The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Downfall, by Emile Zola

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Title: The Downfall

Author: Emile Zola

Translator: E. P. Robins

Release Date: October 25, 2004 [EBook #13851]
Posting Date: May 29, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DOWNFALL ***

Produced by Dagny, John Bickers, and David Widger

THE DOWNFALL

(La Debacle)(The Smash-up)

By Emile Zola

Translated By E. P. Robins

THE DOWNFALL

PART FIRST

I.

In the middle of the broad, fertile plain that stretches away in the
direction of the Rhine, a mile and a quarter from Mulhausen, the camp
was pitched. In the fitful light of the overcast August day, beneath the
lowering sky that was filled with heavy drifting clouds, the long lines
of squat white shelter-tents seemed to cower closer to the ground, and
the muskets, stacked at regular intervals along the regimental fronts,
made little spots of brightness, while over all the sentries with loaded
pieces kept watch and ward, motionless as statues, straining their eyes
to pierce the purplish mists that lay on the horizon and showed where
the mighty river ran.

It was about five o'clock when they had come in from Belfort; it was now
eight, and the men had only just received their rations. There could be
no distribution of wood, however, the wagons having gone astray, and
it had therefore been impossible for them to make fires and warm their
soup. They had consequently been obliged to content themselves as best
they might, washing down their dry hard-tack with copious draughts of
brandy, a proceeding that was not calculated greatly to help their
tired legs after their long march. Near the canteen, however, behind the
stacks of muskets, there were two soldiers pertinaciously endeavoring to
elicit a blaze from a small pile of green wood, the trunks of some small
trees that they had chopped down with their sword-bayonets, and that
were obstinately determined not to burn. The cloud of thick, black
smoke, rising slowly in the evening air, added to the general
cheerlessness of the scene.

There were but twelve thousand men there, all of the 7th corps that