meadow behind him the first bivouac was pitched;
on the left stood a park of field artillery, ammunition-wagons in
the rear, and in front the long lines of picket-ropes to which
the horses were fastened, their harness piled on the grass behind
them.

The forge was alight, the farriers busy shoeing horses; the
armourer also bent beside his blazing forge, and the tinkling of
his hammer on small-arms rose musically above the dull shuffle of
leather-shod feet on the road.

To the right of the artillery, bisected as is the German fashion,
lay two halves of a battalion of infantry. In the foreground the
officers sat on their camp-chairs, smoking long faience pipes; in
the rear, driven deep into the turf, the battalion flag stood
furled in its water-proof case, with the drum-major's halberd
beside it, and drums and band instruments around it on the grass.
Behind this lay a straight row of knapsacks, surrounded by the
rolled great-coats; ten paces to the rear another similar row;
between these two rows stood stacks of needle-guns, then another
row of knapsacks, another stack of needle-guns, stretching with
mathematical exactness to the grove of poplars by the river. A
cordon of sentinels surrounded the bivouac; there was a group of
soldiers around a beer-cart, another throng near the wine-cart.
All was quiet, orderly, and terribly sombre.

Near the poplar-trees the pioneers had dug their trenches and
lighted fires. Across the trenches, on poles of green wood, were
slung simmering camp-kettles.

He turned again towards the Chateau; a regiment of Saxon riders
was passing--had just passed--and he could get across now, for
the long line had ended and the last Prussian cuirassiers were
vanishing over the hill, straight into the blaze of the setting
sun.

As he entered the gate, behind him, from the meadow, an infantry
band crashed out into a splendid hymn--a hymn in praise of the
Most High God, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.

And the soldiers' hoarse voices chimed in--

"Thou, who in the hollow of Thy Hand--"

And the deep drums boomed His praise.

XVII

THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE

The candles were lighted again in the ballroom, and again the
delicate, gilded canapes were covered with officers, great
stalwart fellows with blond hair and blue eyes, cuirassiers in
white tunics faced with red, cuirassiers in green and white,
black, yellow, and white, orange and white; dragoons in blue and
salmon colo