the genius of the Emperor, entered Paris.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a terrible shock to Jean-Claude and Catherine, Materne, Jérome
+and all the mountaineers; but the history of these events does not
+belong to this tale.  It has already been related by others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Peace having been made, the farm of Bois-de-Chênes was rebuilt in the
+spring; the wood-cutters, the shoemakers, masons, wood-floaters, and
+all the workmen of the district, lent a hand in the work.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toward the same time, the army having been disbanded, Gaspard cut off
+his mustaches and his marriage with Louise took place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the day of the wedding all the combatants of the Falkenstein and
+Donon came to the farm, where they were received with open doors and
+windows.  Each brought his present to the newly married pair; Jérome,
+small shoes for Louise; Materne and his sons, a black cock, the most
+loving of birds, as all know; and Divès, packets of smuggled tobacco
+for Gaspard; and Doctor Lorquin a fine set of baby-linen.  Tables were
+spread out, even in the granaries and sheds.  How much wine, bread,
+meat, and tarts was consumed I cannot say; but what I am sure of is,
+that Jean-Claude, who had been low-spirited ever since the entry of the
+allies into Paris, revived on that day, and sang the old song of his
+youth as cheerfully as when he shouldered his gun and set out for
+Valmy, Jemmapes, and Fleurus.  The echoes of the Falkenstein repeated
+in the distance that old patriotic song; the grandest and noblest that
+has ever been heard by man.  Catherine Lefèvre kept time on the table
+with the handle of her knife; and if it be true, as many say, that the
+dead come to listen when they are spoken of, our departed friends must
+have been happy, and "The King of Diamonds" have fumed in his red beard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toward midnight, Hullin arose, and addressing the newly married pair,
+said: "You will have fine children; I will jump them on my knees, I
+will teach them my old song, and then I shall go to rejoin my old
+comrades!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So saying he embraced Louise, and arm in arm with Marc Divès and
+Jérome, descended to his cottage, followed by the rest, who sang
+together the fine old song.  A more beautiful night was never seen:
+numberless stars shone out in the dark blue sky; the shrubs on the
+hill-side, where so many brave fellows had found a grave, quivered
+slightly in the breeze.  Every one felt happy and softened; they shook
+hands on the threshold of the small house, and wished each other
+"good-night," and departed, to the right and to the left, to their
+different villages.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-night, Materne, Jérome, Divès, Piorette&mdash;good-night!" cried
+Jean-Claude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His old friends turned back, waving their hats, and said to themselves:
+"There are some days when one is very happy on the earth.  Ah, if there
+were never any plagues, or wars, or famines; if men would but agree to
+love and help each other; if they would but live in peace together,
+what a paradise this world would be!"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Invasion of France in 1814, by
+Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Invasion of France in 1814
+
+Author: Emile Erckmann
+        Alexandre Chatrian
+
+Release Date: July 26, 2011 [EBook #36859]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: AS THEY CLIMBED UP THEY WERE CLUBBED WITH MUSKETS]
+
+
+
+
+
+HISTORICAL ROMANCES OF FRANCE
+
+
+THE INVASION OF
+
+FRANCE IN 1814
+
+
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
+
+ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+NEW YORK::::::::::::::::::::::1911
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1889, 1898
+
+BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+_As they climbed up they were clubbed with muskets . . . Frontispiece_
+
+_There was a general shout of_ "_Long live France!_"
+
+_Big Dubreuil; the friend of the allies_
+
+_Yegof saluted each phantom with sparkling eyes_
+
+"_Let us overwhelm them, as at Blutfeld!_"
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY NOTE
+
+The invasion of France by the allied armies after the battle of Leipsic
+had proved the German campaign even more disastrous than that of Russia
+the year before, was not only essentially the death-blow to the power
+of Napoleon, but was the first real taste France had had for many years
+of an experience she had so often previously meted out to her
+neighbors.  In spite of all she had suffered from the conscription and
+from exhaustion of men and treasure in offensive war--or at least war
+waged outside her own territory--the great Invasion meant for her
+something far more terrible than any reverses she had yet undergone.
+Napoleon was not only not invincible, it appeared, he was not even able
+to defend the frontiers he had found firmly established on his
+accession to power.  The allies had announced that they were warring
+not against France but against the French Emperor--"against the
+preponderance that Napoleon had too long exercised beyond the limits of
+his empire."  Everywhere in France except in the official world of
+Paris, the once enchanted name of Napoleon had become recognized as a
+synonym of national disaster.
+
+Nevertheless nothing--except, perhaps, the similar circumstances of the
+Prussian invasion in 1870--has ever so well attested the fundamental
+and absorbing patriotism of the French people as their heroic
+resistance to this invasion and their instinctive and universal refusal
+to separate in this crisis the cause of their Emperor from their own.
+The presence of a foreign foe on whatever pretext within their
+boundaries sufficed to arouse them _en masse_.  No such enthusiasm had
+been known since the days of the Republic's and the Consulate's
+victories as was awakened, in the thick of national disaster and amid
+the ruin of all ambitious hopes, by the thought of an enemy within the
+borders of _la patrie_.  And in "The Invasion" of MM. Erckmann-Chatrian
+this enthusiasm and devotion find a chronicle which is most
+realistically impressive.  So soon as the peasants of the outlying
+villages of the eastern frontier learn of the impending descent of the
+Cossacks and Germans, without thought of their own comfort and
+safety--which it is, however, impartially pointed out they know would
+hardly be better secured by submission--they organize for resistance.
+They blockade the highways and defend the mountain passes.  Women and
+children aid in the work.  While the siege of Phalsbourg goes on the
+heights are occupied by sturdy peasants who oppose for a while an
+effective obstacle to the passage of the invaders.  The worst
+hardships, the most perilous adventures, are accepted by them with the
+heroic courage of regulars.  Outlaws and smugglers work and fight hand
+to hand with the respected worthies of the neighborhood.  They watch
+their farms burn from their outlook on the hill-tops, they suffer the
+pangs of starvation when their supplies are intercepted by the enemy,
+they fight to desperation when their position is finally turned by the
+treachery of a crazy German they have long harbored--and whose vagaries
+give, by the way, a most romantic color to the narrative--and they are
+finally slain or captured just as Paris capitulates and peace is made.
+None of the National Novels is more graphic or more significant
+historically than "The Invasion."
+
+
+
+
+THE INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OLD SHOEMAKER AND HIS DAUGHTER
+
+If you would wish to know the history of the great invasion of 1814,
+such as it was related to me by the old hunter Frantz du Hengst, you
+must transport yourself to the village of Charmes, in the Vosges.
+About thirty small houses, covered with shingles and dark-green
+houseleeks, stand in rows along the banks of the Sarre: you can see the
+gables carpeted with ivy and withered honeysuckles, for winter is
+approaching; the beehives closed with corks of straw, the small
+gardens, the palings, the hedges which separate them one from the other.
+
+To the left, on a high mountain, arise the ruins of the ancient chateau
+of Falkenstein, destroyed two hundred years ago by the Swedes.  It is
+now only a mass of stones and brambles; an old "timber-way," with its
+worn-out steps, ascends to it through the pine-trees.  To the right, on
+the side of the hill, one can perceive the farm of Bois-de-Chenes--a
+large building, with granaries, stables, and sheds, the flat roof
+loaded with great stones, in order to resist the north wind.  A few
+cows are grazing in the heather, a few goats on the rocks.
+
+Everything is calm and silent.
+
+Some children, in gray stuff trousers, their heads and feet bare, are
+warming themselves around their little fires on the outskirts of the
+woods; the spiral lines of blue smoke fade away in the air, great white
+clouds remain immovable above the valley; behind these clouds arise the
+arid peaks of the Grosmann and Donon.
+
+You must know that the end house of the village, whose square roof is
+pierced by two loophole windows, and whose low door opens on the muddy
+street, belonged, in 1813, to Jean-Claude Hullin, one of the old
+volunteers of '92, but now a shoemaker in the village of Charmes, and
+who was held in much consideration by the mountaineers.  Hullin was a
+short stout man, with gray eyes, large lips, a short nose, and thick
+eyebrows.  He was of a jovial, kind disposition, and did not know how
+to refuse anything to his daughter Louise, a child whom he had picked
+up among some miserable gypsies--farriers and tin-sellers--without
+house or dwelling-place, who go from village to village mending pots
+and pans, melting the ladles, and patching up cracked utensils.  He
+considered her as his own daughter, and never seemed to remember she
+came of a strange race.
+
+Besides this natural affection, the good old fellow possessed others
+still: he loved above all his cousin, the old mistress of the farm of
+Bois-de-Chenes, Catherine Lefevre, and her son Gaspard, who had been
+carried off that year by the conscription--a handsome young fellow, the
+"fiance" of Louise, and whose return was expected by all the family at
+the end of the campaign.
+
+Hullin recalled always with enthusiasm his campaigns of the
+Sambre-et-Meuse, of Italy and of Egypt.  He often thought of them, and
+sometimes in the evening, when the work was over, he would go to the
+sawmills of Valtin, that dark manufactory formed of trunks of trees
+still bearing their bark, and which you can perceive down there at the
+end of the valley.  He sat down among the wood-cutters and
+charcoal-gatherers, and sledges, in front of the great fire; and while
+the heavy wheel turned, the dam thundered and the saws grinded, he, his
+elbow on his knee, and his pipe in his mouth, would speak to them of
+Hoche, of Kleber, and finally of General Bonaparte, whom he had seen
+hundreds of times, and whose thin face, piercing eyes, and eagle
+profile, he would depict as though he were present.
+
+Such was Jean-Claude Hullin.
+
+He was one of the old Gallic stock, fond of extraordinary adventures
+and heroic enterprises, but constant to his work, out of a sentiment of
+duty, from New Year's day until Saint Sylvester's.
+
+As for Louise, the child of the tramp, she was a slender creature, with
+long delicate hands, eyes of such a soft deep blue that they seemed to
+penetrate to the depths of your soul, skin of a snowy whiteness, hair
+of a pale straw-color, like silk in texture, and drooping shoulders
+like those of a virgin praying.  Her ingenuous smile, pensive
+forehead--in fact, her whole appearance--recalled the old _Lied_ of the
+Minnesinger Erhart, when he said: "I have seen a ray of light pass by:
+my eyes are still dazzled by it.  Was it a moonbeam piercing the
+foliage?  Was it a smile from the dawn in the forests?  No, it was the
+beautiful Edith, my love, who passed by.  I have seen her, and my eyes
+are still dazzled."
+
+Louise only cared for fields, gardens, and flowers.  In spring-time,
+the first notes of the skylark made her shed tears of delight.  She
+went to see the budding hawthorn and blue cornflowers behind the hedges
+on the hill-sides; she watched for the return of the swallows, from the
+little windows of the garret.  She was always the true child of the
+homeless vagrants, only less wild.  Hullin forgave her everything; he
+understood her nature, and would sometimes say, laughingly:--"My poor
+Louise, with the booty that thou bringest us,--thy fine sheaves of
+flowers and golden wheat-ears--we should die of hunger in three days!"
+
+Then she would smile so tenderly at him and embrace him so willingly,
+that he would go on with his work, saying:--"Bah! why need I grumble?
+She is right: she loves the sunshine.  Gaspard will work for two--he
+will have the happiness of four.  I do not pity him: on the contrary.
+One can find plenty of women who work, and that does not improve their
+beauty; but loving woman! what luck to have found one--what luck!"
+
+Thus reasoned the good old fellow; and days, weeks, and months wore
+away in the expectation of Gaspard's return.
+
+Madame Lefevre, an extremely energetic woman, partook of Hullin's ideas
+on the subject of Louise.
+
+"As for me," she said, "I only want a daughter who loves us; I do not
+wish her to have anything to do with my household affairs.  So long as
+she is contented!  Thou wilt not bother me--is it not so, Louise?"
+
+And then they would embrace each other.  But Gaspard did not return,
+and for two months they had had no tidings of him.
+
+On that same day, toward the middle of December, 1813, between three
+and four o'clock in the afternoon, Hullin, bending over his bench, was
+finishing a pair of nailed shoes for the wood-cutter Rochart.  Louise
+had just put an earthenware porringer down on the little iron stove,
+which sang and crackled in a plaintive manner, while the old clock
+counted the seconds in its monotonous tic-tac.  Outside, all along the
+street, could be perceived small pools of water, covered with a coating
+of thin white ice, announcing the approach of intense cold.  At times
+the sound of great wooden shoes, running along the hardened road, could
+be heard, and a felt hat, a cape, or a woollen cap would pass by: then
+the noise would cease, and the plaintive hissing of the green wood in
+the flames, the humming of Louise's spinning-wheel, and the boiling of
+the porridge-pot again prevailed.  This had gone on for about two
+hours, when Hullin, glancing accidentally through the little
+window-panes, stopped his work, and remained with his eyes wide open,
+staring, as though absorbed by some unusual spectacle.
+
+In fact, at the corner of the street, in front of the "Trois Pigeons,"
+there advanced, in the midst of a crowd of whistling, jumping, and
+shouting boys, who called out "The King of Diamonds!  The King of
+Diamonds!"--There advanced, I say, one of the strangest personages
+imaginable.  Picture to yourself a red-headed, red-bearded man, with a
+grave face, gloomy expression, straight nose, the eyebrows meeting on
+the forehead, a circle of tin on the head, a gray dogskin floating over
+the back, its forepaws tied around the neck; the chest covered with
+little copper crosses, the legs clothed with a sort of gray cloth
+trousers fastened above the ankle, and the feet bare.  A great raven,
+with black wings glossed over with white, was perched on his shoulder.
+From his imposing gait one would have taken him for one of the ancient
+Merovingian kings, such as are represented by the images of
+Montbeliard; he held in the left hand a short thick stick in the shape
+of a sceptre, and with the right he made ostentatious gestures, raising
+his finger toward heaven, and apostrophizing his retinue.
+
+All the doors opened on his passage; behind every pane appeared
+inquisitive faces.  Some few old women on the outer stairs of their
+houses, called out to the madman, who would not deign to turn his head;
+others went down into the streets and tried to prevent him passing; but
+he, lifting his head and raising his eyebrows, with one word and a
+sign, forced them to make way.
+
+"Hullo!" said Hullin, "here is Yegof.  I did not expect to have seen
+him again this winter.  It is not one of his customs.  What on earth
+can bring him back in such weather?"
+
+And Louise, laying down her distaff, hurried away to contemplate "The
+King of Diamonds."  It was a great event, the arrival of Yegof the
+madman at the commencement of winter: some rejoiced over it, hoping to
+keep him and make him relate his glory and fortunes in the inns;
+others, and especially the women, were filled with a sort of vague
+uneasiness, for madmen, as all know, have ideas from another world:
+they know the past and the future--they are inspired by God: the only
+thing is to know how to understand them--their words bearing always two
+meanings: one for the ordinary run of people, the other for more
+refined and delicate souls, and the wise.  This madman besides, more
+than another, had truly some sublime and extraordinary thoughts.  None
+knew from whence he came, nor where he went, nor what he wanted; for
+Yegof wandered about the country like some troubled spirit.  He spoke
+of extinct races, and pretended that he was Emperor of Australasia, of
+Polynesia, and of other lands besides.  Great books could have been
+written on his palaces, castles, and strongholds--of which he knew the
+number, the situation, the architecture--and whose beauty, riches, and
+grandeur, he would celebrate in a simple and modest manner.  He spoke
+of his stables, of his hunts, of his crown-officers, ministers,
+counsellors, of the heads of his provinces; he never made any mistakes
+as to their names or different merits; but he bitterly bewailed having
+been dethroned by the accursed race: and the old midwife, Sapience
+Coquelin, every time that she heard him groan over this subject, would
+cry bitterly, and others also did the same.  Then he would raise his
+arms to heaven and cry out,--"O women, women! remember, remember!  The
+hour approaches--the spirits of darkness flee! the old race--the
+masters of your masters--advance like the waves of the sea!"
+
+And every spring he was in the habit of making a survey of all the old
+owls' nests, the ancient castles, and all the ruins which crown the
+Vosges in the depths of their forests, at Nideck, Geroldseck,
+Lutzelbourg, and Turkestein, saying that he was going to visit his
+territories, talking of re-establishing the past splendor of his
+states, and of putting all mutinous people into slavery, with the aid
+of his cousin the "Grand Golo."
+
+Jean-Claude Hullin made light of these things, from not having a soul
+elevated enough to enter into the invisible spheres; but Louise was
+much troubled by them--above all, when the raven flapped its wings and
+gave its hoarse cry.
+
+Yegof, then, descended the street, without stopping anywhere; and
+Louise, all excitement, seeing that he looked toward their little
+house, said aloud,--"Papa Jean-Claude, I believe he is coming our way."
+
+"It is quite possible," replied Hullin.  "The poor devil must be in
+need of a pair of good lined shoes for the great cold, and if he were
+to ask me, I should hardly be able to refuse them to him."
+
+"Oh, how kind you are!" said the young girl, embracing him
+affectionately.
+
+"Yes, yes! thou art flattering me," said he, laughing, "because I do
+what thou wishest.  Who will pay me for my wood and work?  It will not
+be Yegof!"
+
+Louise kissed him again, and Hullin, looking lovingly at her,
+murmured,--"This payment is worth the other."
+
+Yegof was then about fifteen yards from their door: the tumult still
+kept increasing; the boys hung on to the tatters of his coat, crying
+out, "Diamond!  Club!  Spade!"  Suddenly he turned, raised his sceptre,
+and called out in a dignified though furious manner,--"Go back,
+accursed race!  Go back, deafen me no longer, or I will loose my
+bloodhounds against you!"
+
+This menace only made the shouts of laughter and hisses redouble; but
+as at that moment Hullin appeared on the threshold with a long strap in
+his hand, and distinguishing five or six of the most obstinate among
+them, he warned them that that evening he would go and pull their ears
+during their supper--a feat which he had already performed several
+times with the consent of the parents, the whole band dispersed in
+great consternation.  Then, going toward the madman,--"Enter, Yegof,"
+said the shoemaker, "come and warm thyself by the fire."
+
+"I do not call myself Yegof," replied the unhappy man, looking
+offended.  "I call myself Luitprandt, King of Australasia and
+Polynesia."
+
+"Yes, yes, I know," said Jean-Claude--"I know!  Thou hast already told
+me all that.  But what does it matter that thou callest thyself Yegof,
+or Luitprandt? come in all the same.  It is cold; try to warm thyself."
+
+"I come in," replied the madman; "but it is for a much more serious
+affair: it is for a state affair--to form an indissoluble alliance
+between the Germans and the Triboques."
+
+"Well, we will talk of that."
+
+Yegof, stooping under the door, entered as though in a reverie, and
+saluted Louise by bowing and lowering his sceptre; but the raven would
+not come in.  Opening his great wings, he made a circuit around the
+house, and came and fastened himself onto the window-panes to break
+them.
+
+"Hans," shouted the madman, "take care!  I am coming!"
+
+But the bird did not detach its sharp claws from the casement, and
+never ceased fluttering its great wings so long as its master remained
+in the cottage.  Louise did not take her eyes off it: she was afraid.
+As for Yegof, he sat down in the old leathern armchair behind the
+stove, his legs stretched out as though on a throne; and gazing around
+him in a triumphant manner, he cried out,--"I come direct from Jerome,
+to conclude an alliance with thee, Hullin.  Thou art not ignorant that
+I have deigned to cast my eyes on thy daughter, and I come to ask her
+of thee in marriage."
+
+At this proposition Louise blushed to the roots of her hair, and Hullin
+burst into a loud laugh.
+
+"Thou laughest!" cried the madman, in a hollow voice.  "Well! thou art
+wrong to laugh.  This alliance may alone save thee from the impending
+ruin of thyself, thy house, and all thy belongings.  At this moment my
+armies are advancing.  They are countless--they cover the earth.  What
+can you do against me?  You will be vanquished, annihilated, or reduced
+to slavery, as you have already been for centuries: for I, Luitprandt,
+King of Australasia and of Polynesia--I have decided that everything
+shall be as it once was.  Remember!"--here the madman raised his finger
+solemnly--"remember what has passed!  You have been beaten!  And we,
+the old northern races--we have put our yokes upon you.  We have
+burdened you with the largest stones for building our strong castles
+and our subterraneous prisons; we have harnessed you to our ploughs;
+you have been before us as the straw before the hurricane.  Remember,
+remember, Triboque, and tremble!"
+
+"I remember very well," said Hullin, still laughing; "but we had our
+revenge.  Thou knowest?"
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted Yegof, frowning; "but that time has gone by.
+My warriors are more numerous than the leaves in the forests; and your
+blood flows like the water of the brooks.  Thou, I know thee--I knew
+thee a thousand years ago!"
+
+"Bah!" said Hullin.
+
+"Yes, it was this hand--dost thou hear?--this hand that has vanquished
+thee, when, for the first time, we entered your forests.  It has made
+thy head bow beneath the yoke--it will make it bend again!  Because you
+are brave, you believe yourselves masters of this country and of all
+France forever.  Well, you are wrong!  We have spoiled you, and we will
+spoil you again.  We will restore Alsace and Lorraine to Germany,
+Brittany and Normandy to the men from the North, with Flanders and the
+South to Spain.  We will make France into a little kingdom around
+Paris--a very little kingdom--with a descendant of the ancient race at
+your head.  And you will no longer agitate yourselves--you will be very
+tranquil.  Ha, ha, ha!"  Yegof began to laugh.
+
+Hullin, who had no knowledge of history, was astonished that he should
+know so many names.
+
+"Bah! stop that, Yegof," said he; "and come, take a little soup to warm
+thy inside."
+
+"I do not ask thee for soup; I ask thee for this girl in marriage--the
+most beautiful on my estates.  Give her to me willingly, and I raise
+thee to the steps of my throne: else my armies shall take her by force,
+and thou shalt not have the merit of giving her to me."
+
+While thus speaking, the unhappy creature regarded Louise with an air
+of profound admiration.
+
+"How beautiful she is!  I destine her to the greatest honors.  Rejoice,
+young girl, rejoice!  Thou shalt be queen of Australasia."
+
+"Listen, Yegof," said Hullin.  "I am very much flattered by thy demand:
+it shows that thou canst appreciate beauty.  It is well.  But my
+daughter is already affianced to Gaspard Lefevre."
+
+"And I," said the madman, greatly irritated--"I will not hear of such a
+thing!"  Then rising up,--"Hullin," said he, in solemn tones, "it is my
+first demand.  I will renew it yet twice again--dost thou hear--twice!
+And if thou wilt persist in thy obstinacy--misfortune, misfortune on
+thee and thy race!"
+
+"What! thou wilt not take any soup?"
+
+"No, no!  I will accept nothing from thee so long as thou hast not
+consented.  Nothing, nothing!"  And then marching toward the door, much
+to the satisfaction of Louise, who was intent on the raven, fluttering
+its wings against the window-panes, he said, raising his
+sceptre,--"Twice again!" and departed.
+
+Hullin went off into a shout of laughter.  "Poor devil!" he exclaimed.
+"In spite of himself, his nose turned toward the porringer.  He has
+nothing in his inside--his teeth chatter with hunger.  Well! his
+madness is stronger than either cold or hunger."
+
+"Oh, how he frightened me!" said Louise.
+
+"Come, come, my child, calm thyself.  He is gone.  He thinks thou art
+pretty, fool though he is; do not let that terrify thee."
+
+But although the madman had left, Louise still trembled, and felt
+herself blushing when she thought of how he had looked at her.
+
+Yegof had taken the road to Valtin.  He could still be seen, his raven
+on his shoulder, walking slowly along and making curious gestures,
+although no one was near him.  The night was drawing on, and soon the
+tall figure of "The King of Diamonds" disappeared in the gray shadows
+of the winter twilight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE SHOEMAKER'S VISITOR
+
+In the evening of that same day, after their supper, Louise, having
+taken her spinning-wheel, was gone for a little diversion to the Mother
+Rochart's where all the good women and young girls of the neighborhood
+used to assemble till near midnight.  They spent their time in relating
+old legends, talking of the rain, of the weather, of marriages,
+baptisms, of the departure or return of the conscripts, and what not,
+that enabled them to pass the hours agreeably.
+
+Hullin remained alone before his little copper lamp, nailing the shoes
+of the old wood-cutter.  He no longer thought of the madman Yegof.  His
+hammer rose and fell, driving the great nails into the thick wooden
+shoes quite mechanically, by force of habit.  In the meantime thousands
+of ideas came into his head; he was thoughtful without knowing why.
+Now it was Gaspard, who gave no signs of being alive; then it was the
+campaign, which was being indefinitely prolonged.  The lamp threw its
+yellowish light around the smoky little room.  Outside, not a sound.
+The fire began to die away.  Jean-Claude rose to put on a fagot, then
+sat down again, muttering,--"Bah! this cannot last; we shall receive a
+letter one of these days."
+
+The old clock began to strike nine; and as Hullin was recommencing his
+work, the door opened and Catherine Lefevre, the mistress of
+Bois-de-Chenes, appeared on the threshold, to the great stupefaction of
+the shoemaker, for it was not her custom to arrive at such a time.
+
+Catherine Lefevre might have been sixty years old, but she was as
+upright and strong as at thirty.  Her clear gray eyes and beaked nose
+resembled those of a bird of prey; the corners of her mouth turned
+down, and made her look somewhat gloomy and sad; two or three locks of
+gray hair fell over her forehead; a brown striped hood reached from her
+head, over her shoulders and down to her elbows.  Her physiognomy
+announced a steadfast, tenacious character, with something
+indescribably grand and mournful about it, which inspired both respect
+and fear.
+
+"Can it be you, Catherine?" said Hullin, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, it is I," replied the old dame, calmly.  "I am come to talk with
+you, Jean-Claude....  Louise is away?"
+
+"She has gone for a little amusement to Madeleine Rochart's."
+
+"It is well."
+
+Then Catherine pushed back her hood from her head, and sat down at the
+end of the bench.  Hullin looked fixedly at her: he perceived something
+extraordinary and mysterious about her which fascinated him.
+
+"What has happened, then?" said he, putting down his hammer.
+
+Instead of answering this question, she turned toward the door, and
+seemed to be listening; then hearing no sound, her serious expression
+came back.
+
+"Yegof the madman spent last night at the farm," said she.
+
+"He came to see me this afternoon," rejoined Hullin, without attaching
+any importance to this fact, which was totally indifferent to him.
+
+"Yes," replied the old dame, in a low voice, "he spent the night with
+us; and yesterday evening, about this time, in the kitchen, before us
+all, this madman related terrible things!"
+
+Then she relapsed into silence, and the corners of her mouth seemed to
+turn down more than ever.
+
+"Terrible things!" murmured the shoemaker, excessively astonished: for
+he had never seen Catherine Lefevre in such a condition before.  "But
+what then? say, what?"
+
+"Dreams I have had!"
+
+"Dreams?  You certainly want to make fun of me!"
+
+"No!"
+
+Then, after a short pause, she slowly continued--"Yesterday evening,
+all our people were assembled in the kitchen around the large fireplace
+after supper; the table still remained covered with empty dishes,
+plates, and spoons.  Yegof had partaken of it with us, and had amused
+us with the history of his treasures, castles, and provinces.  It might
+have been toward nine o'clock: the madman was sitting at one end of the
+blazing fire; old Duchene, my ploughboy, was mending Bruno's saddle;
+the herdsman, Robin, was plaiting a basket; Annette arranged her pans
+on the shelves: and I had brought my wheel nearer the fire to finish
+spinning a distaff-ful before going to bed.  Out of doors, the dogs
+were barking at the moon; the cold was very great.  We were all there,
+talking of the coming winter.  Duchene said it would be very severe,
+for he had seen several flocks of wild-geese.  And Yegof's raven, on
+the edge of the mantel-piece, its head buried in its raffled feathers,
+seemed to sleep; but now and then it would elongate its neck and watch
+us, listen a moment and then cover itself again in its plumes."
+
+She remained silent a moment, as though to collect her ideas; her
+eyelids drooped, her great beaked nose seemed to bend down on to her
+lips, and a strange pallor came over her face.
+
+"What the devil is coming next?" thought Hullin.
+
+The old woman continued: "Yegof near the fire, with his tin crown, and
+his short stick on his knees, was dreaming of something.  He looked at
+the great black chimney, the stone mantel-piece, which is carved with
+different figures and trees, and the smoke which went up in great
+clouds around the sides of bacon: when suddenly he struck with the end
+of his stick on to the tiles and called out, as though in a
+dream--'Yes, yes, I have seen that long ago--long ago!'  And as we all
+looked at him speechless--'In those times,' he went on to say, 'the
+pine-forests were forests of oak.  The Nideck, the Dagsberg,
+Falkenstein, Geroldseck, all those old ruined castles did not exist.
+In those times the bison could be hunted in the depths of the woods,
+the salmon caught in the Sarre, and you, the fair men, were buried in
+snow six months of the year.  You lived on milk and cheese, for you had
+many flocks and herds on the Hengst, the Schneeberg, the Grosmann, the
+Donon.  In the summer you hunted: you came down to the Rhine, the
+Moselle, the Meuse.  I can recall it all!'
+
+"And wonderful to relate, Jean-Claude, as the madman spoke, I seemed to
+see also these countries of years gone by, and to remember them as I
+should a dream.  I had let fall my distaff, and Duchene, Robin,
+Jeanne--in fact, everybody--listened.  'Yes, it was long ago,' he
+continued.  'In those days you were already building these great
+chimneys; and all around, at a distance of two or three hundred yards,
+you planted palisades fifteen feet high, and with the points hardened
+by the fire.  And inside them you kept your big dogs with their hanging
+cheeks, who barked day and night.'
+
+"We could see what he said, Jean-Claude; we could see it all.  But he
+paid no heed to us: he regarded the figures on the chimney-piece with
+his mouth open; but, in an instant, having stooped his head and seeing
+how attentive we all were, he laughed with a wild, mad laughter, and
+cried out:--'In those days you believed yourselves the lords of the
+country, O fair men, with your blue eyes and white skins, fed on milk
+and cheese, and only tasting blood in the autumn, at the great hunts:
+you believed yourselves the masters of the plains and mountains, when
+we, the red men, with the green eyes, out of the sea--we who drank
+always blood and only liked battles--one fine morning we arrived with
+our axes and spears, and ascended the Sarre under the shadows of the
+old oaks.  Ah! it was a cruel war, which lasted weeks and months.  And
+the old woman--there--' said he, pointing at me, with a singular smile,
+'the Margareth of the clan of Kilberix, that old woman with her beaked
+nose, in her palisades, in the midst of her dogs and warriors--she
+fought like a wolf.  But when five moons had passed, hunger arrived.
+The doors of the palisades opened for flight, and we, in ambush in the
+stream--we massacred all!--all--except the children and the beautiful
+young girls.  The old woman, alone, defended herself to the last with
+her teeth and nails; and I, Luitprandt, clove her head in two; and I
+took her father, the aged man and blind, to chain him at the door of my
+castle like a dog!'
+
+"Then, Hullin," continued the old woman, "the madman began to chant a
+long song--the lamentation of the old man chained to his doorway.  Wait
+till I can recall it, Jean-Claude.  It was mournful--mournful as a
+_Miserere_.  No, I cannot remember it; but I seem still to hear it.  It
+made our blood curdle; and, as he laughed without ceasing, at last all
+our servants gave a terrible cry, rage seized them.  Duchene sprang on
+the madman to strangle him; but he, with more strength than one could
+suppose he possessed, threw him back, and raising his stick furiously,
+said to us:--'On your knees, slaves--on your knees!  My armies are
+advancing!  Do you hear?  The earth trembles with them.  These castles,
+the Nideck, the Haut-Barr, the Dagsberg, the Turkestein, you shall
+build them up again!  On your knees!'
+
+"I never saw a more fearful face than Yegof's at that moment; but,
+seeing for the second time my servants rising against him, I was
+obliged to defend him myself.  'It is a madman,' I said to them.  'Are
+you not ashamed to believe in the words of a madman?'  They stopped on
+my account; but I could not close my eyes that night.  The words of
+that wretched man kept recurring to me.  I seemed to hear the chant of
+the old prisoner, the barking of our dogs, and the sounds of battle.
+For years I have never felt so uneasy.  That is why I came to see you,
+Jean-Claude.  What do you think of it?"
+
+"I?" exclaimed the shoemaker, in whose ruddy face both irony and pity
+were visible.  "If I did not know you so well, Catherine, I should say
+you were deranged:--you, Duchene, Robin, and the rest of you.  All that
+has about the same effect on me as one of Genevieve de Brabant's
+tales--made up to terrify little children, and which shows us how
+foolish our ancestors were."
+
+"You do not comprehend these things," said she, in a calm, grave voice;
+"you have never had any of those ideas."
+
+"Then you believe all that Yegof has said to you?"
+
+"Yes, I believe it."
+
+"What, you, Catherine?--you, a sensible woman?  If it were the mother
+of Rochart I should say nothing; but you!"
+
+He rose as though annoyed, took off his apron, shrugged his shoulders,
+then sat down again quickly, and called out:--"This madman, do you know
+what he is?  I will tell you.  He is most assuredly one of those German
+school-masters who stuff their brains with 'Old Mother Goose' tales,
+and then gravely relate them to others.  By dint of studying, dreaming,
+ruminating, their wits get out of order; they have visions, many-sided
+ideas, and take their dreams for realities.  I have always looked upon
+Yegof as one of those poor wretches.  He knows lots of names, he speaks
+of Brittany and Australasia, of Polynesia and the Nideck, and then of
+Geroldseck, of the Turkestein, of the Rhine--in fact of everything at
+hazard; and it ends by having the appearance of something when it is
+nothing.  In ordinary times you would think as I do, Catherine; but you
+are troubled at not receiving any tidings from Gaspard.  These rumors
+of war and of invasion that are going about torment and unsettle you.
+You cannot sleep; and what a poor madman says, you regard as Bible
+truths."
+
+"No, Hullin; it is not that.  If you yourself had heard Yegof----"
+
+"Get along!" exclaimed the good old fellow.  "If I had, I should have
+laughed at him as I did just now.  Do you know that he came to ask
+Louise of me in marriage, to make her queen of Australasia?"
+
+Catherine Lefevre could not restrain a smile; but, regaining almost at
+once her serious expression--"All your reasonings, Jean-Claude," said
+she, "cannot convince me; but, I confess it, the silence of Gasper
+frightens me.  I know my son: he would certainly have written to me.
+Why have his letters never reached me?  The war is going on badly,
+Hullin--we have all the world against us.  They don't want our
+revolution--you know it as well as I do.  So long as we were masters,
+and won victory after victory, they looked kindly on us; but since our
+Russian misfortunes, things wear a bad aspect."
+
+"La, La, Catherine, how you get carried away.  You see everything
+gloomily."
+
+"Yes, I see everything gloomily, and I am right.  What makes me so
+uneasy is, that we never get any news from the outer world; we live
+here as in a savage country: one knows of nothing that goes on.  The
+Austrians and the Cossacks could be upon us at any time, and we should
+be taken by surprise."
+
+Hullin observed the old dame, whose expression was very animated; and
+even he began to be influenced by the same fears.
+
+"Listen, Catherine," said he, suddenly.  "When you speak in a
+reasonable manner, it is not I who would say anything against it.  All
+you now tell me is possible.  I do not believe in it; but one might as
+well make sure.  I had intended to go to Phalsbourg in a week, to buy
+sheepskins for trimming some shoes: I will go to-morrow.  At
+Phalsbourg, a garrison and post town, there must be some reliable news.
+Will you believe those I shall bring you on my return from that place?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good; it is then arranged.  I shall leave to-morrow early.  There are
+five leagues in all.  I shall return about six o'clock.  You will see,
+Catherine, that all your dismal ideas have no sense in them."
+
+"I hope so," she replied, rising.  "I hope so.  You have somewhat
+reassured me, Hullin.  Now I will go to the farm, and may I sleep
+better than I did last night.  Good-night, Jean-Claude."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AT PHALSBOURG
+
+The next day at dawn, Hullin, wearing his blue cloth Sunday breeches,
+his large brown velvet jacket and red waistcoat with brass buttons, and
+a broad beaver mountaineer's hat turned up like a cockade above his
+ruddy face--started on his way to Phalsbourg, a stout stick in his hand.
+
+Phalsbourg is a small fortress, half-way on the imperial road from
+Strasbourg to Paris; it dominates Saverne, the defiles of Haut-Barr,
+Roche-Platte, Bonne-Fontaine, and of the Graufthal.  Its bastions,
+outposts, and demilunes are cut out in zig-zags on a rocky plain: from
+afar, the walls look as though they might be cleared at a jump; but on
+coming closer one perceives the moat, a hundred feet wide, thirty deep,
+and the dark ramparts hewn in the face of the rock.  That makes one
+stop suddenly.  Besides, with the exception of the church, the
+town-hall, the two gateways of France and Germany, in shape of mitres,
+and the peaks of the two powder-magazines, all the rest is hidden
+behind the fortifications.  Such is Phalsbourg, which is not without a
+certain imposing effect, especially when one crosses its bridges and
+piers, under its thick gates, garnished with iron-spiked portcullis.
+In the interior, the houses are distributed in regular quarters; they
+are low, in straight lines, built of freestone: everything bears a
+military aspect.
+
+Hullin, owing to his robust constitution and jovial disposition, never
+had any fears for the future, and considered all rumors of retreat,
+rout, and invasion, which circulated in the country, as so many lies
+propagated by dishonest individuals; so that one may judge of his
+stupefaction when, on leaving the mountains and from the outskirts of
+the woods, he saw the whole surroundings of the town laid as bare as a
+pontoon: not a garden, not an orchard, not a promenade, or a tree, or
+even a shrub--all was destroyed within cannon-range.  A few poor
+creatures were picking up the last remnants of their little houses, and
+carrying them into the town.  Nothing was to be seen on the horizon but
+the line of ramparts standing out clearly above the hidden roads.  It
+had the effect of a thunder-bolt on Jean-Claude.
+
+For some moments he could neither articulate a word nor make a step
+forward.
+
+"Oh, ho!" said he, at last, "this is bad--this is very bad.  They
+expect the enemy."
+
+Then his warlike instincts prevailed; a dark flush came over his brown
+cheeks.  "It is those rascally Austrians, Prussians, and Russians, and
+all the other wretches picked up out of the dregs of Europe, who are
+the cause of this," cried he, waving his stick.  "But beware! we will
+make them pay for the damages!"
+
+He was possessed with one of those white rages such as honest people
+feel when they are driven to extremities.  Woe to him who annoyed
+Hullin just then!
+
+Twenty minutes later he entered the town, at the rear of a long file of
+carriages, each harnessed to five or six horses, pulling, with much
+trouble, enormous trunks of trees, destined to construct block-houses
+on the _place-d'armes_.  Among the conductors, the peasants, and
+neighing, stamping horses, marched gravely a mounted _gendarme_--Father
+Kels--who did not seem to hear anything, and said, in a rough voice,
+"Courage, courage, my friends!  We will make two more journeys before
+evening.  You will have deserved well of your country!"
+
+Jean-Claude crossed the bridge.
+
+A new spectacle opened before him in the town.  There reigned the ardor
+of defence: all the doors were open; men, women, and children came and
+ran, helping to transport the powder and projectiles.  They stopped in
+groups of three, four, six, to make themselves acquainted with the news.
+
+"He neighbor!"
+
+"What then?"
+
+"A courier has just arrived in great speed.  He entered by the French
+gate."
+
+"Then he has come to announce the National Guard from Nancy."
+
+"Or, perhaps, a convoy from Metz."
+
+"You are right.  We want sixteen-pounders, and shot also.  The stoves
+are to be broken up to make some."
+
+A few worthy tradespeople in their shirt-sleeves, standing on tables
+along the pavement, were busying themselves with barricading their
+windows with large pieces of wood and mattresses; others rolled up to
+their doors tubs of water.  This enthusiasm reanimated Hullin.
+
+"Excellent!" said he; "everybody is making holiday here.  The allies
+will be well received."
+
+In front of the College, the squeaky voice of the Sergeant-de-ville
+Harmentier was proclaiming:--
+
+"Let it be known that the casemates are to be opened: therefore
+everybody may take a mattress there, and two blankets each.  And the
+commissaries of this place are going to commence their rounds of
+inspection, to ascertain that each inhabitant possesses food for three
+months in advance, which he must certify.--This day, 20th December,
+1813.--JEAN PIERRE MEUNIER, _Governor_."
+
+All this Hullin saw and heard in less than a minute, for the whole town
+was in the greatest excitement.  Strange, serious, and comic scenes
+succeeded each other without interruption.
+
+Near the narrow street leading to the Arsenal, a few National Guards
+were drawing a twenty-four pounder.  These honest fellows had a very
+steep ascent to climb; they could do no more.  "Ho! all together!
+Mille tonnerres!  Once again!  Forward!"  They all shouted at once,
+pushing the wheels, and the great cannon, stretching out its long neck
+over its immense carriage, above their heads, rolled slowly along,
+making the pavement tremble.
+
+Hullin, quite rejoiced, was no longer the same man.  His soldier-like
+instincts, the remembrance of the bivouac, of the marches, of the
+firing, and of the battles--all returned.  His eyes sparkled, his heart
+beat faster, and already thoughts of defence, of entrenchments, of
+death-struggles came and went in his head.
+
+"Faith!" said he, "all goes well!  I have made enough shoes in my life,
+and since the occasion to take up the musket presents itself, well, so
+much the better: we will show the Prussians and Austrians that we have
+not forgotten to charge at the double."
+
+Thus reasoned the good man, carried away by his warlike instincts; but
+his joy did not last long.
+
+Before the church, on the _place-d'armes_, were standing fifteen or
+twenty carts, full of wounded, arrived from Leipzig and Hanau.  These
+unhappy creatures, pale, ghastly, heavy-eyed, some whose limbs were
+already amputated, others with their wounds still untouched, tranquilly
+awaited death.  Near them, a few worn-out jades were eating their
+meagre allowance, while the conductors, poor wretches, who had been
+brought into requisition in Alsace, wrapped in their old mantles, slept
+notwithstanding the cold--their great hats turned down over their faces
+and their arms folded--on the steps of the church.  One shuddered to
+see these sad groups of men, with their gray hoods, heaped up on the
+bloody straw--one carrying his broken arm on his knees; another with
+his head bandaged in an old handkerchief; a third, already dead, being
+used as a seat for the living, his black hands hanging down the ladder.
+Hullin, in front of this mournful spectacle, stopped rooted to the
+ground.  He could not lift his eyes from it.  Great human suffering has
+this strange power of fascination over us: we look to see men perish,
+how they regard death: the best among us are not exempt from this
+frightful curiosity.  It seems as though eternity is going to deliver
+up its secret!
+
+There, then, near the shafts of the first cart, to the right of the
+file, were crouched two carbineers in little sky-blue vests, veritable
+giants, whose powerful natures gave way under the clutch of pain: like
+two caryatides crushed by the weight of some heavy mass.  One, with
+great red mustaches and ashy cheeks, looked at you out of his sunken
+eyes, as though from the depths of some fearful nightmare; the other,
+bent double, with blue hands, and shoulder torn by shot, sank more and
+more; then would raise himself with a jerk, talking softly as though
+dreaming.  Behind lay stretched, two and two, some infantry soldiers,
+the greater number struck by ball, with a leg or an arm broken.  They
+seemed to support their fate with more firmness than the giants.  These
+poor creatures said nothing: a few only, the youngest, furiously
+demanded water and bread; and in the next cart, a plaintive voice--the
+voice of a conscript--called, "My mother! my mother!" while the older
+men smiled gloomily, as though to say: "Yes, yes, she will come, thy
+mother!"  Perhaps they did not think of anything all the time.
+
+Now and then a shudder would pass along the whole of them.  Then
+several wounded could be seen half lifting themselves, with deep
+groans, and falling back as if death had gone its rounds at that moment.
