government has given us as commanders! Wonder what
they would do if they had an army actually before them, if they show the
white feather this way when there's not a Prussian in sight, _hein_!--Ah
no, not any of it in mine, thank you; soldiers don't obey such
pigeon-livered gentlemen."

Someone had thrown another armful of wood on the fire for the
pleasurable sensation of comfort there was in the bright, dancing flame,
and Lapoulle, who was engaged in the luxurious occupation of toasting
his shins, suddenly went off into an imbecile fit of laughter without
in the least understanding what it was about, whereon Jean, who had thus
far turned a deaf ear to their talk, thought it time to interfere, which
he did by saying in a fatherly way:

"You had better hold your tongue, you fellows! It might be the worse for
you if anyone should hear you."

He himself, in his untutored, common-sense way of viewing things, was
exasperated by the stupid incompetency of their commanders, but then
discipline must be maintained, and as Chouteau still kept up a low
muttering he cut him short:

"Be silent, I say! Here is the lieutenant: address yourself to him if
you have anything to say."

Maurice had listened in silence to the conversation from his place a
little to one side. Ah, truly, the end was near! Scarcely had they made
a beginning, and all was over. That lack of discipline, that seditious
spirit among the men at the very first reverse, had already made the
army a demoralized, disintegrated rabble that would melt away at the
first indication of catastrophe. There they were, under the walls of
Belfort, without having sighted a Prussian, and they were whipped.

The succeeding days were a period of monotony, full of uncertainty and
anxious forebodings. To keep his troops occupied General Douay set
them to work on the defenses of the place, which were in a state of
incompleteness; there was great throwing up of earth and cutting through
rock. And not the first item of news! Where was MacMahon's army? What
was going on at Metz? The wildest rumors were current, and the Parisian
journals, by their system of printing news only to contradict it the
next day, kept the country in an agony of suspense. Twice, it was said,
the general had written and asked for instructions, and had not even
received an answer. On the 12th of August, however, the 7th corps was
augmented by the 3d division, which landed from Italy, but there were
still only t