Below in the ambulance, indeed, they no longer knew where to
bestow the cases that were brought them, and had been obliged to have
recourse to the lawn, where they laid them on the grass. There were
already two long rows of them, exposed beneath the shrieking shells,
filling the air with their dismal plaints while waiting for his
ministrations. The number of cases brought in since noon exceeded four
hundred, and in response to Bouroche's repeated appeals for assistance
he had been sent one young doctor from the city. Good as was his will,
he was unequal to the task; he probed, sliced, sawed, sewed like a
man frantic, and was reduced to despair to see his work continually
accumulating before him. Gilberte, satiated with sights of horror,
unable longer to endure the sad spectacle of blood and tears, remained
upstairs with her uncle, the colonel, leaving to Mme. Delaherche the
care of moistening fevered lips and wiping the cold sweat from the brow
of the dying.

Rapidly climbing the stairs to his terrace, Delaherche endeavored to
form some idea for himself of how matters stood. The city had
suffered less injury than was generally supposed; there was one great
conflagration, however, over in the Faubourg de la Cassine, from which
dense volumes of smoke were rising. Fort Palatinat had discontinued
its fire, doubtless because the ammunition was all expended; the guns
mounted on the Porte de Paris alone continued to make themselves heard
at infrequent intervals. But something that he beheld presently had
greater interest for his eyes than all beside; they had run up the white
flag on the citadel again, but it must be that it was invisible from the
battlefield, for there was no perceptible slackening of the fire. The
Balan road was concealed from his vision by the neighboring roofs; he
was unable to make out what the troops were doing in that direction.
Applying his eye to the telescope, however, which remained as he had
left it, directed on la Marfee, he again beheld the cluster of officers
that he had seen in that same place about midday. The master of them
all, that miniature toy-soldier in lead, half finger high, in whom he
had thought to recognize the King of Prussia, was there still, erect in
his plain, dark uniform before the other officers, who, in their showy
trappings, were for the most part reclining carelessly on the grass.
Among them were officers from foreign lands, aides-de-camp, generals,
high officials, princes