+
+And again everything relapsed into silence.  While Hullin was watching,
+and feeling sick to his heart's core, a shopkeeper in the vicinity,
+Some the baker, came out of his house carrying a large basin of soup.
+Then you should have seen all these spectres move, their eyes sparkle,
+their nostrils dilate; they seemed born again.  The unhappy fellows
+were dying of hunger!
+
+Good Father Some, with tears in his eyes, approached, saying, "I am
+coming, my children.  A little patience!  It is I, you know me!"
+
+But hardly was he near the first cart, when the great carbineer with
+the ashy cheeks, reviving, plunged his arm up to the elbow in the
+boiling basin, seized the meat, and hid it under his vest.  It was done
+with the rapidity of lightning.  Savage yells arose on all sides: those
+men, if they had had strength to move, would have devoured their
+comrade.  He, his arms pressed tightly to his chest, the teeth on has
+prey, and glaring round him, appeared to hear nothing.  At these cries
+an old soldier, a sergeant, rushed out of the nearest inn.  He was an
+old hand; he understood at once what it was about, and, without useless
+reflections, he tore away the meat from the wild beast, saying to him,
+"Thou dost not deserve any!  It must be divided into parts.  We will
+cut ten rations!"
+
+"We are only eight!" said one of the wounded, very calm to all
+appearance, but with eyes gleaming out of their bronze mask.
+
+"How, eight?"
+
+"You can see, sergeant, that those two are dying fast: it would be so
+much food lost!"
+
+The old sergeant looked.
+
+"Eight," said he; "eight rations!"
+
+Hullin could bear it no longer.  He went over to the innkeeper
+Wittmann's opposite, as white as death; Wittmann was also a fur and
+leather merchant.  Seeing him enter, "He! is it you, Master
+Jean-Claude?" he exclaimed.  "You arrive sooner than usual; I did not
+expect you till next week."  Then seeing how he staggered--"But say,
+you are ill?"
+
+"I have just seen the wounded."
+
+"Ah, yes! the first time, it shocks you; but if you had seen fifteen
+thousand pass, as we have, you would not think anything more about it."
+
+"A glass of wine, quick?" said Hullin, who felt badly.  "Oh, mankind,
+mankind!  And to think that we are brothers!"
+
+"Yes, brothers until it touches your purse," replied Wittmann.  "Come,
+drink! that will set you right."
+
+"And you have seen fifteen thousand go by?" rejoined the shoemaker.
+
+"At the least, for two months, without speaking of those who have
+remained in Alsace and the other side of the Rhine; for, you
+comprehend, they cannot find carts enough for all, and then many are
+not worth the trouble of being carried away."
+
+"Yes, I comprehend!  But why are they there, those poor creatures?  Why
+do they not go into the hospital?"
+
+"The hospital!  What is one hospital, ten hospitals, for fifty thousand
+wounded?  Every hospital, from Mayence and Coblentz as far as
+Phalsbourg, is crowded.  And, besides, that terrible fever, typhus, you
+see, Hullin, kills more than the bullet.  All the villages of the plain
+twenty leagues round are infected with it; they die everywhere like
+flies.  Luckily the town has been in a state of siege these three days;
+the gates will be closed, and no more will enter.  I have lost, for my
+part, my Uncle Christian and my Aunt Lisbeth, as healthy, solid people
+as you and I, Master Jean-Claude.  At last the cold has arrived; last
+night there was a white frost."
+
+"And the wounded remained on the pavements all night?"
+
+"No, they came from Saverne this morning; in an hour or two, when the
+horses are rested, they will leave for Sarrebourg."
+
+At that moment, the old sergeant, who had re-established order in the
+carts, came in rubbing his hands.
+
+"He! he!" said he, "it freshens, Papa Wittmann.  You did well to light
+the fire in the stove.  A little glass of cognac to drive away the fog.
+Hum! hum!"
+
+His small half-closed eyes, his beaked nose, the cheek-bones being
+separated from it by two flourishing wrinkles, which were lost to sight
+in a long reddish imperial--everything looked gay in his face, and told
+of a jovial, kind disposition.  It was a regular military face,
+scorched, burnt by the open air, full of frankness, but also of a
+cheery slyness; his great shako, his blue-gray cloak, the
+shoulder-belt, the epaulette, seemed to partake of his individuality.
+One could not have represented him without them.  He walked up and down
+the room, continuing to rub his hands, while Wittmann poured him a
+glass of brandy.  Hullin, seated near the window, had at once noticed
+the number of his regiment--6th Light Infantry.  Gaspard, the son of
+Madame Lefevre, served in this regiment.  Jean-Claude could now obtain
+some tidings of the lover of Louise; but, as he was going to speak, his
+heart beat loud.  If Gaspard was dead; if he had perished like so many
+others!
+
+The worthy shoemaker felt nearly suffocated; he kept silent.  "Better
+to know nothing," thought he.  However, a few minutes later, he could
+do so no longer.  "Sergeant," said he, in a hoarse voice, "you are in
+the 6th Light Infantry?"
+
+"Yes, my citizen," said the other, turning round in the middle of the
+room.
+
+"Do you know one called Gaspard Lefevre?"
+
+"Gaspard Lefevre, of the 2d division of the 1st?  Parbleu, if I know
+him!  It is I who taught him his drill.  A brave soldier! hardened
+against fatigue.  If we had a hundred thousand of that stamp----"
+
+"Then he lives? he is well?"
+
+"Yes, citizen.  Eight days ago I left the regiment at Fredericsthal to
+escort this convoy of wounded.  You understand, it is hot there--one
+cannot answer for anything.  From one moment to the other, each of us
+may have his business settled for him.  But eight days ago, at
+Fredericsthal--the 15th December--Gaspard Lefevre still answered to the
+roll-call."
+
+Jean-Claude breathed.  "But then, sergeant, have the goodness to tell
+me why Gaspard has not written to his village for two months?"
+
+The old soldier smiled, and blinked his little eyes.  "Ah! now,
+citizen, do you then believe that one has nothing else to do on the
+march but to write?"
+
+"No.  I have served; I was in the campaigns of Sambre-et-Meuse, of
+Egypt and Italy, but that did not prevent me from giving some news of
+myself."
+
+"One instant, comrade," interrupted the sergeant.  "I have passed
+through Egypt and Italy also; the campaign we are finishing is
+altogether different."
+
+"It has then been very severe?"
+
+"Severe! one must have one's soul driven into every part of one's
+members, so as not to leave one's bones there.  All was against us:
+sickness, traitors, peasants, townsfolk, our allies--in fact all!  From
+our company, which was complete when we quitted Phalsbourg, the 21st of
+last January, only thirty-four men remain.  I believe Gaspard Lefevre
+is the only conscript left.  Those poor conscripts! they fought well;
+but they were not accustomed to endure hardships: they melted like
+butter in an oven."  So saying, the old sergeant approached the counter
+and drank his glass off at one draught.  "To your health, my citizen.
+Are you perchance the father of Gaspard?"
+
+"No, I am a relation."
+
+"Well, you can pride yourselves on being stoutly built in your family.
+What a man at twenty!  He has gone through everything--he has, while
+the others fell away in dozens."
+
+"But," rejoined Hullin, after an instant's silence, "I cannot see
+anything so very different in this last campaign; for we also had
+sickness and traitors."
+
+"Anything different!" exclaimed the sergeant.  "Everything was
+different!  Formerly, if you have gone through the war in Germany, you
+ought to remember that, after one or two victories, it was over: the
+people received you well; one drank the little white wines, and ate
+sauerkraut and ham with the townsfolk; one danced with the buxom wives.
+The husbands and grandpapas laughed heartily, and when the regiment
+left, everybody cried.  But this time, after Lutzen and Bautzen,
+instead of feeling kindly, the people regarded us with diabolical
+faces; we could get nothing out of them but by force; one could have
+fancied one's self in Spain or Vendee.  I do not know what stuff they
+had in their heads against us.  Better had we only been French, had we
+not had Saxons and other allies, who only awaited the moment to spring
+at our throats: we should then have pulled through all the same, one
+against five!  But the allies--don't talk to me of the allies!  Why, at
+Leipzig, the 18th of October last, in the hottest part of the battle,
+our allies turned against us and shot at us from behind; those were our
+good friends the Saxons.  A week later, our former friends the
+Bavarians came and threw themselves across our retreat: we had to pass
+over them at Hanau.  The day after, near Frankfort, another column of
+good friends presented themselves, and we had to crush them.  The more
+one kills, the more they come!  Here we are now this side of the Rhine.
+Well, there are decidedly more of these good friends marching from
+Moscow.  Ah! if we could have foreseen it after Austerlitz, Jena,
+Friedland, Wagram!"
+
+Hullin had become very thoughtful.  "And now how do we stand, sergeant?"
+
+"We have had to repass the Rhine, and all our strongholds on the other
+side are blockaded.  The 10th of November last the Prince of Neufchatel
+reviewed the regiment at Bleckheim.  The 3d battalion had been
+amalgamated with the 2d, and the 'cadre' received orders to be in
+readiness to leave for the depot.  Cadres are not wanting, but men.  As
+for twenty years we have been bled on all sides, it is not astonishing.
+All Europe is down upon us.  The Emperor is at Paris; he is laying down
+a plan of the campaign.  If we may only have breathing time till the
+spring----"
+
+Just then Wittmann, who was standing by the window, said,--"Here is the
+governor come from inspecting the clearings around the town."
+
+It was the commandant, Jean-Pierre Meunier, wearing a three-cornered
+hat, and a tricolor scarf around his waist, who crossed over the square.
+
+"Ah," said the sergeant, "I must get him to sign my papers.  Pardon,
+citizen; I must leave you."
+
+"Do so, sergeant; and thank you.  If you meet Gaspard, tell him that
+Jean-Claude Hullin embraces him, and that they expect tidings from him
+in the village."
+
+"Good--good.  I will not fail to do so."
+
+The sergeant went out, and Hullin finished his wine in a reverie.
+
+"Father Wittmann," said he, after a pause, "what of my parcel?"
+
+"It is ready, Master Jean-Claude."  Then, looking into the kitchen,
+"Gredel!  Gredel! bring Hullin's parcel."
+
+A little woman appeared, and put down on the table a roll of
+sheepskins.  Jean-Claude passed his stick through it, and lifted it
+over his shoulder.
+
+"What, you are going to leave us so soon?"
+
+"Yes, Wittmann.  The days are short, and the roads difficult through
+the forests after six o'clock.  I must get back early."
+
+"Then a safe journey to you, Master Jean-Claude."
+
+Hullin left, and crossed the square, turning away his face from the
+convoy, which still remained before the church.
+
+The innkeeper from his window watched him hurrying away, and thought to
+himself, "How white he looked on entering; he could hardly keep
+upright.  It is queer that such a sturdy man, and an old soldier too,
+should not have energy enough for a cat.  As for me, I would see fifty
+regiments go by on those carts without minding it any more than I did
+my first pipe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MADAME LEFEVRE
+
+While Hullin was learning the disaster of our armies, and was walking
+slowly, his head bent, and an anxious expression on his face, toward
+the village of Charmes, everything went on as usual at the farm of
+Bois-de-Chenes.  No one thought of Yegof's wonderful stories, or of the
+war: old Duchene led his oxen to their drinking-place, the herdsman
+Robin turned over their litter; Annette and Jeanne skimmed their
+curdled milk.  Only Catherine Lefevre was silent and gloomy--thinking
+of days gone by--all the while superintending with an impassible face
+the occupations of her domestics.  She was too old and too serious to
+forget from one day to another what had so much troubled her.  When
+night came on, after the evening's repast, she entered the great room,
+where her servants could hear her drawing the large register-book from
+the closet and putting it on the table, to sum up her accounts, as she
+was in the habit of doing.
+
+They soon began to load the cart with corn, vegetables, and poultry:
+for the next day there was a market at Sarrebourg, and Duchene had to
+start early.
+
+Picture to yourself the great kitchen, and all these worthy folks
+hurrying to finish their work before going to rest: the black kettle,
+full of beetroot and potatoes destined for the cattle, boiling on an
+immense pinewood fire; the plates, dishes, and soup-tureens shining
+like suns on the shelves; the bunches of garlic and of reddish-brown
+onions hung up in rows to the beams of the ceiling, among the hams and
+flitches of bacon; Jeannie, in her blue cap and little red petticoat,
+stirring up the contents of the kettle with a big wooden spoon; the
+wicker cages, with the cackling fowls and great cock, who pushed his
+head through the bars and looked at the flames with a wondering eye and
+raised crest; the bull-dog Michel, with his flat head and hanging jowl,
+in search of some forgotten dish; Dubourg coming down the creaking
+staircase to the left, his back bent with a sack on his shoulder; while
+outside, in the dark night, old Duchene, upright on the cart, lifted
+his lantern and called out, "That makes the fifteenth, Dubourg; two
+more."  One could see also, hanging against the wall, an old hare,
+brought by the hunter Heinrich to be sold at the market, and a fine
+grouse, with its purple and green plumage, dimmed eye, and a drop of
+blood at the end of its beak.
+
+It was about half-past seven when the sound of footsteps was heard at
+the entrance to the yard.  The bull-dog went toward the door growling.
+He listened, sniffed the night air, then went back quietly, and began
+licking his dish again.
+
+"It is some one belonging to the farm," said Annette.  "Michel does not
+move."
+
+Nearly at the same time, old Duchene from outside called,--"Good-night,
+Master Jean-Claude.  Is it you?"
+
+"Yes.  I come from Phalsbourg; and I am going to rest myself a minute
+before going down to the village.  Is Catherine here?"
+
+And then the good man came forward to the light, his hat pushed off his
+face, and his roll of sheepskins on his back.
+
+"Good-night, my children," said he; "good-night!  Always at work!"
+
+"Yes, Monsieur Hullin, as you see," replied Jeanne, laughing.  "If one
+had nothing to do, life would be very wearisome."
+
+"True, my pretty girl, true.  It is only work which gives you your
+roses and brilliant eyes."
+
+Jeanne was going to answer, when the door of the great room opened, and
+Catherine Lefevre advanced, looking piercingly at Hullin, as though to
+guess beforehand what news he brought.
+
+"Well, Jean-Claude, you have returned."
+
+"Yes, Catherine; with good tidings and bad."
+
+They entered the large room--a high and spacious apartment wainscoted
+with wood to the ceiling, with its oak closets and their shining
+clasps, its iron stove opening into the kitchen, its old clock counting
+the seconds in its walnut-wood case, and the leathern arm-chair, worn
+and used by ten generations of aged men.  Jean-Claude never went into
+this room without its bringing back to his remembrance Catherine's
+grandfather, whom he seemed still to see, with his white head, sitting
+behind the oven in the dark.
+
+"Well?" demanded the old dame, offering a chair to the old shoemaker,
+who was just putting his pack down on the table.
+
+"Well, from Gaspard the tidings are good; the boy is in good health.
+He has had hardships.  All the better: it will be the making of him.
+But for the rest, Catherine, it is bad.  The war! the war!"
+
+He shook his head, and the old woman, her lips pressed, sat down facing
+him, upright in the armchair, her eyes attentively fastened on him.
+
+"So things look badly--decidedly--we shall have the war among us?"
+
+"Yes, Catherine, from day to day we may expect to see the allies in our
+mountains."
+
+"I thought so.  I was sure of it; but speak, Jean-Claude."
+
+Hullin, then, his elbows on his knees, his red ears between his hands,
+and lowering his voice, began to relate all he had seen: the clearing
+of everything around the town, the placing of batteries on the
+ramparts, the proclamation of the state of siege, the cart-loads of
+wounded on the great square, his meeting with the old sergeant at
+Wittmann's, and the story of the campaign.  From time to time he
+paused, and the old mistress of the farm blinked her eyes slowly, as
+though to impress more deeply the various circumstances on her mind.
+When Jean-Claude told about the wounded, the good woman murmured
+softly--"Gaspard has then escaped it all!"
+
+Then, at the end of this mournful tale, there was a long silence, and
+both looked at each other without pronouncing a word.
+
+How many reflections, how many bitter feelings filled their souls!
+
+After some seconds, Catherine recovering from these terrible
+thoughts--"You see, Jean-Claude," said she, in a serious tone.  "Yegof
+was not wrong."
+
+"Certainly, certainly, he was not wrong," replied Hullin; "but what
+does that prove?  A madman, who goes from village to village, who
+descends into Alsace, and from thence to Lorraine--who wanders from
+right to left--it would be very astonishing if he saw nothing, and if
+he did not sometimes tell the truth in his madness.  Everything gets
+muddled in his head, and others believe they understand what he does
+not understand himself.  But what of these wild stories, Catherine?
+The Austrians are upon us.  It only concerns us to know if we shall
+allow them to pass, or if we shall have courage to defend ourselves."
+
+"To defend ourselves!" cried the old woman, whose white cheeks
+trembled: "if we shall have courage to defend ourselves!  Surely it is
+not to me that you speak, Hullin.  What! are we not worthy of our
+ancestors?  Did they not defend themselves?  Were they not
+exterminated--men, women, and children?"
+
+"Then you are for the defence, Catherine?"
+
+"Yes, yes; so long as there remains to me a bit of skin on my bones.
+Let them come!  The oldest of the women is ready!"
+
+Her masses of gray hair shook on her head, her pale rigid cheeks
+quivered, and her eyes sent forth lightnings.  She was beautiful to
+see--beautiful, like that old Margareth of whom Yegof had spoken.
+Hullin held out his hand silently, and gave an enthusiastic smile.
+
+"Excellent," said he--"excellent!  We are always the same in this
+family.  I know you, Catherine: you are ready now; but be calm and
+listen to me.  We are going to fight, and in what way?"
+
+"In every way; all are good--axes, scythes, pitchforks."
+
+"No doubt; but the best are muskets and the balls.  We have muskets:
+every mountaineer keeps his above his door; unfortunately powder and
+balls are scarce."
+
+The old dame became quieter all of a sudden; she pushed her hair back
+under her cap, and looked anxiously about.
+
+"Yes," she rejoined brusquely; "the powder and balls are wanting, it is
+true, but we shall have some.  Marc Dives, the smuggler, has some.  You
+shall go and see him to-morrow from me.  You shall tell him that
+Catherine Lefevre will buy all his powder and balls; that she will pay
+him; that she will sell her cattle, her farm, land,
+everything--everything--to have some.  Do you understand, Hullin?"
+
+"I understand.  What you would do, Catherine, is noble."
+
+"Bah! it is noble--it is noble!" replied the old dame.  "It is quite
+simple; I wish to revenge myself.  These Austrians--these red men who
+have already exterminated us--well!  I hate them, I detest them, from
+father to son.  There! you will buy powder, and these mad ruffians
+shall see if we will rebuild their castles."
+
+Hullin then perceived that she still thought of Yegof's tale; but
+seeing how exasperated she was, and that, besides, her idea contributed
+to the defence of the country, made no observation on that subject, and
+said calmly,--"So, Catherine, it is settled; I am to go over to Marc
+Dives's to-morrow!"
+
+"Yes! you shall buy all his powder and lead.  Some one ought also to go
+the round of the mountain villages, to warn the people of what is
+coming, and to arrange a signal beforehand for bringing them together
+in case of attack."
+
+"Do not fear," said Jean-Claude.  "I will undertake to charge myself
+with that."
+
+Both rose and turned toward the door.  For about half an hour no sounds
+were heard in the kitchen; the farm-servants had gone to bed.  The old
+dame put down her lamp on the corner of the hearth, and drew the bolts.
+Outside the cold was intense, the air still and clear.  All the peaks
+round, and the pine-trees of the Jaegerthal, stood out against the sky
+in dark or light masses.  In the distance, far away behind the
+hill-side, a fox giving chase could be heard yelping in the valley of
+Blanru.
+
+"Good-night, Hullin," said Catherine.
+
+"Good-night."
+
+Jean-Claude walked quickly away on the heath-covered slopes, and the
+mistress of the farm, after watching him for a second, shut her door
+again.
+
+I leave you to imagine the joy of Louise when she learnt that Gaspard
+was safe and sound.  The poor child had hardly been living for two
+months.  Hullin took care not to show her the dark cloud which was
+coming over the horizon.
+
+Through the night he could hear her prattling in her little room,
+talking as though congratulating herself, murmuring Gaspard's name,
+opening her drawers and boxes, without doubt so as to hunt up some
+relics in them and tell them of her love.
+
+So the linnet drenched in the storm, will, while yet shivering, begin
+to sing and hop from branch to branch with the first sunbeam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE DEPOT
+
+When Jean-Claude Hullin, in his shirt-sleeves, opened the shutters of
+his little house the next morning, he saw all the neighboring
+mountains--the Jaegerthal, the Grosmann, the Donon--covered with snow.
+This first appearance of winter, coming in our sleep, is very striking
+to us: the old pines, the mossy rocks, adorned only the night before
+with verdure, and now sparkling with rime, fill our souls with an
+indefinable sadness.  "Another year gone by," one says to one's self;
+"another hard season to pass before the return of the flowers!"  And
+one hastens to put on the great-coat and to light the fire.  Your
+sombre habitation is filled with a white light, and outside, for the
+first time, you hear the sparrows--the poor sparrows huddled under the
+thatch, their feathers ruffled--calling, "No breakfast this morning--no
+breakfast!"
+
+Hullin drew on his big iron-nailed, double-soled shoes, and over his
+vest a great thick cloth waistcoat.
+
+He heard Louise walking overhead in the little garret.
+
+"Louise," he cried, "I am going."
+
+"What! you are going away to-day also?"
+
+"Yes, my child: it must be so: my affairs are not yet finished."
+
+Then, having doffed his large hat, he went up the stair, and said, in a
+low tone: "Thou must not expect me back so soon, my child.  I have to
+make some distant rounds.  Do not be uneasy.  If any one ask where I
+am, thou art to reply, 'He is with Cousin Mathias at Saverne.'"
+
+"You will not have breakfast before leaving?"
+
+"No: I have a crust of bread and the small flask of brandy in my
+pocket.  Adieu, my child!  Rejoice, and dream of Gaspard."
+
+And, without waiting for fresh questions, he took his stick and left
+the house, going in the direction of the hill of Bouleaux to the left
+of the village.  In a quarter of an hour he had passed it by, and
+reached the path of the Trois-Fontaines, which winds round the
+Falkenstein along by a little wall of dry stones.  The first snow,
+which never lasts in the damp shades of the valleys, was beginning to
+melt and run down the path.  Hullin got on the wall to climb the
+ascent.  On giving an accidental look toward the village, he saw a few
+women sweeping before their doors, a few old men wishing each other the
+"Good-day" while smoking their first pipes on the threshold of their
+cottages.  The deep calm of life, in presence of his agitating
+thoughts, affected him much.  He continued his way pensively, saying to
+himself, "How quiet everything is down there!  Nobody has any idea of
+anything; yet in a few days, what clamors, what rolls of musketry, will
+rend the air!"
+
+As the first thing to be done was to procure powder, Catherine Lefevre
+had very naturally cast her eyes on Marc Dives the smuggler, and his
+virtuous spouse, Hexe-Baizel.
+
+These people lived on the other side of the Falkenstein, under the base
+of the old ruined castle.  They had hollowed inside a sort of den, very
+comfortable, possessing one door and two skylights, but according to
+certain rumors, communicating with ancient caves by a rift in the rock.
+The custom-house officers had never been able to discover these caves,
+notwithstanding numerous domiciliary visits for that purpose.
+Jean-Claude and Marc Dives had known each other from infancy; they had
+gone nesting together after hawks and owls, and since that time had
+seen each other nearly every week at the saw-mills of Valtin.  Hullin,
+therefore, believed himself sure of the smuggler, but he had some
+doubts of Madame Hexe-Baizel, a most cautious person, who would not, in
+all probability, have the war-like instinct sufficiently developed.
+"But we shall see," he said to himself as he went along.
+
+He had lit his pipe, and from time to time turned round to contemplate
+the immense landscape, whose limits were extending more and more.
+
+Nothing could be grander than those wooded mountains, rising one above
+the other in the pale sky--those vast heather plains, stretching as far
+as the eye could see, white with snow; those black ravines, shut in
+between the woods, with torrents at the bottom, dashing over the
+greenish pebbles polished like bronze.
+
+And then the silence--the great silence of winter!  The soft snow
+falling from the top of the loftiest pine-trees onto their lower
+drooping branches: the birds of prey circling in couples above the
+forests, screaming out their war-cry: all this ought to be seen for it
+cannot be described.
+
+An hour after his departure from the village of Charmes, Hullin,
+climbing the summit of the peak, reached the base of the rock of the
+Arbousiers.  All round this granite mass extends a sort of rugged
+terrace, three or four feet wide.  This narrow passage, surrounded by
+the tall pines growing out from the precipice, looks dangerous, but it
+is safe; unless one feels dizzy, there is no danger in going along it.
+Overhead projects, in a vaulted arch, the rock covered with ruins.
+
+Jean-Claude was approaching the retreat of the smuggler.  He halted a
+minute on the terrace, put back his pipe into his pocket, then advanced
+along the passage, which forms a half-circle, and ends on the other
+side with a chasm.  Quite at the farthest extremity of it, and almost
+on the edge of the chasm, he perceived the two skylight windows of the
+den and the partly opened door.  A great heap of manure was collected
+in front of it.
+
+At the same time Hexe-Baizel appeared, tossing, with a broom made of
+green furze, the manure into the abyss.  This woman was small and
+hard-looking; she had shaggy red hair, hollow cheeks, pointed nose,
+little eyes, bright like two sparks, thin lips, very white teeth, and a
+florid complexion.  As for her costume, it was composed of a short
+dirty woollen petticoat, and a coarse but clean chemise; her brown,
+muscular arms, covered with yellow hairs, were bare to the elbows,
+notwithstanding the excessive cold of the winter at this height; and,
+lastly, all she had on her feet were a pair of long shoes hanging in
+shreds.
+
+"Ha! good-day, Hexe-Baizel," Jean-Claude called out, good naturedly but
+with a tone of raillery.  "You are always fair and fat, happy and
+lively!  It gives me pleasure!"
+
+Hexe-Baizel turned sharply, like a weasel surprised on the watch; her
+red hair stiffened, and her little eyes flashed fire.  However, she
+calmed down immediately, and exclaimed, in a curt voice, as though
+speaking to herself, "Hullin--the shoemaker!  What does he want?"
+
+"I am come to see my friend Marc, fair Hexe-Baizel," replied
+Jean-Claude; "we have some business to settle together."
+
+"What business?"
+
+"Ah, it only concerns us.  Here let me pass that I may speak to him."
+
+"Marc is asleep."
+
+"Well, he must be awakened then; the time is precious."
+
+So saying, Hullin stooped under the door, and penetrated into a cavern,
+whose vault, instead of being round, was composed of irregular curves,
+scored with fissures.  Close to the entrance, two feet from the ground,
+the rock formed a sort of natural fireplace, on which burned a few
+coals and branches of juniper.  Hexe-Baizel's culinary utensils
+consisted of an iron kettle, a stone pot, two broken plates, and three
+or four tin forks; her furniture comprised a wooden stool, a hatchet to
+split wood, a salt box fastened to the rock, and her large furze broom.
+To the left of this kitchen was another cavern, with a curious door,
+larger at the top than at the bottom, closing by aid of two planks and
+a cross-bar.
+
+"Well, where is Marc?" said Hullin, seating himself near the hearth.
+
+"I have already told you that he is asleep.  He returned home late
+yesterday.  My husband must sleep, don't you hear?"
+
+"I hear very well, dear Hexe-Baizel; but I have no time to wait."
+
+"Then go away!"
+
+"Go away?  It is easy said; only I won't go away.  I did not walk three
+miles, to turn back with my hands in my pockets."
+
+"Is it thou, Hullin?" interrupted a brusque voice coming from the
+neighboring cavern.
+
+"Yes, Marc."
+
+"Ah!  I'm coming."
+
+The sound of straw in motion could be heard; then the wooden barrier
+was withdrawn; and a huge frame, three feet broad from one shoulder to
+the other, wiry, bony, with neck and ears brick-color, and thick brown
+hair, appeared in the doorway, and Marc Dives drew himself up before
+Hullin, yawning and stretching his long arms with a short sigh.
+
+At first sight, the physiognomy of Marc Dives seemed peaceable enough:
+his low broad forehead, bare temples, short curly hair coming down in a
+point almost to the eyebrows, his straight nose and long chin--above
+all the quiet expression in his brown eyes--would have caused him to be
+classed among the ruminating rather than the wilder animals; but one
+would have been wrong in thinking so.  Certain rumors were prevalent in
+the country that Marc Dives, when attacked by the custom-house people,
+had never any hesitation to use his axe or carbine to decide the
+dispute; to him were attributed several serious accidents which had
+happened to the fiscal agents; but proofs were completely wanting.  The
+smuggler, owing to his thorough knowledge of all the mountain defiles
+and by-roads from Dagsburg to Sarrbrueck, and from Raon-l'Etape to Bale
+in Switzerland, was always fifteen leagues from any place where a
+wicked action had been committed.  And then he had such an ingenuous
+look! and those who connected him with sinister tales generally
+finished badly: which clearly shows the justice with which Providence
+sways the world.
+
+"Faith, Hullin," said Marc, after having left his lair, "I was thinking
+of thee yesterday evening, and if thou hadst not appeared, I should
+have gone expressly to the saw-mills of Valtin to meet thee.  Sit down!
+Hexe-Baizel, give a chair to Hullin!"
+
+Then he placed himself on the hearth, his back to the fire, in front of
+the open door, which was raked by all the winds of Alsace and
+Switzerland.
+
+Through this opening there was a magnificent view: it might be compared
+to a picture framed in the rock--an enormous picture, embracing the
+whole valley of the Rhine, and the mountains beyond, which melted away
+in the mist.  And then one could breathe so freely! and the little
+fire, which glimmered in the owl's-nest, was a place to look on, with
+its red light, after one had gazed into the azure expanse.
+
+"Marc," said Hullin, after a short pause, "may I speak before thy wife?"
+
+"We are as one, she and I."
+
+"Well, Marc, I am come to buy powder and lead of thee."
+
+"To kill hares, is it not so?" observed the smuggler, winking.
+
+"No, to fight against the Germans and Russians."
+
+There was a moment's silence.
+
+"And thou wilt want much powder and lead?"
+
+"All that thou canst supply."
+
+"I can supply as much as three thousand francs' worth to-day," said the
+smuggler.
+
+"Then I'll take it."
+
+"And as much more in a week," added Marc, with the same calm manner and
+eager look.
+
+"I take that also."
+
+"You will take it!" cried Hexe-Baizel.  "You will take it!  I should
+think so!  But who is to pay?"
+
+"Hold thy tongue!" said Marc, roughly, "Hullin takes it: and his word
+is enough for me."  And holding out his large hand cordially:
+"Jean-Claude, here is my hand: the powder and lead are thine: but I
+must have my price, dost thou understand?"
+
+"Yes, Marc: only I intend paying thee at once."
+
+"He will pay, Hexe-Baizel, dost thou hear?"
+
+"Eh, I am not deaf, Baizel.  Go and find a bottle of 'brimbelle-wasse'
+for us, so that we may warm our hearts a little.  What Hullin tells me
+rejoices me.  These rascally 'kaiserlichs' will not have the easy game
+against us that I thought.  It appears that we are going to defend
+ourselves, and right well."
+
+"Yes, right well!"
+
+"And there are people who can pay?"
+
+"Catherine Lefevre pays, and she it is who sends me," said Hullin.
+
+Then Marc Dives rose, and in a solemn tone, and pointing toward the
+precipice, exclaimed, "She is a woman indeed--a woman as grand as that
+rock down there, the Oxenstein, the greatest I have ever seen in my
+life.  I drink to her health.  Drink also, Jean-Claude."
+
+Hullin drank, then Hexe-Baizel.
+
+"Now everything has been said," continued Dives; "but listen, Hullin.
+Do not believe that it will be an easy matter to check the enemy: all
+the hunters, all the sawyers, all the wood-cutters and carriers on the
+mountains will not be too many.  I come from the other side of the
+Rhine.  They are so many--those Russians, Austrians, Bavarians,
+Prussians, Cossacks, and Hussars--they are so many, that the earth is
+black with them.  The villages cannot hold them: they camp on the
+plains, in the valleys, on the hills, in the towns, in the open
+air--they are to be found everywhere."
+
+At that moment a shrill cry was heard.
+
+"It is a buzzard chasing something," said Marc, stopping.
+
+But just then a shadow came over the rock.  A cloud of chaffinches
+cleared the abyss, and hundreds of buzzards and hawks fought above them
+in their rapid flight, uttering loud screams to terrify their prey,
+while the mass seemed stationary, so dense was it.  The regular
+movement of these thousands of wings produced, in the silence, a sound
+like that of dead leaves blown in the wind.
+
+"That is the departure of the chaffinches of the Ardennes," said Hullin.
+
+"Yes, it is the last passage: the beech-nuts are buried under the snow,
+and the seeds also.  Well, then, look! there are more men over there
+than birds in this pass.  All the same, Jean-Claude, we will get over
+them, so long as every one bears a hand in it!  Hexe-Baizel, light the
+lantern: I am going to show Hullin our supplies of powder and lead."
+
+Hexe-Baizel made a face at this proposition.  "For twenty years," said
+she, "no one has gone into the cave.  He can surely believe our word.
+We believe, for our part, that he will pay us.  I will not light the
+lantern--no, indeed!"
+
+Marc, without saying anything, put out his hand and caught up a cudgel
+from the pile of wood; thereupon the old woman darted into the nearest
+hole like a weasel, and, two seconds later, came out with a big horn
+lantern, which Dives quietly lit at the fire on the hearth.
+
+"Baizel," said he, replacing the stick in its corner, "thou must know
+that Jean-Claude is an old friend of my childhood, and that I confide
+much more in him than in thee, old wench; for wert thou not afraid of
+being hanged the same day as myself, I should long ago have been
+swinging to a rope's end.  Come, Hullin, follow me."
+
+They went out, and the smuggler, turning to the left, walked straight
+toward the chasm, which projected over the Valtin two hundred feet in
+the air.  He pushed aside the branches of a little oak, which had its
+roots down below, put forth his leg, and disappeared as though pitched
+into the abyss.  Jean-Claude shuddered, but directly after he saw,
+against the side of the rock, the head of Dives, who called to
+him,--"Hullin, put out thy hand to the left--there is a hole.  Stretch
+thy leg out boldly--thou wilt feel a step, and then turn around."
+
+Master Jean-Claude obeyed, with some trepidation.  He could feel the
+hole in the rock, he found the step, and turning slightly, was face to
+face with his comrade in a sort of arched niche, evidently abutting on
+a sally-port in times past.  At the end of the niche there was a low
+vault.
+
+"How the devil didst thou discover that?" exclaimed Hullin, much
+astonished.
+
+"In seeking after nests thirty-five years ago.  I was one day on the
+rock, and I had often observed flying from there a horned-owl and its
+mate, two splendid birds: their heads were the size of my fists, and
+the wings six feet broad.  I could hear their young calling, and I said
+to myself, 'They are near the cavern, at the end of the terrace.  If I
+could get round a little beyond the chasm I should have them!  By dint
+of looking and bending over, I perceived at last a corner of the step
+above the precipice.  There was a strong holly-bush at one side.  I
+caught hold of it, put out my leg, and, faith, I found myself here.
+What a fight, Hullin!  The old birds wanted to tear out my eyes.
+Luckily, it was broad daylight.  They went at me like cocks, opened
+their beaks and hissed, but the sun dazzled them.  I kicked them.
+Finally, they fell on to the top of an old pine-tree down there, and
+all the jays in the country, the thrushes, chaffinches and tom-tits,
+flew about them till nightfall, plucking out their feathers.  Thou
+canst not imagine, Jean-Claude, the quantity of bones, rat-skins,
+leverets, and carrion of all sorts that they had heaped up in this
+niche.  It was pestilential.  I threw it all into the Jaegerthal, and I
+discovered this passage.  But I must also tell thee that there were two
+young ones.  I twisted their necks and poked them into my bag.
+Afterward, I quietly entered, and thou shalt see what I found.  Come!"
+
+They slipped under the narrow archway, formed of enormous red stones,
+where the light threw only a flickering glimmer.
+
+Thirty paces farther on, a vast circular cave, low in the middle, and
+formed in the rock itself, appeared to Hullin.  About fifty little
+casks were arranged at the bottom in shape of pyramids, and, at the
+sides, a large number of ingots of lead and bales of tobacco, which
+filled the air with its smell.  Marc deposited his lantern at the
+entrance of the vault, and regarded his hiding-place with gratification
+and a smile upon his lips.
+
+"That is what I discovered," said he; "the cave was empty, only in the
+centre of it was the carcass of an animal, snowy white,--no doubt some
+fox, dead of old age.  The rascal had known of the passage before I
+had.  He slept safely here.  Who on earth would have dreamed of
+pursuing him?  In those days, Hullin, I was twelve years old.  I
+immediately thought that this place might one day be of use to me.  I
+did not know then what use.  But, later on, when I had begun my first
+attempts at smuggling--at Landau, Kehl, Bale--with Jacob Zimmer, and
+during two winters all the custom-house people were after us, the idea
+of my old cavern began to haunt me from morning till evening.  I had
+made the acquaintance of Hexe-Baizel, who was then one of the
+farm-servants at Bois-de-Chenes with Catherine's father.  She brought
+me twenty-five louis as marriage-portion, and we settled ourselves in
+the cavern of the Arbousiers."
+
+Dives paused; and Hullin, who had become very thoughtful, asked
+him,--"This hole, then, pleases thee much, Marc?"
+
+"Pleases me!  Why, I would not go and live in the most beautiful house
+in Strasbourg for two thousand pounds a year.  For twenty-three years I
+have here hidden my wares: sugar, coffee, powder, tobacco,
+brandy--everything goes in here.  I have eight horses always
+travelling."
+
+"But thou hast no happiness."
+
+"I have no happiness!  Dost thou think it is nothing to laugh at the
+gendarmes, excisemen, custom-house people; to enrage them, to outdo
+them, to hear on all sides, 'That rascally Marc--isn't he a sharp one!
+How he manages his business!  He can do as he likes with the law and
+its agents,' and this and that.  He! he! he!  I can tell thee, I can,
+that it is the greatest pleasure in the world.  And then the people
+like it: they get everything half price; one helps the poor, and keeps
+himself warm and well-off."
+
+"Yes, but what dangers!"
+
+"Bah! a customs'-guard would never think of crossing the chasm."
+
+"I should suppose not," thought Hullin, remembering that he must cross
+the precipice again.
+
+"At the same time thou art not altogether wrong, Jean-Claude.  When I
+first had to enter this place with those little barrels on my back, I
+streamed with perspiration; now I am accustomed to it."
+
+"And if thy foot slipped?"
+
+"There would be an end of me!  I would as soon die, spiked on a pine,
+as to cough weeks and months on a mattress."
+
+Dives then shed the light of his lantern on the piles of kegs reaching
+to the top of the vault.
+
+"It is the finest English powder," said he; "it runs like silver grains
+in the hand, and fires like Old Nick.  No need to use much of it--a
+thimbleful is enough.  And here is lead, unmixed with tin.  From this
+very evening, Hexe-Baizel shall begin casting balls.  She knows all
+about it, thou wilt see."
+
+They were beginning to return by the path leading to the chasm, when
+suddenly a confused murmur of words began to fill the air.  Marc blew
+out his lantern, and they stopped still in the darkness.
+
+"Some one is walking up there," the smuggler softly said.  "Who on
+earth has been able to climb up the Falkenstein in such snow?"
+
+They listened, holding their breath, and their eyes fixed on the ray of
+bluish light which came down through a small chink into the cavern.
+Around the cleft grew a few shrubs, sparkling with frost; above, could
+be perceived the ridge of an old wall.  While they were watching,
+keeping profound silence, there appeared at the foot of the wall a
+large shaggy head bound round with a shining circle, a long face, then
+a pointed red beard,--the whole standing out in curious relief against
+the white winter sky.
+
+"It is 'The King of Diamonds,'" observed Marc, laughing.
+
+"Poor devil!" said Hullin, gravely; "he has come to walk about his
+castle, his bare feet on the ice, and a tin crown on his head!  But
+look! he is speaking: he is giving orders to his courtiers; he points
+with his sceptre to the north and to the south--all belongs to him; he
+is master of the heavens and earth!  Poor devil! merely to see him in
+those trousers of his, with his dog-skin on his back, makes me cold all
+over."
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude, it produces on me the effect of a burgomaster or
+village mayor, who puffs himself out like a bullfinch, and blows his
+cheeks up, saying, 'I am Hans Aden; I have ten acres of fine meadows; I
+have two houses; I have a vineyard, an orchard, a garden, h-m! h-m!  I
+have this and that!'  The next day a little fit lays hold of him,
+and--good-evening.  Mad, mad! who is not mad?  Let us go, Hullin; the
+sight of this unfortunate who talks to the winds, and of his raven that
+croaks of famine, makes my teeth chatter."
+
+They entered the passage, and the daylight almost blinded Hullin.
+Happily, the great height of his companion standing in front of him,
+prevented his becoming giddy.
+
+"Lean firmly," said Marc; "imitate me: the right hand in the hole, the
+right foot on the step, turn a bit--here we are!"
+
+They returned to the kitchen, where Hexe-Baizel told them that Yegof
+was in the ruins of the old _Burg_.
+
+"We knew it," replied Marc: "we have just seen him breathing the fresh
+air over there.  Each man to his taste."
+
+Just then the raven Hans, sailing above the abyss, passed the door with
+a hoarse cry; they heard the frost crackling on the bushes, and the
+madman appeared upon the terrace.  He was haggard; and after glancing
+toward the hearth, cried out--"Marc Dives, clear out quickly.  I warn
+thee I am tired of this disorder.  The fortifications of my domains
+ought to be free.  I cannot allow vermin to lodge where I am;
+consequently, thou must make thy arrangements."  Then perceiving
+Jean-Claude, his face brightened--"Thou here, Hullin?" said he, "Art
+thou at length clear-sighted enough to accept the proposals that I have
+condescended to make thee?  Dost thou feel that an alliance such as
+mine, is the only resource to preserve thee from the total destruction
+of thy race?  If it is so, I congratulate thee; thou showest more sense
+than I gave thee credit for."
+
+Hullin could not help laughing.
+
+"No, Yegof, no! heaven has not yet enlightened me, or I might accept
+the honor thou wouldst make me.  Besides, Louise is not old enough to
+be married."
+
+The madman became again serious and gloomy.  Standing on the edge of
+the terrace, his back to the abyss, he seemed quite at home, and his
+raven, hovering from right to left, did not trouble him.
+
+He raised his sceptre, frowned, and exclaimed:
+
+"Then this is the second time, Hullin, that I have made my demand, and
+for the second time thou darest refuse me.  Now, I will renew it once
+again--once, dost thou hear?  Then the fate shall be accomplished!"
+
+Hullin, Marc Dives, and Hexe-Baizel herself burst into fits of laughter.
+
+"He is a great madman," said Hexe-Baizel.
+
+"I think thou art right there," replied the smuggler.  "Poor Yegof!
+decidedly he is out of his wits.  But never mind!  Baizel, attend to
+me.  Thou must commence melting balls of all sizes.  I am going to
+start for Switzerland.  In a week, at latest, the remainder of our
+ammunition will be here.  Give me my boots."
+
+Then stamping down his heels, and twisting round his neck a thick scarf
+of red wool, he unhooked from the wall one of those dark-green mantles
+such as herdsmen wear, threw it over his shoulders, put on an old worn
+hat, took a gourd, and shouted: "Don't forget what I have been telling
+thee, old woman, or beware!  Let us go, Jean-Claude!"
