of their houses. Some cried piteously;
others gazed with listless faces, but with a cold despair even more
painful to see. Fortunately, they had saved all their animals but,
at present, they were too much absorbed in the thoughts of what
they had lost, to bestow even a thought of satisfaction on what
they had saved.

Major Tempe, grieved and touched at the painful scene of which he
and his men had been the cause, called the franc tireurs together;
and made a proposition to them, which was at once heartily agreed
to. He then called together the cure and schoolmaster and--after a
few well-chosen words of regret, at the ills which he and his had
involuntarily brought upon the village--he handed over to them, in
the name of the whole corps, the hundred pounds in thaler notes
which had been found upon the schoolmaster whom they had executed
for treachery; to be distributed among the inhabitants, according
to their necessities.

The offer was gratefully received, and the priest and schoolmaster
at once went round and told the poor people, whose gratitude and
delight were unbounded. To so poor a population, the sum seemed
immense; and although it would not replace what was destroyed, it
would go far towards making their abodes habitable. The village
only contained about twenty houses. The walls were still standing.
Timber for the roofs and floors was to be had for cutting, in the
forest. Bushes for thatching could be found in abundance. The
principal portion of the houses, therefore, would cost only labor,
and this money would suffice to keep them alive, while engaged upon
it; and enough would remain to get at least a few blankets to lay
upon the straw--which would, for the time, serve for beds--together
with a few other simple necessaries. The sale of a portion of the
animals would do the rest and, in their gratitude to the franc
tireurs, for having thus relieved their first and most pressing
difficulties, the inhabitants altogether forgot the ill-feeling
which they had before felt against them, as the authors of their
disaster.

After burying their dead, the men set to work to assist the
villagers in building temporary huts--or rather bowers--to the edge
of the forest; in which, before nightfall, they had the
satisfaction of seeing them installed. The few articles of bedding,
blankets, etc. saved at the approach of the Prussians were spread
on heaps of freshly-cut grass; and one of the oxen of the franc
tireurs, which