eave this life Delaherche,
who had known none of the joys of youth, fell head over ears in love
with a young widow of Charleville, pretty Madame Maginot, who had been
the subject of some gossip in her day, and in the autumn preceding the
events recorded in this history had married her, in spite of all his
mother's prayers and tears. It is proper to add that Sedan, which is
very straitlaced in its notions of propriety, has always been inclined
to frown on Charleville, the city of laughter and levity. And then
again the marriage would never have been effected but for the fact that
Gilberte's uncle was Colonel de Vineuil, who it was supposed would soon
be made a general. This relationship and the idea that he had married
into army circles was to the cloth manufacturer a source of great
delight.

That morning Delaherche, when he learned that the army was to pass
through Mouzon, had invited Weiss, his accountant, to accompany him
on that carriage ride of which we have heard Father Fouchard speak to
Maurice. Tall and stout, with a florid complexion, prominent nose and
thick lips, he was of a cheerful, sanguine temperament and had all the
French bourgeois' boyish love for a handsome display of troops. Having
ascertained from the apothecary at Mouzon that the Emperor was at
Baybel, a farm in the vicinity, he had driven up there; had seen the
monarch, and even had been near speaking to him, an adventure of such
thrilling interest that he had talked of it incessantly ever since his
return. But what a terrible return that had been, over roads choked with
the panic-stricken fugitives from Beaumont! twenty times their cabriolet
was near being overturned into the ditch. Obstacle after obstacle they
had encountered, and it was night before the two men reached home. The
element of the tragic and unforeseen there was in the whole business,
that army that Delaherche had driven out to pass in review and which had
brought him home with it, whether he would or no, in the mad gallop of
its retreat, made him repeat again and again during their long drive:

"I supposed it was moving on Verdun and would have given anything rather
than miss seeing it. Ah well! I have seen it now, and I am afraid we
shall see more of it in Sedan than we desire."

The following morning he was awakened at five o'clock by the hubbub,
like the roar of water escaping from a broken dam, made by the 7th corps
as it streamed through the city; he dressed in haste and we