+
+Hullin followed him on the terrace without wishing good-by to
+Hexe-Baizel, who, for her part, did not deign even to go to the
+doorstep to see them depart.  When they were come to the base of the
+rock, Marc Dives drew up and said, "Thou art going into the mountain
+villages, art thou not, Hullin?"
+
+"Yes: that must first be done.  I must warn the wood-cutters,
+charcoal-burners, and others, of what is going on."
+
+"Without doubt.  Do not forget Materne of Hengst and his two boys,
+Labarbe of Dagsburg, and Jerome of St. Quirin.  Tell them that there
+will he powder and balls; that we are of the number, Catherine Lefevre,
+myself, Marc Dives, and all the honest folks of the country."
+
+"Calm thyself, Marc--I know my men."
+
+"Then good-by for the present."
+
+They shook hands warmly.
+
+The smuggler took the path to the right, toward Donon; Hullin that to
+the left, toward the Sarre.
+
+They were now at some distance from each other, when Hullin called out
+to his comrade: "He!  Marc, inform Catherine Lefevre, as thou passest
+by, that all goes on well.  Tell her I am going into the mountains."
+
+The other assented by a nod, and they both continued their different
+ways.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AMONG THE MOUNTAINEERS
+
+An extraordinary agitation reigned at that time all along the line of
+the Vosges: the tidings of the invasion which was approaching spread
+from village to village, and among the farm-houses and woodmen's
+cottages of the Hengst and the Nideck.  The hawkers, wagoners, tinkers,
+all that floating population which is continually moving from the
+mountains to the plains and from the plains to the mountains, brought
+every day, from Alsace and the borders of the Rhine, many strange
+reports.  "The towns," so these people said, "were being put into a
+state of defence; expeditions were being made to provision them with
+corn and meat; the roads to Metz, Nancy, Huningue, and Strasbourg were
+swarming with convoys.  Everywhere you met powder and ammunition
+wagons, cavalry, infantry, artillery, going to their posts.  Marshal
+Victor still held the route to Saverne; but the bridges of the
+fortresses were already raised from seven in the evening to eight in
+the morning."
+
+No one thought that all this could bode any good.  Nevertheless, though
+many were seriously afraid of war, and though the old women lifted up
+their hands to heaven, crying, "Jesus!  Mary!  Joseph!" the greater
+number were preparing the means of defence.  Under such circumstances,
+Jean-Claude Hullin was well received by all.
+
+The same day, toward five in the evening, he reached the summit of the
+Hengst, and halted with the patriarch of forest-hunters, old Materne.
+He spent the night there; for in winter the days are short and the
+roads difficult.  Materne promised to keep watch over the defile of the
+Zorn, with his two sons Kasper and Frantz, and to reply to the first
+signal which was made from the Falkenstein.
+
+On the following day, Jean-Claude started early for Dagsburg, so as to
+come to an understanding with his friend Labarbe, the wood-cutter.
+They visited together the nearest hamlets, reanimating the love of
+country in the people's hearts; and the next day Labarbe accompanied
+Hullin into Christ-Nickel's, the anabaptist farmer of Painbach--a
+sensible and respectable man, but who could not be prevailed upon to
+participate in their glorious enterprise.  Christ-Nickel had only one
+reply for all their observations; "It is well, it is just, but the
+Bible saith, 'Put up thy sword into its place.  He who lives by the
+sword shall perish by the sword.'"  He promised them, however, to pray
+for the good cause: it was all they could obtain.
+
+They went from there to Walsch, and had some hearty shakes of the hand
+with Daniel Hirsch, a former marine gunner, who agreed to collect all
+the people of his district.
+
+At this place Labarbe left Jean-Claude to make his way by himself.
+
+For eight days longer he beat about the mountain, from Soldatenthal, to
+Leonsberg, Meienthal, Abreschwiller, Voyer, Loettenbach, Cirey,
+Petit-Mont, and Saint-Sauveur; and on the ninth day he reached St.
+Quirin and saw the bootmaker Jerome.  They visited the pass of Blanru
+together; after which Hullin, satisfied with what he had done, took his
+way to the village.  He had been walking briskly for about two hours,
+picturing to himself the life of the camp,--the bivouac, marches and
+counter-marches--all that life of a soldier which he had so often
+regretted, and which he now saw returning with enthusiasm--when in the
+far distance, amidst the shades of the twilight, he perceived the
+hamlet of Charmes in a bluish mist, his little cottage sending forth a
+scarcely perceptible line of smoke, the small gardens surrounded with
+palisades, the stone-covered roofs, and to the left, bordering the
+hill, the great farm of Bois-de-Chenes, with the saw-mills of Valtin at
+the end of the now dark ravine.
+
+Then suddenly, and without knowing why, his soul was filled with a
+great sadness.
+
+He slackened his pace, and thought of the calm, peaceable life he was
+abandoning--perhaps forever; of his little room, so warm in the winter,
+and cheerful in spring when he opened his windows to the breath of the
+woods; of the tic-tac of the old timepiece, and then of Louise, his
+good little Louise, spinning in the silence with downcast eyes, and in
+the evenings singing some quaint strain with her pure penetrating voice
+when they were both feeling weary.  These reflections laid such hold of
+him that the slightest objects, every instrument used in his
+profession,--the long shining augers, the round-handled hatchet, the
+mallets, the little stove, the old closet, the platters of varnished
+wood, the ancient figure of Saint Michael nailed to the wall, the old
+four-post bed at the bottom of the alcove, the stool, the trunk, the
+copper lamp,--all these things impressed themselves on his mind like a
+living picture, and the tears came into his eyes.
+
+But it was Louise, his darling child, whom he pitied.  How she would
+weep, and implore him to renounce the war!  And how she would hang on
+his neck, saying:--"Oh! do not leave me, Papa Jean-Claude!  Oh, I will
+love you so much!  Oh, surely you will not abandon me!"
+
+And the honest fellow could see the terror in her beautiful eyes--he
+could feel her arms round his neck.  For a moment he fancied that he
+might deceive her, make her believe anything, no matter what, and so
+account for his absence to her satisfaction; but such means were not in
+accordance with his character, and his sadness increased the more.
+
+Arrived at the farm of Bois-de-Chenes, he went in to tell Catherine
+Lefevre that all was going well, and that the mountaineers were only
+awaiting the signal.
+
+A quarter of an hour after, Master Jean-Claude came down by the Houx
+road in front of his own little house.
+
+Before pushing open the creaking door, the idea struck him to see what
+Louise was about at that moment.  He glanced into the little room
+through the window: Louise was standing by the curtains of the alcove;
+she seemed very animated, arranging, folding and unfolding clothes on
+the bed.  Her sweet face beamed with happiness, and her large blue eyes
+sparkled with a sort of enthusiasm; she even talked aloud.  Hullin
+listened; but a cart happening to pass at the time in the street, he
+could hear nothing.  Making a firm resolve, he entered, saying quietly:
+"Louise, I have returned."
+
+Immediately the young girl, joyous and skipping like a deer, ran to
+embrace him.
+
+"Ah! it is you, Papa Jean-Claude!  I was expecting you.  Mon Dieu! mon
+Dieu! how long you stayed away!  At length you are back."
+
+"It was, my child," replied the honest fellow, in a more undecided
+tone, putting his stick behind the door and his hat on the table, "it
+was because----"
+
+He could say nothing else.
+
+"Yes, yes, you went to see our friends," said Louise, laughing: "I know
+all about it--Mamma Lefevre has told me everything."
+
+"What! thou knowest?  And dost thou not mind?  So much the better, so
+much the better!  it shows thy sense.  And I, who fancied thou wouldst
+have cried!"
+
+"Cry! and what for, papa Jean-Claude?  Oh, I am courageous; you don't
+know me yet--go!"  She put on a resolute air, which made Hullin smile;
+but he did not smile long when she continued: "We are going to war--we
+are going to fight--we are going to pass up the mountain!"
+
+"Hullo! we are going! we are going!" exclaimed he in astonishment.
+
+"Certainly.  Then are we not going?" said she, regretfully.
+
+"That is to say--I must leave thee for a little time, my child."
+
+"Leave me--oh, no!  I go with thee; it is all agreed upon.  Look, see!
+my small parcel is ready, and here is yours, which I have arranged.
+Don't trouble yourself, let me alone, and you will be satisfied!"
+
+Hullin could not get over his stupefaction.  "But, Louise," he
+exclaimed, "thou canst not think of such a thing.  Consider: we must
+pass nights abroad, and march and run; consider the cold, the snow, the
+musketry!  It cannot be."
+
+"Come," said the young girl, in a tearful voice, throwing herself into
+his arms, "do not pain me!  You are only making fun of your little
+Louise.  You cannot forsake her!"
+
+"But thou wilt be much safer here--thou wilt be warm--thou wilt hear
+from us every day."
+
+"No, no.  I will not--I must go too.  The cold does not harm me.  Only
+too long have I been shut up.  I, too, must breathe a little.  Are not
+the birds out of doors?  The robins are out all the winter.  Have I not
+known what cold was when I was quite tiny? and hunger also?"
+
+She stamped, and, for the third time, putting her arms round
+Jean-Claude's neck,--"Come then, Papa Hullin," said she softly, "Mamma
+Lefevre said yes.  Would you be more naughty than she was?  Ah, if you
+only knew how much I love you!"
+
+The good man had sat down and turned away his head, so as not to yield,
+and did not allow himself to be embraced.
+
+"Oh, how naughty you are to-day, Papa Jean-Claude!"
+
+"It is for thy sake, my child."
+
+"Well, all the worse.  I will run away after you.  Cold--what is cold?
+And if you are wounded--if you ask to see your little Louise for the
+last time, and she is not there--near you, to take care of you, and
+love you to the end--oh, you must think me very cold-hearted."
+
+She sobbed, and Hullin could not stand it any longer.
+
+"Is it true that Mamma Lefevre consents?"
+
+"Oh, yes--oh, yes--she told me so.  She said to me,--'Try and make Papa
+Jean-Claude decide.  I am willing, and quite satisfied.'"
+
+"Well, what can I do against two of you.  Thou shalt come with us; it
+is quite decided."
+
+She gave a scream of delight which ran through the cottage,--"Oh, how
+kind you are!"
+
+And with one rub she wiped all her tears away,--"We are going to be
+off, to take to the woods and to make war."
+
+"Ah," said Hullin, shaking his head, "I see it now; thou art always the
+little gypsy.  As soon try to tame a swallow."
+
+Then making her sit on his knees:--"Louise, it is now twelve years
+since I found thee in the snow: thou wast blue, poor little one.  And
+when we were in the cottage, near a good fire, and thou wert slowly
+reviving, the first thing thou didst was to smile at me.  And since
+that time thy will has always been mine.  With that smile thou hast led
+me wherever thou wouldst."
+
+Then Louise began again to smile at him, and they embraced each other.
+"Now we will look at the packages," he said, sighing.  "Are they well
+made, I wonder?"
+
+He approached the bed, and was surprised to see his warmest clothes,
+his flannel-waistcoats, all well brushed, folded, and packed; and
+Louise's bundle, with her best dresses, petticoats, and stout shoes, in
+nice order.  At last he could not help laughing and crying out--"O
+gypsy, gypsy! you are the one for making fine bundles, and going away
+without ever turning the head."
+
+Louise smiled.  "Are you satisfied?"
+
+"I suppose I must be.  But during all this piece of work, I will
+venture to say thou hast never thought of preparing my supper."
+
+"Oh, it will soon be ready.  I did not know you would return this
+evening, Papa Jean-Claude."
+
+"That is true, my child.  Bring me something--no matter what--quickly,
+for I am hungry.  Meanwhile I shall smoke a pipe."
+
+"Yes, that's it; smoke a pipe."
+
+He sat down on the side of the bench and struck the tinder-box quite
+dreamily.  Louise rushed right and left like a sprite, seeing to the
+fire, breaking the eggs, and turning out an omelette with surprising
+celerity.  Never had she appeared so lively, smiling, and pretty.
+Hullin, his elbow on the table and his face in his hand, watched her
+gravely, thinking how much will, firmness, and resolution there was in
+this girl--as light as a fairy, yet determined as a hussar.  In a few
+seconds she served him with the omelette on a large china plate, with
+bread, and the glass and bottle.
+
+"There, Papa Jean-Claude, be hungry no longer."  She observed him
+eating with a look of tenderness.
+
+The flame sprang up in the stove, lighting clearly the low beams, the
+wooden stair in the shadow, the bed at the end of the alcove, the whole
+of the abode, so often cheered by the joyous humor of the shoemaker,
+the little songs of his daughter, and the industry of both.  And all
+this Louise was leaving without any hesitation: she cared only for the
+woods, the snow-covered paths, and the endless mountains, reaching from
+the village into Switzerland, and even beyond.  Ah, Master Jean-Claude
+had reason to cry "gypsy, gypsy!"  The swallow cannot be tamed: it
+needs the open air, the broad sky--continual motion.  Neither storms,
+nor wind, nor rain in torrents frighten it, when the hour of its
+departure is at hand.  It has only one thought, one desire, one
+cry--"Let us away!  Let us away."
+
+The meal finished, Hullin rose and said to his daughter, "I am tired,
+my child; kiss me, and let us go to bed."
+
+"Yes; but do not forget to awake me, Papa Jean-Claude, if you start
+before daybreak."
+
+"Do not trouble thyself.  It is understood thou shalt come with us."
+And seeing her mount the stair and disappear in the garret: "Isn't she
+afraid of stopping in the nest, that's all!" said he to himself.
+
+The silence was great outdoors.  Eleven o'clock had struck from the
+village church.  The good man was sitting down to take off his boots,
+when he caught sight of his musket suspended above the door: he took it
+down, wiped it, and drew the trigger.  His whole soul was intent on the
+business in hand.
+
+"It is all right," he murmured: and then in a grave tone: "It is
+curious....  The last time I held it ... at Marengo ... was fourteen
+years ago, and yet it seems like yesterday!"
+
+Suddenly the hardened snow cracked under a quick footstep.  He
+listened: "Someone!"  At the same time two little sharp taps resounded
+on the panes.  He ran to the window and opened it.  The head of Marc
+Dives, with his broad hat stiff with the frost, bent forward from the
+darkness.
+
+"Well, Marc, what news?"
+
+"Hast thou warned the mountaineers--Materne, Jerome, Labarbe?"
+
+"Yes, all."
+
+"It was time: the enemy has passed."
+
+"Passed?"
+
+"Yes, along the whole line.  I have walked fifteen leagues through the
+snow since this morning to announce it to thee."
+
+"Good; the signal must be given: a great fire on the Falkenstein."
+
+Hullin was very pale.  He put on his boots.  Two minutes later, his
+large blouse on his shoulders and his stick in his hand, he softly
+opened the door, and with long strides followed Marc Dives on the way
+to the Falkenstein.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+RISING OF THE PARTISANS
+
+From midnight till six in the morning a flame shone through the
+darkness on the summit of the Falkenstein, and the whole mountain was
+on the alert.
+
+All the friends of Hullin, Marc Dives, and of Mother Lefevre, their
+long gaiters on their legs and old muskets on their shoulders,
+journeyed, through the silent woods, toward the gorges of the Valtin.
+The thought of the enemy traversing the plains of Alsace to surprise
+the passes, was present to the minds of all.  The tocsins of Dagsburg,
+Abreschwiller, Walsch, and St. Quirin, and of all the other villages,
+began to call the defenders of the country to arms.
+
+Now you must picture to yourself the Jaegerthal, at the foot of the old
+castle, in unusually snowy weather, at that early hour when the clumps
+of trees begin to creep out of the shadow, and when the extreme cold of
+night softens at the approach of day.  Picture, also, to yourself the
+old Sawyerie, with its flat roof, its heavy wheel burdened with
+icicles, the low interior dimly lit up by a pine-wood fire, whose blaze
+fades away in the glimmer of the coming dawn; and, around the fire, fur
+bonnets, caps, and black profiles, gazing one over the other, and
+squeezing close together like a wall; and farther on, in the woods,
+more fires lighting up groups of men and women squatting in the snow.
+
+The agitation began to decrease.  As the sky became grayer the people
+recognized each other.
+
+"Ah, it is Cousin Daniel of Soldatenthal.  You have come too?"
+
+"Yes, as you see, Heinrich, with my wife also."
+
+"What, Cousin Nanette!  Where is she?"
+
+"Down there, near the old oak, by Uncle Hans' fire."
+
+They shook hands.  Many could be heard yawning loudly: others threw on
+the fire bits of planks.  The gourds went round; some retired from the
+circles to make room for their shivering neighbors.  Meanwhile the
+crowd began to grow impatient.
+
+"Ah," cried some, "we did not come here only to get our feet warmed.
+It is time to see and come to an understanding."
+
+"Yes, yes!  Let them hold a council, and name the chiefs."
+
+"No; everybody is not yet arrived.  See, there are more coming from
+Dagsburg and St. Quirin."
+
+Indeed, the lighter it became, the more people could be seen hastening
+along all the mountain paths.  At that time there must have been many
+hundreds of men in the valley--wood-cutters, charcoal-burners,
+raftsmen--without counting the women and children.
+
+Nothing could be more picturesque than that gathering in the midst of
+the snows, in the depths of the defile, closed in as it was by tall
+pines losing themselves in the clouds.  To the right, the valleys
+opening away into each other as far as the eye could reach; to the
+left, the ruins of the Falkenstein rising into the sky.  From a
+distance one would have said it was a flock of cranes settled on the
+ice; but, nearer, these hardy men could be distinguished, with stiff
+beards bristling like a boar, gloomy fierce eyes, broad square
+shoulders, and horny hands.  Some few, taller than the rest, belonged
+to the fiery race of red men, white-skinned, and hairy to the tips of
+their fingers, with strength enough to pull an oak up by the roots.
+Among this number was old Materne of Hengst, with his two sons Kasper
+and Frantz.  These sturdy fellows--all three armed with little rifles
+from Innsprueck--having blue cloth gaiters with leathern buttons
+reaching above their knees, their loins girdled with goat-skin, and
+their felt hats coming down low over their necks--did not deign to
+approach the fire.  For an hour they had been sitting on a trunk by the
+river-side, on the watch, with their feet in the snow.  From time to
+time the old man would say to his sons, "What do they shiver for over
+there?  I never knew a milder night for the season: it is nothing--the
+rivers are not even touched."
+
+All the forest-hunters of the country passing by came to shake hands
+with them, then congregated round them and formed a circle apart.
+These fellows spoke little, being used to silence for whole days and
+nights, for fear of frightening away their game.
+
+Marc Dives, standing in the middle of another group, a head taller than
+any of them, spoke and gesticulated--pointing now to one part of the
+mountain, now to another.  In front of him was the old herdsman
+Lagarmitte, with his large gray smock, a long bark trumpet on his
+shoulder, and his dog at his feet.  He listened to the smuggler,
+open-mouth, and kept on bowing his head.  The others all seemed
+attentive: they were composed of charcoal-burners and wood-carriers,
+with whom the smuggler had daily intercourse.
+
+Between the saw-mills and the first fire, on the bridge over the dam,
+sat the bootmaker Jerome of St. Quirin--a man of from fifty to sixty
+years of age, with a long brown face, hollow eyes, big nose--his ears
+covered with a badger-skin cap--and a yellow beard reaching to his
+waist in a peak.  His hands, enveloped in great green woollen gloves,
+were clasped over an immense stick of knotty service-tree.  He wore a
+long sackcloth hood; and might easily have been taken for a hermit.  At
+every rumor that arose, Father Jerome would slowly turn his head, and
+try to catch what it was, frowning.
+
+Jean Labarbe, grasping his axe, remained immovable.  He was a
+white-faced man, with an aquiline nose and thin lips.  He exercised
+great influence over the men of Dagsburg, owing to his resolution and
+the clearness of his ideas.  When they shouted around him, "We must
+deliberate; we cannot stay here doing nothing," he simply contented
+himself with saying, "Let us wait: Hullin has not arrived, nor
+Catherine Lefevre.  There is no hurry."  Everybody then was silenced,
+and looked impatiently toward the path from Charmes.
+
+The sawyer Piorette--a small, brisk, thin, energetic man, whose black
+eyebrows met above his eyes--stood on the threshold of his hut, with
+his pipe between his teeth, contemplating the general appearance of
+this scene.
+
+Meanwhile, the impatience increased every moment.  Some village
+mayors--in square-cut coats and three-cornered hats--advanced in the
+direction of the saw-mills, calling on their communes to come and
+decide what was to be done.  Most fortunately, at last Catherine
+Lefevre's cart appeared, and a thousand enthusiastic shouts arose on
+all sides:
+
+"There they are! they come!"
+
+Old Materne gravely mounted on a trunk and quietly descended, saying,
+"It is they."
+
+Great agitation showed itself.  The farthest groups gathered together
+in one crowd.  A sort of impatient shiver passed over the mass.
+Scarcely has the old farmer's wife become visible, whip in hand, on her
+straw box with little Louise, than from all parts came cries of "Vive
+la France!  Vive la mere Catherine!"
+
+Hullin, who had remained behind, his broad hat pushed back, his musket
+slung across his shoulder, was now crossing the meadow of Eichmath,
+distributing vigorous shakes of the hand: "Good-day, Daniel; good-day,
+Colon.  Good-day--good-day!"
+
+"Ah! it is going to be warm, Hullin."
+
+"Yes--yes; we are going to hear the chestnuts popping this winter.
+Good-day, my old Jerome!  We have serious business on hand."
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude.  We must hope to pull through it by the grace of
+God."
+
+Catherine, on arriving at the saw-works, told Labarbe to set on the
+ground a keg of brandy which she had brought away from the farm, and to
+get a jug from the sawyer's cottage.
+
+Soon after, Hullin, coming up to the fire, met Materne and his two sons.
+
+"You have come late," said the old hunter.
+
+"Ah! yes.  What was to be done?  I had to descend the Falkenstein, get
+my gun, and start the women.  But as we are now here, let us lose no
+more time; Lagarmitte, blow thy horn, so that all the men may assemble.
+The first thing is to appoint the leaders."
+
+Lagarmitte blew his long trumpet, his cheeks puffed out to his ears:
+then those who were still on the hill-sides or paths hastened their
+pace to be in time.  Soon all those brave fellows were assembled in
+front of the saw-works.  Hullin got up on a pile of tree-trunks, and
+looking seriously upon the crowd, said, amidst deep silence: "The enemy
+crossed the Rhine the day before yesterday: they are marching over the
+mountain into Lorraine: Strasbourg and Huningue are blockaded.  We may
+expect to see the Germans and Prussians in three or four days."
+
+There was a loud shout of "Vive la France!"
+
+[Illustration: THERE WAS A GENERAL SHOUT OF "LONG LIVE FRANCE!"]
+
+"Yes, vive la France!" continued Hullin; "for if the allies enter Paris
+they can do what they choose; they can re-establish statute-labor,
+tithes, convents, monopolies, and the gallows.  If you wish to see that
+over again, you have only to let them pass."
+
+It would be impossible to depict the savage fierceness of the audience
+at that moment.
+
+"That is what I had to tell you," cried Hullin, quite white.  "Since
+you are here, it can only be to fight."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"It is well; but listen to me.  I will be open with you.  Among you are
+fathers of families.  We shall be one against ten, against fifty: we
+must expect to perish.  So let the men who have not reflected on it,
+who feel they have not heart to do their duty to the end, go--none will
+take notice of them.  Each man is free."
+
+Then he paused and looked around him.  Everybody remained stationary:
+then with a firmer voice, he concluded thus: "No one goes away; you are
+all, all resolved to fight.  Well, I am rejoiced to see there is not
+one coward among us.  Now a leader must be chosen.  In great dangers,
+the first thing is order and discipline.  The leader you are going to
+name will have the right of commanding and being obeyed.  So reflect
+seriously, for on that man will hang the fate of you all."
+
+So saying, Jean-Claude descended from the tree-trunk, and the agitation
+became extreme.  Every village deliberated apart by itself--every mayor
+proposed his friend--and the hours wore on.  Catherine Lefevre was
+burning with impatience.  At length she could no longer contain
+herself, and standing up on her bench, signed that she was going to
+speak.
+
+Catherine was held in great esteem.  At first only a few, then a larger
+number approached to know what she wished to communicate.
+
+"My friends," said she, "we are losing time.  What do you wish for?  A
+trustworthy man, is it not so? a soldier--a man who has seen service,
+and who knows how to profit by our positions?  Well, why do you not
+choose Hullin?  Can any one find a better?  If so, let him speak, and
+we will decide.  I propose Jean-Claude Hullin.  He! do you hear--over
+there?  If this continues, the Austrians will have arrived before a
+leader has been decided on."
+
+"Yes,--yes!  Hullin!" shouted Labarbe, Dives, Jerome, and several
+others.  "Let us see how many are for and against him."
+
+Then Marc Dives, clambering on to the trunks, cried out in a voice like
+thunder: "Those who do not want Jean-Claude Hullin for leader must lift
+up their hands."
+
+Not one hand was uplifted.
+
+"Those who want Jean-Claude Hullin for their leader must raise their
+hands."
+
+Every hand was put up.
+
+"Jean-Claude," said the smuggler, "mount up here, look--they have
+chosen you for their leader."
+
+Master Jean-Claude having done so, saw he was named, and said
+immediately in a stern voice: "Good! you name me to be your chief.  I
+accept!  Let Materne the elder, Labarbe of Dagsburg, Jerome of St.
+Quirin, Marc Dives, Piorette the sawyer, and Catherine Lefevre, come
+into the saw-works.  We are going to take counsel.  In a quarter of an
+hour or twenty minutes, I shall give my orders.  Meanwhile, each
+village must put two men under the orders of Marc Dives, to fetch
+powder and ball from the Falkenstein."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LEADER
+
+The persons indicated by Jean-Claude Hullin met together in the shed of
+the Sawyerie, before the great fireplace; a species of good-humor
+beaming on their faces.
+
+"For twenty years have I heard speak of the Russians, Austrians, and
+Cossacks," said old Materne, smiling, "and I shall not be sorry to see
+a few within reach of my musket: it gives a change to one's ideas."
+
+"Yes," replied Labarbe, "we shall see queer things; the little children
+of the mountains will be able to relate something of what their fathers
+and grandfathers did!  And the old women, of an evening--won't they
+tell long tales in fifty years' time?"
+
+"Comrades," said Hullin, "you know the whole country: you have the
+mountain under your eyes from Thann to Wissembourg.  You know that the
+great roads, imperial roads--traverse Alsace and the Vosges.  They both
+commence at Bale: one runs along the Rhine to Strasbourg, from whence
+it ascends to Saverne and enters Lorraine.  Huningue, Neuf-Brisach,
+Strasbourg, and Phalsbourg defend it.  The other turns to the left and
+passes by Schlestadt: at Schlestadt it enters the mountain and reaches
+Saint-Die, Raon-l'Etape, Baccarat, and Luneville.  The enemy will want
+to force these two roads first,--being the best for cavalry, artillery,
+and baggage,--but as they are defended, we need not trouble ourselves
+about them.  If the allies besiege the fortresses--which would lengthen
+the campaign--we have nothing to fear; but it is not probable they will
+do so.  After having summoned Huningue to surrender, Belfort,
+Schlestadt, Strasbourg, and Phalsbourg, on this side the
+Vosges--Bitsche, Lutzelstein, and Sarrebrueck on the other--I imagine
+they will fall upon us.  Now attend to me.  Between Phalsbourg and
+Saint-Die, there are several defiles for the infantry; but there is
+only one way practicable for cannon: this is the road from Strasbourg
+to Raon-les-Leaux by Urmatt, Mutzig, Lutzelhouse, Phramond,
+Grandfontaine.  Once masters of this passage, the allies will be able
+to come out on Lorraine.  This road passes the Donon, two leagues from
+here, on our right The first thing to be done is to make a firm stand
+there, in the most favorable part for defence, that is to say, on the
+plateau of the mountain; to intersect it, to break down the bridges,
+and to erect solid breastworks across it.  A few hundreds of great
+trees across the road with all their branches are worth as much as
+ramparts.  They are the best ambuscades: one is well sheltered behind
+them and can see everything coming.  Those large trees hold like death.
+They must be taken away piece by piece; bridges cannot be thrown over
+them:--in fact it is the best thing to be done.  All that, comrades,
+must be accomplished to-morrow evening, or next day at the latest.  I
+charge myself with it.  But it is not sufficient to occupy a position
+and put it in a good state of defence: it must be so managed that the
+enemy shall not be able to turn it."
+
+"I was just thinking of that," said Materne.  "Once in the valley of
+Bruche, the Germans can march with their infantry into the hills of
+Haslack and turn our left.  Nothing can prevent their trying the same
+manoeuvre on our right, if they reach Raon-l'Etape."
+
+"Yes, but to take these ideas out of their heads, we have a very simple
+thing to do: it is to occupy the defiles of the Zorn and the Sarre on
+our left, and that of Blanru on our right.  One can only keep a defile
+by holding the heights; that is why Piorette must place himself with a
+hundred men on the side of Raon-les-Leaux; Jerome on the Grosmann, with
+the same number, to close the valley of the Sarre; and Labarbe, at the
+head of the remainder on the great slopes to watch over the hills of
+Haslach.  You must choose your men from those of the nearest villages.
+The women ought not to have a long distance to carry provisions; and
+then the wounded will be nearer their homes, which must also be thought
+of.  There is all I have to say to you just now.  The chiefs of posts
+must take care to send me every day on the Donon, where I shall
+establish our head-quarters this evening, a good walker, to inform me
+of what happens, and to receive the countersign.  We shall also
+organize a reserve; but as we must make haste, we will speak of that
+when you are all in position, and there is no longer cause to fear a
+surprise from the enemy."
+
+"And I," exclaimed Marc Dives, "I shall have nothing to do then?  I am
+to remain with my arms folded, watching the others fight?"
+
+"Thou--thou art to survey the transport of ammunition.  None of us know
+how to treat the powder as thou dost, to preserve it from fire and
+damp, to melt the balls, and make cartridges."
+
+"But it is woman's work, that is," exclaimed the smuggler.
+"Hexe-Baizel could do it as well as I.  What! am I not even to fire
+once?"
+
+"Softly, Marc," replied Hullin, laughing; "occasions will not be
+wanting.  In the first place, the Falkenstein is the centre of our
+line; it is our arsenal and our retreating place in case of misfortune.
+The enemy will know through his spies that our convoys come from there;
+he will try, probably, to take them: the balls and bayonet-thrusts will
+come in thy way.  Besides, to have thee in safety will be all the
+better, for thy cellars and caves must not be confided to the first
+comer.  But if thou really wouldst like----"
+
+"No," said the smuggler, who had been touched by Hullin's reference to
+his caves--"no! all things considered, I believe thou art right,
+Jean-Claude.  I have my men--they are well armed--we will defend the
+Falkenstein; and if the opportunity of firing a shot should present
+itself, I shall be all the freer."
+
+"Then that is a decided and well-understood business?" demanded Hullin.
+
+"Yes, yes, it is decided."
+
+"Well, comrades," said the worthy fellow, joyously, "let us warm
+ourselves with a few good glasses of wine.  It is ten o'clock; let each
+one return to his village, and make his preparations.  To-morrow
+morning all the defiles must be vigorously occupied."
+
+They quitted the shed, and Hullin, in the presence of his followers,
+named Labarbe, Jerome, and Piorette chiefs of the defiles: then he told
+those of the Sarre to assemble as soon as possible near the farm of
+Bois-de-Chenes, with axes, mattocks, and muskets.  "We shall leave at
+two o'clock, and encamp on the Donon across the route," said he to
+them.  "To-morrow, at dawn, we will begin the breastworks."
+
+He retained Materne and his two sons Frantz and Kasper, announcing to
+them that the battle would commence undoubtedly on the Donon, and that
+good shots would be wanted on that side, which gave them pleasure.
+
+Mistress Lefevre had never looked happier than when she got into her
+cart again, and, kissing Louise, said in her ear:--"All goes well.
+Jean-Claude is a man: he sees everything; he draws people to him.  I
+have known him forty years, yet he surprises even me."  Then turning
+round--"Jean-Claude," cried she, "we have a ham waiting for us down
+there and a few old bottles, which the Germans shall not drink."
+
+"No, Catherine, they shall not drink them.  Go on, I am coming."
+
+But just as they were starting, and when already a number of
+mountaineers were climbing the hillsides to regain their villages,
+quite in the distance, on the path of Trois-Fontaines, appeared a large
+thin man on a big roan cob, with a flat-brimmed cap of rabbit-skin
+covering the whole back of his neck: a great sheep-dog with a black
+shaggy coat bounded along near him; and the ends of his enormous
+surtout flapped behind him like wings.  Every one cried out,--"It is
+Doctor Lorquin from the plain--the one who attends poor people gratis.
+He comes with his dog Pluto.  He is a good man."
+
+In fact he it was.  He galloped on, shouting, "Halt! stop! halt!"  And
+his red face, sharp eyes, red-brown beard, broad shoulders, great horse
+and dog, all cleaved the air and grew upon the view.  In two seconds he
+had reached the foot of the mountain, crossed the meadow, and appeared
+at the bridge, before the shed.  Instantly, in breathless tones, he
+began to say:--"Ah! the cunning rogues who want to enter on a campaign
+without me; they shall pay for it!"  And tapping a small box he carried
+at his crupper,--"Listen, my good fellows, listen!  I have something
+inside there of which you shall give me an account: every description
+of knife, large, small, round and pointed, to take from you the balls
+and shot of all kinds which you are going to be regaled with!"
+Whereupon he burst out laughing, and all those near him felt a cold
+shiver in all their veins.
+
+Having delivered himself of this pleasantry, Doctor Lorquin continued
+in a graver tone:--"Hullin, I must pull your ears!  What, when the
+country has to be defended, you forget me! others have to warn me.  It
+appears to me, however, that a doctor will not be out of the way here.
+I must call you to account."
+
+"Pardon me, doctor, I was wrong," said Hullin, squeezing his hand.
+"During the last week so many things have happened!  One does not
+always think of everything; and besides, such a man as you are, need
+not be told how to fulfil his duty."
+
+The doctor was appeased.
+
+"All that is right and good," he cried; "but nevertheless by your fault
+I am too late; the good places are taken, the crosses distributed.
+Come, where is the general, that I may make complaints to him?"
+
+"I am the general."
+
+"Oh! oh! really?"
+
+"Yes, doctor, I am the general; and I promote you to be our head
+surgeon."
+
+"Chief surgeon of the partisans of the Vosges!  Well, it suits me.  No
+malice now, Jean-Claude."
+
+Approaching the cart, the worthy man told Catherine that he relied on
+her for the organization of the ambulances.
+
+"Everything shall be ready, doctor," replied the farm-mistress.
+"Louise and I are going to set to work this evening.  Is it not so,
+Louise?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Mamma Lefevre," said she, enchanted to perceive that the
+campaign was going to begin.  "We shall work well; we will spend the
+night at it even.  M. Lorquin shall be well pleased with us."
+
+"Well, then, let us go.  You will dine with us, doctor?"
+
+They trotted away.  While keeping pace with them, the good doctor
+related to Catherine laughingly how the tidings of the general rising
+had reached him; the affliction of his old housekeeper, Marie, who
+wanted to prevent his going to be massacred by the "kaiserlichs," and
+the various episodes of his journey from Quibolo to the village of
+Charmes.  Hullin, Materne, and his sons were coming on behind, their
+carbines on their shoulders; and thus they ascended the hill-side
+toward the farm of Bois-de-Chenes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CONSCRIPT
+
+You can imagine the animation at the farm, the bustling of the
+domestics, the shouts of enthusiasm, the chinking of glasses and forks,
+the joy depicted on all faces, when Jean-Claude, Doctor Lorquin, the
+Maternes, and all those who had followed the cart of Catherine Lefevre
+were installed in the large room around a magnificent ham, and began to
+celebrate their future triumphs, glass in hand.
+
+It was on a Tuesday, baking-day at the farm.  Excitement had prevailed
+in the kitchen all the morning: old Duchene, with shirt-sleeves turned
+up and a cotton cap on his head, was taking out of the oven numberless
+loaves of bread, the good odor of which pervaded the whole house.
+Annette received them and piled them on the hearth; Louise waited on
+the guests; and Catherine Lefevre superintended everything, crying
+out,--"Make haste, my children--make haste!  The third batch must be
+ready when the men from the Sarre arrive.  It will make six pounds of
+bread for each man."
+
+Hullin, from his seat, watched the movements of the old farm-mistress.
+
+"What a woman!" said he; "what a woman!  She forgets nothing.  Could
+one find another such in the whole country?  To the health of Catherine
+Lefevre!"
+
+"To the health of Catherine Lefevre!" replied the others.
+
+The glasses met together, and they began again to talk over combats,
+assaults, and intrenchments.  Each one felt animated with an invincible
+confidence; every one said in himself, "All will go well!"
+
+But heaven had in store for them yet another satisfaction on that day,
+especially for Louise and the Mother Lefevre.  About noon, just as a
+beautiful gleam of winter sunshine whitened the snow and made the frost
+melt on the window-panes, and the great cock, putting his head out of
+his coop, uttered his triumphant crow, flapping his wings--just then
+the watch-dog, old "Yohan," half blind and toothless, began to bark so
+joyously and plaintively, that everyone listened with the greatest
+attention.  The kitchen was all excitement with the fourth batch coming
+out of the oven, and even Catherine Lefevre herself stopped.
+
+"Something is going on," said she, in a low voice: and then added, all
+trembling, "Since my boy left, Yohan has never barked like that."
+
+At the same moment, rapid steps traversed the court.  Louise sprang
+toward the door, crying,--"It is he!  It is he!" and almost immediately
+a hand tried to hasp.  The door opened, and a soldier appeared on the
+threshold; but such a soldier, so worn, so bronzed, so emaciated! his
+gray hood, with its pewter buttons, so ragged--his high leathern
+gaiters so torn, that all present were astonished.
+
+He appeared unable to advance a step farther, and slowly put the
+butt-end of his musket on the ground.  The tip of his aquiline
+nose--the nose of Mother Lefevre--shone like bronze; his red mustaches
+shook like one of those great lean hawks which are forced by hunger to
+come to the very doors of the stables in winter.  He looked into the
+kitchen, pale beneath the brown coating of his cheeks, and with his
+great hollow eyes filled with tears, he seemed unable to advance or say
+a word.
+
+Outside, the old dog leaped, whined, and shook his chain; in the
+interior, one could hear the fire blazing, so great was the silence;
+but soon Catherine Lefevre, with a piercing voice,
+exclaimed,--"Gaspard! my child!  It is thou!"
+
+"Yes, my mother," replied the soldier, softly, as though suffocating.
+
+And at the same moment Louise began to weep, while in the great room
+there arose a shout like thunder.  All the friends ran out, Master
+Jean-Claude at their head, crying,--"Gaspard!  Gaspard Lefevre!"
+
+Then they saw Gaspard and his mother embracing each other.  This
+strong, courageous woman was weeping: he did not weep; he held her
+pressed to his breast, his red mustaches mingling with her gray locks,
+and murmured,--"My mother!--my mother!  Ah, how often have I thought of
+you!"  Then, in a louder voice, he said, "Louise!  Where is Louise?  I
+saw Louise!"  And Louise threw herself into his arms, and their kisses
+were mingled together.  "Ah, thou didst not recognize me, Louise!"
+
+"Oh, yes!--oh, yes!  I knew thee, even by thy step!"
+
+Old Duchene, with his cotton cap in his hands, stammered out by the
+fireplace,--"Lord! is it possible?  My poor child!  What does he look
+like?"
+
+He had brought up Gaspard, and always fancied him, ever since his
+departure, fresh and ruddy in a beautiful uniform with red facings.  It
+completely deranged his ideas to see him otherwise.
+
+At that moment Hullin, raising his voice, said,--"And the rest of us,
+Gaspard,--thy old friends--art thou not going to take notice of us?"
+
+Then the brave fellow turned round and exclaimed with
+enthusiasm,--"Hullin!  Doctor Lorquin!  Materne!  Frantz!  Why, they
+are all here!"
+
+And the embraces recommenced, but this time more joyously, with shouts
+of laughter and shaking of hands that seemed endless.
+
+"Ah, doctor, it is you!  Ah, my old father, Jean-Claude!"
+
+They looked closely at each other, with bright, beaming faces, and went
+arm-in-arm up and down the great room; and Mother Catherine with the
+knapsack, Louise with the gun, and Duchene with the shako, followed
+them, laughing and drying their cheeks and eyes--nothing had ever been
+seen like it before.
+
+"Let us sit down and drink!" exclaimed Doctor Lorquin.  "This is the
+bouquet of the feast."
+
+"Ah, my poor Gaspard, how happy I am to behold thee safe and sound,"
+said Hullin.  "Ha, ha!  Without flattery, I like thee better as thou
+art now than with thy great red cheeks.  Parbleu! thou art a man now.
+Thou remindest me of the old fellows of my time, those of the Sambre
+and Egypt--ha, ha, ha! we had not round noses, we were not sleek and
+fat; we looked like lean rats watching a cheese, and our teeth were
+long and white!"
+
+"Yes, yes, that does not surprise me, Papa Jean-Claude.  Come, let us
+sit down; we can talk more at ease.  Ah, now, why are you all at the
+farm?"
+
+"What, dost thou not know?  All the country is up, from Houpe to
+Saint-Sauveur, to defend itself."
+
+"Yes, the anabaptist of Painbach just mentioned it as I passed.  It is
+then true?"
+
+"It is true.  Everybody is in it; and I am the general in chief."
+
+"Excellent--excellent!  That these rogues of 'kaiserlichs' should not
+carry everything with a high hand in our own country gives me pleasure.
+But hand me the knife.  Anyway one is happy to find one's self at home
+again.  He!  Louise, come here and sit down a little while.  Look, Papa
+Jean-Claude: with this girl on one side of me, the ham on the other,
+and the bottle to the front, I should not need a fortnight to pick up
+again; and my comrades would not know me when I joined the company."
+
+Everybody was now sitting down and astonished to see with what appetite
+the brave fellow ate and drank, while regarding Louise and his mother
+tenderly, and replying to one and the other, without losing a single
+mouthful.
+
+The farm-people, Duchene, Annette, Robin, and Dubourg, arranged in a
+half-circle, watched Gaspard in ecstasies; Louise refilled his glass;
+the Mother Lefevre, seated by the stove, got up and went to his
+knapsack, and, on only finding two old black shirts with holes wide
+enough to put one's, hand through, with worn-out shoes and a bit of wax
+for cartridges, a comb with two teeth and an empty bottle, she lifted
+her hands to heaven and hastening to open the linen chest, saying,
+"Lord, can one be astonished that so many die of sheer want!"
+
+Doctor Lorquin, in presence of such a vigorous appetite, rubbed his
+hands joyfully, and murmured to himself, "What a sturdy fellow!  What a
+digestion!  What a set of teeth!  He could crunch pebbles like nuts."
+
+And even old Materne said to his sons:--"In other days, after two or
+three days of hunting in the high mountains in winter, I also used to
+feel the hunger of a wolf, and to eat a haunch of venison right off:
+now I am getting old, one or two pounds of meat are sufficient for
+me---which shows what age does."
+
+Hullin had lit his pipe, and seemed in a reverie: evidently something
+worried him.  After a few minutes, seeing that Gaspard's appetite was
+less lively, he brusquely asked, "Say, then, Gaspard, without
+interrupting thyself, how the devil hast thou managed to come?  We
+believed that thou wast still on the borders of the Rhine, on the
+Strasbourg side."
+
+"Ah! ah! old soldier, I comprehend," said young Lefevre, winking.
+"There are so many deserters, are there not?"
+
+"Oh! such an idea would never enter my head, and yet----"
+
+"You would not be sorry to know that I had done nothing wrong?  I
+cannot blame you, Papa Jean-Claude: you are right.  He who is missing
+at the roll-call when the 'kaiserlichs' are in France, deserves to be
+shot.  Be composed, here is my leave."
