together,
going off to his country-house, and taking a number of his neighbours
with him. 'How can we tell when we may be permitted to return to the
town?' he said, with his teeth chattering. 'M. le Maire, I adjure you to
put yourself in a place of safety.'

'Sir,' I said to him, sternly, 'for one who deserts his post there is no
place of safety.'

But I do not think he was capable of understanding me. Fortunately, I
found in M. le Cure a much more trustworthy coadjutor. He was
indefatigable; he had the habit of sitting up to all hours, of being
called at all hours, in which our _bourgeoisie_, I cannot but
acknowledge, is wanting. The expression I have before described of
astonishment--but of astonishment which he wished to conceal--never left
his face. He did not understand how such a thing could have been
permitted to happen while he had no share in it; and, indeed, I will not
deny that this was a matter of great wonder to myself too.

The arrangements I have described gave us occupation; and this had a
happy effect upon us in distracting our minds from what had happened;
for I think that if we had sat still and gazed at the dark city we
should soon have gone mad, as some did. In our ceaseless patrols and
attempts to find a way of entrance, we distracted ourselves from the
enquiry, Who would dare to go in if the entrance were found? In the
meantime not a gate was opened, not a figure was visible. We saw
nothing, no more than if Semur had been a picture painted upon a canvas.
Strange sights indeed met our eyes--sights which made even the bravest
quail. The strangest of them was the boats that would go down and up the
river, shooting forth from under the fortified bridge, which is one of
the chief features of our town, sometimes with sails perfectly well
managed, sometimes impelled by oars, but with no one visible in them--no
one conducting them. To see one of these boats impelled up the stream,
with no rower visible, was a wonderful sight. M. de Clairon, who was by
my side, murmured something about a magnetic current; but when I asked
him sternly by what set in motion, his voice died away in his moustache.
M. le Cure said very little: one saw his lips move as he watched with us
the passage of those boats. He smiled when it was proposed by some one
to fire upon them. He read his Hours as he went round at the head of
his patrol. My fellow townsmen and I conceived a great respect for him;
and he inspired pity in me als