ld, then commenced to be celebrated in legend. Two days
later, however, when intelligence came of the surprise and defeat at
Wissembourg, every mouth was opened to emit a cry of rage and distress.
That five thousand men, caught in a trap, had faced thirty-five thousand
Prussians all one long summer day, that was not a circumstance to daunt
the courage of anyone; it simply called for vengeance. Yes, the leaders
had doubtless been culpably lacking in vigilance and were to be censured
for their want of foresight, but that would soon be mended; MacMahon
had sent for the 1st division of the 7th corps, the 1st corps would be
supported by the 5th, and the Prussians must be across the Rhine again
by that time, with the bayonets of our infantry at their backs to
accelerate their movement. And so, beneath the deep, dim vault of
heaven, the thought of the battle that must have raged that day, the
feverish impatience with which the tidings were awaited, the horrible
feeling of suspense that pervaded the air about them, spread from man to
man and became each minute more tense and unendurable.

Maurice was just then saying to Weiss:

"Ah! we have certainly given them a righteous good drubbing to-day."

Weiss made no reply save to nod his head with an air of anxiety. His
gaze was directed toward the Rhine, on that Orient region where now the
night had settled down in earnest, like a wall of blackness, concealing
strange forms and shapes of mystery. The concluding strains of the
bugles for roll-call had been succeeded by a deep silence, which had
descended upon the drowsy camp and was only broken now and then by the
steps and voices of some wakeful soldiers. A light had been lit--it
looked like a twinkling star--in the main room of the farmhouse where
the staff, which is supposed never to sleep, was awaiting the telegrams
that came in occasionally, though as yet they were undecided. And the
green wood fire, now finally left to itself, was still emitting its
funereal wreaths of dense black smoke, which drifted in the gentle
breeze over the unsleeping farmhouse, obscuring the early stars in the
heavens above.

"A drubbing!" Weiss at last replied, "God grant it may be so!"

Jean, still seated a few steps away, pricked up his ears, while
Lieutenant Rochas, noticing that the wish was attended by a doubt,
stopped to listen.

"What!" Maurice rejoined, "have you not confidence? can you believe that
defeat is possible?"

His brother-in-