+
+Hullin, who possessed no false delicacy, read,--"Leave for twenty-four
+hours to the grenadier Gaspard Lefevre, of the 2d of the 1st.  This
+day, 3d January, 1814.--GEMEAU, Head of Battalion."
+
+"Good, good," exclaimed he.  "Put that carefully in thy knapsack, thou
+mightest lose it."
+
+All his good-humor had returned:--"Do you see, my children, I know what
+love is?  There is both good and bad in it: but it is particularly bad
+for young soldiers who come too close to their village after a
+campaign.  They are capable of forgetting themselves and of not
+returning unless in company of two or three gendarmes.  I have seen it.
+But come, since everything is in order, let us drink a glass of
+'rikevir.'  What say you, Catherine?  The men of the Sarre may arrive
+at any moment, and we have not an instant to lose?"
+
+"You are right, Jean-Claude," replied the old farm-mistress sadly.
+"Annette, go down and bring three bottles from the small cellar."
+
+The servant obeyed quickly.
+
+"But this leave, Gaspard," continued Catherine--"how long has it
+lasted?"
+
+"I received it yesterday, at eight in the evening, at Vasselonne, my
+mother.  The regiment is retreating on Lorraine; I must rejoin it this
+evening at Phalsbourg."
+
+"It is well; thou hast still seven hours; thou wilt not need more than
+six to reach there, although there is much snow on the Foxthal."
+
+The good woman came and sat down again by her son, with a full heart.
+Every one was moved.  Louise, with her arm on the old tattered epaulet
+of Gaspard and her cheek against his, was sobbing.  Hullin emptied the
+ashes from his pipe at the end of the table, frowning, without saying
+anything; but when the bottles arrived and were uncorked, "Come,
+Louise," said he, "take courage! this cannot last forever; it must end
+in one way or another, and I venture to affirm that it will end well.
+Gaspard will come back to us, and then we shall have the wedding."
+
+He refilled the glasses, and Catherine dried her eyes, murmuring, "To
+think that those brigands are the cause of all this.  Ah! let them
+come--let them come here!"
+
+They all drank with a melancholy air; but the old "rikevir," entering
+the hearts of these brave people quickly enlivened them.  Gaspard,
+stronger than he had appeared at first, began to relate the terrible
+battles of Bautzen, Lutzen, Leipzig, and Hanau, where the conscripts
+had fought like tried soldiers, winning victory after victory, till
+traitors began to appear.
+
+Every one listened in silence.  Louise, when he spoke of any great
+danger--of the passage over rivers under the enemy's fire, or the
+taking of a battery by the bayonet--squeezed his arm as though to
+defend him.  Jean-Claude's eyes sparkled; the doctor demanded each time
+the position of the ambulance; Materne and his sons stretched out their
+necks and clinched their jaws; and with help of the old wine the
+enthusiasm increased every moment.  "Ah, the rascals! ah, the brigands!
+But look out! it is not over yet."
+
+Mother Lefevre admired the courage and luck of her son in the midst of
+these events, which will be remembered centuries to come.  But when
+Lagarmitte, looking solemn and grave in his long gray cloth coat, with
+his broad black felt on his white head, and with his bark trumpet on
+his shoulder, crossed the kitchen, and appeared at the entrance to the
+large room, saying,--"The men of the Sarre are come,"--then all this
+enthusiasm, disappeared, and the company rose, thinking of the terrible
+struggle which would soon take place in the mountains.
+
+Louise, throwing her arms round Gaspard's neck, cried, "Gaspard, do not
+go away!  Remain with us!"
+
+He became very pale.
+
+"I am a soldier," said he.  "I am called, Gaspard Lefevre.  I love thee
+a thousand times more than my own life; but a Lefevre only knows his
+duty."
+
+And he unwound her arms.  Louise then, sinking on the table, began to
+moan aloud.  Gaspard rose.  Hullin stood between them, and grasping his
+hands tightly, with trembling lips, said: "Excellently well!  Thou hast
+spoken like a man."
+
+His mother came forward with a calm countenance to buckle his knapsack
+on his shoulders.  She did it with knitted eyebrows and pressed lips,
+without one sigh escaping her; but two great tears slowly ran down the
+wrinkles of her cheeks.  And when she had done it, she turned away, and
+with her sleeve over her eyes, said: "It is well!  Go--go, my child!
+thy mother blesses thee.  Whatever thy fortune thou wilt yet not be
+lost to us.  Look, Gaspard: there is thy place--there between Louise
+and myself--thou wilt always be there.  This poor child is not old
+enough yet to know that to live is to suffer."
+
+Everybody left; only Louise remained lamenting in the room.  A few
+seconds later, as the butt end of the musket sounded on the slabs of
+the kitchen, and the outer door was opened, she gave a piercing shriek,
+and darted after him.
+
+"Gaspard, Gaspard, look!  I will be courageous; I will not cry; I will
+not keep thee back.  Oh, no; but do not leave me in anger.  Have pity
+on me!"
+
+"Angry! angry with thee, my Louise!  Oh, no!  But to see thee so
+unhappy breaks my heart.  Ah! if thou wert a little braver now, I
+should feel happier."
+
+"Well, I am.  Let us kiss each other!  See, I am no longer the same.  I
+would be like Maman Lefevre."
+
+They calmly gave each other a parting embrace, Hullin held the gun;
+Catherine motioned with her hands, as though to say, "Go, go! it is
+enough!"  And he, suddenly seizing his musket, walked away resolutely,
+without looking back.
+
+On the other side, the men of the Sarre, with their axes and hatchets,
+were climbing the steep ascent of the Valtin.
+
+Five minutes later, on passing by the great oak, Gaspard turned round,
+lifting his hands.  Catherine and Louise replied to it.  Hullin
+advanced to meet his people.  Doctor Lorquin alone remained with the
+women; and when Gaspard, continuing his way, had disappeared, he
+exclaimed, "Catherine Lefevre, you can pride yourself on having an
+affectionate son.  God grant him good fortune!"
+
+And the distant voices of the new-comers could be heard laughing among
+themselves, as they were marching to war as gayly as to a wedding.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ROBIN'S VISION
+
+As Hullin, at the head of the mountaineers, was taking his measures for
+the defence of his country, the madman Yegof, with his tin crown, that
+sad spectacle of humanity shorn of its noblest attribute,
+intelligence--the madman Yegof, his breast exposed to the fierce wind,
+his feet bare, reckless of cold, like the reptile in his prison, was
+wandering from mountain to mountain, in the midst of the snows of
+winter.  How comes it that the madman is able to resist the sharpest
+severity of the atmosphere, while an intelligent being would succumb to
+it?  Does it arise from a more powerful concentration of life, a more
+rapid circulation of the blood, a state of continued fever?  Or is it
+the effect of the extraordinary excitement of the senses, or any other
+unknown cause?
+
+Science tells us nothing.  She admits only material causes, without
+giving an account of such phenomena.
+
+So Yegof went on at random, and night came.  The cold was redoubled,
+the fox gnashed his teeth in the pursuit of an invisible prey; the
+famished buzzard fell back with empty claws among the bushes, uttering
+a cry of distress.  He, with his raven on his shoulder, gesticulating,
+jabbering, as if in a dream, kept walking on, from Holderloch to
+Sonneberg, from Sonneberg to Blutfeld.
+
+Now, on this particular night, the old shepherd, Robin, of the farm of
+Bois-de-Chenes, was destined to be the witness of a most strange and
+fearful sight.
+
+Some days ago, having been overtaken by the first fall of snow at the
+bottom of the ravine of the Blutfeld, he had left his cart there to
+conduct his flock back to the farm; but having discovered that he had
+forgotten his sheepskin, and left it in a shed there, he had on this
+day, when his work was done, set out about four o'clock in the
+afternoon to go and fetch it.  The Blutfeld, situated between the
+Schneeberg and the Grosmann, is a narrow gorge, bounded by rocks.  A
+narrow stream of water winds through it, under shadow of the tall
+shrubs, and in its depths extends a vast pasturage, all covered with
+large gray stones, that lie thickly scattered about.
+
+This gorge is very little frequented, for there is a wild look about
+the Blutfeld, especially by the light of a winter moon.  The learned
+folks of these regions, the school-master of Dagsburg, and he of
+Hazlach, say that in that spot occurred the famous battle of the
+Triboques against the Germans, who wished to penetrate into Gaul, under
+the command of a leader named Luitprandt.  They say that the Triboques,
+from the neighboring heights, hurling upon their enemies huge masses of
+rocks, crushed them there as in a mortar, and that, on account of this
+great carnage, the gorge has preserved to this day the name of
+_Blutfeld_.  Fragments of broken pots, of rusty lances, of helmets, and
+long swords with cross hilts, are often found there.
+
+At night, when the moon sheds her light upon this field and those
+immense stones, all covered with snow, when the north wind blows among
+the frost-covered branches, making them rattle and clatter like
+cymbals, you might fancy you heard the wild cry of the Germans at the
+moment of surprise, the shrieks of the women, the neighings of the
+horses, the rumbling of the chariots in the defile; for it seems that
+these people brought with them, in their skin-covered carriages, women,
+children, old men, and all that they possessed in gold, and silver, and
+movables, like the Germans setting out for America.  The Triboques
+never ceased to massacre them during two days, and on the third day
+they returned to the Donon, the Schneeberg, the Grosmann, the Giromani,
+the Hengst,--their broad shoulders stooping under the weight of their
+booty.
+
+This is what is related concerning the Blutfeld, and certainly to see
+this gorge enclosed within the mountains like an immense trap, without
+any other outlet than a narrow footpath, it is easy to understand how
+the Germans were taken at a disadvantage and fell an easy prey to their
+conquerors.
+
+Robin did not reach the spot till between seven and eight o'clock, just
+as the moon was rising.
+
+The worthy fellow had descended the precipice a hundred times, but
+never had he beheld the place so brightly illuminated, and at the same
+time of so gloomy an aspect.
+
+At a distance, his white cart, at the bottom of the abyss, looked to
+him exactly like one of those enormous stones, covered with snow,
+beneath which the Germans had been buried.  It was at the entrance of
+the gorge, behind a thick cluster of shrubs, and beside it the little
+torrent ran murmuring in a slender stream, bright as steel, and
+sparkling like diamonds.
+
+When he arrived there, the shepherd began to look for the key of the
+padlock; then, having unlocked the shed, he crept in on his hands and
+knees, and found, very fortunately, not only his sheepskin, but an old
+hatchet, which he had quite forgotten.
+
+But judge of his surprise when, on issuing from it, he saw the madman
+Yegof appear at the turn of the footpath, and come straight toward him
+in the bright moonlight.
+
+The honest man immediately remembered the fearful story told in the
+kitchen of Bois-de-Chenes, and he felt afraid; but quite another
+feeling came over him when behind the fool, at fifteen or twenty paces,
+he beheld, stealthily approaching in their turn, five gray wolves, two
+big and three smaller ones.
+
+At first he took them for dogs, but they were wolves.  They followed
+Yegof step by step, and he did not appear to see them; his raven
+hovered overhead, flitting from the full moonlight to the shadow of the
+rocks, and then returning; the wolves, with flaming eyes, their sharp
+muzzles turned up, were sniffing the air; the fool raised his sceptre.
+
+The shepherd pulled-to the door of the shed as quick as lightning, but
+Yegof did not see him.  He advanced into the gorge as into a spacious
+chamber, to the right and left rose the steep rocks, above which
+myriads of stars were shining.  You might have heard a fly move; the
+wolves made no noise in walking; all was silent, and the raven had just
+perched on the top of an old withered oak that grew upon one of the
+rocks opposite; his shining plumage looked still darker than usual, as
+he turned his head, and seemed to be listening.
+
+It was a strange sight.
+
+Robin said to himself:--"The fool sees nothing, hears nothing; they
+will devour him.  If he stumbles, if his foot slips, it is all over
+with him."
+
+But in the middle of the gorge, Yegof, having turned round, sat down
+upon a stone, and the five wolves round him, still sniffing the air,
+squatted on their haunches in the snow.
+
+And then, a really terrible sight--the fool raising his sceptre, made
+them a speech, calling them each by his name.
+
+The wolves answered him with dismal howls.
+
+Now this is what he said to them:--"He, Child, Bled, Merweg, and thou,
+Sirimar, my ancient, we are met together, then, once again!  You have
+returned fat.  There has been good cheer in Germany, eh?"
+
+Then, pointing to the snow-covered gorge:--"You remember the great
+battle?"
+
+First one of the wolves began to howl slowly in a dismal voice, then
+another, then all the five together.
+
+This lasted a good ten minutes.
+
+The raven, perched on the withered branch, did not stir.
+
+Robin would gladly have fled.  He put up his prayers, invoked all the
+saints, and, in particular, his own patron, for whom all the shepherds
+of the mountain have the highest veneration.
+
+But the wolves still continued howling, awakening all the echoes of the
+Blutfeld.
+
+At last one, the oldest of the number, was silent, then another, then
+all, and Yegof continued:--"Yes, yes: that is a dismal story.  Look!
+there is the river down which our blood flowed in streams!  No matter,
+Merweg, no matter; the others have left their bones to whiten on the
+common, and the cold moon has seen their women tearing their hair for
+three days and three nights!  Oh, that frightful day!  Oh, the dogs!
+were they proud of their great victory?  Let them be
+accursed--accursed."
+
+The fool had cast his crown to the ground.  He now picked it up,
+groaning as he did so.
+
+The wolves, still crouching round, listened to him like attentive
+spectators.  The biggest among them began to howl, and Yegof answered
+his complaint.
+
+"You are hungry, Sirimar; take comfort, take comfort; you will not want
+for food much longer; the men of our side are coming, and the strife
+will begin afresh."
+
+Then rising, and striking his sceptre on a stone, "See," said he,
+"behold thy bones!"
+
+He approached another.  "And thine, Merweg, behold them!" said he.
+
+All the troop followed him, while he, raising himself upon a low rock,
+and glancing round upon the silent gorge, exclaimed:--"Our war-song is
+silent! our war-song is now a groan!  The hour is near; it will
+reawaken, and you will be among the warriors; you will possess once
+more these valleys and these mountains.  Oh! that sound of wheels,
+those cries of women, those blows from crushing rocks and stones; I
+hear them; the air is full of them.  Yes, yes; they fell on us from
+above, and we were surrounded.  And now all is dead; hear!  all is
+dead; your bones sleep, but your children are on their way, and your
+turn will come.  Sing! sing!"
+
+And this time he himself began to howl, while the wolves took up again
+their savage song.
+
+These dismal howls grew more and more loud and appalling; and the
+silence of the rocks around, some plunged in darkness, while others
+were fully revealed in the moon's rays, the solemn stillness of every
+tree and shrub beneath its weight of snow, the distant echoes replying
+with a sad voice to the mournful concert, all were calculated to strike
+terror into the breast of the old shepherd.
+
+But by degrees his fears grew less, for Yegof and his gloomy procession
+were getting farther and farther away from him, and gradually
+retreating toward Hazlach.
+
+The raven, in his turn, with a hoarse cry unfurled his wings, and took
+his flight through the sky.
+
+The whole scene vanished like a dream.
+
+Robin heard for a long while after the howlings of the retreating
+wolves.  They had completely ceased for more than twenty minutes.  The
+silence of winter reigned on all sides, when the worthy man felt
+himself sufficiently recovered from his fright to come out of his
+hiding-place, and take his way back at full speed to the farm.
+
+On arriving at Bois-de-Chenes, he found everybody stirring.  They were
+preparing to kill an ox for the troops from the Donon.  Hullin, Doctor
+Lorquin, and Louise were already set out with those from the Sarre.
+Catherine Lefevre was loading her great four-horse wagon with bread,
+meat, and brandy.  People were coming and going in all directions, and
+all lending a helping hand in the preparations.
+
+Robin could not bring himself to relate to any one all that he had seen
+and heard.  Besides, it seemed to himself so incredible that he really
+dared not open his mouth about it.
+
+When he had retired to rest in his crib in the middle of the stable, he
+said to himself that no doubt Yegof had, during the winter, tamed a
+litter of young wolves, and that he talked nonsense to them just as one
+talks sometimes to one's dog.
+
+But, for all that, this strange encounter left a superstitious dread
+upon his mind, and even when he had arrived at a great age, the old
+fellow never spoke of these things without shuddering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A RECONNOISSANCE
+
+Hullin's orders had all been carried out; the defiles of the Zorne and
+of the Sarre were well guarded; while that of Blanru, the extreme point
+of the position, had been put into a state of defence by Jean-Claude
+himself and the three hundred men who composed his principal force.
+
+We must now transport ourselves to the southern slopes of the Donon,
+two kilometres from Grandfontaine, and await further events.
+
+Above the high-road which winds round the hillside up to within
+two-thirds of the summit, was a farm, surrounded with a few acres of
+tilled land, the freehold of Pelsly the anabaptist: it was a large
+building with a flat roof, much needed, so as to prevent its being
+blown away by the high winds.  The out-houses and pigsties were
+situated at the back, toward the summit of the mountain.
+
+The partisans were encamped near: at their feet lay Grandfontaine and
+Framont; in a narrow gorge farther on, at the point where the valley
+takes a turn, rose Schirmeck and its old mass of feudal ruins; lastly,
+among the undulations of the chain, the Bruche disappears in a zigzag,
+under the grayish mists of Alsace.  To their left arose the arid peak
+of the Donon, covered with rocks and a few stunted pines.  Before them
+was the rugged road, its shelving banks thrown down over the snow, and
+great trees flung across it with all their branches.
+
+The melting snow let the yellow soil be seen in patches here and there,
+or else formed great drifts, heaped up by the north wind.
+
+It was a grand and severe spectacle.  Not a single traveller, not a
+carriage appeared along the whole length of the road in the valley,
+winding as far as the eye can reach: it was like a desert.  The fires
+scattered round the farm-house sent up their puffs of damp smoke to the
+sky, and alone indicated the position of the bivouac.
+
+The mountaineers, seated by their kettles, with their hats slouched
+over their faces, were very melancholy: three days they had been
+awaiting the enemy.  Among one of the groups, sitting with their legs
+doubled up, bent shoulders, and pipes in their mouths were old Materne
+and his two sons.
+
+From time to time Louise appeared on the step of the farm, then quickly
+re-entered, and set herself again to her work.  A great cock was
+scratching up the manure with his claws, and crowing hoarsely; two or
+three fowls were strutting up and down among the bushes.  All that was
+pleasant to look upon; but the chief pleasure of the partisans was to
+contemplate some magnificent quarters of bacon, with red-and-white
+sides, which were spitted on greenwood sticks, the fat melting drop by
+drop on to the small coals--and to fill their flasks at a small cask of
+brandy placed on Catherine Lefevre's cart.
+
+Toward eight o'clock in the morning a man suddenly appeared between the
+great and little Donon; the sentinels perceived him at once; he
+descended, waving his hat.
+
+A few minutes later Nickel Bentz, the old forest-keeper of the Houpe,
+was recognized.
+
+The whole camp was roused; they ran to awaken Hullin, who had been
+sleeping for an hour in the farm-house, on a great straw mattress, side
+by side with Doctor Lorquin and his dog Pluto.
+
+The three came out, accompanied by the herdsman Lagarmitte, nicknamed
+Trumpet, and the anabaptist Pelsly--a silent man, having his arms
+buried to the elbows in the deep pockets of his gray woollen tunic
+trimmed with pewter clasps, with an immense beard, and the tassel of
+his cotton cap half way down his back.
+
+Jean-Claude seemed light-hearted.  "Well, Nickel, what is going on down
+there?" cried he.
+
+"At present, nothing new, Master Jean-Claude; only on the Phalsbourg
+side one hears something like the rumbling of a storm.  Labarbe says
+that it is cannon, for all night we have seen flashes through the
+forest of Hildehouse, and since the morning gray clouds have been
+spreading over the plain."
+
+"The town is attacked," said Hullin; "but what about the Lutzelstein
+side?"
+
+"One can hear nothing," replied Bentz.
+
+"Then the enemy is trying to turn the place.  In any case, the allies
+are down there: there must be hosts of them in Alsace."  And turning
+toward Materne, who was standing behind him, "We cannot remain any
+longer in uncertainty," said he; "thou, with thy two sons, go on a
+reconnoissance."
+
+The old hunter's face brightened.  "So be it!  I can stretch my legs a
+little," said he, "and see if I can't knock over one of those rascally
+Austrians or Cossacks."
+
+"Stop an instant, my old fellow! it is not now a question of knocking
+anybody over; we want to see what is going on.  Frantz and Kasper will
+remain armed; but I know thee: thou must leave thy carbine here, thy
+powder-flask, and thy hunting-knife."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Because thou wilt have to go into the villages, and if thou art taken
+in arms, thou wilt be shot directly."
+
+"Shot?"
+
+"Certainly.  We do not belong to the regular troops; they do not take
+us prisoners; they shoot us.  Thou wilt follow, then, the road to
+Schirmeck, stick in hand, and thy sons will accompany thee at a
+distance, in the underwood, within musket-range.  If any marauders
+attack thee, they will come to thy rescue; if it is a column, or a
+handful of troops, they must allow thee to be taken."
+
+"They are to let me be taken!" cried the old hunter, indignantly.  "I
+should like to see that."
+
+"Yes, Materne; it will be the best plan: for an unarmed man would be
+released, an armed shot.  I do not need to tell thee not to sing out to
+the Germans that thou art come to spy upon them."
+
+"Ah, ah!  I comprehend.  Yes, yes, that is not badly planned.  As for
+me, I never quit my gun, Jean-Claude, but war is war.  Hold! there is
+my carbine, and my powder-flask, and my knife.  Who will lend me his
+blouse and his stick?"
+
+Nickel Bentz handed him his blue blouse and his cap.  They were
+surrounded by an admiring crowd.
+
+After he had changed his clothes, notwithstanding his large gray
+mustaches, one would have taken the old hunter for a simple peasant
+from the high mountains.
+
+His two sons, proud to be of this first expedition, looked to the
+priming of their muskets, and fixed to the end of the barrel a
+boar-spear, straight and long as a sword.  They felt their
+hunting-knives, flung their bags upon their backs, and confident that
+all was in order, they glanced proudly round them.
+
+"Ah," said Doctor Lorquin, laughing, "do not forget Master
+Jean-Claude's advice.  Be careful.  One German more or less in a
+hundred thousand would not make much difference in our affairs; whereas
+if one or the other of you came back to us injured, you would be
+replaced with difficulty."
+
+"Oh, fear nothing, doctor: we shall have our eyes open."
+
+"My boys," replied Materne, haughtily, "are true hunters; they know how
+to wait the moment and profit by it.  They will only fire when I call.
+You can rest assured! and now, let us start; we must be back before
+night."
+
+They departed.
+
+"Good luck to you!" shouted Hullin, while they mounted the snow in
+order to avoid the breastworks.
+
+They soon descended toward the narrow path, which turns sharply on the
+right of the mountain.
+
+The partisans watched them.  Their red frizzy hair, long muscular legs,
+their broad shoulders, and supple, quick movements,--all showed that in
+case of an encounter, five or six "kaiserlichs" would have little
+chance against such fine fellows.
+
+In a quarter of an hour they had reached the pine-forest and
+disappeared.
+
+Then Hullin quietly returned to the farm, talking to Nickel Bentz.
+
+Doctor Lorquin walked behind, followed by Pluto, and all the others
+returned to their places round the bivouac fires.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE LANDLORD OF THE "PINEAPPLE"
+
+Materne and his two boys walked for some time in silence.  The weather
+had become fine; the pale winter sun shone over the brilliant snow
+without melting it, and the ground remained firm and hard.
+
+In the distance, along the valley, stood out, with surprising
+clearness, the tops of the fir-trees, the reddish peaks of the rocks,
+the roofs of the hamlets, with their icy stalactites hanging from the
+eaves, their small sparkling windows, and sharp gables.
+
+People were walking in the street of Grandfontaine.  A troupe of young
+girls were standing round the washing-place; a few old men in cotton
+caps were smoking their pipes on the doorsteps of the little houses.
+All this little world, lying in the depths of the blue expanse, came,
+and went, and lived, without a sound or sigh reaching the ears of the
+foresters.
+
+The old hunter halted on the outskirts of the wood, and said to his
+sons: "I am going down to the village to see Dubreuil, the innkeeper of
+the 'Pineapple.'"
+
+And he pointed with his stick to a long white building, the doors and
+windows of which were surrounded with a yellow bordering, a pine-branch
+being suspended to the wall as a signboard.
+
+"You must await me here.  If there is no danger, I will come out on to
+the doorstep and raise my hat; you can then come and take a glass of
+wine with me."
+
+He immediately descended the snowy slopes to the little gardens lying
+above Grandfontaine, which took about ten minutes; he then made his way
+between two furrows, reached the meadow, and crossed the village
+square: his two sons, with their arms at their feet, saw him enter the
+inn.  A few seconds after he reappeared on the doorstep and raised his
+hat.
+
+Fifteen minutes later they had rejoined their father in the great room
+of the "Pineapple."  It was a rather low room with a sanded floor, and
+heated by a large iron stove.
+
+Excepting the innkeeper Dubreuil, the biggest and most apoplectic
+landlord in the Vosges, with immense paunch, round eyes, flat nose, a
+wart on his left cheek, and a triple chin reaching over his
+collar--with the exception of this curious individual, seated near the
+stove in a leather arm-chair, Materne was alone.  He had just filled
+the glasses.  The clock was striking nine, and its wooden cock flapped
+its wing with a peculiar scraping sound.
+
+"Good-day, Father Dubreuil," said the two youths in a gruff voice.
+
+"Good-day, my brave fellows," replied the innkeeper, trying to smile.
+
+Then, in an oily voice, he asked them, "Nothing new?"
+
+"Faith, no!" replied Kasper; "here is winter, the time for hunting
+boars."
+
+And they both, putting their carbines in the corner of the window,
+within reach, in case of attack, passed one leg across the bench, and
+sat down, facing their father, who was at the head of the table.
+
+At the same time they drank, saying, "To our healths!" which they were
+always very careful to do.
+
+"Thus," said Materne, turning to the fat man, as though taking up the
+threads of an interrupted conversation, "you think, Father Dubreuil,
+that we have nothing to fear from the wood of Baronies, and that we may
+hunt boar peaceably?"
+
+"Oh, as to that, I know nothing!" exclaimed the innkeeper; "only at
+present the allies have not passed Mutzig.  Besides, they harm no one;
+they receive all well-disposed people to fight against the usurper."
+
+"The usurper?  Who is he?"
+
+"Why, Napoleon Bonaparte, the usurper, to be sure.  Just look at the
+wall."
+
+He pointed to a great placard stuck on the wall, near the clock.
+
+"Look at that, and you will see that the Austrians are our true
+friends."
+
+Old Materne's eyebrows nearly met, but, repressing his feelings, "Oh,
+ah!" said he.
+
+"Yes, read that."
+
+"But I do not know how to read, Monsieur Dubreuil, nor my boys either.
+Explain to us what it is."
+
+Then the old innkeeper, leaning with his hands on the arms of his
+chair, arose, breathing like a calf, and placed himself in front of the
+placard, with his arms folded on his enormous paunch; and in a majestic
+tone he read a proclamation from the allied sovereigns, declaring "that
+they made war on Napoleon personally, and not on France.  Therefore
+everybody ought to keep quiet and not meddle in their affairs, under
+pain of being burnt, pillaged, and shot."
+
+The three hunters listened, and looked at each other with a strange air.
+
+When Dubreuil had finished, he reseated himself and said, "Now do you
+see?"
+
+"And where did you get that?" demanded Kasper.
+
+"That, my boy, is put up everywhere!"
+
+"Well, we are pleased with that," said Materne, laying his hand on
+Frantz's arm, who had risen with sparkling eyes.  "Dost thou want a
+light, Frantz?  Here is my flint."
+
+Frantz sat down again, and the old man continued, good-naturedly: "And
+our good friends the Germans take nothing from any one?"
+
+"Quiet, orderly people have nothing to fear; but as to the rascals who
+rise, all is taken from them.  And it is just--the good ought not to
+suffer for the wicked.  For example, instead of doing you any harm, the
+allies would receive you well at their head-quarters.  You know the
+country: you would serve as guides, and you would be richly paid."
+
+There was a slight pause.  The three hunters again looked at each
+other: the father had spread his hands on the table, as though to
+recommend calm to his sons; but even he was very pale.
+
+The innkeeper, observing nothing, continued: "You would have much more
+to fear in the woods of Baronies from those brigands of Dagsburg,
+Sarre, and Blanru, who have all revolted, and wish to have '93 over
+again."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" demanded Materne, making an effort to control
+himself.
+
+"Am I sure!  You have only to look out of the window and you will see
+them on the road to the Donon.  They have surprised the anabaptist
+Pelsly, and bound him to the foot of his bed.  They pillage, rob, break
+up the roads.  But beware!  In a few days they will see strange things.
+It is not with a thousand men that they will be attacked, not with ten
+thousand, but with millions.  They will all be hung."
+
+Materne rose.
+
+"It is time for us to be going," said he briefly.  "At two o'clock we
+must be at the wood, and here we are talking quietly like magpies!  Au
+revoir, Father Dubreuil."  They rushed out hastily, no longer able to
+contain their passion.
+
+"Think of what I have said," cried the innkeeper to them from his chair.
+
+Once in the open air, Materne, turning round, said, with trembling
+lips: "If I had not restrained myself, I should have broken the bottle
+on his head."
+
+"And I," said Frantz, "should have run him through with my bayonet."
+
+Kasper, one foot on the step, seemed about to re-enter the inn; he
+grasped the handle of his hunting-knife, and his face bore a terrible
+expression.  But his father took him by the arm and dragged him off,
+saying: "Come, come, we will deal with him later on.  To counsel me to
+betray the country!  Hullin told us to be on our guard: he was right."
+
+They went down the street, looking to the right and left with haggard
+eyes.  The people asked among themselves: What is the matter with them?
+
+On reaching the end of the village, they halted, in front of the old
+cross, close to the church, and Materne in a calmer tone, pointing out
+the path which winds round Phramond over the heath, said to his sons:
+"You must take that road.  I shall follow the route to Schirmeck.  I
+shall not go too fast, so that you may have time to come up with me."
+
+They parted, and the old hunter, with bowed head, walked on
+thoughtfully for a long time, asking himself by what inward strength he
+had been able to keep from breaking the fat innkeeper's head.  He said
+to himself that no doubt it was from fear of compromising his sons.
+
+While thinking over these things, Materne kept continually meeting
+herds of cattle, sheep and goats, which were being led into the
+mountain.  Some came from Wisch, Urmatt, and even from Mutzig; the poor
+beasts could scarcely stand.
+
+"Where the devil are you running so fast?" shouted the old hunter to
+the melancholy herdsmen.  "Have you then no confidence in the
+proclamation of the Austrians and Russians?"
+
+And they angrily answered: "It is easy for you to laugh.
+Proclamations! we know what they are worth now.  They pillage and rob
+everything, make forced contributions, carry off the horses, cows,
+oxen, and carts."
+
+"Nonsense! impossible!  What are you talking about?" said Materne.
+"You astound me!  Such worthy people, such good friends, the saviours
+of France.  I cannot believe you.  Such a beautiful proclamation as it
+was."
+
+"Well, go down to Alsace, and you will see."
+
+The poor creatures went on, shaking their heads in extreme indignation,
+and he laughed slyly.
+
+The farther Materne advanced, the number of herds became greater.
+There were not only troops of cattle bellowing and lowing, but flocks
+of geese, as far as the eye could reach, screeching and cackling,
+dragging themselves along the road with wings spread and half-frozen
+feet: it was piteous to see.
+
+It was worse still on approaching Schirmeck.  The people were flying in
+crowds, with their great wagons loaded with barrels, smoked meats,
+furniture, women and children.  They were lashing their horses almost
+to death on the road, and screaming in terrified voices: "We are lost;
+the Cossacks are coming."
+
+The cry of "The Cossacks! the Cossacks!" ran along the whole line like
+a puff of wind; the women turned round open-mouthed, and the children
+stood up on the wagons to get a better view.  You never beheld anything
+like it before; and Materne, angered, blushed for the terror of these
+people, who might have defended themselves; while selfishness and their
+desire to save their property, made them fly like cowards.
+
+At the crossing of the Fond-des-Saules quite close to Schirmeck, Kasper
+and Frantz rejoined their father, and the three entered the "Golden
+Key" tavern, kept by the Widow Faltaux, on the right side of the road.
+The poor woman and her two daughters were watching from a window the
+great migration with streaming eyes and clasped hands.
+
+In fact, the tumult increased every minute; the cattle, wagons, and
+people seemed eager to get away over each other's shoulders.  They no
+longer had any command of themselves: they were howling and striking
+about them in their desire to escape.
+
+Materne pushed the door open, and seeing the women more dead than
+alive, white and dishevelled, he shouted, striking his stick on the
+ground: "What, mother, have you too gone mad?  What! you, who owe a
+good example to your daughters,--have you lost courage?  it is a shame."
+
+The old woman turned round and said in a broken voice: "Ah, my poor
+Materne, if you only knew--if you only knew!"
+
+"Well, what then?  The enemy is coming: they won't eat you."
+
+"No; but they devour everything without mercy.  Old Ursula, of
+Schlestadt, came here yesterday evening.  She says that the Austrians
+only want 'Knoepfe' and 'Nudel,' the Russians 'Schnapps,' and the
+Bavarians 'Sauerkraut.'  And when they have stuffed all that down their
+throats, they cry out with their mouths still full, 'Schocolat!
+schocolat!'  O Lord, how can we feed all these people?"
+
+"I know well that is difficult," said the old hunter: "you can never
+satisfy a jay with white cheese.  But, first of all, where are these
+Cossacks, these Bavarians, these Austrians?  All the way from
+Grandfontaine we have not met even one."
+
+"They are in Alsace, on the Urmatt side, and they are coming here."
+
+"While waiting for them," said Kasper, "give us a bottle of wine.  Here
+is a three-crown piece: you will hide it easier than your barrels."
+
+One of the girls went to the cellar, and, at the same time, several
+other persons entered: an almanac-seller from Strasbourg, a wagoner
+from Sarrebrueck in a blouse, and two or three townspeople from Hutzig,
+Wisch, and Schirmeck, who were flying with their herds, and were
+exhausted with shouting.
+
+All sat down at the same table, before the windows overlooking the
+road.  Wine was served them, and each began to relate what he knew.
+One said the allies were in such numbers that they had to sleep side by
+side in the valley of Hirschenthal, and they were so covered with
+vermin that, after their departure, the dead leaves walked of
+themselves in the woods; another, that the Cossacks had set fire to a
+village in Alsace, because they had been refused candles for dessert
+after dinner; that some of them, especially the Calmucks, ate soap like
+cheese and bacon-rind like cake; that many drank brandy by the pint,
+after having taken care to season it with handfuls of pepper; and that
+it was necessary to hide everything from them, for nothing came amiss
+to them for eating and drinking.
+
+The wagoner said, at this point, that three days before, a Russian
+corps-d'armee having passed the night under the ramparts of Bitsch, it
+had been compelled to remain more than an hour on the ice in the little
+village of Rorbach, and that the whole of this army corps had drunk out
+of a warming-pan left on the window-sill of an old woman's house; that
+this race of savages broke the ice to bathe, and afterward crept into
+the brick-kilns to dry; lastly, that they only feared Corporal Knout.
+
+These worthy folks communicated such singular things to each other,
+which they pretended to have seen with their own eyes, or heard from
+trustworthy sources, that one could with difficulty believe them.
+
+Outside, the tumult, rolling of wagons, lowing of herds, shouts of the
+drivers, and clamors of the fugitives, continued unceasingly, and
+produced the effect of a vast murmur.
+
+Toward noon Materne and his sons were going to leave, when a more
+prolonged shout than any of the others was heard: "The Cossacks! the
+Cossacks!"
+
+Then everybody rushed outside, except the hunters, who contented
+themselves with opening a window and looking out: they all ran away
+across the fields: men, herds, wagons and all, were dispersed like
+leaves in autumn.  In less than two minutes the road was deserted,
+except in Schirmeck, which was so encumbered, that it would have been
+impossible to walk four steps.  Materne, gazing far away along the
+road, cried, "I look in vain--I can see nothing."
+
+"Nor do I," rejoined Kasper.
+
+"Come, come," cried the old hunter, "I see clearly that the fear of all
+these people gives more strength to the enemy than he in fact
+possesses.  It is not in such a way we shall receive the Cossacks in
+the mountains; they will find who they have to deal with."
+
+Then, shrugging his shoulders with an expression of disgust, he said:
+"Fear is an odious thing, and after all we have only one poor life to
+lose.  Let us go."
+
+They quitted the inn, and the old man having taken the road to the
+valley, in order to climb the summit of the Hirschberg in front of
+them, his sons followed him.  They soon reached the outskirts of the
+wood, when Materne said that they must mount as high as possible, so as
+to see the whole plain, and bring back some positive news to the
+bivouac; that all the accounts of those cowards were not worth one good
+look by themselves.
+
+Kasper and Frantz agreed, and all three began to climb the slope, which
+forms a sort of advanced promontory commanding the plain.  When they
+reached the peak they distinctly saw the enemy's position, three
+leagues distant, between Urmatt and Lutzelhouse.  They formed great
+black lines on the snow: farther off were a few dark masses--no doubt,
+the artillery and baggage.  Other masses surrounded the villages, and,
+notwithstanding the distance, the sparkling of the bayonets announced
+that a column had just commenced marching toward Visch.
+
+After having contemplated this spectacle in silence for some minutes,
+the old man said, "We have decidedly thirty thousand men under our
+eyes.  They are advancing in our direction; we shall be attacked
+to-morrow, or the day after at the latest.  It will not be a trumpery
+affair, my boys; but if they are numerous we have the best of the
+position.  And then it is always agreeable to fire into a heap; there
+are no balls lost."
+
+Having made these judicious reflections, he looked at the height of the
+sun, and added: "It is now two o'clock; we know all we want.  Let us
+return to the bivouac."
+
+The youths slung their carbines crossways, and leaving to their left
+the valley of the Brocque, Schirmeck, and Framont, they climbed the
+steep banks of the Hengsbach, which overlook the Little Donon--two
+leagues distant--and came down again on the other side, without
+following any regular path through the snow, and only guiding
+themselves by the peaks in order to take a short cut.
+
+They continued thus for about two hours: the winter sun was going down
+to the horizon, night was approaching, bright and calm.  They had now
+only to descend, and then mount, on the other side, the solitary gorge
+of Kiel, forming a large circular basin in the midst of the woods, and
+enclosing a bluish pond, where the deer came sometimes to quench their
+thirst.
+
+Suddenly, as they were coming out from the underwood, not dreaming of
+anything, the old man, stopping behind a thick screen of shrubs, said
+"Chut!" and lifting his hand, pointed to the little lake, which was
+covered with thin clear ice.
+
+The two young fellows needed only to glance toward it to be greeted by
+a most strange sight.  About twenty Cossacks, with yellow shaggy
+beards, heads covered with old fur caps in the shape of stove-pipes,
+their lean legs draped in long rags, and their feet in rope stirrups,
+were seated on their little horses, with long floating manes and thin
+tails, their bodies speckled yellow, black and white, like goats.  Some
+had for their only weapon a long lance, others a sword, others an axe
+suspended by a cord to their saddle, and a large horse-pistol passed
+through their belts.  Several were looking upward with ecstasy on the
+green tops of the pines, rising by stages above each other into the
+clouds.  One great lanky fellow had broken the ice with the butt-end of
+his lance; and his little horse was drinking with outstretched neck and
+overhanging mane.  A few having dismounted, were clearing the snow and
+pointing to the wood--no doubt to indicate that it was a good place for
+encamping.  Their comrades on horseback were conversing and pointing to
+the bottom of the valley on their right, which descends in the form of
+a gap toward Grinderwald.
+
+Anyway it was a halt.  It is impossible to describe the strange and
+picturesque aspect of these fellows from a strange country, with their
+copper-colored faces, long beards, black eyes, flat heads, squat noses,
+and grayish tatters, on the banks of this lake, under the lofty
+perpendicular rocks lifting up their green pines to the skies.
+
+It seemed a new world in ours,--a sort of unknown and strange game,
+which the three red hunters at first contemplated with intense
+interest.  Having remained so for about five minutes, Kasper and Frantz
+fixed their long bayonets at the muzzle of their carbines, and then
+retired about twenty paces into the underwood.  They reached a rock,
+fifteen or twenty feet high, which Materne climbed, having no arms;
+then, after a few words exchanged in whispers, Kasper examined his
+priming and raised his musket slowly to his shoulder, while his brother
+stood by in readiness.
+
+One of the Cossacks--he who was letting his horse drink--was about two
+hundred paces from them.  The gun went off, awakening the deep echoes
+of the gorge; and the Cossack, spinning over his horse's head, plunged
+through the ice of the lake.
+
+It is impossible to describe the stupor of the party at this report.
+They looked round them in every direction: the echo replied as though
+it had been a general fusillade; while a puff of smoke rose above the
+clump of trees where the hunters were hiding.
+
+Kasper had reloaded his piece in a moment; but in the same space of
+time the dismounted Cossacks had bounded on their horses, and all took
+flight over the slope of the Hartz, one after the other, like roebucks,
+screaming wildly, "Hourah! hourah!"
+
+This flight was but the work of a moment: the instant Kasper took aim
+for the second time, the tail of the last horse disappeared in the
+bushes.
+
+The horse of the dead Cossack alone remained at the water's edge, held
+there by a singular circumstance: his master, whose head and part of
+whose body was in the water, had his foot still in the stirrup.
+
+Materne listened from his rock, then said joyously--"They are gone!
+Well, let us go and see.  Frantz, remain here.  Suppose any of them
+should return----?"
+
+Notwithstanding this recommendation, they all three approached near the
+horse.  Materne immediately took the bridle, saying:--"Come, old
+fellow, we are going to teach you to speak French."
+
+"Let us be off," exclaimed Kasper.
+
+"No, we must see what we have shot.  Don't you see that will be good
+for our comrades?  Dogs who have not sniffed the skin of the game are
+never well trained."
+
+Whereupon they fished the Cossack out of the pool, and having placed
+him across the horse, began to climb the side of the Donon by such a
+steep path, that Materne repeated, a hundred times at least,--"The
+horse will never go up there."  But the horse, with its long goat-like
+legs, passed more easily than they did; so that the old hunter wound up
+by remarking--"These Cossacks have famous horses.  If ever I grow old,
+I will keep him to go after the deer with.  We have a famous horse, my
+boys; with all his look of a cow, he is strong as a cart-horse."
+
+From time to time he also made reflections on the Cossack:--"What a
+queer face, eh!  A round nose and a forehead like a cheese-box.  There
+are certainly queer folks in the world!  Thou hast hit him well,
+Kasper; right in the middle of the chest.  And look! the ball came out
+at the back.  Capital powder!  Dives always keeps good articles."
+
+Toward six they heard the first shout of their sentinels: "Who goes
+there?"
+
+"France," replied Materne, advancing.
+
+Everybody ran to meet them.  "Here is Materne!"
+
+Hullin himself was as curious as the rest, and could not help hastening
+toward them with Doctor Lorquin.  The partisans were soon collected
+round the horse, with outstretched necks and open mouths, by the side
+of a large fire where the supper was cooking.
+
+"It is a Cossack," said Hullin, squeezing Materne's hand.
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude; we caught him at the pond of Kiel: it was Kasper who
+shot him."
+
+They stretched the corpse out near the fire.  His yellow face had
+strange shadows on it in the firelight.
+
+Doctor Lorquin, having looked at him, said: "It is a fine specimen of
+the Tartar race; if I had time, I should put it in a lime-bath, so as
+to obtain a skeleton of this tribe."
+
+He then knelt down, and opening the long tunic,--"The ball has
+traversed the pericardium, and has produced almost the same effect as
+aneurism of the heart."
