pell-mell into the fosse for safety.

But now shrill, impatient bugle calls rose on the evening air, followed
soon by the long-drawn strains of retreat. They were summoning the
belated soldiers back to their comrades, who came running in, singly and
in groups. A dropping fire of musketry still continued in the faubourgs,
but it was gradually dying out. Heavy guards were stationed on the
banquette behind the parapet to protect the approaches, and at last
the gate was closed. The Prussians were within a hundred yards of the
sally-port; they could be seen moving on the Balan road, tranquilly
establishing themselves in the houses and gardens.

Maurice and Jean, pushing Henriette before them to protect her from the
jostling of the throng, were among the last to enter Sedan. Six o'clock
was striking. The artillery fire had ceased nearly an hour ago. Soon the
distant musketry fire, too, was silenced. Then, to the deafening uproar,
to the vengeful thunder that had been roaring since morning, there
succeeded a stillness as of death. Night came, and with it came a boding
silence, fraught with terror.

VIII.

At half-past five o'clock, after the closing of the gates, Delaherche,
in his eager thirst for news, now that he knew the battle lost, had
again returned to the Sous-Prefecture. He hung persistently about
the approaches of the janitor's lodge, tramping up and down the paved
courtyard with feverish impatience, for more than three hours, watching
for every officer who came up and interviewing him, and thus it was that
he had become acquainted, piecemeal, with the rapid series of events;
how General de Wimpffen had tendered his resignation and then withdrawn
it upon the peremptory refusal of Generals Ducrot and Douay to append
their names to the articles of capitulation, how the Emperor had
thereupon invested the General with full authority to proceed to the
Prussian headquarters and treat for the surrender of the vanquished army
on the most advantageous terms obtainable; how, finally, a council of
war had been convened with the object of deciding what possibilities
there were of further protracting the struggle successfully by the
defense of the fortress. During the deliberations of this council, which
consisted of some twenty officers of the highest rank and seemed to him
as if it would never end, the cloth manufacturer climbed the steps
of the huge public building at least twenty times, and at last his
curiosity wa