losion was
heard. I looked. At a distance of four or five hundred paces, a gray
smoke, which seemed to come from a hole, rose from the ground. Stones
were then thrown up in the air, horrible cries were heard, and springing
from this hole appeared a man, who began to run across the plain as if
mad. He shook his arms, screamed, fell down, got up again, disappeared
in the great crevices of the plain, and appeared again. The distance and
the irregularity of his path prevented me from distinguishing anything
clearly; but, at the height of his head, in the place of his face, I saw
a great, red mark. In alarm, I approached him, while from the other side
of the plain, from Noiesemont, a troop of men and women were advancing,
crying aloud. I was the first to reach the poor creature. His face was
all one wound, and torrents of blood were streaming over his garments,
which were all in rags.

"Scarcely had I taken hold of him, when a woman, followed by twenty
peasants, approached, and threw herself before him.

"'James, James, is it you? I did not know you, James.'

"The poor man, without answering, struggled furiously in our hands.

"'Ah!' cried the woman, suddenly, and with a heart-rending voice, 'it is
he!'

"She had recognised a large silver pin, which fastened his shirt, which
was covered with blood.

"It was indeed he, her husband, the father of three children, a
poor labourer, who, in blasting a rock with powder, had received the
explosion in his face, and was blind, mutilated, perhaps mortally
wounded.

"He was carried home. I was obliged to go away the same day, on a
journey, and was absent a month. Before my departure, I sent him our
doctor, a man devoted to his profession as a country physician, and as
learned as a city physician. On my return--

"'Ah! well, doctor,' said I, 'the blind man?'

"'It is all over with him. His wounds are healed, his head is doing
well, he is only blind; but he will die; despair has seized him, and he
will kill himself. I can do nothing more for him, This is all,' he said;
'an internal inflammation is taking place. He must die.'

"I hastened to the poor man. I arrived. I shall never forget the sight.
He was seated on a wooden stool, beside a hearth on which there was no
fire, his eyes covered with a white bandage. On the floor an infant of
three months was sleeping; a little girl of four years old was playing
in the ashes; one, still older, was shivering opposite to her; and, in