+
+The others kept silence.
+
+Kasper, with his hand on the muzzle of his rifle, seemed quite
+contented with his game; and old Materne, rubbing his hands, said: "I
+was sure I would bring you back something: my boys and I never return
+empty-handed.  There now!"
+
+Hullin then pulled him aside.  They entered the farm together, and
+after the first surprise was over, every man began to make his own
+personal reflections on the Cossack.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+ROUND THE WATCHFIRES
+
+That night, which was on a Friday, the anabaptist's little farm-house
+never ceased for an instant to be filled with people coming in and
+going out.
+
+Hullin had established his head-quarters in the large room on the
+ground floor, to the right of the barn, facing Framont: on the other
+side of the passage was the ambulance: the upper part was inhabited by
+the farm people.
+
+Although the night was very still and the stars were shining in
+myriads, the cold was so intense that there was nearly an inch of ice
+on the panes.
+
+Outside, one could hear the challenge of the sentinel, the passing of
+the patrols, and, on the surrounding peaks, the howling of the wolves,
+who followed our armies in hundreds since 1812.  These wild beasts
+crouched on the ice, their sharp muzzles between their paws, with
+hunger at their entrails, calling each other, from the Grosmann to the
+Donon, with moaning sounds like that of the north wind.
+
+It made more than one mountaineer grow pale.
+
+"It is Death who calls," thought they; "he scents the battle, he
+summons us!"
+
+The oxen lowed in the stables, and the horses gave frightful neighs.
+
+About thirty fires blazed on the plateau; all the anabaptist's wood was
+taken; fagots were heaped one upon another.  Their faces were scorched,
+and their backs frozen; they warmed their backs, and the ice hung from
+their mustaches.
+
+Hullin, alone, before the great pinewood table, was taking thought for
+all.  According to the latest tidings of the evening, announcing the
+arrival of the Cossacks at Framont, he was convinced that the first
+attack would take place the next day.  He had distributed cartridges,
+doubled the sentries, appointed patrols, and marked all the posts along
+the outworks.  Every one knew beforehand what place he was to occupy.
+
+Hullin had also sent orders to Piorette, Jerome of St. Quirin, and
+Labarbe, to send him their best marksmen.
+
+The little dark pathway, lit by a dim lantern, was full of snow, and
+passing under the immovable light every instant one could see the
+chiefs of the ambush, with their hats pressed down to their ears, the
+ample sleeves of their great-coats pulled down over their wrists, with
+their dark eyes and beards stiffened with ice.
+
+Pluto no longer growled at the heavy step of these men.  Hullin, with
+his head between his hands and his elbows on the table, listened
+thoughtfully to all their reports:--
+
+"Master Jean-Claude, there is a movement in the direction of
+Grandfontaine; and the sounds of galloping are distinguishable."
+
+"Master Jean-Claude, the brandy is frozen."
+
+"Master Jean-Claude, many of the men are in want of powder."
+
+"They are in want of this: they are in want of that."
+
+"Let some one be sent to watch Grandfontaine, and let the sentries on
+that side be changed every half-hour."  "Let the brandy be brought to
+the fire."  "Wait until Dives comes: he brings us ammunition.  Let the
+remainder of the cartridges be distributed.  Let those who have more
+than twenty give some to their comrades."
+
+And so it went on all the night.
+
+At five in the morning, Kasper, Materne's son, came to tell Hullin that
+Marc Dives, with a load of cartridges, Catherine Lefevre on a cart, and
+a detachment from Labarbe, had just arrived together, and that they
+were already on the plateau.
+
+The tidings pleased him, especially on account of the cartridges, for
+he had feared delay.
+
+He immediately rose and went out with Kasper.  The plateau presented a
+curious spectacle.
+
+On the approach of day, clouds of mist began to rise from the valley,
+the fires hissed with the damp, and all around could be seen sleeping
+men: one stretched on his back, with his arms thrown under his hat, a
+blue face, and doubled-up legs; another with his cheek on his arm and
+his back to the fire; the greater number seated, with bent heads and
+their muskets slung across their shoulders.  All was silent, wrapped in
+purple light or gray tints, just as the fire blazed or smouldered.
+Then, in the distance, could be discerned the profile of the sentinels,
+with their muskets across their arms or clubbed upon the ground, gazing
+into the cloud-filled abyss beneath them.
+
+To the right, fifty paces from the last fire, could be heard the
+neighing of horses, and people stamping with their feet to warm
+themselves, and talking aloud.
+
+"Master Jean-Claude is coming," said Kasper, going toward them.
+
+One of the partisans having thrown a few sticks of dry wood on to the
+fire, there was a bright blaze; and Marc Dives's men on horseback,
+twelve tall fellows, wrapped in their long gray cloaks, their felts
+slouched back over their shoulders, with their long mustaches either
+turned up or falling down to their necks, their sabres in their grasp,
+stood motionless round the load of cartridges.  Farther on Catherine
+Lefevre crouched down in her cart, her hood over her face, her feet in
+the straw, her back against a large barrel.  Behind her was a caldron,
+a gridiron, a fresh-killed pig, scalded all white and red, with some
+strings of onions and cabbages for making soup.  All stood out of the
+darkness for a second, and then relapsed into night.
+
+Dives, having quitted the convoy, advanced on his powerful horse.
+
+"Is it you, Jean-Claude?"
+
+"Yes, Marc."
+
+"I have some few thousand cartridges there.  Hexe-Baizel is working day
+and night."
+
+"Good!"
+
+"Yes, old fellow.  And Catherine Lefevre brings provisions as well; she
+killed yesterday."
+
+"All right, Marc: we shall want all that.  The battle is impending."
+
+"Yes, yes, I thought so; we came quickly.  Where is the powder to be
+put?"
+
+"There, under the cart-house behind the farm.  Ah, is that you,
+Catherine?"
+
+"Of course, Jean-Claude.  It is dreadfully cold this morning!"
+
+"You are always the same.  Have you no fear?"
+
+"What! should I be a woman if I were not curious?  I must poke my nose
+everywhere."
+
+"Yes, you always make excuses for the fine and noble things you do."
+
+"Hullin, you are wearisome with your repetitions; let me alone with
+your compliments.  Must not all those people eat?  Can they live on air
+in such weather as this?  And is not air fattening on a day so
+cold--like needles and razors.  So I took my measures.  Yesterday we
+slaughtered an ox--poor Schwartz, you know--he weighed a good nine
+hundred.  I have brought his hind-quarters for this morning's soup."
+
+"Catherine, it is in vain I have known you so long," cried Jean-Claude,
+quite touched; "you are always astonishing me.  No sacrifice is too
+great for you, neither money, care, nor trouble."
+
+"Ah," replied the old farm-wife, rising and springing from her cart,
+"you tease and worry me, Jean-Claude.  I am going to warm myself."
+
+She gave Dubourg the reins of her horse, and looking back, said,
+"Jean-Claude, those fires are a pleasure to behold.  But where is
+Louise?"
+
+"Louise spent the night cutting and sewing bandages with Pelsly's two
+daughters.  She is at the ambulance: over there you see, where the
+light is shining."
+
+"Poor child!" said Catherine, "I will go and help her.  That will warm
+me."
+
+Hullin watched her retreating figure, and made a gesture, as though
+saying, "What a woman!"
+
+At this moment, Dives and his people were carrying the powder into the
+shed, and as Jean-Claude approached the nearest fire, what was his
+surprise to see, among the crowd of partisans, Yegof the madman,
+crowned as usual, gravely seated on a stone, with his feet in the
+ashes, and draped in his rags as though they were a royal mantle.
+
+Anything more strange than this figure by the fire-light could not be
+imagined.  Yegof was the only one awake of the crowd, and might readily
+have been taken for some barbarian king musing in the midst of his
+sleeping horde.
+
+Hullin only saw in him a madman, and laying his hand softly on his
+shoulder, said, ironically:
+
+"I salute thee, Yegof!  Thou art come, then, to lend us the help of thy
+invincible arm and of thy countless armies?"
+
+The madman, without showing the least surprise, replied: "That depends
+on thee, Hullin; thy fate, and that of all these people, is in thy
+hands.  I have suspended my anger, and I will allow thee to pronounce
+sentence."
+
+"What sentence?" demanded Jean-Claude.
+
+The other, without replying, continued, in a low solemn voice: "Behold
+us two on the eve of a great battle, as we were sixteen hundred years
+ago.  At that time, I, the chief of so many people, came among thy
+tribe to ask a passage."
+
+"Sixteen hundred years ago!" said Hullin.  "Zounds!  Yegof, that makes
+us terribly old!  But it is of no consequence--each to his taste."
+
+"Yes," rejoined the madman, "but, with thy usual obstinacy, thou
+wouldst hear nothing.  Men died on the Blutfeld--men who now call for
+vengeance!"
+
+"Ah, the Blutfeld!" said Jean-Claude.  "Yes, yes, an old story; I seem
+to have heard it before."
+
+Yegof reddened, and his eyes sparkled.
+
+"Thou pridest thyself on thy victory!" cried he; "but take care--take
+care! blood calls for blood!"  And in a calmer tone, "Listen," he
+added.  "I am not angry with thee.  Thou art brave; the children of thy
+race might mingle with those of mine.  I am anxious for an alliance
+with thee--thou knowest it."
+
+"There, he is going to begin about Louise," thought Jean-Claude.  And,
+foreseeing a formal demand, he said: "Yegof, I am sorry, but I must
+leave thee.  I have so much to see after----"
+
+The madman did not wait the end of this leave-taking, and rising, with
+his face distorted by indignation, "Thou refusest me thy daughter?"
+cried he, lifting his finger solemnly.
+
+"We will talk of that later on."
+
+"Thou refusest!"
+
+"Yegof, thy shouts will awaken every one."
+
+"Thou refusest, and it is for the third time!  Beware! beware!"
+
+Hullin, despairing of making him become more reasonable, walked rapidly
+away, but the madman furiously pursued him with these strange words:
+
+"Huldrix, woe on thee!  Thy last hour is at hand; the wolves are coming
+to feed upon thy carcass.  All is over.  I let loose the tempests of my
+wrath; and neither to thee nor thine shall mercy, pity, or pardon be
+shown.  Thou hast so willed it."
+
+And, flinging his rags over his shoulder, the poor wretch went away in
+the direction of the peak of Donon.
+
+Some of the volunteers, awakened by his cries, looked up drowsily, and
+saw him disappearing in the darkness.  They heard the fluttering of
+wings round the fire; then, as though it were a dream, they turned
+round and fell asleep again.
+
+About an hour later, Lagarmitte sounded the _reveille_; and in a few
+minutes all were on their feet.
+
+The chiefs of the ambuscade collected their men: some went toward the
+shed, to obtain cartridges; others filled their gourds with brandy from
+the cask.  All this was done in good order, their chiefs being at the
+head of each body of men; then the several companies disappeared in the
+gray morning light toward the out-posts on the hill-sides.
+
+When the sun rose, the plateau was quite deserted, and, with the
+exception of five or six fires which were still burning, there was no
+sign that the partisans were in possession of all the posts on the
+mountain, or in what place they had passed the night.
+
+Hullin hurriedly ate a crust and drank a glass of wine with his friends
+Doctor Lorquin and Pelsly the anabaptist.
+
+Lagarmitte was with them, for he was not allowed to leave Master
+Jean-Claude all day, and had to transmit his orders in case of need.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+"FORWARD!  FORWARD!"
+
+At seven o'clock there was no sign of any movement in the valley.
+
+From time to time, Doctor Lorquin opened one of the windows in the
+large room and looked out.  Nothing was stirring; the fires had
+smouldered away; all was still.
+
+In front of the farm, on a bank, about a hundred feet distant, the
+Cossack could be seen who had been killed the previous evening by
+Kasper.  He was white with the frost, and as hard as a stone.
+
+In the interior, a fire had been made in the great iron stove.
+
+Louise sat near her father, looking at him with an inexpressible
+affection, as though she feared never to see him again.  Her red eyes
+showed that she had been crying.
+
+Hullin, though firm, looked not a little moved.  The doctor and the
+anabaptist, both grave and serious, talked over the present position of
+affairs, and Lagarmitte, from behind the stove, listened to them with
+deep interest.
+
+"We are not only right, but it is our duty to defend ourselves," said
+the doctor.  "Our fathers cleared these woods and cultivated them: they
+are our legitimate inheritance."
+
+"No doubt," returned the anabaptist, sententiously; "but it is written,
+'Thou shalt not kill.  Thou shalt not shed thy brother's blood!'"
+
+Catherine Lefevre, who was in the act of cutting a slice of ham,
+evidently felt impatient at this conversation, and, turning round
+sharply, replied to him: "If that were true, and your religion were
+right, the Germans, Russians, and all these red men might take the
+clothes off our backs.  'Tis fine, that religion of yours; yes, fine,
+for it gives the rogues such an advantage!  It helps them to pillage
+people of substance.  I am sure the allies would wish for us no better
+religion than yours.  Unfortunately, everybody does not care to live
+like sheep.  As for me, Pelsly--and I say it without wishing to annoy
+you--I consider it folly to grow rich for the benefit of others.  But,
+after all, you are honest folks; one cannot be angry with you: you have
+been brought up from father to son in the same notions: what the
+grandfather thought, the grandson thinks also.  But we will defend you
+in spite of yourselves; and afterward we will let you tell us of the
+peace eternal.  I am fond of discourses on peace, when I have nothing
+else to do, and when I am thinking after dinner: then it rejoices my
+heart."
+
+After having said this, she turned round and went on carving her ham.
+
+Pelsly opened his mouth and eyes, and Doctor Lorquin burst out laughing.
+
+Just then the door opened, and one of the sentries who had been
+stationed on the edge of the plateau, cried out, "Master Jean-Claude,
+come and see.  I believe they are mounting the hill."
+
+"It is well, Simon; I am coming," said Hullin, rising.  "Louise, kiss
+me.  Have courage, my child.  Do not fear; all will go well."
+
+He pressed her to his breast, her eyes swollen with tears.  She seemed
+more dead than alive.
+
+"Above all," said the worthy man, addressing Catherine, "let no one go
+outside or near the windows."
+
+Then he darted out into the road.
+
+All those present turned pale.
+
+When Master Jean-Claude had reached the verge of the hill, and cast his
+eyes over Grandfontaine and Framont, three thousand metres below, the
+following sight presented itself to his eyes:
+
+The Germans, who had arrived the evening before, a few hours after the
+Cossacks, and had passed the night (about five or six thousand of them)
+in the barns, stables, and sheds, were moving about like ants.  They
+appeared on all sides in bodies of ten, fifteen, and twenty, buckling
+their knapsacks and swords, and fixing their bayonets.
+
+Besides these, the cavalry--the Uhlans, Cossacks, Hussars--in green,
+blue, and gray uniforms striped with red and yellow--with their glazed
+linen and sheepskin caps, colbacks, and helmets--were saddling their
+horses and hastily rolling up their long cloaks.
+
+Meanwhile the officers, in their great military cloaks, came down the
+small staircase: some were looking up at the country; others were
+embracing the women on the doorsteps.
+
+Trumpeters, with their hands on their sides, were sounding the
+roll-call at all the corners of the streets, and the drummers
+tightening the cords of their instruments.
+
+In short, through the broad expanse, one could see all their military
+attitudes as they were on the point of starting.
+
+A few peasants, leaning out of their windows, were watching the scene;
+women were showing themselves at the loopholes of the garrets; and the
+innkeepers were filling the gourds, Corporal Knout watching them
+meanwhile.
+
+[Illustration: BIG DUBREUIL, THE FRIEND OF THE ALLIES.]
+
+Hullin's sight was keen, and nothing escaped him; besides, for years he
+had been accustomed to this sort of thing; but Lagarmitte, who had
+never seen anything like it, was stupefied: "There are great numbers of
+them," he exclaimed, shaking his head.
+
+"Bah! what does that matter?" said Hullin.  "In my days we exterminated
+three armies of them, of fifty thousand each, in six months; we were
+not one against four.  All that thou seest there would not have been a
+breakfast for us.  And besides, you may be sure, we shall not have to
+kill them all; they will run like hares.  I have seen it before."
+
+After these remarks, he resolved to inspect his men.  "Come on," he
+said to the herdsman.
+
+Then the two made their way behind the abatis, following a trench made
+two days before in the snow, which had been frozen as hard as ice: the
+felled trees in front of it, formed an insurmountable barrier, which
+extended about six hundred metres.  Below this was the broken-up road.
+
+On coming near, Jean-Claude saw the mountaineers of Dagsburg crouching
+at distances of twenty paces from each, other, in a sort of round nests
+which they had dug out for themselves.
+
+All these fine fellows were sitting on their knapsacks, with their
+gourds to their right hand, their felts or foxskin caps drawn down upon
+their heads, and their guns between their knees.  They had only to rise
+to have a clear view of the road fifty feet below, at the foot of a
+slippery descent.
+
+Jean-Claude's arrival pleased them much.
+
+"Ho, Master Hullin, shall we soon begin?"
+
+"Yes, my boys, never fear; before an hour we shall be at it."
+
+"Ah, so much the better!"
+
+"Yes, but take care to aim at the breast: do not hurry, and show
+yourselves no more than you can help."
+
+"You may rest assured, Master Jean-Claude."
+
+He passed on; but everywhere he met with a like reception.
+
+"Do not forget," said he, "to stop firing when Lagarmitte sounds his
+horn: it would be only powder lost."
+
+Coming up to old Materne, who commanded all these men--numbering about
+two hundred and fifty--he found him smoking his pipe, his nose fiery
+red, and his beard stiffened with the cold.
+
+"At, it is thou, Jean-Claude."
+
+"Yes, I have come to shake your hand."
+
+"In good time.  But why are they so slow in coming--tell me that?  Are
+they going to march off in another direction?"
+
+"Don't be afraid: they need the road for their artillery and baggage.
+Hark! they are sounding 'to horse.'"
+
+"Yes, I have seen already that they are preparing."  Then, chuckling to
+himself: "Thou dost not know, Jean-Claude, what a funny thing I saw, a
+few minutes ago, as I was looking toward Grandfontaine."
+
+"What was it, my old friend?"
+
+"I saw four Germans lay hold of big Dubreuil, the friend of the allies:
+they stretched him on the stone bench by his door, and one great lanky
+fellow gave him I know not how many cuts with a stick across his back.
+Ha, ha, ha, he must have yelled, the old rascal!  I will wager that he
+refused something to his good friends,--his wine of the year XI. for
+instance."
+
+Hullin heard no more: for, casting his eyes accidentally down the
+valley, he caught sight of an infantry regiment coming up the road.
+Farther back in the street, cavalry were seen coming, five or six
+officers galloping in front of them.
+
+"Ah, ah! there they come!" cried the old soldier, whose face glowed
+suddenly with an expression of strange energy and enthusiasm.  "At last
+they have made up their minds!"  Then he rushed out of the trench,
+shouting: "Attention, my children!"
+
+Passing by, he saw Riffi, the little tailor of Charmes, bending over a
+long musket: the little man had been piling up the snow to give him a
+better position for aiming.  Farther up, he saw the old wood-cutter
+Rochart, his great shoes trimmed with sheepskin: he had taken a gulp at
+his gourd, and was rising deliberately, having his carbine under his
+arm and his cotton cap over his ears.
+
+That was all: for in order to command the whole of the action, he had
+to climb almost to the summit of the Donon, where there is a rock.
+
+Lagarmitte followed, striding till his long legs looked like stilts.
+Ten minutes after, when they had reached the top of the rock,
+half-breathless, they perceived, fifteen hundred metres below them, the
+enemy's column, three thousand strong, with white great-coats, leather
+belts, cloth gaiters, tall shakos, and red mustaches; and in the spaces
+formed by the companies, the young officers, with flat caps, waving
+their swords, and shouting in shrill voices: "Forward! forward!"
+
+These troops were bristling with bayonets, and advancing at the charge
+toward the breastworks.
+
+Old Materne, his beaked nose rising above a juniper branch and his brow
+erect, was also watching the arrival of the Germans; and as he was very
+clear-sighted, he could distinguish even faces among the crowd, and
+choose the man he wished to knock over.
+
+In the centre of the column, on a large bay horse, an old officer was
+advancing right ahead, with a white wig, a three-cornered hat trimmed
+with gold, his waist encircled with a yellow scarf, and his breast
+decorated with ribbons.  When this personage raised his head, the peak
+of his hat, surmounted by a tuft of black plumes, formed a vizor.  He
+had great wrinkles along his cheeks, and looked sufficiently stern.
+
+"There is my man!" thought the old hunter, deliberately taking aim.
+
+He fired, and when he looked again the old officer had disappeared.
+
+Immediately the whole hill-side became enveloped in fire all along the
+intrenchment; but the Germans, without replying, continued to advance
+toward the breastworks, their guns on their shoulders, and as steadily
+as though on parade.
+
+To tell the truth, more than one brave mountaineer, father of a family,
+seeing this forest of bayonets coming up, and notwithstanding the
+excitement of battle, felt that he would have done better had he
+remained in his village, than to have mixed himself up in such an
+affair.  But, as the proverb says, "The wine was drawn, and it had to
+be drunk."
+
+Riffi, the little tailor, recalled the words of his wife Sapience:
+"Riffi, you will get yourself crippled, and it will serve you right."
+
+He vowed a costly offering to St. Leon's Chapel should he return from
+the war; but at the same time he resolved to make good use of his
+musket.
+
+When they were about two hundred feet from the breastworks, the Germans
+halted and began a rolling fire, such as had never been heard in the
+mountain before.  It was a regular storm of shot: the balls in hundreds
+tore away the branches, sent bits of broken ice flying in all
+directions, or flattened themselves on the rocks on every side, leaping
+up with a strange hissing noise, and passing by like flocks of pigeons.
+
+All this did not stop the mountaineers from continuing their fire, but
+it could no longer be heard.  The whole hill-side was wrapped in blue
+smoke, which prevented their taking any aim.
+
+About ten minutes later, there was the rolling of a drum, and all this
+mass of men made a rush at the breastworks, their officers shouting,
+"Forward!"
+
+The earth shook with them.
+
+Materne, springing up in the trench, with quivering lips and in a
+terrible voice, cried out, "To your feet! to your feet!"
+
+It was time: for a good number of these Germans,--nearly all students
+in philosophy, law, and medicine, heroes of the taverns of Munich,
+Jena, and other places--who fought against us, because they had been
+promised great things after Napoleon's fall--all these intrepid fellows
+were climbing the icy slope, and endeavoring to jump into the
+intrenchment.
+
+But they were received with the butt-end of the musket, and fell back
+in disorder.
+
+It was then that the gallant conduct of the old wood-cutter Rochart was
+observable, knocking over, as he did, more than ten "kaiserlichs," whom
+he took by the shoulder and hurled down the incline.  Old Materne's
+bayonet was red with blood; and little Riffi never ceased loading his
+musket and firing into the mass of Germans with great spirit.  Joseph
+Larnette, who unluckily received a bullet in his eye; Hans Baumgarten,
+who had his shoulder smashed; Daniel Spitz, who lost two fingers by a
+sabre-cut, and many others, whose names should be honored and revered
+for ages--all these never once left off firing and reloading their guns.
+
+Below the slope fearful cries were heard, while above nothing but
+bristling bayonets and men on horseback were to be seen.
+
+This lasted a good quarter of an hour.  No one knew what the Germans
+would do, since there was no passage; when they suddenly decided on
+going away.  Most of the students had fallen, and the others--old
+campaigners used to honorable retreats--no longer fought with the same
+steadiness.
+
+At first they retreated slowly, then more quickly.  Their officers
+struck them from behind with the flat end of their swords; the
+musketry-fire pursued them; and, finally, they ran away with as much
+precipitation as they had been orderly in advancing.
+
+Materne, and fifty others, rose upon the barricades, the old hunter
+brandishing his carbine, and bursting into hearty roars of laughter.
+
+At the foot of the bank were heaps of wounded dragging themselves along
+the ground.  The trodden-down snow was red with blood.  In the midst of
+the piles of dead were two young officers, still alive, but unable to
+disengage themselves from their dead horses.
+
+It was horrible!  But men are, in fact, savages: there was not one
+among the mountaineers who pitied those poor wretches; but, on the
+contrary, they seemed to rejoice at the sight.
+
+Little Riffi, transported with a noble enthusiasm, just then glided out
+along the bank.  To the left, underneath the breastworks, he had caught
+sight of.  a superb horse, which had belonged to the colonel killed by
+Materne, and had retired unhurt into his nook.
+
+"Thou shalt be mine," said he to himself.  "Sapience will be
+astonished!"
+
+All the others envied him.  He seized the horse by the bridle and
+sprang upon him; but judge of the general stupefaction, and of Riffi's
+in particular, when this noble animal began to shape his course toward
+the Germans in full gallop.
+
+The little tailor lifted his hands to heaven, imploring God and all the
+saints.
+
+Materne would have liked much to fire; but he dared not, the horse went
+so fast.
+
+At last Riffi disappeared amid the bayonets of the enemy.
+
+Everybody thought he had been killed.  However, an hour later, he was
+to be seen passing along the main street of Grandfontaine, his hands
+tied behind him, and Corporal Knout at his back, bearing his emblem of
+office.
+
+Poor Riffi!  He alone did not partake of the triumph, and his comrades
+laughed at his misfortune, as though he had been but a "kaiserlich."
+
+Such is the character of men; so long as they are happy themselves, the
+misery of others grieves them but little.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE BATTLE RENEWED
+
+The mountaineers were almost beside themselves with enthusiasm: they
+lifted their hands and bepraised one another, as if they were the cream
+of mankind.
+
+Catherine, Louise, Doctor Lorquin and all the others came out of the
+farm, cheering and congratulating each other, gazing at the marks of
+the bullets and at the bank blackened with powder; then at Joseph
+Larnette stretched in his hole, having his head smashed; at Baumgarten,
+who, with his arm hanging down, walked in great pallor toward the
+ambulance; and then at Daniel Spitz, who, in spite of his sabre-cut,
+wanted to stay and fight; but the doctor would not hear of it, and
+forced him to enter the farm.
+
+Louise came up with the little cart, and poured out brandy for the
+combatants; while Catherine Lefevre, standing at the edge of the
+sloping bank, watched the dead and wounded scattered over the road, and
+led up to by long lines of blood.  There were both young and old among
+them, with faces white as wax, wide-opened eyes, and outstretched arms.
+Some few tried to raise themselves, but no sooner had they done so than
+they fell back again; others looked up as though they were afraid of
+receiving some more bullets, and dragged themselves along the bank in
+order to get under shelter.
+
+Many of them seemed resigned to their fate, and were looking for a
+place to die, or else watching their retreating regiment on its way to
+Framont--that regiment with which they had quitted their homes, with
+which they had made a long campaign, and which was now abandoning them!
+"It will see old Germany again!" they thought.  "And when some one asks
+the captain or the sergeant, 'Did you know such a one--Hans, Kasper,
+Nickel, of the 1st or of the 2d company?' they will reply, 'Ah!  I
+think so.  Had he not a scar on the ear, or on the cheek? fair or dark
+hair? five feet six in height?  Yes, I know him.  He was buried in
+France, near a little village whose name I do not remember.  Some
+mountaineers killed him the same day big Major Yeri-Peter was killed.
+He was a fine fellow!'  And then it is, 'Good-day to you.'"
+
+Perhaps, too, there were some of them who dreamed of their mother, or
+of a pretty girl left behind them, Gretchen or Lotchen, who had given,
+them a ribbon, and shed hot tears when they left: "I will await thy
+return, Kasper.  I will only marry thee!  Yes, yes, thou wilt have to
+wait long!"
+
+It was not pleasant to think of.
+
+Madame Lefevre, seeing this, thought of Gaspard.  Hullin, who came up
+with Lagarmitte, cried out in a joyous tone, "Well, my boys, you have
+been under fire.  Bravo! everything goes well.  The Germans will have
+no occasion to boast of this day."
+
+Then he embraced Louise, and hurried up to Catherine.
+
+"Are you satisfied, Catherine?  There! our success is certain.  But
+what is the matter?  You do not smile."
+
+"Yes, Jean-Claude, all goes well.  I am satisfied.  But look down at
+the road.  What a butchery!"
+
+"It is only what happens in war," replied Hullin, gravely.
+
+"Could we not go and help that little fellow down there, who watches us
+with his large blue eyes?  He makes me feel so sad.  Or that tall, dark
+man, who is binding his leg with his handkerchief?"
+
+"Impossible, Catherine.  I am very sorry.  We should have to cut steps
+in the ice to get down, and the Germans, who will be back in an hour or
+two, would take advantage of them.  Let us go.  The victory must be
+announced in all the villages--to Labarbe, Jerome, and Piorette.  Ho!
+Simon, Niklo, Marchal, come here.  You will have to set out
+immediately, and carry the great tidings to our comrades.  Materne,
+keep thy eyes open, and warn me at the slightest movement."
+
+They approached the farm, and, as he passed, Jean-Claude took a look at
+the reserve, Marc Dives being on horseback surrounded by his men.  The
+smuggler complained bitterly of being left with nothing to do, as if
+his honor were tarnished thereby.
+
+"Bah!" said Hullin, "so much the better!  Besides, thou keepest guard
+over our right.  Look at that flat ground down there.  If we are
+attacked from that point, thou wilt have to march!"
+
+Dives made no answer; he looked both sad and indignant, nor did his
+stalwart smugglers, wrapped in their cloaks, their long swords hanging
+by their sides, seem at all in a better humor; one might have said that
+they were meditating some revenge.
+
+Hullin, not succeeding in consoling them, entered the farm-house.
+Doctor Lorquin was extracting the ball from Baumgarten's wound, who was
+making terrible cries.
+
+Pelsly, on the doorstep, was trembling all over.  Jean-Claude asked him
+for paper and ink, in order to transmit his orders through the
+mountain; but the poor anabaptist could hardly give them to him, so
+great was his trouble.  However, he succeeded at last, and the
+messengers departed, proud of being charged to announce the first
+battle and victory.
+
+A few mountaineers were in the large room, warming themselves at the
+oven and talking animatedly.  Daniel Spitz had already undergone
+amputation of his two fingers, and sat behind the stove with his hand
+bound up.
+
+Those who had been posted behind the abatis before daybreak, not having
+breakfasted, were now eating a crust of bread and drinking a glass of
+wine, shouting, gesticulating, and making great bravado meanwhile.
+Then they went out, looked at the intrenchments, came back to warm
+themselves again, and laughed fit to split their sides when they spoke
+of Riffi, and his wails and cries on horseback.
+
+It was eleven o'clock.  These incomings and outgoings lasted till
+twelve, when Marc Dives suddenly came into the room, calling
+out:--"Hullin!  Where is Hullin?"
+
+"Here I am."
+
+"Well, then, come!"
+
+The smuggler's tone had something remarkable about it: from being a
+moment before furious at having taken no part in the fight, he had now
+become triumphant.  Jean-Claude followed him, feeling very uneasy: and
+the large room was immediately deserted, everybody being convinced,
+from Marc's manner, that there was something serious the matter.
+
+To the right of the Donon extends the ravine of Minieres, through which
+runs a foaming torrent when the snows melt--descending from the summit
+of the mountain to the valley.
+
+Exactly in front of the plateau defended by the partisans, and on the
+other side of this ravine, at a distance of five or six hundred metres,
+projects a sort of open terrace with rugged sides, which Hullin had
+considered unnecessary to occupy for the time, wishing not to divide
+his forces, and seeing, besides, that it would be easy for him to turn
+this position by the pine-clumps, and to establish himself there, if
+the enemy showed any intention to take it.
+
+Now imagine the consternation of the worthy man when, on reaching the
+door of the farm-house, he saw two companies of Germans climbing this
+ascent, among the gardens of Grandfontaine, having two field-pieces
+yoked to powerful horses, which appeared to hang over the precipice.  A
+troop was pushing at the wheels, and in a few seconds the guns would
+have reached the plateau.
+
+It was like a thunder-bolt for Jean-Claude; he turned pale, and then
+into a great passion with Dives.
+
+"Couldst thou not have warned me sooner?" he cried.  "Did I not command
+thee to watch over the ravine?  Our position is turned.  They will hem
+us in, and cut us off from the road farther on.  Everything is going to
+the deuce."
+
+The people present, and old Materne himself, who had come up in great
+haste, were startled by the glance he darted at the smuggler; who,
+notwithstanding his usual audacity, was quite confused, not knowing
+what to reply.
+
+"Come, come, Jean-Claude," said he at last, "be calm.  It is not so
+serious as thou sayest.  We have not fought yet--we others; and
+besides, we have no cannons--so it will be the very thing for us."
+
+"Yes, the very thing for us, imbecile!  Thy self-love made thee wait
+till the last minute, did it not?  Thou wert too eager to fight, and
+have an opportunity for boasting and making bravado; and for that thou
+didst not hesitate to risk all our lives.  Look! there are other troops
+being got ready at Framont."
+
+In fact, another column, much stronger than the first, was just then
+marching out of Framont at the charge, and advancing against the
+breastworks.  Dives did not say a word.  Hullin controlled his anger,
+and became suddenly calm in the presence of danger.
+
+"Go back to your posts," he said briefly to those around him.  "Let all
+be ready for the coming attack.  Materne, listen!"
+
+The old hunter inclined his head.  Meanwhile, Marc Dives had recovered
+his self-possession.
+
+"Instead of screaming like a woman," said he, "thou wouldst do better
+to give me orders to attack down there, by turning the ravine at the
+pine-clumps."
+
+"Then do it!" replied Jean-Claude; and in a calmer tone: "Listen, Marc!
+I am very angry with thee.  We were conquerors; and by thy fault the
+battle has to be fought over again.  If thou failest in thy attack, all
+is lost for us."
+
+"Good! good!  The affair is altogether mine: I will answer for it."
+
+Then, springing on his horse, and throwing the end of his mantle over
+his shoulder, he drew his long blade with a defiant air.  His men did
+the same.
+
+He then turned to the reserve, composed of five hundred mountaineers,
+and showing the plateau to them with the point of his sword, said,
+"Look there, my men! we must carry that position.  The men of Dagsburg
+must not say that they are braver than the men of the Sarre.  Forward!"
+And, full of ardor, they advanced, skirting the ravine.  Hullin shouted
+to them--"At the point of your bayonets!"
+
+The big smuggler, on his great sleek roan, turned round, laughing out
+of the corners of his mustache, and waved his sword in a significant
+way; then the whole body dashed into the pine-wood.
+
+At the same time the Germans, with their eight-pounders, had gained the
+plateau, and were putting them in position, while the column from
+Framont was ascending the hill-side.  Thus everything was in the same
+condition as before the battle,--with this difference, that the
+enemies' bullets would now come into play and take the mountaineers in
+the rear.
+
+One could see distinctly the two field-pieces with their cramp-irons,
+levers, sponges, artillerymen, and the officer commanding, a great
+lanky fellow, with broad shoulders and fair mustaches floating in the
+wind.  The blue shades of the valley seeming to diminish the distance,
+they looked as though you might have touched them; but Hullin and
+Materne were not to be deceived; it was a good six hundred metres
+across.  No carbine could reach so far.  Nevertheless, the old hunter,
+before returning to the abatis, wished to have his mind set quite at
+rest.  He advanced as close as possible to the ravine, followed by
+his-son Kasper and a few mountaineers; and, leaning against a tree, he
+raised his gun deliberately and took aim at the tall officer with the
+fair mustaches.  All those about him held their breath for fear of
+balking the attempt.
+
+Materne fired, but when he laid down his weapon to see what had
+occurred, no change had taken place.
+
+"It is astonishing how age weakens the sight," he said.
+
+"Your weakened sight!" cried Kasper.  "There is not a man from the
+Vosges to Switzerland who can boast of hitting his mark at two hundred
+metres like you!"
+
+The old hunter knew well it was the case, but he did not wish to
+discourage the others.
+
+"Well," he replied, "we have no time for disputing.  Here is the enemy
+again; let each do his duty."  Although these words seemed simple and
+calm enough, Materne was very much troubled in reality.  On entering
+the trench confused sounds met his ear--the clattering of arms and the
+regular tramp of many feet.  He looked down over the steep bank, and
+now saw the Germans, who this time carried long ladders with hooks at
+the end.
+
+It was not a pleasant sight for the brave fellow: he made a sign to his
+son to approach, and said to him, in a low voice, "Kasper, that looks
+bad--very bad; the rascals are coming with ladders.  Give me thy hand!
+I should like to have thee near me, and Frantz as well; but we must
+defend ourselves with steadiness."
+
+At this moment a great explosion shook the abatis, and a hoarse voice
+was heard crying out, "Ah, my God!"  Then a hundred paces distant there
+was a heavy sound, and a fine tree bent down slowly and fell into the
+abyss.  It was the first cannon-ball: it had cut off old Rochart's
+legs.  It was followed by another immediately after, which covered all
+the mountaineers with broken ice, and made a great rumbling.  Old
+Materne himself had bent down under the force of the explosion, but
+raising himself quickly, he shouted, "Let us revenge ourselves, my
+children.  They are before you.  To conquer or die!"
+
+Fortunately the panic of the mountaineers only lasted a second: they
+all understood that the slightest hesitation and they were lost.  Two
+ladders had already been raised, notwithstanding the fusillade, and
+were being attached to the bank by their iron hooks.  This sight made
+the partisans furious, and the fight became more terrible and desperate
+than before.
+
+Hullin had noticed the ladders before Materne had, and his wrath
+against Dives increased; but as in such a case indignation is of no
+avail, he had sent Lagarmitte to tell Frantz Materne, who had been
+posted on the other side of the Donon, to come to him quickly with half
+his men.  We may well believe the brave fellow, warned of the danger
+his father was in, lost not a moment.  Already their large black hats
+could be seen climbing the hill-side amid the snows, their carbines
+slung across their shoulders.  They came with all despatch,
+nevertheless Jean-Claude met them, with a haggard expression in his
+eyes, and shouted in a vibrating voice, "Come quicker! at that rate you
+will never reach us."
+
+He was in a towering passion, and attributed all the misfortune to the
+smuggler.
+
+Meanwhile Marc Dives, in about half an hour, had gone round the ravine,
+and, from the back of his tall horse, began to perceive the two
+companies of Germans, with grounded arms, about a hundred feet behind
+the guns, which were being fired upon the trench.  Then, approaching
+the mountaineers, he said to them, in a stifled voice, while the
+reports of the cannon were re-echoed in the gorge and in the distance
+the noise of battle was heard: "Comrades, you must attack the infantry
+with your bayonets: I and my men will be answerable for the rest.  Is
+it understood?"
+
+"Yes, it is understood."
+
+"Then, forward!"
+
+The whole troop advanced in good order toward the outskirts of the
+wood, big Piercy of Soldatenthal at their head.  Nearly at the same
+instant the _Wer da?_ ("Who there?") of a sentinel was heard; then two
+shots; a loud cry of "Vive la France!" and the trampling of many feet
+in a charge.  The brave mountaineers threw themselves like wolves on
+the enemy.
+
+Dives stood up in his stirrups and watched them with great glee.  "That
+is well," said he.
+
+The _melee_ was a terrible one; the ground trembled with it.  The
+Germans were firing no more than the partisans: the affair was passing
+in silence; the clashing of bayonets and the sound of sabre-strokes,
+with here and there a rifle-shot, shouts of anger and a great tumult:
+except these, one could hear nothing else.  The smugglers, with
+outstretched necks and sword in hand, sniffed the carnage and awaited
+the signal from their chief with impatience.
+
+"Now, it is our turn," said Dives, at length.  "The guns must be ours."
+
+And out of the underwood they sprang, and their large cloaks flying
+behind them like wings, they dashed forward, bending in their saddles
+and pointing their swords.
+
+"Never mind cutting!  Run them through!" cried Dives once more.
+
+That was all he said.
+
+In a second, the twelve vultures were down upon the guns.  Among their
+number were four old Spanish dragoons and two cuirassiers of the guard,
+whom a life of danger had attached to Marc: so I leave you to imagine
+how they fought.  Blows from lever, rammer, and sabre, the only arms
+the gunners had to hand, rained upon them like hail; they parried them
+all, and every cut they made brought down a man.
+
+Marc Dives received two pistol-shots, of which one singed his left
+cheek and the other carried away his hat.  But, at the same time,
+bending over his saddle, his long arms stretched out, he transfixed the
+big officer with the fair mustaches to his gun; then raising himself
+deliberately, and gazing round him with a frown, said, in a sententious
+manner: "We have cleared out the rubbish! the guns are ours."
+
+To get a good idea of this terrible scene, you must imagine the crowd
+on the plateau of Minieres.  The cries, the neighings of horses, the
+flight of some, who threw down their arms in order to run the faster,
+the desperation of others;--beyond the ravine, the ladders covered with
+white uniforms and bristling with bayonets; the mountaineers above the
+escarpment defending themselves with obstinacy; the hill-sides, the
+road, and, above all, the space outside the breastworks, encumbered
+with dead and wounded;--the great numbers of the enemy, their muskets
+over their shoulders and their officers in the midst of them, pressing
+forward into action; and, finally, Materne standing on the crest of the
+hill, his bayonet in the air, his mouth opened wide, shouting wildly to
+his son Frantz, who was advancing with his troop, Master Jean-Claude at
+their head, to aid the mountaineers.  You should have heard the
+fusillade, the platoon and file firing, and, above all, the distant
+confused shouts, intermixed with sharp wails dying away among the
+mountain echoes.  To gain a good idea of the scene, you should imagine
+all these as concentrated into one moment and surveyed with a rapid
+glance.
+
+But Dives was not of a contemplative turn: he lost no time in making
+poetical reflections on the uproar and savagery of the battle.  With
+one look he had taken in the whole situation; so, springing from his
+horse, he went up to the first gun, which was still loaded, aimed it at
+the ladders, and fired.
+
+Then there arose wild clamors, and the smuggler, peering through the
+smoke, saw that fearful havoc had been made in the enemy's ranks.  He
+waved his hands in sign of triumph, and the mountaineers on the
+breastworks answered with a general hurrah.
+
+"Now then, dismount," said he to his men, "and don't go to sleep.  A
+cartridge, a ball, and some turf.  We will sweep the road.  Look out!"
+
+The smugglers put themselves in position, and continued to fire with
+enthusiasm upon the white coats.  The bullets rained into their ranks.
+At the tenth discharge there was a general _sauve-qui-peut_.
+
+"Fire! fire!" shouted Marc.
+
+And the partisans, now supported by Frantz's troop, regained, under
+Hullin's directions, the positions which they had for the moment lost.
+
+The whole of the hill-side was soon covered with dead and wounded.  It
+was then four in the evening; night was approaching.  The last ball
+fell into the street of Grandfontaine, and rebounding on the angle of
+the pavement, knocked down the chimney of the "Red Ox."
+
+About six hundred men perished that day: there were, of course, many
+mountaineers among them, but the greater number were "kaiserlichs."
+Had it not been for the fire of Marc Dives's cannon, all would have
+been lost; the partisans were not one against ten, and the enemy had
+already begun to gain on the trenches.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+PAINFUL SCENES
+
+The Germans, huddled together in Grandfontaine, fled in crowds in the
+direction of Framont, on foot and on horseback, hurrying, dragging
+along their ammunition-wagons, strewing the road with their knapsacks,
+and looking behind as though they feared to find the partisans at their
+heels.
+
+In Grandfontaine they destroyed everything out of sheer revenge; they
+smashed in doors and windows, maltreated the people, demanded food and
+drink indiscriminately.  Their shouts and curses, the commands of their
+officers, the murmurs of the townsfolk, the artillery rolling over the
+bridge of Framont, the shrill cries of the wounded horses, were heard
+as a confused murmur at the breastworks.
+
+The hill-side was covered with arms, shakos, and dead; in fact, with
+all the signs of a great rout.  In front was Marc Dives's cannon
+directed down the valley, ready to fire in case of a fresh attack.
