a signboard: Avenue de la
Sous-Prefecture. At the end of the street was a monument standing in a
public garden, and at the corner of the avenue he beheld a horseman,
a chasseur d'Afrique, whose face seemed familiar to him. Was it not
Prosper, the young man from Remilly, whom he had seen in Maurice's
company at Vouziers? Perhaps he had been sent in with dispatches. He had
dismounted, and his skeleton of a horse, so weak that he could scarcely
stand, was trying to satisfy his hunger by gnawing at the tail-board
of an army wagon that was drawn up against the curb. There had been no
forage for the animals for the last two days, and they were literally
dying of starvation. The big strong teeth rasped pitifully on the
woodwork of the wagon, while the soldier stood by and wept as he watched
the poor brute.

Jean was moving away when it occurred to him that the trooper might be
able to give him the address of Maurice's sister. He returned, but the
other was gone, and it would have been useless to attempt to find him in
that dense throng. He was utterly disheartened, and wandering
aimlessly from street to street at last found himself again before the
Sous-Prefecture, whence he struggled onward to the Place Turenne. Here
he was comforted for an instant by catching sight of Lieutenant Rochas,
standing in front of the Hotel de Ville with a few men of his company,
at the foot of the statue he had seen before; if he could not find his
friend he could at all events rejoin the regiment and have a tent to
sleep under. Nothing had been seen of Captain Beaudoin; doubtless he had
been swept away in the press and landed in some place far away,
while the lieutenant was endeavoring to collect his scattered men and
fruitlessly inquiring of everyone he met where division headquarters
were. As he advanced into the city, however, his numbers, instead of
increasing, dwindled. One man, with the gestures of a lunatic, entered
an inn and was seen no more. Three others were halted in front of a
grocer's shop by a party of zouaves who had obtained possession of a
small cask of brandy; one was already lying senseless in the gutter,
while the other two tried to get away, but were too stupid and dazed
to move. Loubet and Chouteau had nudged each other with the elbow and
disappeared down a blind alley in pursuit of a fat woman with a loaf
of bread, so that all who remained with the lieutenant were Pache and
Lapoulle, with some ten or a dozen more.

Rocha