+
+All was finished, and finished well.  Yet no shout of triumph rose from
+the intrenchments: the losses of the mountaineers, in this last
+assault, had been too great for that.  There was something solemn in
+this silence succeeding to the uproar; all these men who had escaped
+the carnage, looked grave, as though astonished to see each other
+again.  Some few called a friend, others a brother, who did not answer;
+and then they searched for them in the trenches, along the breastworks,
+or on the slopes, calling "Jacob, Philip, is it thou?"
+
+Night came on; and the gray shadow creeping over everything, added
+mystery to these fearful scenes.  The people came and went among the
+wrecks of the battle without recognizing each other.
+
+Materne, having wiped his bayonet, called hoarsely to his
+boys:--"Kasper!  Frantz!" and seeing them approach in the darkness, he
+asked, "Is that you?"
+
+"Yes, we are here."
+
+"Are you safe? are you wounded?"
+
+"No."
+
+The old hunter's voice became hoarser and more trembling still:--"Then
+we are all three united once more," said he, in a low tone.
+
+And he, whom none would have thought to be so tender, embraced his sons
+warmly.  They could hear his chest heaving with suppressed sobs.  They
+were both much moved, and said to each other,--"We never dreamed that
+he loved us so much!"
+
+But the old man, soon recovering from his emotion, called out, "It was
+a hard day, though, my boys.  Let us have something to drink, for I am
+thirsty."
+
+Then, casting one last look on the dark slopes, and seeing that Hullin
+had placed sentinels at short distances apart, they proceeded toward
+the farmhouse.
+
+As they were picking their way carefully through the trenches,
+encumbered with the dead, they heard a stifled voice, which said to
+them, "Is it thou, Materne?"
+
+"Ah! forgive me, my poor old Rochart," replied the hunter, bending over
+him, "if I touched thee.  What, art thou still here?"
+
+"Yes, I cannot get away, for I have no longer any legs to carry me."
+
+They remained silent for a moment, when the old wood-cutter
+continued,--"Thou wilt tell my wife that in a bag behind the closet,
+there are five pieces of six.  I have saved them up, in case we either
+of us fell ill.  I no longer need them."
+
+"That is to say--that is to say--But thou mayst recover still, my poor
+old fellow.  We will carry thee away."
+
+"No; it is not worth the trouble: I cannot last more than an hour.  It
+would only make me linger."
+
+Materne, without answering, signed to Kasper to place his carbine with
+his own, so as to form a stretcher, and Frantz placed the old
+wood-cutter upon them, notwithstanding his moans.  In this way they
+arrived at the farm.
+
+All the wounded who during the combat had had strength to drag
+themselves to the ambulance were now assembled there; and Doctor
+Lorquin and his comrade Dubois, who had arrived during the day, had
+work enough to do.  But all was far from being over yet.
+
+As Materne, his boys, and Rochart were traversing the dark alley under
+the lantern, they heard to their left a cry which made their blood run
+cold, and the old wood-cutter, half dead, called out, "Why do you take
+me there?  I will not go; I will not have anything done to me."
+
+"Open the door, Frantz," said Materne, his face streaming with
+perspiration.  "Open it!  Be quick!"
+
+Frantz having pushed open the door, they beheld in the centre of the
+low room with its large brown beams, Colard's son stretched out full
+length on a great kitchen-table, a man at each arm and a bucket beneath
+him.  Doctor Lorquin, his shirtsleeves turned up to his elbows, and a
+short saw in his hand, was cutting off the poor fellow's leg, while
+Dubois stood by with a large sponge.  The blood trickled into the pail.
+Colard was as white as death.
+
+Catherine Lefevre was there with a roll of lint on her arm.  She seemed
+calm; but her teeth were clinched, and she fastened her eyes on the
+ground as though determined to witness nothing.
+
+"It is finished," said the doctor, turning round; and perceiving the
+new-comers, "Ha! it is you, Father Rochart!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, it is I; but I will not let any one touch me.  I would rather die
+as I am."
+
+The doctor lifted up a candle, looked at him, and made a grimace.
+
+"It is time to see to you, my poor old fellow.  You have lost much
+blood, and if we wait longer it will be too late."
+
+"So much the better!  I have suffered enough in my life."
+
+"As you like.  Let us pass on to another."
+
+He cast his eyes over a long line of straw mattresses at the end of the
+room; the two last were empty, but covered with blood.  Materne and
+Kasper laid the old wood-cutter down on the last, while Dubois,
+approaching another wounded man, said, "Nicolas, it is thy turn!"
+
+Nicolas Cerf raised his pale face and his eyes glistened with fright.
+
+"Let him have a glass of brandy," said the doctor.
+
+"No, I would rather smoke my pipe."
+
+"Where is thy pipe?"
+
+"In my waistcoat pocket."
+
+"Good, I have found it.  And the tobacco?"
+
+"In my trousers."
+
+"All right.  Fill his pipe, Dubois.  He is a plucky fellow; it gives
+one pleasure to see a man like that.  We are going to take off thy arm
+in a trice."
+
+"Is there no way of saving it, Monsieur Lorquin, to bring up my poor
+children?  It is their only resource."
+
+"No; it is no use; the bone is smashed.  Light the pipe, Dubois.  Now,
+Nicolas, smoke away."
+
+The unhappy fellow began, though evidently without relish.
+
+"Is all ready?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Yes," replied Nicolas, in a husky voice.
+
+"Good.  Attention, Dubois!  Sponge away."
+
+And he made a rapid turn in the flesh with a great knife.  Nicolas
+ground his teeth.  The blood spurted up, and Dubois bound up something
+tightly.  The saw grated for two seconds, and the arm fell heavily on
+the boards.
+
+"That is what I call a well-performed operation," said Lorquin.
+
+Nicolas was no longer smoking; the pipe had fallen from his lips.
+David Schlosser, of Walsch, who had held him, let go.  They bound up
+the stump with linen, and, all unaided, Nicolas went to lie down on the
+straw.
+
+"One more finished!  Sponge the table well, Dubois, and let us go on to
+another," said the doctor, washing his hands in a large bowl.
+
+Each time that he said, "Let us go on to another," the wounded moved
+uneasily, terrified by the screams they heard and the glittering knives
+they saw.  But what was to be done?  Every room in the farm, the
+granary, and the lofts was full.  They were thus obliged to operate
+under the eyes of those who would soon in their turns come beneath the
+painful knife.
+
+The operation had taken but a few seconds.  Materne and his sons looked
+on for the same reason as one looks at other horrible things,--to know
+what they are like.  Then in the corner, under the old china clock,
+they saw a heap of amputated limbs.
+
+Nicolas's arm had already been cast among them, and a ball was now
+being extracted from the shoulder of a red-whiskered mountaineer of the
+Harberg.  They opened deep gashes in his back; his flesh quivered, and
+the blood coursed down his powerful limbs.
+
+The dog Pluto, behind the doctor, looked on with an attentive air, as
+though he understood, and from time to time stretched himself and
+yawned loudly.
+
+Materne could look on no longer.
+
+"Let us get out of this," said he.
+
+Hardly were they outside the door, when they heard the doctor exclaim,
+"I have got the ball!" which must indeed have been satisfactory to the
+man from the Harberg.
+
+Once outside, Materne, inhaling the cold air with, delight, exclaimed:
+"Only think that the same might have happened to us!"
+
+"True," said Kasper; "to get a ball in one's head is nothing; but to be
+cut up in that style, and then to beg one's bread for the rest of one's
+days!"
+
+"Bah!  I should do the same as old Rochart," said Frantz.  "I should
+die quietly.  The old fellow was right.  When one has done one's duty,
+why should one be afraid?"
+
+Just then the hum of voices was heard on their right.
+
+"It is Marc Dives and Hullin," said Kasper, listening.
+
+"Yes; they must be just returning from throwing up breastworks behind
+the pine-wood, to protect the cannon," added Frantz.
+
+They listened again; the footsteps came nearer.
+
+"Thou must be very much bothered with these three prisoners," said
+Hullin, roughly.  "Since thou returnest to the Falkenstein to-night to
+get ammunition, what prevents thee from taking them away?"
+
+"Where are they to be put?"
+
+"Why, in the communal prison of Abreschwiller, to be sure.  We cannot
+keep them here."
+
+"All right, I understand, Jean-Claude.  And if they try to escape on
+the way, I am to use my sword?"
+
+"Just so."
+
+By this time they had reached the door, and Hullin, perceiving Materne,
+could not suppress a shout of enthusiasm: "Ah!  Is it thou, old fellow?
+I have been searching for thee an hour.  Where the devil wert thou?"
+
+"We have been carrying poor Rochart to the ambulance, Jean-Claude."
+
+"Ah! it is a sad affair, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; it is sad."
+
+There was a moment's pause, and the satisfaction of the worthy man
+again became visible.
+
+"It is not at all lively," said he; "but what is to be done when one
+goes to the war?  You are not hurt any of you?"
+
+"No; we are all three safe and sound."
+
+"So much the better.  Those who are left can boast of being lucky."
+
+"True," cried Marc Dives, laughing.  "At one time I thought Materne was
+going to give way.  Without those cannon-balls at the finish, things
+would have gone badly."
+
+Materne colored, and glanced sideways at the smuggler.
+
+"Perhaps so," said he, dryly; "but without the cannon-balls at the
+beginning, we should not have needed those at the end.  Old Rochart,
+and fifty other brave men, would still have had their arms and legs,
+and our victory would not have been clouded."
+
+"Bah!" interrupted Hullin, anticipating a dispute between the two brave
+fellows, neither of whom was remarkable for his conciliatory
+disposition.  "Leave that alone.  Every one has done his duty; and that
+is the chief thing."
+
+Then, addressing Materne: "I have just sent a flag of truce to Framont,
+to bid the Germans carry away their wounded.  In an hour, I dare say,
+they will be here.  Our sentries must be warned to let them approach if
+they come without arms and with torches.  If in any other way, let them
+be received with a volley."
+
+"I will go at once," answered the old hunter.
+
+"Materne, thou wilt afterward sup at the farm with thy boys."
+
+"Agreed, Jean-Claude."
+
+And he went off.
+
+Hullin then bade Frantz and Kasper light great bivouac fires; Marc was
+at once to feed his horses, so that he might go without delay to
+procure ammunition.  Seeing them hurrying away, Hullin turned into the
+farm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+ROUND THE FESTIVE BOARD
+
+At the end of the dark alley was the yard of the farm, into which one
+descended by five or six well-worn steps.  On the left were the granary
+and the wine-press; to the right the stables and pigeon-cot, the gables
+of which stood out black on the dark cloudy sky; and in front of the
+door was the laundry.
+
+No sound from the outside reached the yard.  After so many tumultuous
+scenes, Hullin was impressed by the deep silence.  He looked up at the
+piles of straw hanging from the beams of the granary roof, the ploughs
+and carts in the shadows of the outhouses, and an inexpressible feeling
+of calm and repose came over him.  A cock was roosting quietly among
+the hens on the wall.  A big cat, darting quickly by, disappeared
+through a hole into the cellar.  Hullin thought himself in a dream.
+
+After a few moments spent in silent contemplation, he walked slowly
+toward the laundry, the three windows of which shone brightly in the
+darkness: for the farm-kitchen not being large enough for preparing
+food for three or four hundred men, it was now being used for the
+purposes of cooking.
+
+Master Jean-Claude heard Louise's clear voice giving orders in a
+resolute tone, which astonished him.
+
+"Now, Katel, quick! supper-time is near.  Our people must be hungry.
+Since six in the morning they have taken nothing, and have been
+fighting all the time.  They must not be kept waiting.  Come, bestir
+yourself, Lessele; bring the salt and pepper!"
+
+Jean-Claude's heart leaped within him at the sound of this voice.  He
+could not help gazing for a minute through the window before entering.
+
+The kitchen was large, with low whitewashed ceiling.  A beechwood fire
+crackled on the hearth, its red flames encircling the sides of an
+immense kettle.  The charming figure of Louise, wearing her short
+petticoat so as to move unimpeded, a bright color in her face, the
+short red body of her dress leaving uncovered her round shoulders and
+white neck, stood out clearly in the foreground.  She was in all the
+bustle of the occasion, coming and going, tasting the soup and sauces
+with a knowing air, and approving and criticising everything.
+
+"A little more salt!  Lessele, have you almost done plucking that great
+lean cock?  At this rate we shall never have finished!"
+
+It was delightful to see her thus busily commanding.  It brought tears
+into Hullin's eyes.
+
+The two daughters of the anabaptist--one tall, thin, and pale, with her
+large flat feet encased in round shoes, her red hair fastened up in a
+little black cap, her blue stuff dress falling in folds to her heels;
+the other fat, slowly lifting up one foot after the other, and waddling
+along like a duck--forming a striking contrast to Louise.
+
+The stout Katel went panting about without saying a word, while Lessele
+performed everything in her sleepy methodical way.
+
+The worthy anabaptist himself, seated at the end of the room, with his
+legs crossed on a wooden chair, his cotton cap on his head, and his
+hands in his blouse pockets, looked on with a wondering air, addressing
+to them sententious exhortations from time to time: "Lessele, Katel! be
+obedient, my children.  Let this be for your instruction.  You have not
+yet seen the world.  You must be quicker and sharper."
+
+"Yes, yes, you must bestir yourselves," added Louise.  "Gracious! what
+should become of us if we stood thinking months and weeks before
+putting a little onion into a sauce!  Lessele, you are the tallest,
+unhook me that parcel of onions from the ceiling."
+
+The girl obeyed.
+
+Hullin had never felt prouder in his life.
+
+"How she makes them move about!" thought he.  "Ah! ha! ha! she is like
+a little hussar.  I never should have believed it."
+
+After having watched them for five minutes, he went into the room.
+
+"Well done, my children!"
+
+Louise was holding a soup-ladle at the time.  She let it fall, and
+threw herself into his arms, crying: "Papa Jean-Claude, is it you? you
+are not wounded?  Nothing is the matter with you?"
+
+At the sound of this voice, Hullin turned pale, and could make no
+reply.  After a long silence, pressing her to his heart, he said: "No,
+Louise, I am quite well; I am very happy."
+
+"Sit down, Jean-Claude," said the anabaptist, seeing him trembling with
+emotion; "here, take my chair."
+
+Hullin sat down, and Louise, with her arms on his shoulder, began to
+cry.
+
+"What is the matter, my child?" said the worthy man, kissing her.
+"Come, calm thyself.  Only a few seconds ago thou wert so courageous."
+
+"Oh, yes, but I was only acting; I was very much afraid.  I thought,
+'Why does he not come?'"
+
+She threw her arms round his neck.  Then a strange idea came into her
+head.  She took him by the hand, crying: "Papa Jean-Claude, let us
+dance, let us dance!"
+
+And they made three or four turns.  Hullin could not help laughing, and
+turning toward the grave anabaptist, said: "We are rather mad, Pelsly;
+do not let that astonish you."
+
+"No, Master Hullin, it is quite natural.  King David himself danced
+before the ark after his great victory over the Philistines."
+
+Jean-Claude, astonished to find that he was like King David, made no
+reply.
+
+"And thou, Louise," he continued, stopping, "thou wert not afraid
+during this last battle?"
+
+"Oh, at first, with all the noise and the roaring of the cannons; but
+afterward I only thought of you and of Mamma Lefevre."
+
+Master Jean-Claude grew silent again.
+
+"I knew," thought he, "that she was a brave girl.  She has everything
+in her favor."
+
+Louise taking him by the hand, then led him to a regiment of pans
+around the fire, and showed him with delight her kitchen.
+
+"Here is the beef and roast mutton, here is General Jean-Claude's
+supper, and here is the soup for our wounded.  Haven't we been busy!
+Lessele and Katel would tell you so.  And here is our bread," said she,
+pointing to a long row of loaves arranged on the table.  "Mamma Lefevre
+and I mixed up the flour."
+
+Hullin looked on astonished.
+
+"But that is not all," said she; "come over here."
+
+She took off the lid of a saucepan, and the kitchen was immediately
+filled with a savory odor which would have rejoiced the heart of a
+gourmand.
+
+Jean-Claude was deeply touched by all these proofs of attention to the
+wants of his men.
+
+Just then Mother Lefevre came in.
+
+"Well," said she, "prepare the table; everybody is waiting over there.
+Come, Katel, go and lay the cloth."
+
+The girl went running out to do so.
+
+They all crossed the dark yard and made their way toward the large
+room.  Doctor Lorquin, Dubois, Marc Dives, Materne, and his two boys,
+all very hungry, were awaiting the soup impatiently.
+
+"How about our wounded, doctor?" said Hullin, on entering.
+
+"They have all been attended to, Master Jean-Claude.  You have given us
+plenty of work to do; but the weather is favorable; there is nothing to
+fear from putrid fevers; things wear a pleasant aspect."
+
+Katel, Lessele, and Louise soon came in bearing an immense tureen of
+smoking soup and two sirloins of roast beef, which they deposited on
+the table.  They all sat down without ceremony--old Materne to the
+right of Jean-Claude, Catherine Lefevre to the left; and from that time
+the clatter of spoons and forks and the gurgling of the bottles took
+the place of conversation till half-past eight in the evening.  The
+glow which might be seen from the outside upon the windows, proved that
+the volunteers were doing justice to Louise's cookery, which
+contributed greatly to the enjoyment of her guests.
+
+At nine o'clock Marc Dives was on his way to Falkenstein with the
+prisoners.  At ten everybody was asleep at the farm, on the plateau,
+and around the watchfires.  The silence was only broken by the passing
+of the patrols and the challenge of the sentinels.
+
+Thus terminated, this great day, after the mountaineers had proved that
+they had not degenerated from their ancestors.
+
+Other events, not less important, were soon to succeed those which had
+already taken place: for in this world, when one obstacle is
+surmounted, others present themselves.  Human life resembles a restless
+sea: one wave follows another from the old world to the new, and
+nothing arrests its ever-lasting movement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CAVE OF LUITPRANDT
+
+All through the battle, till the close of night, the good people of
+Grandfontaine had observed the poor crazy Yegof standing upon the crest
+of the Little Donon, and, his crown on his head, with his sceptre held
+aloft, like a Merovingian king, shouting commands to his phantom
+armies.  What passed through his mind when he saw the utter rout of the
+Germans no one can say; but at the last cannon-shot he disappeared.
+Where did he betake himself?  On this point the people of Tiefenbach
+have the following story:--
+
+At that time there lived upon the Bocksberg two singular
+creatures--sisters--one named "little Kateline," and the other "great
+Berbel."  These creatures, who were almost in tatters, had taken up
+their abode in the "Cave of Luitprandt," so called, according to old
+chronicles, because the German king, before invading Alsace, had caused
+to be interred in that immense vault of red sandstone the savage chiefs
+who had fallen in the battle of Blutfeld.  The hot spring which always
+bubbles in the middle of the cavern protected the eerie sisters from
+the sharp colds of winter; and the woodcutter, Daniel Horn, of
+Tiefenbach, had been good enough to fill up the largest entrance to the
+rock with heaps of brushwood.  By the side of the hot spring there is
+another, cold as ice and clear as crystal.  Kateline, who always drank
+of its waters, was scarce four foot high, thick-set and bloated; and
+her cowering figure, her round eyes and enormous goitre, rendered her
+whole appearance peculiarly suggestive of a big turkey-hen in a
+reverie.  Every Sunday she carried into Tiefenbach a great basket,
+which the people of the place filled with boiled potatoes, crusts of
+bread, and occasionally, on high days, with cakes and other remains of
+their festivals;--with which she reascended breathlessly to her rocky
+home, muttering, gibbering, and behaving in the absurdest way.
+Meanwhile Berbel took care to drink from the cold spring: she was
+gaunt, one-eyed, scraggy as a bat, with a flat nose, large ears, a
+gleaming eye, and thrived upon the booty obtained by her sister.
+Seldom did she descend from the Bocksberg, except in July, at the time
+of greatest heat--when she proceeded to launch her incantations--her
+enchanting-wand a withered thistle--against the crops of those who had
+failed to contribute to her sister's basket.  These imprecations were
+always believed to be followed by dire storms, hail, and destructive
+vermin without stint: whence they came to be dreaded as the plague, and
+the hag herself to be regarded as a weather-witch (_Wetterhexe_), while
+"little Kateline" was looked upon as the good genius of Tiefenbach and
+its neighborhood.  In such wise Berbel folded her arms and took her
+ease in her cave, while her sister went gibbering along the highways.
+
+Unfortunately for the sisters, Yegof had for many years established his
+winter-quarters in "Luitprandt's cavern;" and it was thence he set
+forth every spring on a visit to his innumerable chateaux and
+feudatories, as far as Geierstein in the Hundsrueck.  Every year,
+therefore, toward the end of November, after the first snows, he
+arrived with his raven, to the accompaniment of piercing cries from
+Wetterhexe.
+
+"What have you to grumble at?" he would say, while installing himself
+in the place of honor.  "Are you not intruders upon my domain, and am I
+not truly good to permit two such useless old hags (_Valkyries_) to
+stay in the Valhalla of my fathers?"
+
+Then Berbel, in a rage, used to overwhelm him with abuse, while
+Kateline gave vent to her dissatisfaction in thick unintelligible
+utterances; but he, regardless of both, lit his old box pipe and set
+himself to describe his endless peregrinations to the ghosts of the
+German warriors buried in the cavern sixteen centuries before, calling
+upon each of them by name, and addressing them as personages still
+living.  From this it will be understood with what disgust the arrival
+of the maniac came to be regarded by Kateline and Berbel; in fact for
+both it was nothing less than a calamity.
+
+Now in the year we are speaking of, Yegof, having failed to return to
+them at the proper time, induced the sisters to believe that he was
+dead and to rejoice at the idea of seeing no more of him.  But for many
+days Wetterhexe had remarked an extraordinary movement going on in the
+neighboring gorges, and men marching off in bodies, shouldering their
+muskets, from the sides of Falkenstein and Donon.  Clearly something
+was taking place out of the common.  Recollecting that the year before
+Yegof had informed the phantoms of the cave that his armies, in
+countless hosts, were coming to invade the country, the sorceress was
+seized with a vague apprehension and anxiety to learn the cause of so
+much agitation; but no one came up to the cave, and Kateline having
+made her rounds on the previous Sunday, could not have been induced to
+stir out for the gift of a kingdom.
+
+In this state of apprehension, Wetterhexe went and came upon the side
+of the mountain and became hourly more restless and irritable.  During
+the whole of that Saturday events assumed quite another aspect.  From
+nine o'clock in the morning deep and heavy explosions began to growl
+like a continuous storm among the thousand echoes of the mountain;
+while far away in the direction of Donon, the swift lightnings swept up
+across the sky among the peaks; then toward night the discharges
+deepening in intensity filled the silent gorges with an indescribable
+tumult.  At every report the Hengst, the Gantzlee, the Giromani, and
+the Grosmann cliffs seemed to echo to their lowest depths.
+
+"What can it be?" cried Berbel.  "Has the end of the world come?"
+
+Then re-entering her lurking-place, and finding Kateline crouched in
+her corner and munching a potato, Berbel shook her roughly and hissed
+out:--"Fool! have you got no ears?  Is there anything that you fear?
+You are good for nothing but eating, drinking, and mumbling.  Oh, you
+idiot!"
+
+She snatched away the potato in a rage, and then seated herself by the
+side of the hot spring, which was sending up its gray fumes to the
+roof.  Half an hour after, the darkness having become intense and the
+cold excessive, she made a fire of brushwood, which shed its pale
+gleams upon the blocks of red sandstone and lit up the farthest corner
+of the cave, where Kateline was now asleep, huddled in the straw, with
+her chin upon her knees.  Without, the noisy tumult had ceased.  Then
+withdrawing the brushwood curtain from the mouth of the cave, she
+peered out into the darkness, and returned to crouch down, by the
+spring.  With her large lips compressed, her eyes closed, and the great
+round wrinkles playing upon her cheeks, she drew round her knees an old
+woollen covering, and appeared to fall asleep.  Throughout the cavern
+there was no sound, except that of the congealed vapor, which fell back
+at long intervals into the spring with a strange splashing noise.
+
+This silence lasted for about two hours; midnight was approaching, when
+all of a sudden a distant sound of footsteps, mingled with discordant
+cries, was heard outside the cave.  Berbel listened, and at once
+perceived that they were human cries.  Then she rose, trembling, and,
+armed with her thistle-wand, proceeded to the entrance of the cave;
+whence, through the screen of brushwood, she saw, at fifty paces
+distant, Yegof advancing toward her in the moonlight.  He was alone,
+but gesticulating and waving his sceptre, as if myriads of invisible
+beings were about him.
+
+"Hark, ye red men!" he was shrieking, with, beard sticking up on end,
+his hair streaming about his head, and his dog-skin upon his arm.
+"Hark, ye red men!  Roog!  Bled!  Adelrik! hark!  Will ye not hear me
+at last?  Do you not see they are coming?  Behold them cleaving the sky
+like vultures.  Hark to me.  Let this miserable race be annihilated!
+Ha, ha! it is you, Minau! it is you, Rochart ... ha! ha!"  And
+addressing the dead upon the Donon, he called upon them defiantly, as
+if they were standing before him; and then fell back a step at a time,
+striking the air, uttering imprecations, encouraging his phantoms, and
+casting about him as if in close fight.  The sight of this terrible
+struggle against beings who were invisible caused Berbel to shudder
+with fright, and to fancy her hair stiffening upon her head.  She
+sought to hide herself; but just at the moment a strange noise from
+behind drew her attention, and her terror may be imagined when she saw
+the hot spring bubbling with more than usual activity and sending out
+clouds of steam, which rose and broke away in separate masses toward
+the entrance of the cavern; and while these clouds like phantoms were
+slowly advancing in close order, Yegof appeared upon the scene,
+shouting hoarsely:--
+
+"You come at last! you heard me then!"
+
+Thus saying, he removed with an impatient effort all obstructions from
+the mouth of the cave: the cold air rushed down the vault and the
+steaming vapors rose far into the sky, writhing and glancing above the
+cliff, as if the slain of that day and those of the ages gone by had
+recommenced beyond the earth a battle that would never end.
+
+Yegof, with face which appeared shrunken in the pale moonlight, his
+sceptre held high, his great beard flowing down his breast, and his
+eyes flaming, saluted each phantom with a wave of the hand, addressing
+it by name:
+
+"Hail, Bled!  Roog, hail! and you, my brave men, all hail!  The hour
+you have been expecting for ages is at hand: the eagles are whetting
+their beaks and the soil is thirsting for blood.  Remember Blutfeld!"
+
+[Illustration: YEGOF SALUTED EACH PHANTOM WITH SPARKLING EYES.]
+
+At this point Berbel's terror seemed to hold her transfixed; but soon
+the last volumes of gray mist disappeared out of the cavern and melted
+into the sky.  Seeing which the crazy montagnard marched fiercely into
+the cave, and seating himself by the spring, with his great head
+between his hands, and his elbows on his knees, looked down into the
+boiling water with a haggard stare.
+
+Kateline was now awake and venting her guttural moans; while
+Wetterhexe, more dead than alive, was furtively watching the maniac
+from the farthest corner of the cave.
+
+"They have all gone up from the earth!" exclaimed Yegof, suddenly.
+"All, all!  They have gone to reanimate the courage of my youths, and
+inspire them with contempt of death!"
+
+And again lifting up his face, which seemed impressed with deep
+anguish, he cried, fixing his wolfish eyes on Wetterhexe:--
+
+"Oh, thou descendant of the sterile valkyries, thou who hast nurtured
+within thy bosom no life-breath of warriors, nor ever filled their deep
+goblets at the festive board, nor regaled them with the smoking flesh
+of the wild boar, for what purpose art thou good?  To spin shrouds for
+the dead.  Ha! take thy distaff and spin night and day; for thousands
+of brave men are slumbering in the snow!  ... They fought well....
+Yes, they did all that men could do; but the time had not come, ... now
+the ravens are fighting for their carcasses!"
+
+Then in accents of uncontrollable rage, snatching the crown off his
+head together with handfuls of hair--"Ah, cursed race," he exclaimed,
+"will you always be barring our passage?  Were it not for you we had
+already conquered Europe; the red men would have been masters of the
+world....  And I have bowed my head before the leader of this race of
+curs....  I asked him for his daughter, instead of seizing and carrying
+her away as the wolf carries the lamb! ... Ah!  Huldrix, Huldrix!"
+
+Then changing this rhapsody--"Listen, listen, valkyrie!" he cried in a
+hoarse voice, and pointing his finger with great solemnity.
+
+Wetterhexe listened.  A great gust of wind rose up through the night,
+shaking the old forest-trees heavy with their load of frost.  Often and
+often had the sorceress in the winter nights heard the soughing of the
+north wind and paid it no attention, but now she was overwhelmed with
+fear!  And as she stood there all trembling, a hoarse cry was heard
+without; and almost at the same time the raven Hans, sweeping beneath
+the rock, set himself to describe great circles overhead, flapping his
+wings with a frightened air, and uttering melancholy cries.
+
+Yegof became pale as death.  "Vod, Vod! what has thy son Luitprandt
+done for thee?  Why choose him rather than another?"
+
+For some seconds he stood as though amazed: then, suddenly transported
+by savage enthusiasm and brandishing his sceptre, he dashed out of the
+cavern.
+
+Two minutes afterward, Wetterhexe, standing at the entrance of the
+rock, followed him with anxious eyes.
+
+He went straight on, with neck stretched forward and long strides.  You
+would have thought him a wild beast upon the prowl.  Hans went before
+him, hopping from place to place.
+
+In a moment they disappeared down the Blutfeld gorge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+GASPARD'S LETTER
+
+Toward two o'clock the next morning, snow began to fall.  At daybreak
+the Germans had left Grandfontaine, Framont, and even Schirmeck.  In
+the distance, on the plains of Alsace, could be seen the black lines,
+which indicated their retreating battalions.
+
+Hullin arose early and made the round of the bivouacs.  He stopped for
+a few seconds on the plateau, to look at the cannons in position, the
+sleeping partisans, and the watchful sentries; then, satisfied with his
+inspection, he re-entered the farm, where Louise and Catherine were
+still asleep.
+
+The gray light was spreading everywhere.  A few wounded in the next
+room were growing feverish; they were calling for their wives and
+children.  Soon the hum of voices and the noise of busy feet broke the
+stillness of the night.  Catherine and Louise awoke.  They saw
+Jean-Claude sitting in a corner of the window watching them, and
+ashamed of having slept longer than he, they arose and approached him.
+
+"Well?" asked Catherine.
+
+"Well, they have left; and we are masters of the field, as I expected."
+
+This assurance did not appear to satisfy the old dame.  She looked
+through the window to see for herself that the Germans were retreating
+into Alsace; and during the whole of that day she seemed both anxious
+and troubled.
+
+Between eight and nine the cure Saumaize came in from the village of
+Charmes.  Some mountaineers then descended the slopes to pick up the
+dead, and dug a deep pit to the right of the farm, where partisans and
+"kaiserlichs," with their clothes, hats, shakos, and uniforms, were
+laid side by side.  The cure Saumaize, a tall old man with white hair,
+read the prayers for the dead in that solemn, mysterious voice which
+seems to penetrate to the depths of one's soul, and to summon from the
+tomb the spirits of extinct generations to attest to the living the
+terrors of the grave.
+
+All day carts and sledges continued to arrive to carry away the
+wounded, who demanded, with loud cries, to be allowed to see their
+villages once more.  Doctor Lorquin, fearing to increase their
+irritation, was forced to consent.  And toward four o'clock, Catherine
+and Hullin were alone in the great room: Louise had gone out to prepare
+the supper.  Outside, large flakes of snow continued to fall, and, from
+time to time, a sledge might be seen silently passing along, bearing a
+wounded man laid in straw.  Catherine, seated near the table, was
+folding bandages with an absent air.
+
+"What ails you, Catherine?" demanded Hullin.  "You have seemed so
+thoughtful since morning: and yet our affairs are going on well."
+
+The old dame, pushing the linen slowly away from her, replied,--"Yes,
+Jean-Claude, I am uneasy."
+
+"Uneasy about what?  The enemy is in full retreat.  Only this moment,
+Frantz Materne, whom I had sent to reconnoitre, and all the messengers
+from Piorette, Jerome, and Labarbe, told me that the Germans are
+returning to Mutzig.  Old Materne and Kasper, having gathered up the
+dead, learned at Grandfontaine that nothing is to be seen in the
+direction of Saint-Blaize-la-Roche.  All this proves that our Spanish
+dragoons gave the enemy a warm reception on the way to Senones, and
+that they fear an attack from Schirmeck.  What is it, then, Catherine,
+that troubles you?"
+
+And seeing that Hullin looked at her inquiringly, "You may laugh at
+me," said she; "but I have had a dream."
+
+"A dream?"
+
+"Yes, the same as at the farm of Bois-de-Chenes."  And getting
+animated, she continued, in an almost angry tone, "You may say what you
+like, Jean-Claude, but a great danger menaces us.  Yes, yes! you don't
+see any sense in all this; but it was not a dream, it was like an old
+tale which comes back to one: something one sees in sleep and
+remembers.  Listen!  We were as we are now, after a great victory--in
+some place--I don't know where--in a sort of large wooden shed, with
+beams across it, and palisades around.  We were not thinking of
+anything: all the faces I saw I knew: you were among them, Marc Dives,
+Duchene, and old men already dead: my father and old Hugues Rochart of
+Harberg, the uncle of him who has just died: and they all had coarse
+gray cloth blouses, with long beards and bare necks.  We had won a like
+victory, and were drinking out of red earthenware pots, when a cry
+arose: 'The enemy is coming!'  And Yegof, on horseback, with his long
+beard and pointed crown, an axe in his hand, and with his eyes gleaming
+like a wolf's, appeared before me in the darkness.  I rushed on him
+with a club, he waited for me--and from that moment I saw no more.  I
+only felt a great pain in my neck; a cold wind passed over my face, and
+my head seemed to be dangling at the end of a cord: it was that
+wretched Yegof who had hung my head to his saddle and was galloping
+away!"
+
+There was a short pause; and then Jean-Claude, rousing from his stupor,
+replied: "It is a dream.  I also have had dreams.  Yesterday you were
+agitated, Catherine, by all that tumult, that noise."
+
+"No," she exclaimed in a firm tone, taking up her task again: "no, it
+was not that.  And to tell you the truth, during the battle, and even
+when, the cannons were thundering against us, I was not afraid; I was
+certain beforehand that we should not be beaten; I had seen it long
+ago.  But now I am afraid."
+
+"But the Germans have evacuated Schirmeck; the whole line of the Vosges
+is defended.  We have more men than we need; they are coming every
+minute in great numbers."
+
+"No matter."
+
+Hullin shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Come, come! you are feverish, Catherine; try to be calm, and think of
+pleasanter things.  As for all these dreams, you see, I make no more
+account of them than I do of the Grand Turk, with his pipe and blue
+stockings.  The chief thing is to keep a good look-out, and to have
+plenty of ammunition, men, and guns: that is infinitely better than the
+most rose-colored dreams."
+
+"You are mocking me, Jean-Claude."
+
+"No; but to hear a sensible, courageous woman speak as you do, reminds
+one in spite of himself of Yegof, who pretends to have lived sixteen
+hundred years ago."
+
+"Who knows?" said the old woman, in an obstinate tone; "it is possible
+he may remember what others have forgotten."
+
+Hullin was going to relate to her his conversation of the evening
+before at the bivouac-fire with the madman, thus hoping to overthrow
+all her gloomy fancies; but seeing she agreed with Yegof about the
+sixteen hundred years, the worthy man said no more, but resumed his
+walk up and down, with his head bent and an anxious face: "She is mad,"
+thought he; "one more shock and it is all over with her!"
+
+Catherine after a pause was going to speak, when Louise entered like a
+swallow, calling out, in her sweetest voice, "Maman Lefevre, Maman
+Lefevre, a letter from Gaspard!"
+
+Whereupon the old farm-wife, whose hooked nose almost touched her lips,
+so angry was she to see Hullin turning her dream into ridicule, raised
+her head, the long wrinkles in her face relaxing.
+
+She took the letter, looked at the red seal, and said to the young
+girl: "Embrace me, Louise: it is a good letter!"  And Louise at once
+embraced her with joy.
+
+Hullin came close up to them, delighted at this incident; and the
+postman Brainstein, his big boots dyed red with the snow, his two hands
+on his stick, and drooping his shoulders, stationed himself at the door
+with a tired look.
+
+The old dame put on her spectacles, slowly opened the letter under the
+impatient eyes of Jean-Claude and Louise, and read aloud:--
+
+"This, my mother, is to announce to you that all goes well, and that I
+reached Phalsbourg on Tuesday evening just as the gates were being
+closed.  The Cossacks were already on the Saverne road; we had to fire
+all night against their advanced guard.  The following day, an envoy
+was sent demanding the surrender of the place.  The commandant,
+Meunier, told him to go and be hanged; and three days after great
+showers of bombs and shells began to rain upon the town.  The Russians
+have three batteries--one on the side of Hittelbronn, the other at the
+Baraques above, and the third behind the tilery of Pernette near the
+drinking-tank; but the red-hot shot do us the most harm: they burn down
+the houses, and when a fire has broken out the bombs then come in
+quantities and prevent the people from extinguishing it.  The women and
+children do not leave the block-houses; the townsmen remain with us on
+the ramparts: they are fine fellows.  Among them are some old soldiers
+of the Sambre-et-Meuse, Italy, and Egypt, who have not forgotten how to
+manage the guns.  I felt sorry to see the graybeards bending over the
+carronades to take aim.  I will answer for it that there are no balls
+lost with them; but all the same, when one has made the world tremble,
+it is hard to be obliged, in one's old days, to fight for one's home
+and last morsel of bread."
+
+"Yes, it is hard," exclaimed Catherine, drying her eyes.  "Only to
+think of it makes one's heart bleed."
+
+Then she continued:--
+
+"The day before yesterday, the governor decided on our making a sortie
+against the tile-kiln battery.  You must know that these Russians break
+the ice of the tank, and bathe in it, in groups of from twenty to
+thirty; afterward drying themselves in the oven of the brick-kiln.
+Well! about four o'clock, as the day was closing, we went out by the
+Arsenal gateway, ascending the covered way, and filing along the
+Allee-des-Vaches, with our muskets under our arms, and marching at the
+double.  Ten minutes after we commenced a rolling fire on the men that
+were in the tank.  Then their comrades rushed out of the brick-kilns:
+they had only time to put on their cartouche-boxes, seize their
+muskets, and form, all naked as they were, on the snow, like regular
+savages.  Notwithstanding that, the rogues were ten times more numerous
+than we, and they began a movement to the right, in the direction of
+the little chapel of St. John, in order to surround us, when the guns
+from the Arsenal began to send such a storm of shot at them as I never
+saw before; it carried whole files clean off.  A quarter of an hour
+later they retreated in a body to Quatre-Vents, without waiting to pick
+up their breeches--their officers at their head, and the hail from the
+fortress bringing up the rear.  Papa Jean-Claude would have laughed at
+the rout immensely.  At last, toward nightfall, we returned to the
+town, having destroyed one of their batteries and thrown two
+eight-pounders into the well of the kiln.  It was our first sortie.  I
+am now writing to you from the Baraques du Bois-de-Chenes, where we
+have been sent to get provisions for the fortress.  All this may last
+months.  It is said that the allies are reascending the valley of
+Dosenheim as far as Weschem, and that thousands of them are marching on
+Paris.  Oh, if the Emperor once obtained the upper hand in Lorraine and
+Champagne, not one of them would escape!  But who lives will see.  They
+are sounding the retreat on Phalsbourg.  We have collected a pretty
+good number of oxen, cows, and goats about here; but shall have to
+fight in order to get them in safely.  Good-by, my good mother, my
+dearest Louise, and Papa Jean-Claude.  I embrace you as though I held
+you in my arms."
+
+At the close of the letter, Catherine Lefevre was overwhelmed with
+emotion.
+
+"What a brave boy!" said she.  "He only knows his duty.  There! thou
+hearest, Louise?  He embraces thee!"
+
+Louise then throwing herself into her arms, they embraced each other;
+and Catherine, notwithstanding the firmness of her character, could not
+keep back two large tears from trickling down her cheeks; then,
+recovering herself, "Come," said she, "all is well!  Come, Brainstein,
+you must eat some meat and drink a glass of wine.  And here is a
+crown-piece for your journey; I would give you the same sum every day
+of the week for such a letter."
+
+The postman, delighted with his present, followed the old dame.  Louise
+walked after them, and Jean-Claude, also, being eager to interrogate
+Brainstein as to what he had learnt on the road, touching the events
+taking place; but he could get nothing new out of him, except that the
+allies were besieging Bitsche and Lutzelstein, and that they had lost
+some hundreds of men in trying to force the Graufthal pass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SURPRISE
+
+Toward ten o'clock, Catherine Lefevre and Louise, after having wished
+Hullin good-night, went up to sleep in the room over the large kitchen;
+in which there were two feather-beds, with curtains, striped with blue
+and red, reaching to the ceiling.
+
+"Come," exclaimed the old woman, climbing up to hers on a chair--"come,
+sleep well, my child.  As for me, I am tired out, and almost asleep
+already."
+
+She drew the bedclothes round her, and five minutes after was sound
+asleep.  Louise soon followed her example.
+
+Now this had lasted about two hours, when the old dame was awakened
+suddenly by a tremendous noise.
+
+"To arms! to arms!  Ho! this way quick!  A thousand thunders! they are
+upon us!"
+
+Five or six shots then followed each other, lighting up the dark
+windows.
+
+"To arms! to arms!"
+
+Then there was more firing, and the noise of people rushing about
+everywhere.
+
+Hullin's voice, sharp and vibrating, could be heard giving orders.
+
+Then, to the left of the farm, a great way off, there came a low dull
+crackling sound, from the gorges of the Grosmann.
+
+"Louise!  Louise!" cried the old farm-wife,--"dost thou hear?"
+
+"Yes!  Oh, my God! it is terrible."
+
+Catherine sprang out of bed.
+
+"Get up, my child," said she, "and let us dress."
+
+The firing redoubled, and flashed like lightning upon the panes.
+
+"Attention!" shouted Materne.
+
+One could also hear the neighing of a horse outside, and the tramping
+of a great crowd in the alley, the yard, and before the farm: the house
+seemed shaken to its foundations.
+
+Suddenly, the firing came from the windows of the large room on the
+ground-floor.  The two women dressed in haste.  Just at that moment, a
+heavy foot creaked on the stairs; the door opened, and Hullin appeared
+with a lantern, showing signs of great agitation.
+
+"Make haste!" cried he; "we have not an instant to lose."
+
+"What has happened then?" asked Catherine.
+
+The fusillade came nearer.
+
+"Eh!" exclaimed Jean-Claude, throwing up his arms, "have I time now to
+explain to you?"
+
+The old dame understood that the only thing to be done was to obey.
+She put on her hood and descended the staircase with Louise.  By the
+flickering light of the shots, Catherine saw Materne, bare-necked, and
+his son Kasper, firing from the entrance of the alley upon the abatis,
+and ten others behind handing them muskets, so that they had only to
+aim and fire.  All these men, in a throng, loading, shouldering, and
+firing, had a terrible aspect.  Three or four dead bodies lying against
+the old wall added to the horror of the scene.  The smoke was at the
+point of reaching the dwelling.
+
+Coming down the stairs, Hullin cried, "Here they are, thank heaven!"
+And all the brave fellows who were there, looking up, cried out,
+"Courage, Mother Lefevre!"
+
+Whereupon the poor old lady, worn out by her emotions, began to weep
+and lean on Jean-Claude's shoulder; but he lifted her up like a
+feather, and ran along by the wall to the right.  Louise followed,
+sobbing loudly.
+
+Out of doors, one could only hear the whizzing of bullets and the dull
+heavy blows against the wall; the bricks and mortar were tumbling down,
+the tiles rolling about; while in front, near the abatis, and three
+hundred yards off, one could see the white uniforms in line, lit up by
+their own fire in the dark night; and, to their left, on the other side
+of the ravine of Minieres, the mountaineers attacking them in flank.
+
+Hullin disappeared at the corner of the farm,--where all was in
+darkness;--Doctor Lorquin, on horseback in front of a sledge, having a
+large cavalry sword in his hand and two pistols passed through his
+belt, with Frantz Materne and a dozen other armed men, being barely
+distinguishable.  Hullin placed Catherine in the sledge, on some straw,
+and Louise by her side.
+
+"There you are!" exclaimed the doctor.  "It is well for you."
+
+And Frantz Materne added:--"If it were not for you, Mother Lefevre, you
+may well believe that not one of us would quit the plateau this night;
+but there is nothing to be said since you are in the case."
+
+"No," cried the others, "there is nothing to be said!"
+
+Just at that moment, a tall fellow, with legs long as a heron's and a
+round back, came running behind the wall and shouting, "They are
+coming!  Fly! fly!"
+
+Hullin turned pale.
+
+"It is the big knife-grinder of the Harberg!" he exclaimed, grinding
+his teeth.
+
+Frantz without saying a word put his musket to his shoulder, aimed and
+fired; and Louise saw the grinder at thirty yards in the dim light,
+throw up his arms and fall face downward on the ground.  Frantz
+reloaded, smiling grimly.
+
+Hullin then said: "Comrades, here is our mother--she who has given us
+powder and furnished us with food for the defence of our country; and
+here is my child: save them!"
+
+They all replied: "We will save, or die with, them."
+
+"And do not forget to warn Dives to stay at the Falkenstein till
+further orders."
+
+"All right, Jean-Claude."
+
+"Then forward, doctor, forward!" cried the gallant man.
+
+"And you, Hullin?" exclaimed Catherine.
+
+"My place is here; our position must be defended till death!"
+
+"Papa Jean-Claude!" cried Louise, holding out her arms to him.
+
+But he had already turned the corner,--the doctor flicked his horse,
+and the sledge passed quickly along the snow.  Frantz Materne and his
+men, with their muskets on their shoulders, marched behind; while a
+rolling fire of musketry was still kept up around the farm.
+
+That was what Catherine Lefevre and Louise saw in the space of a few
+minutes.  No doubt something strange and terrible had happened in the
+night.  The old farm-mistress, recalling her dream, became very
+thoughtful.  Louise dried her eyes and looked toward the plateau, which
+was lighted up as by a fire.  The horse bounded away under the doctor's
+whip, so that the mountaineers could hardly keep up.  For some distance
+the tumult and clamor of the battle, the explosions, and whizzing of
+the balls among the branches, were distinctly heard; but all this grew
+fainter and fainter, and soon, at the descent of the path, vanished as
+in a dream.
+
+The sledge had reached the opposite side of the mountain, and was
+flying like an arrow through the darkness.  The only sounds which broke
+the silence were the galloping of the horse, the quick breathing of the
+escort, and from time to time the doctor's cry, "Here, Bruno! here
+then!"
+
+A current of cold wind, coming up from the valley of the Sarre, carried
+upon its breeze, like a great sigh, the endless roar of the torrents
+and soughing of the woods.  The moon was peering out from behind a
+cloud, and looking down on the black forests of Blanru, with their tall
+pines loaded with snow.
+
+Ten minutes later the sledge had gained an angle of the woods, and
+Doctor Lorquin, turning round in his saddle, exclaimed,--"Now, Frantz,
+what have we to do?  Here is the way which leads toward the hills of
+St. Quirin, and there is another road which descends to Blanru.  Which
+shall we take?"
+
+Frantz and the men of the escort came up.  As they were then on the
+western slope of the Donon, they began to see again, high in the air,
+on the other side of the hill, the fusillade of the Germans, who were
+advancing by way of the Grosmann.  First they saw the flashes, and then
+heard the rolling echoes in the depths of the valleys.
+
+"The road by the hills of St. Quirin," said Frantz, "is the shortest
+cut to the farm of Bois-de-Chenes; it would save at least
+three-quarters of an hour."
+
+"Yes," rejoined the doctor, "but we should risk being stopped by the
+Germans, who now occupy the defile of the Sarre.  See, they are already
+masters of the heights; they have no doubt sent detachments to the
+Sarre-Rouge in order to turn the Donon."
+
+"Let us take the Blanru road, then," said Frantz; "it is longer, but
+safer."
+
+The sledge passed down the left along the woods.  The partisans, gun in
+hand, advanced one after the other along the top of the bank, while the
+doctor on his horse swept along the snow in the roadway.  Above, the
+great pine-branches met across the road, and enveloped it with their
+deep shadows, while the moon lit up the surrounding scenery.  This road
+was so majestic and picturesque, that, under any other circumstances,
+Catherine would have been astonished at it, and Louise would not have
+failed to admire the garlands of icicles, looking like crystals in the
+pale rays of the moon; but just then they were filled with uneasiness;
+and, moreover, when the sledge entered the gorge, all the brightness
+vanished, and only the summits of the high mountains around remained
+visible.  They had been going in this way for a quarter of an hour,
+when Catherine, having kept silence for some time, at last could
+contain herself no longer, but exclaimed: "Doctor Lorquin, now that you
+have us in the depths of Blanru, and can do with us what you please,
+will you explain to me why we have been dragged away by force?
+Jean-Claude carried me off, and flung me on this heap of straw--and
+here I am!"
+
+"Up, Bruno," cried the doctor.
+
+Then he gravely answered her: "This night, Dame Catherine, a great
+misfortune has overtaken us.  You must not attribute it to Jean-Claude:
+it is by another's fault that we have lost the fruit of all our
+sacrifices!"
+
+"Through whose fault?"
+
+"That unlucky Labarbe's, who did not guard the defile of the Blutfeld.
+He died afterward fulfilling his duty; but that does not repair the
+disaster; and if Piorette does not come up in time to aid Hullin, all
+is lost; it will be necessary to abandon the road and to fight
+retreating."
+
+"What! the Blutfeld is taken?"
+
+"Yes, Mistress Catherine.  Who the deuce could ever have thought that
+the Germans would enter that?  A defile almost impracticable for
+foot-passengers, enclosed by rugged rocks, where the goatherds can
+barely descend with their flocks.  Well, they marched that way, two at
+a time; they turned Roche-Creuse, crushed Labarbe, and then fell upon
+Jerome, who defended himself like a lion till nine in the evening; but,
+at last, he was obliged to take refuge in the pine-woods, and leave the
+pass to the 'kaiserlichs.'  That is the whole story.  It is shocking.
+Indeed, there must be some one among us base and vile enough to have
+guided the enemy, and would deliver us over to him bound hands and
+feet.  Oh, the wretch!" cried Lorquin, furiously.  "I am not
+revengeful, but if he came into my clutches, how I would serve him!
+Up, Bruno! up, then!"
+
+The partisans were marching along the bank like spectres, without
+saying a word.
+
+The old farm-mistress became silent in order to collect her ideas.
+
+"I begin to understand," said she at last.  "We were attacked to-night
+on both sides."
+
+"Exactly so, Catherine.  Fortunately, ten minutes before the attack,
+one of Marc Dives's smugglers, Zimmer, the old dragoon, had come full
+gallop to warn us.  Had it not been for that, we would have been lost.
+He fell in with our vanguard, after having run the gauntlet of a
+detachment of Cossacks on the plateau of Grosmann.  The poor fellow had
+received a terrible sabre-thrust; and his bowels were protruding over
+the saddle--was it not so, Frantz?"
+
+"Yes," replied the hunter, sadly.
+
+"And what did he say?" demanded Catherine.
+
+"He had only time to cry, 'To arms!  We are hemmed in!  Jerome sends
+me.  Labarbe is dead!  The Germans have passed the Blutfeld!'"
+
+"He was a gallant fellow," exclaimed Catherine.
+
+"Yes, a gallant fellow," replied Frantz, with his head bent down.
+
+Then they relapsed into silence, and for some time the sledge swept
+through the winding valley.  Now and then they were obliged to stop,
+the snow was so deep--when three or four mountaineers would take the
+horse by the bridle--and so they continued their way.
+
+"All the same," said Catherine, suddenly rousing up from her reverie,
+"Hullin might have told me."
+
+"But if he had mentioned these two attacks," interrupted the doctor,
+"you would have wanted to remain."
+
+"And who can hinder me from doing what I like?  If it pleased me to get
+out of the sledge this very moment, should I not be free?  I had
+forgiven Jean-Claude, but I am sorry for it!"
+
+"Oh, Maman Lefevre, supposing he is killed while you are saying that!"
+murmured Louise.
+
+"She is right, poor child," thought Catherine; and then quickly added,
+"I said I was sorry for it; but he is such a good man, that one cannot
+be angry with him.  I forgive him with all my heart; in his place I
+should have done the same."
+
+Two or three hundred yards farther on they entered the defile of
+Roches.  The snow had ceased falling, and the moon was shining between
+great white clouds.  The narrow gorge, hemmed in by steep precipices,
+expanded in the distance, its sides covered with tall pines.  Nothing
+disturbed the deep calm of the woods; one could have imagined one's
+self far away from all human agitation.  The silence was so great that
+every step the horse made in the snow could be heard, and even his
+sharp quick breathing.  Frantz Materne halted at times to gaze upon the
+black slopes, and then hurried on to overtake the others.
+
+They crossed valley after valley; the sledge mounted and descended, now
+to the right and then to the left; and the partisans, with their
+bayonets fixed, followed continually.
+
+Toward three in the morning they reached the meadow of Brimbelles,
+where at the present day an old oak can still be seen bending over the
+valley.  To the left, in the midst of the snow-covered, heather, behind
+a low stone wall, stood the old house of the guard Cuny.  Three
+beehives were placed on a bench, a gnarled vine hung down from the roof
+and a small pine-bough was suspended over the door by way of
+sign-board, for Cuny carried on the business of innkeeper in this
+solitary place.
+
+At this spot the road runs close under the meadow wall, and as a large
+cloud obscured the light of the moon, the doctor, fearing to be upset,
+halted beneath the oak.
+
+"We have only one hour's journey more, Mother Lefevre," said he; "take
+courage; there is no hurry."
+
+"Yes," said Frantz; "the heaviest part of the road is over, and the
+horse may breath a while."
+
+The small party collected round the sledge, and the doctor got down.
+Some lit their pipes; but no one spoke: they were all busy thinking of
+the Donon.  What was going on there?  Would Jean-Claude be able to
+defend the plateau till Piorette arrived?  So many dread thoughts and
+dismal reflections passed through the minds of the worthy people, that
+not one seemed able to speak.
+
+They had been standing thus about five minutes, when the black cloud
+passed slowly away, and the pale moonlight lit up the gorge.  Suddenly,
+a dark figure on horseback appeared two hundred paces from them, in the
+path between the pine-trees.  By the light of the moon they quickly
+perceived that it was the figure of a Cossack with his sheepskin cap,
+and bearing a lance under his arm.  He was advancing slowly; Frantz was
+already taking aim, when other Cossacks with their lances appeared
+behind him.  They advanced deliberately in the direction of the sledge,
+like people on the search, some with their heads turned upward, others
+peering into the shrubs from their saddles.  They numbered more than
+thirty.
+
+Imagine the feelings of Louise and Catherine, seated in the middle of
+the road.  They looked on open-mouthed.  In another minute they would
+be surrounded by these bandits.  The mountaineers were stupefied; it
+was impossible to return: they were hemmed in on one side by the meadow
+wall, on the other by the mountain-side.  The old farm-wife seized
+Louise by the hand, and said, in a stifled voice, "Let us escape to the
+woods!"
+
+She sprang from the sledge, leaving her shoe in the straw.
+
+Suddenly one of the Cossacks uttered a guttural cry, which was repeated
+along the whole line.
+
+"We are discovered!" exclaimed the doctor, as he drew his sword.
+
+The words had scarcely escaped his lips when twelve musket-shots lit up
+the path from end to end; a regular savage whoop answered the report of
+the muskets.  The Cossacks made off from the path to the meadow in
+front, gave their horses the reins, bent down in their saddles, and
+flew toward the guard-house like deer.
+
+"Ha! they are off like the devil!" said the doctor.
+
+But the worthy man was too hasty.  Suddenly, when they had gone two or
+three hundred yards along the valley, the Cossacks again wheeled round
+and massed themselves firmly together; then, with their lances in rest,
+and bending over their horses' heads, they rushed straight at the
+partisans, shouting in hoarse voices--"Hourah! hourah!"
+
+It was a terrible moment.
+
+Frantz and the others sprang toward the wall, to protect the sledge.
+
+In another second, the clashing of lances and screams of rage could
+alone be heard, mingled with imprecations.  Under the shadow of the old
+oak, through the straggling moonbeams, could be seen the horses
+prancing with tossing manes, as they endeavored to clear the meadow
+wall; while the barbarian Cossacks, with gleaming eyes and uplifted
+arms, struck furiously with their lances, advancing, retreating, and
+uttering piercing yells.
+
+Louise, deathly pale, and Catherine, with her gray dishevelled hair,
+stood up in the straw.
+
+Doctor Lorquin, in front of them, parried the strokes with his sabre,
+and all the time kept shouting to them--"Lie down! lie down!"  But they
+did not hear him.
+
+Louise, in the midst of the tumult and shouting, thought only of
+sheltering Catherine; and the old dame, in the midst of her terror, had
+recognized Yegof, on a tall, gaunt horse--Yegof, with his tin crown,
+bristling beard, long lance, and dog-skin floating from his shoulders.
+She saw him as distinctly as though it were broad daylight.  He stood
+about ten feet distant, with sparkling eyes, brandishing his blue lance
+in the darkness, and striving to reach her.  What could she do?  Submit
+to her fate!  Thus do the most resolute characters succumb to
+inevitable destiny.  The old dame thought her fate was sealed.  She saw
+all these people tearing like wolves, thrusting and parrying in the
+moonlight.  She saw some fall; and horses running, riderless through
+the fields.  She saw the topmost window of the guard-house thrown open;
+and old Cuny, in his shirt-sleeves, shoulder his gun, though not daring
+to fire into the crowd.  All passed before her eyes with wonderful
+clearness.  "The madman has returned," she said to herself.  "Do what
+they will, he will hang my head to the side of his saddle.  It will end
+as I saw in my dream."
+
+And, indeed, everything seemed to justify her fears: the mountaineers,
+inferior in numbers, were giving way.  The Cossacks had cleared the
+wall, and were already on the footpath.  A well-aimed thrust passed
+through the old dame's back-hair, and she felt the cold iron against
+her neck.
+
+"Oh, the murderers!" she screamed, falling back and clutching fast at
+the reins.
+
+Doctor Lorquin himself had been hurled against the sledge.  Frantz and
+the others, surrounded by twenty Cossacks, could afford them no help.
+Louise felt a hand on her shoulder: it was the hand of the madman,
+seated on his great horse.
+
+At this fearful moment, the poor child, mad with terror, uttered a
+scream of distress; then she saw something gleaming in the darkness: it
+was Lorquin's pistols.  Quick as lightning, tearing them from the
+doctor's belt, she fired them off both at once, singeing Yegof's beard,
+and blowing out the brains of a Cossack who was bending toward her with
+flaming eyes.  She then seized Catherine's whip, and pale as death,
+lashed the horse, who bounded away.  The sledge flew through the
+bushes, swaying from right to left.  Suddenly there was a shock.
+Catherine, Louise, the straw, and all rolled in the snow on the slopes
+of the ravine.  The horse stopped short on its haunches, its mouth full
+of bloody foam.  It had struck against an oak-tree.
+
+Rapid as was the fall, Louise had seen figures passing like the wind
+behind the underwood.  She had heard a powerful voice, that of Dives,
+crying out, "Forward!  Cut them down!"
+
+It was like a vision--one of those confused apparitions which pass
+before the eyes in moments of supreme danger; but, on rising, the young
+girl had no longer any doubts.  Fighting was going on only a few paces
+distant behind the cover of some trees, and the voice of Marc was heard
+shouting, "Go it, my old fellows!  Give them no quarter!"
+
+Then she saw a dozen Cossacks clambering up the hill in front, like
+hares among the heather; below Yegof was crossing the valley in the
+moonlight with the speed of a terrified bird on the wing.  Several
+shots were sent after him, but the madman remained unscathed, and,
+standing upright in his stirrups, with his horse at full gallop, he
+turned, waving his lance with bravado, and shouting "Hourah!"  Two more
+shots whizzed by from the guard-house; a bit of rag fell from his
+loins, but the madman continued his course, crying "Hourah!" in a
+hoarse tone, and toiled up the path which his companions had taken
+before him.
+
+All this passed before Louise like a dream.
+
+Then, turning round, she saw Catherine by her side, stupefied and
+absorbed like herself.  They gazed at each other for a moment, and then
+embraced with an inexpressible feeling of happiness.
+
+"We are saved!" murmured Catherine; and they both wept.  "Thou hast
+behaved bravely.  Jean-Claude, Gaspard, and I have good reason to be
+proud of thee!"
+
+Louise was deeply agitated and trembled all over.  The danger being
+passed, her gentle nature again resumed its sway, and she could not
+understand whence came her courage of a few minutes before.
+
+They were recovering from their fright and about to get into the
+sledge, when they saw five or six partisans with the doctor coming
+toward them.
+
+"Ah! you may cry as much as you like, Louise," said Lorquin; "but, for
+all that, you are a regular dragoon, a real little warrior.  Though you
+now look so gentle, we have all seen you at work.  But where are my
+pistols?"
+
+At that moment the shrubs were pushed aside, and Marc Dives, sword in
+hand, appeared.
+
+"Ah, Mistress Catherine, these are rough adventures for you.  Zounds!
+what luck that I happened to come up.  Those villains were spoiling you
+right and left."
+
+"Yes," replied she, pushing her hair under her cap again; "it was very
+fortunate."
+
+"Very fortunate!  I should think so.  It is only ten minutes since I
+arrived with my wagon at Cuny's.  'Do not go to the Donon,' said he;
+'the sky has been red for an hour in that direction; there is certainly
+fighting going on up there.'  'You think so?'  'Faith! yes.'  'Then
+Joson must go out and reconnoitre a little and we others will drink a
+glass while waiting.'  'Good!'  Hardly had Joson left, when I heard
+shouts as though five hundred devils were let loose.  'What is it,
+Cuny?'  'I don't know.'  We pushed open the door, and saw the fray.
+Ha!" exclaimed the big smuggler, "we did not wait long.  I jumped on my
+brave horse Fox, and dashed forward.  What luck!"
+
+"Ah!" said Catherine, "if we were only sure that our affairs go as well
+on the Donon, we might then rejoice."
+
+"Yes, yes!  Frantz told me about that:--it is the devil--there must
+always be something wrong," replied Marc.  "But--but why stay here with
+our feet in the snow?  Let us hope that Piorette will not allow his
+comrades to be crushed, and let us go and empty our glasses, which we
+left half full."
+
+Four other smugglers then arrived, saying that that rascally Yegof
+would probably come back, with some more brigands like himself.
+
+"Very likely," replied Dives.  "We will return to the Falkenstein,
+since it is Jean-Claude's orders; but we can't bring our wagon with us:
+it would prevent our taking the short cuts; and in an hour all these
+bandits would be down upon us.  Let us go first to Cuny's.  Catherine
+and Louise will not be sorry to drink a little wine; and the others
+too.  It will put their hearts in the right place again.  Up, Bruno!"
+
+He led his horse by the bridle.  Two wounded men had been laid in the
+sledge; two others having been killed, as well as seven or eight
+Cossacks stretched with their boots wide apart in the snow, were
+abandoned, and they went on toward the forester's house.
+
+Frantz was consoling himself for not having been on the Donon: he had
+finished two Cossacks, and the sight of the inn made him feel in a good
+humor.  Before the door stood the small wagon full of cartridges.  Cuny
+came out, saying: "A hearty welcome, Mistress Lefevre.  What a night
+for women!  Be seated!  What is going on up there?"
+
+While they were hastily drinking some wine, everything had to be
+explained over again.  The worthy old man in a blouse and green
+breeches, with his wrinkled face, bald head, and wide-open eyes,
+listened with clasped hands, exclaiming: "Good God!  Good God! in what
+times are we living?  One can no longer follow the high-roads without
+risk of being attacked.  It is worse than the old Swedish tales."  And
+he shook his head.
+
+"Come," said Dives, "time flies.  We must continue our way."
+
+Everybody being ready, the smugglers led the wagon, which contained
+some thousands of cartridges and two small kegs of brandy, about three
+hundred yards off, to the middle of the valley, and then unharnessed
+the horses.
+
+"Go forward!" shouted Marc; "we will rejoin you in a few minutes."
+
+"But what art thou going to do with the cart?" said Frantz.  "Since we
+have no time to take it to the Falkenstein, it had better be left under
+Cuny's shed than in the road."
+
+"Yes, to get the poor old man hanged, when the Cossacks arrive, for
+they will be here in less than an hour.  Do not trouble thyself; I have
+my own idea."
+
+Frantz rejoined the sledge, which went on its way.  In a short time
+they passed by the saw-works of the Marquis and turned sharp to the
+right, to reach the farm of Bois-de-Chenes, whose tall chimneys could
+be perceived three-quarters of a league distant on the plateau.  They
+were on the hill-side when Marc Dives and his men overtook them,
+shouting:
+
+"Halt!  Stop a bit!  Look down there!"
+
+And, looking down into the gorge, they saw the Cossacks capering round
+the wagon--about three hundred of them.
+
+"They are coming!  Let us fly!" cried Louise.
+
+"Wait a bit," said the smuggler.  "We have nothing to fear."
+
+He was still speaking, when an immense sheet of flame sped out from one
+mountain to the other, illuminating the woods, rocks, and the little
+house of the forester fifteen hundred yards below; then there was a
+report so terrible that the earth seemed to tremble.
+
+While those near him gazed in bewilderment and dumb terror at each
+other, Marc's bursts of laughter reached their ears, in spite of the
+din.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" shouted he, "I was sure the rogues would stop round the
+wagon, to drink up my brandy.  I knew the match would have just time to
+reach the powder!"
+
+"Do you think they will pursue us?"
+
+"Their arms and legs are now hanging from the branches of the
+pine-trees!  Come along!  And may heaven grant the same fate to all
+those who have now crossed the Rhine!"
+
+The whole escort, the partisans, the doctor, all had grown silent: so
+many terrible emotions had filled them with endless thoughts such as do
+not fall within the experience of every-day life.  They said to
+themselves: "What are men that they destroy, harass, and ruin each
+other in this manner?  Why do they hate each other so?  And what spirit
+of evil is it that thus excites them?"
+
+But Dives and his men were not at all troubled by these events: they
+galloped along, laughing and boasting.
+
+"For my part," said the big smuggler, "I never saw such a farce before.
+Ha, ha, ha! if I lived a thousand years, I should laugh at it still."
+Then he became more serious, and exclaimed: "All the same, Yegof is the
+cause of this.  One must be blind not to see that it was he who led the
+Germans to the Blutfeld.  I shall be sorry if he has been struck down
+by a piece of my wagon; I have something better in store for him than
+that.  All that I wish is that he may keep in good health till we meet
+somewhere in a lonely corner of the wood.  It is no matter whether it
+be in one year, ten years, twenty years, provided only that we meet.
+The longer it is deferred, the more savage my determination becomes:
+the daintiest morsels are eaten cold, like a boar's head in white wine."
+
+He said this with an air of good-humor, but those who knew him
+perceived beneath it a serious danger for Yegof.
+
+Half an hour later, they all reached the plateau on which the farm of
+Bois-de-Chenes was situated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+"ALL IS LOST"
+
+Jerome of St. Quirin had managed to make good his retreat to the farm,
+and since midnight he had occupied the plateau.
+
+"Who goes there?" cried his sentinels as the escort approached.
+
+"It is we, from the village of Charmes," shouted Marc, in his
+stentorian voice.
+
+The sentinels approached to examine them, and then they passed on their
+way.
+
+The farm was silent; a sentry, his musket over his arm, was pacing
+before the granary, where about thirty partisans were asleep upon the
+straw.  At the sight of these great dark roofs, the stables and
+outhouses belonging to the old building where she had spent her youth,
+where her father and grandfather had led their tranquil laborious lives
+in peace, and which she was now about to abandon, perhaps forever,
+Catherine felt a terrible wrenching at her heart; but no word escaped
+her.  Springing from the sledge, as in other days when she returned
+from marketing, she said: "Come, Louise, here we are at home, thank
+God."
+
+Old Duchene pushed open the door, exclaiming: "Is that you, Madame
+Lefevre?"
+
+"Yes, it is I.  Any news from Jean-Claude?"
+
+"No, Madame."
+
+They entered the large kitchen.  Some cinders were still smouldering on
+the hearth, and in the dark, under the broad chimney, was sitting
+Jerome of St. Quirin, with his big horsehair hood, his great stick
+between his knees, and his carbine leaning against the wall.
+
+"Good-day, Jerome," said the old farm-wife.
+
+"Good-day, Catherine," replied the grave chief of the Grosmann.  "Have
+you come from the Donon?"
+
+"Yes: things are going badly, my poor Jerome.  The 'kaiserlichs' were
+attacking the farm when we left the plateau.  Nothing but white
+uniforms was to be seen on every side.  They were already beginning to
+cross the breastworks."
+
+"Then you think Hullin will be compelled to abandon the road?"
+
+"Possibly, if Piorette does not come to his assistance."
+
+The partisans had approached near the fire.  Marc Dives bent over the
+cinders to light his pipe; on rising, he exclaimed: "I ask thee one
+thing only, Jerome; I know beforehand that they fought well under thy
+command----"
+
+"We have done our duty," replied the shoemaker.  "There are sixty men
+stretched on the slopes of the Grosmann who will tell you so at the
+last day."
+
+"Yes; but who, then, guided the Germans?  They could not have
+discovered the pass of the Blutfeld by themselves."
+
+"Yegof the madman--Yegof," said Jerome, whose gray eyes, encircled by
+deep wrinkles and thick white eyebrows, seemed to sparkle in the
+darkness.
+
+"Ah! art thou certain of it?"
+
+"Labarbe's men saw him climbing up; he led the others."
+
+The partisans looked at each other with indignation.
+
+At this moment Doctor Lorquin, who had remained outside to unharness
+the horse, opened the door, shouting: "The battle is lost!  Here are
+our men from the Donon.  I have just heard Lagarmitte's horn."
+
+It is easy to imagine the emotion of the recipients of these tidings.
+Each thought of the relations and friends that he might never see
+again; and from the kitchen and the granary everybody at once rushed on
+to the "plateau."  At the same time Robin and Dubourg, posted as
+sentinels above Bois-de-Chenes, cried out, "Who goes there?"
+
+"France!" replied a voice.
+
+Notwithstanding the distance, Louise, fancying she could recognize her
+father's voice, was seized with such a fit of trembling that Catherine
+was compelled to support her.
+
+Just then the noise of many footsteps resounded over the hardened snow,
+and Louise, unable to contain herself any longer, exclaimed, "Papa
+Jean-Claude!"
+
+"I am coming," replied Hullin, "I am coming."
+
+"My father?" exclaimed Frantz Materne, rushing to meet Jean-Claude.
+
+"He is with us, Frantz."
+
+"And Kasper?"
+
+"He has received a slight scratch, but it is nothing.  Thou wilt see
+them both again."
+
+Catherine threw herself into Jean-Claude's arms.
+
+"Oh, Jean-Claude, what joy to behold you once more!"
+
+"Yes," replied the worthy man, in a suppressed voice, "there are many
+who will never see their friends again."
+
+"Frantz," said old Materne, "here, this way!"
+
+And one could only see, on all sides, people seeking each other in the
+dim light, squeezing hands, and embracing.  Some called for, "Niclau!
+Sapheri!" but many did not answer to their names.
+
+Then the voices became hoarse, as though stifled, and relapsed into
+silence.  The joy of some, and the consternation of others, produced a
+terrible sensation.  Louise was in Hullin's arms, sobbing bitterly.
+
+"Ah, Jean-Claude," said Mother Lefevre, "you will hear strange things
+about that child.  I will say no more now, but we have been
+attacked----"
+
+"Yes, we will talk of that later; our time is short," said Hullin.
+"The road to the Donon is lost, the Cossacks may be here at daylight,
+and we have many things to arrange."
+
+He turned the corner and entered the farm, all following him.  Duchene
+had just thrown a fagot on the fire.  All these people, with faces
+blackened by powder, still animated by the combat, their clothes torn
+by bayonet-thrusts, some blood-stained, advancing from the darkness
+into the light, presented a strange spectacle.  Kasper, whose forehead
+was bandaged with his handkerchief, had received a sabre-cut; his
+bayonet, buff facings, and high blue gaiters, were stained with blood.
+Old Materne, thanks to his imperturbable presence of mind, returned
+safe and sound from the fray.  The remains of Jerome's and Hullin's
+troops were thus once more united.  They wore the same wild
+physiognomies, animated by the same energy and desire for vengeance.
+But Hullin's men, harassed by fatigue, sat down right and left, on the
+fagots, on the stone sink, on the low pavement of the hearth--their
+heads in their hands and elbows on their knees; while Jerome's, who
+could not be convinced of the disappearance of Hans, Joson, and Daniel,
+looked about everywhere, exchanging questions, broken by long pauses.
+Materne's two sons held each other by the arm, as though afraid of
+losing one another, and their father, behind them, leaning against the
+wall, with his elbow on his gun, watched them with an expression of
+satisfaction.
+
+"There they are, I see them," he seemed to say: "two famous fellows!
+They have saved their skins, both of them."  If any one came to ask him
+about Pierre, Jacques, or Nicolas, his son or his brother, he would
+reply hap-hazard--"Yes, yes, there are several lying down there on
+their backs.  What can you expect?  It is war!  Your Nicolas has done
+his duty.  You must console yourself."  Meanwhile he thought--"Mine are
+out of the scrimmage; that is the chief thing."
+
+Catherine and Louise were busy preparing supper.  Duchene came up from
+the cellar with a barrel of wine on his shoulder.  He set it down, and
+knocked out the bung; and each partisan presented his flask or cup to
+be filled with the purple liquid which glittered in the firelight.
+
+"Eat and drink," said the old dame to them: "all is not lost yet; you
+will have need of your strength again.  Here, Frantz, unhook those hams
+for me.  Here is bread and knives.  Sit down, my children."
+
+Frantz reached down the hams in the chimney with his bayonet.
+
+The benches were brought forward; they sat down, and notwithstanding
+their sorrows, they ate with that vigorous appetite which neither
+present griefs nor thoughts for the future can make a mountaineer
+forget.  But it did not prevent a bitter sadness from filling the
+hearts of these brave men; and first one and then another would stop
+suddenly, letting fall his fork, and leave the table, saying--"I have
+had enough!"
+
+While the partisans were thus engaged in recruiting their strength, the
+chiefs were assembled in the next room to make some last resolutions
+for the defence.  They sat round the table, on which was placed a tin
+lamp: Doctor Lorquin, with his dog Pluto, looking inquiringly into his
+master's face; Jerome, in the corner of the window to the right; Hullin
+to the left, very pale; Marc Dives, his elbow on the table and cheek in
+his hand, and his back turned to the door, showed only his brown
+profile and the tip of his long mustache.  Materne alone remained
+standing, leaning, as was his custom, against the wall behind Lorquin's
+chair, with his carbine at his feet.  The noise of the men in the
+kitchen could be distinctly heard.
+
+When Catherine, summoned by Jean-Claude, entered the room, she heard a
+sort of groan which made her shudder.  It was Hullin who was speaking.
+
+"All these brave lads--all these fathers of families, who fell one
+after the other," he cried, in a heartrending voice, "do you think I
+did not feel it?  Do you think that I would not rather a thousand times
+have been killed myself?  You do not know what I have suffered this
+night!  To lose one's life is nothing; but to bear alone the weight of
+such a responsibility----"
+
+He paused: his trembling lips, the tear which trickled slowly down his
+cheek, his attitude, all showed the scruples of the worthy man, in face
+of one of those situations where conscience itself hesitates and seeks
+further support.  Catherine went and sat down quietly in the big
+arm-chair.  A few seconds later Hullin continued in a calmer
+tone:--"Between eleven o'clock and midnight, Zimmer came up, shouting,
+'We are turned!  The Germans are coming down the Grosmann!  Labarbe is
+crushed!  Jerome can hold out no longer!'  What was to be done!  Could
+I beat a retreat?  Could I abandon a position which had cost us so much
+blood--the road to the Donon, the road to Paris?  If I had done so,
+should I not have been a coward?  But I had only three hundred men
+against four thousand at Grandfontaine, and I know not how many
+descending from the mountain!  Well, I decided at any cost to hold it;
+it was our duty.  I said to myself, 'Life is nothing without honor!  We
+will all die; but they shall not say that we have yielded the high-road
+to France.  No, no; they shall not say that.'"
+
+At this moment Hullin's voice faltered, and his eyes filled with tears,
+as he continued--"We held out; my brave children held out till two
+o'clock.  I saw them fall: they fell shouting, 'Vive la France!'  I had
+warned Piorette in the beginning of the action.  He came up quickly,
+with fifty stout men.  It was too late.  The enemy poured in on every
+side; they held three parts of the plain, and forced us back among the
+pine-forests on the Blanru side; their fire burst upon us.  All I could
+do was to assemble my wounded, those who could still drag along, and
+put them under Piorette's escort; a hundred of my men joined him.  For
+myself, I only kept fifty to occupy the Falkenstein.  We had to pass
+right through the Germans, who wanted to cut off our retreat.  Happily,
+the night was dark; had it not been for that, not one of us would have
+escaped.  That is how we are situated.  All is lost!  The Falkenstein
+alone remains ours, and we are reduced to three hundred men.  Now the
+question is, shall we go on to the end?  I have already told you that I
+dread to bear alone such a responsibility.  So long as it concerned
+defending the road to the Donon, there was no doubt about it: every man
+belongs to his country.  But this road is lost.  We should need ten
+thousand men to retake it; and at this very moment the enemy is
+entering Lorraine.  Come, what is to be done?"
+
+"We must go on to the end," said Jerome.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried the others.
+
+"Is that your opinion, Catherine?"
+
+"Certainly," exclaimed the old dame, whose features expressed an
+inflexible tenacity.
+
+Then Hullin, in a firmer tone, explained his plan:--"The Falkenstein is
+our point of retreat.  It is our arsenal; it is there that we have our
+ammunition; the enemy knows it; he will attempt an attack on that side,
+therefore all of us here present must make an effort to defend it, so
+that the whole country may see us and say, 'Catherine Lefevre, Jerome,
+Materne and his boys, Hullin, and Doctor Lorquin are there.  They will
+not lay down their arms.'  This idea will give fresh courage to all
+manly hearts.  Besides, Piorette will remain in the woods; his troops
+will grow more numerous day by day: the country will be filled with
+Cossacks and marauders of every description; when the enemy's army
+shall have entered Lorraine I will signal to Piorette; he will throw
+himself between the Donon and the highway, so that all the laggers
+behind scattered over the mountains will be caught as in a trap.  We
+shall also be able to profit by favorable chances to carry off the
+convoys of the Germans, to harass their reserves, and, if fortune aids
+us, as we must hope it will, and all these 'kaiserlichs' are beaten in
+Lorraine by our army, then we can cut off their retreat."
+
+Everybody got up, and Hullin going into the kitchen, pronounced this
+simple address to the mountaineers:--"My friends, we have decided that
+we must push our resistance to the end.  Nevertheless, every one is
+free to do as he likes; to lay down his arms and return to his village;
+but let those who wish to revenge themselves join us; they will share
+our last morsel of bread and our last cartridge."
+
+Colon, the old wood-floater, arose and said, "Hullin, we are all with
+thee; we began to fight together, and so will we finish."
+
+"Yes, yes!" they all shouted.
+
+"Have you all decided?  Well, listen.  Jerome's brother will take the
+command."
+
+"My brother is dead," interrupted Jerome; "he lies on the slopes of the
+Grosmann."
+
+There was a moment's pause; then in a loud voice Hullin continued:
+"Colon, thou wilt take the command of all those that remain, with the
+exception of the men who formed Catherine Lefevre's escort, and whom I
+shall keep with me.  Thou wilt go and rejoin Piorette in the valley of
+Blanru, passing by the 'Two Rivers.'"
+
+"And the ammunition?" said Marc Dives.
+
+"I have brought up my wagon-load," said Jerome; "Colon can use it."
+
+"Let the dray be loaded," said Catherine; "the Cossacks are coming, and
+will pillage everything.  Our men must not leave empty-handed; let them
+take away the cows, oxen, and calves--everything: it will be so much
+gained on the enemy."
+
+Five minutes later the farm was being ransacked; the dray was loaded
+with hams, smoked meats, and bread; the cattle were led out of the
+stables, the horses harnessed to the great wagon, and soon the convoy
+began its march, Robin at the head, blowing on his horn, with the
+partisans behind pushing at the wheels.  When it had disappeared in the
+road, and silence had succeeded to all the noise, Catherine turning
+round, beheld Hullin behind her.
+
+"Well, Catherine," said he, "all is finished!  We are now going to make
+our way up there."
+
+Frantz, Kasper, and those of the escort, with Marc Dives and Materne,
+all armed, were waiting in the kitchen.
+
+"Duchene," said the good woman, "go down to the village; you must not
+be ill-treated by the enemy on my account."
+
+The old servant shook his white head, and, with his eyes full of tears,
+replied:--"I may as well die here, Madame Lefevre.  It is nearly fifty
+years since I came to the farm.  Do not make me leave; it would be the
+death of me."
+
+"Do as you like, my poor Duchene," replied Catherine, softly; "here are
+the keys of the house."
+
+And the poor old man sat down in the chimney-corner, on a settee, with
+fixed eyes and half-open mouth, as though lost in some painful reverie.
+
+Then began the journey to the Falkenstein.  Marc Dives, on horseback,
+sword in hand, formed the rear-guard.  Frantz and Hullin watched the
+plateau to the left; Kasper and Jerome the valley to the right: Materne
+and the men of the escort surrounded the women.  It was a singular
+sight.  Before the cottages of the village of Charmes, on the
+door-steps, at the windows and loopholes, appeared the faces of young
+and old, looking at the flight of Mother Lefevre; nor did their evil
+tongues spare her:--"Ah! they are turned out at last," cried some;
+"another time, do not meddle with what does not concern you."
+
+Others reflected with a loud voice, that Catherine had been rich long
+enough, and that every one should have his turn at poverty.  As for the
+industry, wisdom, kind-heartedness, and all the virtues of the old
+farm-wife, or Jean-Claude's patriotism, or the courage of Jerome and
+the three Maternes, the disinterested motives of Doctor Lorquin or Marc
+Dives's self-sacrifice, nobody ever mentioned them; for were they not
+vanquished?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ON THE FALKENSTEIN
+
+At the end of the valley of Bouleaux, two gun-shots from the village of
+Charmes, to the left, the little troop began slowly to ascend the path
+to the old "burg."  Hullin, remembering how he had taken the same road
+when he went to buy powder of Marc Dives, could not help feeling very
+sad.  Then, notwithstanding his journey to Phalsbourg, the spectacle of
+the wounded from Leipzig and Hanau, and the account given by the old
+sergeant, he did not despair or doubt of the success of the defence.
+Now all was lost; the enemy were descending into Lorraine, and the
+mountaineers were retreating.  Marc Dives rode by the side of the wall
+in the snow; his horse, apparently accustomed to this journey, neighed
+loudly.  The smuggler turned from time to time to look back on the
+plateau of Bois-de-Chenes.  Suddenly he exclaimed, "Look! here come the
+Cossacks!"
+
+They all halted to look.  They were already high up on the mountain,
+above the village and farm of Bois-de-Chenes.  The morning mists were
+giving way to the gray light of the winter's day, and, on the hill-side
+could be distinguished the forms of several Cossacks, with their heads
+raised, and pistols pointed, stealthily approaching the old farm-house.
+They were scattered after the manner of sharpshooters, as if they
+feared a surprise.  A few minutes later more appeared, ascending the
+valley of Houx, then still more, all in the same attitude, upright in
+their stirrups, in order to see as far as possible.  The first, having
+passed by the farm and observing nothing threatening, waved their
+lances and returned half way back.  Whereupon the others galloped up at
+full speed like a flock of crows when they have sighted their prey.  In
+a few minutes the farm was surrounded and the door opened.  In another
+moment the windows were smashed, and the furniture, mattresses, and
+linen, thrown outside.  Catherine calmly looked on at the pillage.  She
+said nothing for some time; but, on seeing Yegof, whom she had not
+perceived before, strike Duchene with the butt-end of his lance, and
+push him out of the farm, she could not restrain a cry of indignation.
+
+"The wretch!  Could any one be cowardly enough to strike a poor old man
+unable to defend himself.  Ah! brigand, if I only held thee!"
+
+"Come along, Catherine," said Jean-Claude; "that's enough; what is the
+use of gazing at such a spectacle any longer?"
+
+"You are right," said the old mistress; "let us go on, or I shall be
+tempted to go back and revenge myself."
+
+On approaching the red rocks, incrusted with large white and black
+pebbles, overhanging the precipice like the arches of an immense
+cathedral, Louise and Catherine stopped in ecstasy.  The magnificent
+view of the streams of Lorraine, and the blue ribbon of the Rhine to
+their right, with the distant woods and valleys, filled them with joy,
+and the old dame said piously, "Jean-Claude, He who created these
+rocks, and formed these valleys, forests, heaths, and mosses, He will
+render to us the justice we merit."
+
+As they were gazing thus on the rugged precipices, Marc led his horse
+into a cavern close by, and, returning, began to climb up before them,
+saying, "Take care, or you may slip!"
+
+At the same time he pointed to the blue precipice on their right, with
+pine-trees at the bottom.  Everybody then relapsed into silence till
+the terrace was reached, where the arch commenced.  There they breathed
+more freely.  In the middle of the passage were the smugglers Brenn,
+Pfeifer, and Joubac, with their long gray mantles and black hats,
+sitting round a fire.  Marc Dives said to them, "Here we are!  The
+'kaiserlichs' are masters.  Zimmer was killed last night.  Is
+Hexe-Baizel up there?"
+
+"Yes," replied Brenn; "she is making cartridges."
+
+"They may be of use," said Marc.  "Keep your eyes open, and if any come
+up fire on them."
+
+The Maternes halted at the corner of the rock; and these three sturdy
+men, with their powerful muscular limbs, their hats pushed back, and
+carbines on their shoulders, offered a curious spectacle in the blue
+mists of the abyss.  Old Materne was pointing with outstretched hand to
+a small white speck in the distance, almost hidden in the midst of the
+pines.  "Do you recognize that, my boys?" said he; and they all three
+peered through their half-closed eyes.
+
+"It is our house," replied Kasper.
+
+"Poor Margredel!" rejoined the old hunter, after a short pause; "how
+uneasy she must have been these last eight days?  What prayers does she
+not offer up for us to Saint-Odile?"
+
+At that moment Marc Dives, who was walking on in front, uttered an
+exclamation of surprise.
+
+"Mother Lefevre," said he, stopping short, "the Cossacks are burning
+your farm."
+
+Catherine received the tidings very calmly, and advanced to the edge of
+the terrace, Louise and Jean-Claude following.  At the bottom of the
+abyss was a great white cloud, through which could be seen a bright
+spark, as it were, on the side of Bois-de-Chenes--that was all; but at
+intervals, when the wind blew strong, the flames shot up, the two high
+black gables, the hay-loft, the small stables burned brightly, then all
+disappeared once more.
+
+"It is nearly finished," said Hullin, in a low voice.
+
+"Yes," replied Catherine; "there are the labor and trouble of forty
+years vanishing in smoke; but they cannot burn my good land, nor the
+great meadow of Eichmath.  We will begin our work over again.  Gaspard
+and Louise will repair it all.  I regret nothing I have done."
+
+A quarter of an hour later thousands of sparks arose, and the building
+crumbled to the ground.  The black gables alone remained standing.
+They continued to ascend the path.  As they were ascending the higher
+terrace, they heard the sharp voice of Hexe-Baizel.
+
+"Is it thou, Catherine?" she cried.  "Ah, I never thought thou wouldst
+have come to see me in my wretched hole."
+
+Baizel and Catherine Lefevre had been at school together in former
+days, therefore they used the third person when speaking.
+
+"Nor I neither," replied the old farm-mistress.  "All the same,
+Baizel--one is glad to find in misfortune an old companion of one's
+childhood."
+
+Baizel seemed touched by her words.
+
+"All that is here, Catherine, is thine," she exclaimed; "everything!"
+
+She pointed to her miserable stool, the furze broom, and the five or
+six fagots on the hearth.  Catherine looked on a few moments in
+silence, and then said: "It is not grand, but it is solid; at least,
+they will not be able to burn down thy house."
+
+"No, they will not burn it," said Hexe-Baizel, laughing; "they would
+need all the wood of the province of Dabo even to warm it a little.
+Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+After so many fatigues, the partisans stood in need of repose.  They
+all placed their guns against the wall, and lay down on the ground to
+sleep, Marc Dives having opened the second cavern to them, where they
+at least were sheltered.  Marc then went out with Hullin to examine
+their position.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MARC DIVES'S MISSION
+
+On the rock of the Falkenstein, high up in the clouds, stands a tower,
+somewhat sunken at its base.  This tower, overgrown with brambles,
+hawthorn, and bilberries, is as old as the mountain; neither the
+French, Germans, nor Swedes have destroyed it.  The stone and cement
+are so solidly combined that not even a fragment can be detached from
+it.  It looks gloomy and mysterious, carrying one back to ancient
+times, beyond the memory of man.
+
+At that time of the year when the wild-geese migrated in flocks, Marc
+Dives, when he had nothing better to do, used to await them hidden in
+the tower, and sometimes at nightfall, when the flocks came through the
+fogs flying in large circles before resting, he would bring down two or
+three, much to the satisfaction of Hexe-Baizel, who was always very
+willing to put them on a spit.  Often, too, in the autumn, Marc laid
+traps in the bushes, where he caught thrushes.  The old tower also
+served him as a wood-house.
+
+Dives, perceiving that his wood, covered with snow and soaked by rain,
+gave more smoke than light, had covered in the old tower with a roof of
+planks.  With reference to this occasion, the smuggler related a
+curious story.  He pretended that, on laying the rafters, he had
+discovered, at the bottom of a fissure, a snow-white owl, blind and
+feeble: but supplied with quantities of bats and field-mice.  He
+therefore called it the "grandmother of the country," as he supposed
+that all the birds came to feed it on account of its extreme old age.
+
+Toward the close of the day, the partisans posted round the rock saw
+the white uniforms appearing in the neighboring gorges.  They poured in
+on all sides in large numbers, thereby clearly showing their
+determination to blockade the Falkenstein.  Perceiving this, Marc Dives
+became more thoughtful.  "If they surround us," said he, "we shall not
+be able to procure food, and shall have to surrender or die of hunger."
+
+The enemy's staff on horseback could be clearly distinguished, halting
+round the fountain of the village of Charmes.  There also stood a tall
+chief with a large paunch, who was contemplating the rock through a
+telescope.  Behind him was Yegof, whom from time to time he turned
+round to question.  The women and children formed a circle beyond them,
+apparently highly delighted, and five or six Cossacks pranced about.
+The smuggler could not contain himself any longer, and, taking Hullin
+aside, "Look," said he, "at that long line of shakos gliding along the
+Sarre, and at the others who are scaling the valley on this side like
+hares; they are 'kaiserlichs,' aren't they?  Well, what are they going
+to do, Jean-Claude?"
+
+"They are going to surround the mountain, that is clear.  How many are
+there, dost thou think?"
+
+"From three to four thousand men, without counting those who are
+walking over the country.  Well, what can Piorette do against this pack
+of vagabonds with three hundred men?  I ask thee frankly, Hullin."
+
+"He can do nothing," replied the worthy man, simply.  "The Germans know
+that our ammunition is on the Falkenstein; they dread an insurrection
+after they enter Lorraine, and wish to insure their rear.  The enemy's
+general knows that we cannot be taken by mere force, he is deciding to
+reduce us by hunger.  All that is true, Marc; but we are men: we will
+do our duty--we will die here!"
+
+There was a short silence; Marc Dives frowned, and did not seem at all
+convinced.
+
+"We will die!" he replied, scratching his head.  "I do not see why we
+should die at all; it is not our intention to die: too many people
+would be gratified by it."
+
+"What wouldst thou do?" said Hullin, dryly.  "Wouldst thou surrender?"
+
+"Surrender!" exclaimed the smuggler.  "Dost thou take me for a coward?"
+
+"Then explain thyself."
+
+"This evening I start for Phalsbourg.  I risk my skin in crossing the
+enemy's lines; but I like that better than folding my arms here, and
+perishing with hunger.  I will enter the town on the first 'sortie,' or
+I will endeavor to climb one of the gates.  The commandant, Meunier,
+knows me.  I have sold him tobacco for three years.  Like thyself, he
+has gone through the campaigns of Italy and Egypt.  Well, I will
+explain everything to him.  I shall see Gaspard Lefevre.  I will so
+arrange that they will give us, perhaps, a company.  Dost thou see,
+Jean-Claude, that the uniform alone would save us?  All the brave men
+who remain will join Piorette; and in any case we shall be delivered,
+That is my idea.  What dost thou think of it?"
+
+He looked at Hullin, whose gloomy, fixed expression made him uneasy.
+
+"Dost thou not think that a chance?"
+
+"It is an idea," said Jean-Claude at last.  "I do not oppose it."  And,
+looking full in the smuggler's face, "Swear to me to do thy best to
+enter the town."
+
+"I will swear nothing," replied Marc, whose brown cheeks were covered
+with a flush.  "I leave all my possessions here, my wife, my comrades,
+Catherine Lefevre, and thee, my oldest friend!  If I do not return, I
+shall be a traitor; but if I return, Jean-Claude, thou shalt explain
+what thou meanest by thy demand: we will settle this little affair
+between us."
+
+"Marc," said Hullin, "forgive me!  I have suffered much these last
+days.  I was wrong.  Misfortune makes one distrustful.  Give me thy
+hand.  Go!  Save us, save Catherine, save my child!  I say so now: our
+only resource is in thee."
+
+Hullin's voice faltered.  Dives relented; but he rejoined: "All the
+same, Hullin, thou shouldst not have said that to me at such a time.
+Never let us speak of it again.  I will leave my skin on the way, or
+return to deliver you.  This evening, when darkness sets in, I will
+leave.  The 'kaiserlichs' surround the mountain already; but no matter,
+I have a good horse, and, besides, I have always been lucky."
+
+By six o'clock the highest peaks were hid in darkness.  Hundreds of
+fires, sparkling in the depths of the gorges, announced that the
+Germans were preparing their repasts.
+
+Marc Dives felt his way down the narrow path.  Hullin listened for a
+few seconds to the retreating steps of his comrade, then walked
+anxiously toward the old tower, where their head-quarters were
+established.  He lifted the thick woollen covering which closed the
+owl's-nest, and perceived Catherine, Louise, and the others crouching
+round a small fire.  The old farm-mistress sat on an oak log, her hands
+clasped round her knees, watching the flames fixedly, with compressed
+lips.  Louise leant dreamily against the wall.  Jerome stood behind
+Catherine, his hands crossed on his stick, his otter-skin cap touching
+the mouldy roof.  All were sad and discouraged.  Hexe-Baizel, who was
+lifting the lid of a kettle, and Doctor Lorquin, who was scratching the
+softer parts of the old wall with the point of his sabre, alone
+preserved their usual expression.
+
+"Here we are," said the doctor, "returned to the days of the Triboques.
+These walls are more than two thousand years old.  A great deal of
+water must have flowed from the heights of the Falkenstein and Grosmann
+to the Sarre and Rhine since a fire was last kindled in this tower."
+
+"Yes," replied Catherine, as though awaking from a dream; "and many
+besides ourselves have suffered cold, hunger, and misery here.  Who
+knew of it?  No one.  And one, or two, or three hundred years hence,
+others, perhaps, will again come for shelter to this place.  They will
+find, as we have, the wall cold, and the earth damp; they will make a
+fire; they will look as we look; and they will say, like us, 'Who
+suffered here before ourselves?  Why did they suffer?  They must have
+been pursued and hunted, like ourselves, to be obliged to come and hide
+in this wretched hole.'  And they will think of past times; and no one
+will reply."
+
+Jean-Claude came up to them.  The old dame, raising her head, and
+looking at him, said, "Well! we are blockaded; the enemy wants to
+subdue us by famine."
+
+"True, Catherine," replied Hullin; "but I did not expect that.  I felt
+certain of a sudden attack; but the 'kaiserlichs' have not gained all
+yet.  Dives has just left for Phalsbourg.  He knows the commandant of
+the place; and if they will only send a few hundred men to our help----"
+
+"Do not count on that," interrupted the old woman.  "Marc may be taken
+or killed by the Germans: and, if not, and suppose he manages to cross
+their lines, how will he be able to enter Phalsbourg?  You well know
+that the town is besieged by the Russians."
+
+Then everybody relapsed into silence.  Hexe-Baizel brought up the soup,
+and they sat in a circle round the smoking bowl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A FLAG OF TRUCE
+
+Catherine Lefevre came out of the ancient ruin about seven in the
+morning; Louise and Hexe-Baizel were still asleep; but broad daylight,
+the clear light of the high regions, was already penetrating the
+abysses.  In the depths, through the azure, the woods, valleys, and
+rocks could be clearly traced, like the mosses and pebbles of a lake
+beneath the blue crystal water.  Not a breath disturbed the air; and
+Catherine, gazing over this grand spectacle, felt a calmness and
+tranquillity beyond even that which comes of sleep.  "What are our
+miseries of a day," thought she, "our uneasinesses and our sufferings?
+Why pester heaven with our moans? why fear the future?  All this lasts
+but a second; our sighs are of no more avail than the chirp of the
+grasshopper in autumn; and do its cries prevent winter from coming?
+Must not time pursue its course, and everything die to be renewed?"
+
+Thus thought the old dame, and she had no longer any fears for the
+future.  She had been thus musing for a few instants, when suddenly a
+hum of voices struck her ears: she turned, and saw Hullin with the
+three smugglers, talking seriously together on the other side of the
+plateau.  They were engaged in a grave discussion, and had not noticed
+her.  Catherine approached closer to them, and heard the following
+conversation:--
+
+"Then you do not think it possible for any one to get down either side?"
+
+"No, Jean-Claude, it is quite impossible," replied Brenn; "those
+brigands know the country thoroughly well: all the paths are guarded.
+Hold, look along the paths of that stream: we never dreamt of observing
+it even; well! they are defending that now.  And over there, on the
+passage of the Rothstein, a path only for a goat, which is not trodden
+once in ten years--thou canst see a bayonet sparkle behind the rock,
+canst thou not?  And that nearer path along which I have slipped with
+my bags for these eight years past without meeting a single gendarme,
+they occupy that also: the devil certainly must have showed them all
+the defiles."
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Joubac, "if the devil has nothing to do with it, at
+least Yegof has!"
+
+"But," continued Hullin, "it seems to me that three or four men might,
+if they liked, push through one of those posts."
+
+"No, those posts lean one on the other; at the first shot one would
+have a whole regiment upon one's shoulders," replied Brenn.  "Besides,
+supposing one had the luck to get through, how could one return with
+provisions?  My opinion is, that it is impossible."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"After that," said Joubac, "if Hullin likes we will try all the same."
+
+"We will try what?" said Brenn.  "To break our legs in escaping
+ourselves, and leave the others in the trap.  I don't mind; if any
+others go, I will too.  But as for pretending to return with
+provisions, it is impossible.  Come, Joubac, by which way art thou
+going, and by which way wilt thou return?  If thou knowest of a
+passage, tell me.  For twenty years I have scoured the mountain with
+Marc.  I know all the paths and roads ten leagues round, and I see no
+other way but through the sky!"
+
+Hullin turned round at that moment and saw Mother Lefevre, close
+behind, listening attentively.
+
+"What! were you there, Catherine?" said he.  "Our affairs are taking a
+bad turn."
+
+"Yes, I heard; there is no means of renewing our provisions."
+
+"Our provisions!" said Brenn with a queer laugh.  "Are you aware,
+Mother Lefevre, for how long we have them?"
+
+"Why, for a fortnight," replied the old dame.
+
+"For a week," said the smuggler, shaking out the ashes from his pipe.
+
+"It is true," said Hullin, "Marc Dives and myself thought they would
+attack the Falkenstein; we never imagined the enemy would blockade it
+like a fortress.  We have been deceived!"
+
+"And what is to be done?" said Catherine, turning pale.
+
+"We are going to put everybody on half rations.  If, in a fortnight,
+Marc does not return we shall have nothing left--then we shall see."
+
+So saying, Hullin, Catherine, and the smugglers, with bowed heads, took
+the path to the breach again.  As they were coming down the slope,
+thirty feet below them they perceived Materne.  He was climbing
+breathlessly among the ruins, and clutched hold of the bushes to help
+him along faster.
+
+"Well," shouted Jean-Claude to him; "what is the matter, old fellow?"
+
+"Ah! there thou art.  I was coming to find thee; one of the enemy's
+officers has come forward on the wall of the old 'burg' with a little
+white flag; he looks as though he had something to say to us."
+
+Hullin advanced immediately to the edge of the rock, and saw a German
+officer standing on the wall, and awaiting a signal to mount.  He was
+about two gun-shots distant; farther behind five or six soldiers were
+stationed with their arms shouldered.  After having inspected this
+group, Jean-Claude turned and said: "It is a flag of truce.  He comes
+no doubt to summon us to surrender."
+
+"Fire upon them!" cried Catherine; "it is all we have to say."
+
+All the others appeared of the same advice, excepting Hullin, who,
+without making any reply descended to the terrace, where the rest of
+the partisans were assembled.
+
+"My children," said he, "the enemy sends us a flag of truce.  We do not
+know what he wants of us.  I suppose it is to order us to lay down our
+arms; but it may possibly be something else.  Frantz and Kasper will go
+to meet him; they must blindfold the officer and lead him here."
+
+No objection being made, Materne's sons shouldered their carbines and
+walked away under the lofty arch.  About ten minutes later, the two
+red-haired hunters reached the officer; there was a rapid conference
+between them, after which all three began to climb to the Falkenstein.
+By degrees, as the party ascended, the uniform of the officer and his
+face could be distinguished: he was a thin man, with light brown hair,
+well made, and determined-looking.  At the foot of the rock Frantz and
+Kasper blindfolded him, and soon the sound of their steps under the
+arch could be heard.
+
+Jean-Claude going toward them, himself unbound the handkerchief,
+saying, "You desire to communicate something to me, sir; I am
+listening."
+
+The partisans stood about fifteen paces away.  Catherine Lefevre, the
+foremost among them, frowned; her bony, angular face, long beaked nose,
+her three or four tresses of gray hair, falling down over her temples
+and hollow cheek-bones, her compressed lips, and the fixity of her
+gaze, appeared at first to rivet the attention of the German officer.
+Next to her stood Louise, with her sweet pale face.  Jerome, with his
+long tawny beard, draped in his horse-hair tunic, and Materne, leaning
+on his short carbine, and the others around him completed the group.
+
+The officer himself was the object of particular attention.  One could
+see in him, his attitude, fine sunburnt features, clear gray eyes,
+handsome mustache, in the elegance of his limbs, hardened by the labors
+of war, a member of an aristocratic race: he combined the old soldier
+and the man of the world, the warrior and the diplomatist.
+
+This reciprocal inspection being finished, the bearer of the flag of
+truce said, in good French, "I have the honor of addressing the
+Commandant Hullin?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Jean-Claude.
+
+And seeing the other gazing hesitatingly around the circle, he
+continued, "Speak loud, sir, so that everybody may hear you.  When
+honor and the country are in question all are concerned in France; the
+women are interested as well as ourselves.  Have you any proposition to
+make me, and from whom?"
+
+"From the General Commander-in-chief.  Here is my commission."
+
+"Good; we are listening to you, sir."
+
+Then the officer, raising his voice, said in a resolute tone: "Permit
+me first, commandant, to remark that you have fulfilled your duty
+splendidly: you have called forth the esteem of your enemies."
+
+"In the matter of duty," replied Hullin, "we have all done our best."
+
+"Yes," added Catherine, dryly, "and since our enemies esteem us on that
+account, well, they will esteem us still more in eight or fifteen days,
+for we have not reached the end of the war yet.  You will live to see
+more of us."
+
+The officer turned his head, and looked with astonishment at the savage
+energy in the old woman's face.
+
+"They are noble sentiments," he retorted, after an instant's silence:
+"but humanity has its rights, and to squander blood uselessly is
+returning evil for evil."
+
+"Then why do you come into our country?" cried Catherine sharply.  "Go
+away, and we will let you alone.  You make war like brigands: you
+steal, pillage, and burn.  You all deserve to be hanged.  And to set a
+good example, you personally ought to be hurled over that rock."
+
+The officer turned pale, for the old woman seemed quite capable of
+carrying out her threat; however he soon regained his composure, and
+replied calmly: "I am aware that the Cossacks have set fire to the farm
+in front of this rock.  They are pillagers, such as are to be found in
+the rear of every army, and this isolated act proves nothing against
+the discipline of our troops.  The French soldiers did the same in
+Germany, and particularly in the Tyrol; not content with pillaging and
+burning the villages, they mercilessly shot all mountaineers suspected
+of having taken up arms for the defence of their country.  We might
+make reprisals, and should be justified in doing so; but we are not
+barbarians, we can understand that patriotism is noble and grand, even
+in its most ill-advised acts.  Besides, we are not making war on the
+French people, but on the Emperor Napoleon.  And the general, on
+learning the conduct of the Cossacks, has publicly punished this act of
+Vandalism; more, he has decided that an indemnity shall be accorded to
+the proprietor of the farm."
+
+"I will not receive anything from you," Catherine hastily interrupted;
+"I will keep my injustice and revenge myself."
+
+The officer understanding by the accent of the old woman's voice that
+he could make no impression upon her, and feeling that it was even
+dangerous for him to reply, turned toward Hullin, and said: "I am
+ordered, commandant, to offer you the honors of war if you will consent
+to give up this position.  You have no provisions, we know that.  In a
+few days you will be obliged to lay down your arms.  The esteem felt
+for you by our general has alone caused him to make you honorable
+conditions.  A longer resistance would be useless.  We are masters of
+the Donon, our battalions are entering Lorraine; the campaign will not
+be concluded here, therefore you have no interest in defending such a
+position.  We wish to spare you the horrors of famine on this barren
+rock.  Come, commandant, decide."
+
+Hullin turned toward the partisans and said to them: "You have heard?
+I refuse; but I will submit if everybody accepts the propositions of
+the enemy."
+
+"We refuse, all of us," said Jerome.
+
+"Yes, all," replied the others.
+
+Catherine Lefevre, who had looked inflexible till then, regarded Louise
+and seemed touched; she took her by the arm, and turning toward the
+officer, said to him: "We have a child with us; is there no means by
+which we could send her to one of our relations at Saverne?"
+
+Hardly had Louise heard these words, than throwing herself into
+Hullin's arms with fear, she cried out: "No, no, I will remain with
+you, Papa Jean-Claude; I will die with you."
+
+"Well," said Hullin; "go tell your general what you have seen: tell him
+that the Falkenstein will be ours till death!  Kasper, Frantz,
+reconduct the truce-bearer."
+
+The officer appeared to hesitate, but as he opened his mouth to speak,
+Catherine, pale with rage, exclaimed, "Begone! you have not yet gained
+all the advantages you think.  It is that brigand Yegof who has told
+you that we have no provisions; but we have for two months, and by that
+time our army will have exterminated you all.  Traitors will not always
+have the best of it: bad luck to you."
+
+Seeing she was becoming more and more excited, the officer thought it
+best to take his departure: he turned to his guides, who put the
+bandages over his eyes, and conducted him to the foot of the
+Falkenstein.
+
+The instructions which Hullin had given concerning the provisions were
+executed on the same day, and each received his half ration.  A sentry
+was placed before Hexe-Baizel's cavern, where the food was kept; the
+door was barricaded, and Jean-Claude decided that the distributions
+should be made in the presence of all, so as to prevent any injustice;
+but all these precautions were destined to fail in preserving the
+unfortunate people from the horrors of famine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+"BATTLE OF THE ROCKS"
+
+For three days they had been entirely without food on the Falkenstein,
+and Dives had given no signs of life.  How often, during those long
+days of agony, did the mountaineers turn their eyes toward
+Phalsbourg!--how often had they listened, fancying they could hear the
+smuggler's step, while the vague murmur of the wind alone filled the
+space!
+
+The nineteenth day since the arrival of the partisans on the
+Falkenstein was passed amidst all the tortures of hunger.  They no
+longer spoke; they remained crouched on the earth, with pinched faces,
+and lost in endless reveries.  Sometimes they watched each other with
+sparkling eyes, as though about to devour one another, then relapsed
+into sullen calm.
+
+Occasionally Yegof's raven, flying from crag to crag, would approach
+this place of misfortune.  Then old Materne would take aim with his
+rifle, but the ill-omened bird would immediately take flight with
+dismal croakings, and the old hunter's arm fell helpless by his side.
+And as though the exhaustion of hunger was not enough to fill the
+measure of so much misery, the poor creatures only opened their mouths
+to accuse and menace one another.
+
+"Do not touch me," cried Hexe-Baizel, in a shrill voice to those who
+looked at her--"do not look at me, or I will bite you!"
+
+Louise was delirious; her great blue eyes, instead of living objects,
+saw only shadows flit across the plateau, touching the tops of the
+bushes, and resting on the old tower.
+
+"Here is food!" she said.  Then the others became enraged with the poor
+child, crying out with fury, that she was mocking them, and bidding her
+beware.
+
+Jerome alone remained perfectly calm; but the great quantity of snow he
+had swallowed to appease the pangs of ravenous hunger, had inundated
+his whole body and bony face with a cold sweat.  To appease the
+cravings of his stomach, Doctor Lorquin had bound a handkerchief round
+his loins, and tightened it more and more.  He was seated with his back
+against the tower, and his eyes closed, though he now and then opened
+them to say, "We have reached the first--the second--the third stage.
+One more day, and all will be over!"
+
+He then began to declaim about the Druids, Odin, Brahma, Pythagoras,
+quoting Latin and Greek, and announcing the near transformation of the
+people of Harberg into wolves, foxes, and animals of all sorts.  "For
+myself," he exclaimed, "I will be a lion!  I will eat fifteen pounds of
+beef every day!"
+
+Then renewing his discourse:--"No, I will be a man.  I will preach
+peace, brotherhood, justice.  Ah, my friends, we suffer for our own
+faults.  What have we done with the other side of the Rhine for the
+last ten years?  With what right did we set up masters over those
+peoples?  Why did we not exchange our ideas, our sentiments, the
+produce of our arts and of our industry with theirs?  Why did we not
+approach them like brothers, in place of wishing to subject them to us?
+We should have been well received.  What must they not have suffered,
+those unhappy people, during those ten years of violence and rapine!
+Now they are avenged, and it is just!  May the malediction of heaven
+fall on the miserable wretches who get up divisions among peoples in
+order to oppress them!"
+
+After these moments of excitement he would fall exhausted against the
+wall of the tower, and murmur--"Some bread; oh, only a morsel of bread!"
+
+Materne's two sons, crouched in the brushwood, their carbines at their
+shoulders, seemed to expect the passage of some game which never
+arrived.  Their ceaseless watching alone sustained their expiring
+strength.
+
+Others, bent double with pain, were shivering with cold, and yet were
+burning with fever: they reproached Jean-Claude with having brought
+them to the Falkenstein.
+
+Hullin, with a superhuman force of character, still went and came,
+observing what took place in the neighboring valleys, but without
+saying anything.
+
+Occasionally he would advance to the edge of the rock, and with his
+massive jaws clinched and shining eyes, looked at Yegof, seated before
+a large fire, on the plains of Bois-de-Chenes, in the midst of a band
+of Cossacks.  Since the arrival of the Germans in the valley of the
+Charmes, the madman had never quitted his post, but appeared to be
+watching the agony of his victims.
+
+Such was the position of these unfortunate people beneath the open
+heaven.
+
+In the gloom of a prison the torture of hunger is doubtless frightful,
+but in the broad light of day, in the eyes of a whole country, in face
+of all the resources of nature, its sufferings are beyond all
+description.
+
+At the close of the nineteenth day, between four and five o'clock in
+the afternoon, the weather was gloomy; large gray clouds rose behind
+the snowy summit of the Grosmann; the red sun, like a ball of fire,
+threw a few last rays into the misty horizon.  The silence on the rock
+was unbroken.  Louise no longer gave signs of life; Kasper and Frantz
+remained among the bushes immovable as stones; Catherine Lefevre,
+crouching on the earth, her skinny arms clasped round her pointed
+knees, with hard, rigid features, her hair hanging over her clammy
+cheeks, looked like some old sibyl seated in the heather.  She had
+ceased speaking.  That evening, Hullin, Jerome, old Materne, and Doctor
+Lorquin gathered themselves around the old farm-mistress to die.  They
+were silent, and the last rays of twilight fell upon the wretched
+group.  To the right, behind a jutting rock, a few German watch-fires
+sparkled in the abyss.  Suddenly the old dame, rousing from her dreams,
+began to murmur some unintelligible words.
+
+"Dives is coming," said she, in a low voice.  "I see him.  He goes out
+from the door to the right of the arsenal.  Gaspard follows him,
+and----"
+
+Then she began to count.
+
+"Two hundred and fifty men," she exclaimed; "National Guards and
+soldiers.  They cross the ditch; they mount behind the demilune.
+Gaspard is speaking with Marc.  What does he say?"
+
+She appeared to listen.
+
+"Let us hurry!--yes, hurry!  Time flies!  There they are on the glacis!"
+
+There was a long pause; then the old woman suddenly arose, with
+outstretched arms and hair on end, and screamed aloud in a terrible
+voice:--"Courage!  Kill, kill!  Ah, ah!"  And she fell down heavily.
+
+This fearful cry awoke them all; it would have aroused the dead.  The
+besieged seemed born anew.  Something was abroad.  Was it hope, life, a
+spirit?  I know not; but all rose up on their hands and knees, like
+wild beasts, holding their breath to hear.  Louise even moved softly
+and lifted her head; Frantz and Kasper dragged themselves along; and,
+strange to say, Hullin, turning his eyes toward Phalsbourg, thought he
+saw through the darkness the flashes of a fusillade announcing a sortie.
+
+Catherine had resumed her first appearance; but her cheeks, before
+still and pale as those of a corpse, trembled now.  The others listened
+as though their salvation hung on her lips.  A quarter of an hour
+nearly had passed, when the old dame slowly recommenced:--"They have
+passed the enemy's lines; they are running toward Lutzelbourg.  I see
+them!  Gaspard and Dives are before, with Desmarets, Ulrich, Weber, and
+our friends of the town.  They come! they come!"
+
+She again became silent.  Long did they listen; but the vision was
+gone.  Seconds followed seconds slowly like centuries.  At length,
+Hexe-Baizel, in an angry voice, began to say:--"She is mad!  She saw
+nothing!  Marc, I know him: he is making fun of us.  What does it
+matter to him if we perish?  So long as he has his bottle and tobacco
+and can smoke his pipe in peace by the fireside, all the rest is
+nothing.  Ah, the wretch!"
+
+Then all relapsed into silence, and the unhappy creatures, reanimated
+for an instant by hope of a speedy deliverance, again fell into despair.
+
+"It is a dream," thought they; "Hexe-Baizel is right: we are condemned
+to die of hunger."
+
+While this was going on night arrived.  When the moon rose behind the
+high pine-trees, and lit up the gloomy group, Hullin alone kept watch,
+in spite of his raging fever.  Far off--very far off in the gorges--he
+heard the voices of the German sentries; "Wer da?  Wer da?" the rounds
+of the patrols in the woods; the shrill neighing of the horses at the
+picket, and the shouts of their keepers.  Toward midnight the worthy
+fellow fell asleep like the rest.  When he awoke, the clock of the
+village of Charmes struck four.  At the sound of the distant chimes,
+Hullin shook off his drowsiness, and he opened his eyes.  As he gazed
+unconsciously into the darkness, trying to collect his thoughts, the
+vague glimmer of a torch passed before his eyes.  A feeling of dread
+came over him, and he said to himself:--"Am I mad?  The night is dark,
+and I see torches!"
+
+Nevertheless, the flame reappeared; he looked at it, then raised
+himself quickly, resting his contracted face for a second in his hand.
+At length, hazarding one more look, he distinctly saw a fire on the
+Giromani, on the other side of Blanru--a fire which swept the heavens
+with its purple wings, causing the shadows of the pines to dance on the
+snow.  Recalling to himself that this signal had been agreed upon
+between him and Piorette to announce an attack, he trembled from head
+to foot, his face streamed with perspiration, and, walking in the dark,
+groping like a blind man with his hands outstretched, he
+stammered,--"Catherine, Louise, Jerome."  But no one answered.  Still
+groping about, thinking he was walking while he did not make a step,
+the unfortunate man fell down, exclaiming, "My children!  Catherine!
+they come!  We are saved!"
+
+A vague sound immediately arose.  One would have said that the dead
+were awaking.  There was a shrill laugh: it was Hexe-Baizel, gone mad
+from her sufferings.
+
+Then Catherine exclaimed: "Hullin!  Hullin! who spoke?"
+
+Jean-Claude, recovering from his emotion, said, in firmer tones:
+"Jerome, Catherine, Materne, and the others, are you dead?  Do you not
+see that fire down there, in the direction of Blanru?  It is Piorette,
+who is coming to our assistance."
+
+At the same instant, a deep boom rolled along the gorges of the
+Jaegerthal, like the rumbling of a storm.  The summoning trumpet of the
+Judgment could not have produced a greater effect on the besieged: they
+suddenly awoke.
+
+"It is Piorette! it is Marc!" cried broken, harsh voices, such as might
+have belonged to skeletons; "they are coming to our aid!"
+
+And all the wretched creatures tried to rise: some sobbed; but they had
+no longer any tears to shed.  A second report brought them upright.
+
+"They are firing in detachments," said Hullin.  "Ours are doing so too.
+We have soldiers in lines!  France forever!"
+
+"Yes," replied Jerome.  "Mother Catherine was right; the Phalsbourgers
+are coming to our assistance; they are descending the hills of the
+Sarre; and there is Piorette, who is now attacking by Blanru."
+
+Indeed, the fusillade now began to resound on both sides at once,
+toward the plateau of Bois-de-Chenes and the heights of Kilberi.
+
+The two chiefs embraced; and, as they groped along in the dark night,
+seeking to reach the edge of the rock, suddenly Materne cried out,
+"Take care, the precipice is near!"
+
+They stopped short and looked down; but nothing was to be seen: a
+current of cold air ascending from the abyss alone warned them of the
+danger.  The peaks and gorges round were all plunged in darkness.  On
+the hill-sides in front the flashes of the fusillade passed like
+lightning, illuminating now an old oak, now the heather, or the black
+outline of some rock; and groups of men were coming and going, as
+though in the midst of a conflagration.  Two thousand feet below, in
+the depth of the gorge, could be heard dull sounds of galloping horses,
+and the clamors of command.  Now, the shout of a mountaineer hailing
+another was prolonged from peak to peak, and arose to the Falkenstein
+like a sigh.
+
+"It is Marc!" said Hullin; "it is Marc's voice!"
+
+"Yes, it is Marc, who bids us have courage," replied Jerome.
+
+The others looked around them with outstretched necks, their hands
+grasping the rock.  The fusillade continued with a vivacity that
+betrayed the fury of the battle; but nothing could be seen.  Oh! how
+they wished to take part in this supreme struggle!  With what ardor
+would they not have thrown themselves into the fire!  The fear of being
+abandoned once more, of seeing by daylight their defenders retreating,
+rendered them speechless with terror.
+
+Day began to dawn; the pale light arose behind the black summits, and
+began to illumine the gloomy valleys, and soon the fog of the abyss
+turned to silvery mists.  Hullin, looking across the openings of these
+clouds, at length made out the position.  The Germans had lost the
+heights of Valtin, and the plain of Bois-de-Chenes.  They were massed
+in the valley of Charmes, at the foot of the Falkenstein, so as to
+obtain shelter from their adversaries' fire.  Piorette, master of
+Bois-de-Chenes, had thrown out outworks, in front of the rock, on the
+side of the descent to Charmes.  He was pacing to and fro, his pipe in
+his mouth, and carbine slung across his shoulders; and the blue axes of
+the wood-cutters glistened in the rising sun.  On the left of the
+village, toward Valtin, in the midst of the furze, Marc Dives, on a
+small black horse, with a long tail, his blade by his side, pointed to
+the ruins and the sledge road; while an infantry officer and a few
+National Guards were listening to him.  Gaspard Lefevre stood alone, in
+front of the group, leaning on his gun; and, on the summit of the hill,
+by the wood, two or three hundred men were keeping watch.
+
+The sight of the small number of their defenders caused the hearts of
+the besieged to grow fearful; all the more so, as the Germans were
+seven or eight times superior in numbers, and had already begun to form
+columns of attack, to regain the positions they had lost.  Horsemen
+were conveying on all sides the general's orders, and the bayonets
+began to defile.
+
+"It is all over," said Hullin to Jerome.  "What are five or six hundred
+men to do against four thousand in line of battle?  The Phalsbourgers
+will return to their houses and say, 'We have done our duty.'  And
+Piorette will be crushed."
+
+The others thought so too; and their despair was brought to a climax
+when they suddenly saw a long file of Cossacks riding furiously along
+the valley of Charmes, with Yegof the madman galloping like the wind at
+their head, his beard, horse's tail, dogskin, and red hair floating
+wildly in the air.  He looked up at the rock, and brandished his lance
+above his head.  Reaching the bottom of the valley, he made at once for
+the enemy's staff, and coming up to the general, he indicated by
+gestures the other side of the plateau of Bois-de-Chenes.
+
+"Ah, the brigand!" shouted Hullin.  "See, he tells them that Piorette
+has no outworks on that side, that they must go round the mountain."
+
+In fact, a column began immediately to march in that direction, while
+another went toward the outworks to mask the movement of the first.
+
+"Materne," cried Jean-Claude, "is there no means of sending a ball into
+the madman?"
+
+The old hunter shook his head.
+
+"No," said he, "it is impossible; he is out of range."
+
+Just then, Catherine Lefevre gave a wild scream like a hawk.
+
+"Crush them, crush them, as they did at the Blutfeld!"
+
+And the old woman, an instant before so feeble, threw herself on a mass
+of rock, lifted it with both hands, advanced, with her streaming gray
+hair, bent over to the edge of the abyss, and the rock dashed through
+the space beneath.
+
+A terrible crash resounded below, pieces of pine flew out on all sides,
+the great stone rebounded a hundred feet away, and descending the steep
+slope with fresh impulse, struck Yegof, and crushed him at the feet of
+the enemy's general.  This was but the work of a few seconds.
+
+Catherine, upright on the edge of the rock laughed with a rattling
+sound, which seemed as though it would never end.
+
+The others, as though all animated with new life, precipitated
+themselves on the ruins of the old castle, shouting: "Slay them! slay
+them!  Crush them as at the Blutfeld!"
+
+[Illustration: "LET US OVERWHELM THEM, AS AT BLUTFELD!"]
+
+It is impossible to imagine a more terrible scene.  These beings, at
+death's very door, lean and haggard as skeletons, found strength for
+the carnage.  They no longer stumbled, they trembled no more; each one
+lifted his stone and threw it down the precipice, then returned to take
+another, without even looking to see what was passing below.
+
+Imagine the stupor of the "kaiserlichs" at this deluge of ruins and
+rocks.  All had turned at the sound of the stones bounding above
+through the bushes and clumps of trees.  At first they stopped as
+though petrified; but looking higher up, and seeing more and more
+stones descending, and above it all the spectres coming and going,
+lifting their arms, and continually discharging fresh burdens--seeing
+their comrades crushed, fifteen or twenty at a time, an immense cry
+went up from the valley of Charmes to the Falkenstein, and,
+notwithstanding the fusillade which they kept up on every side, the
+Germans scampered away to escape this fearful death.
+
+In the thickest of the rout, the enemy's general contrived to rally a
+battalion, and descend slowly toward the village.
+
+There was something grand and dignified about this man, so calm in the
+midst of disaster.  He turned from time to time with a gloomy look to
+watch the bounding rocks, which made ghastly havoc in his columns.
+
+Jean-Claude observed him, and, notwithstanding the intoxication of his
+triumph and the certitude of having escaped famine, the old soldier
+could not suppress a feeling of admiration.
+
+"Look," said he to Jerome, "he acts as he did on returning from the
+Donon and Grosmann: he is the last to retire, and yields only bit by
+bit.  There are, indeed, brave fellows in every country!"
+
+Marc Dives and Piorette, the witnesses of this stroke of fortune, then
+descended into the midst of the fir-trees, to try and cut off the
+retreat of the enemy.  But the battalion, reduced to half its strength,
+formed into square behind the village of Charmes, and slowly ascended
+the valley of the Sarre, stopping sometimes, like a wounded boar who
+turns to look at the huntsmen, whenever Piorette's men or those of
+Phalsbourg tried to press too nearly upon them.
+
+Thus terminated the great battle of the Falkenstein, known in the
+mountains under the name of the Battle of the Rocks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+The combat was hardly over, when, toward eight o'clock, Marc Dives,
+Gaspard, and about thirty mountaineers, laden with provisions, ascended
+the Falkenstein.  What a spectacle awaited them!  The besieged,
+stretched on the earth, appeared to be dead.  It seemed useless to
+shake them, to cry into their ears; "Jean-Claude!  Catherine?  Jerome!"
+There came no reply.  Gaspard Lefevre, seeing his mother and Louise
+immovable, with clinched teeth, told Marc, that if they did not return
+to life, he would blow out his brains with his gun.  Marc replied that
+each man must do as he liked; but for his part he should not do
+likewise on Hexe-Baizel's account.  At length old Colon, having laid
+his burden down on a stone, Kasper Materne opened his eyes, and seeing
+the provisions, his teeth began to chatter like those of a fox pursued
+by the hounds.
+
+They immediately understood the meaning of this symptom; and Marc
+Dives, going from one to the other, passed his gourd under their noses,
+which sufficed to bring them to.  They wanted to drink its contents all
+up at once; but Doctor Lorquin, notwithstanding his condition, had
+still enough sense to warn Marc not to allow them to do so, and the
+slightest action of choking would be fatal to them.  Each one,
+therefore, only received a morsel of bread, an egg, and a glass of
+wine, which wonderfully revived their spirits; then Catherine, Louise,
+and the others, were laid on sledges and were brought down to the
+village.
+
+It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm and joy of their friends
+when they saw them return, leaner than Lazarus when he rose from his
+grave.  They gazed at one another, and embraced, and the process was
+repeated on the arrival of every newcomer from Abreschwiller, Dagsburg,
+St. Quirin, or elsewhere.
+
+Marc Dives was obliged to relate more than twenty times the story of
+his journey to Phalsbourg.  The brave smuggler had had no luck.  After
+having miraculously escaped from the balls of the "kaiserlichs," he got
+into the valley of Spartzprod, and fell into the midst of a band of
+Cossacks, who ransacked him from top to toe.  He had been compelled to
+wander for two weeks around the Russian posts which surrounded the
+town, exposed to the continual fire of their sentries, and running
+endless risks of being taken as a spy, before being able to get into
+the town.  Then the commandant, Meunier, at first refused to give any
+succor, assigning the weakness of his garrison as an excuse, and only
+at the pressing petitions of the towns-folk at length consented to
+detach two companies.  Listening to his recital, the mountaineers gave
+vent to their admiration of Marc's courage and perseverance in the
+midst of danger.
+
+"Well," replied the tall smuggler good-humoredly to those who thus
+congratulated him, "I have only done my duty; could I have allowed my
+comrades to perish?  I well knew it would not be easy; those rascally
+Cossacks are sharper than the customs' folks; they scent you a league
+off like crows; but all the same, we have outwitted them."
+
+Five or six days later everybody was on the alert; Captain Yidal, from
+Phalsbourg, had left twenty-five men to guard the powder; Gaspard
+Lefevre was of the number, and the sturdy fellow went down every
+morning to the village.  The allies had all passed into Lorraine, and
+were no longer seen in Alsace, except around the fortresses.  Soon
+after came the news of the victories of Champ-Aubert and Montmirail;
+but a great misfortune was at hand; for the allies, notwithstanding the
+heroism of our army and the genius of the Emperor, entered Paris.
+
+It was a terrible shock to Jean-Claude and Catherine, Materne, Jerome
+and all the mountaineers; but the history of these events does not
+belong to this tale.  It has already been related by others.
+
+Peace having been made, the farm of Bois-de-Chenes was rebuilt in the
+spring; the wood-cutters, the shoemakers, masons, wood-floaters, and
+all the workmen of the district, lent a hand in the work.
+
+Toward the same time, the army having been disbanded, Gaspard cut off
+his mustaches and his marriage with Louise took place.
+
+On the day of the wedding all the combatants of the Falkenstein and
+Donon came to the farm, where they were received with open doors and
+windows.  Each brought his present to the newly married pair; Jerome,
+small shoes for Louise; Materne and his sons, a black cock, the most
+loving of birds, as all know; and Dives, packets of smuggled tobacco
+for Gaspard; and Doctor Lorquin a fine set of baby-linen.  Tables were
+spread out, even in the granaries and sheds.  How much wine, bread,
+meat, and tarts was consumed I cannot say; but what I am sure of is,
+that Jean-Claude, who had been low-spirited ever since the entry of the
+allies into Paris, revived on that day, and sang the old song of his
+youth as cheerfully as when he shouldered his gun and set out for
+Valmy, Jemmapes, and Fleurus.  The echoes of the Falkenstein repeated
+in the distance that old patriotic song; the grandest and noblest that
+has ever been heard by man.  Catherine Lefevre kept time on the table
+with the handle of her knife; and if it be true, as many say, that the
+dead come to listen when they are spoken of, our departed friends must
+have been happy, and "The King of Diamonds" have fumed in his red beard.
+
+Toward midnight, Hullin arose, and addressing the newly married pair,
+said: "You will have fine children; I will jump them on my knees, I
+will teach them my old song, and then I shall go to rejoin my old
+comrades!"
+
+So saying he embraced Louise, and arm in arm with Marc Dives and
+Jerome, descended to his cottage, followed by the rest, who sang
+together the fine old song.  A more beautiful night was never seen:
+numberless stars shone out in the dark blue sky; the shrubs on the
+hill-side, where so many brave fellows had found a grave, quivered
+slightly in the breeze.  Every one felt happy and softened; they shook
+hands on the threshold of the small house, and wished each other
+"good-night," and departed, to the right and to the left, to their
+different villages.
+
+"Good-night, Materne, Jerome, Dives, Piorette--good-night!" cried
+Jean-Claude.
+
+His old friends turned back, waving their hats, and said to themselves:
+"There are some days when one is very happy on the earth.  Ah, if there
+were never any plagues, or wars, or famines; if men would but agree to
+love and help each other; if they would but live in peace together,
+what a paradise this world would be!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Invasion of France in 1814, by
+Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
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