Goulden came
to console them, but could only sob too: all wept together in their
desolation, crying:

"Joseph! Poor, poor Joseph!"

My heart seemed bursting.

The thought came that thirty or forty thousand families in France, in
Russia, in Germany, were soon to receive the same news--news yet more
terrible, for many of the wretches stretched on the battle-field had
father and mother, and this was horrible to think of--it seemed as if a
wail from all human kind were rising from earth to heaven.

Then I remembered those poor women of Phalsbourg, praying in the church
when we heard of the retreat from Russia, and I understood how their
hearts were torn. I thought that Catharine would soon go there, and
year after year she would pray--thinking of me. Yes--for I knew we had
loved each other from childhood, and that she could never forget me,
and tear after tear coursed down my cheeks. This confidence soothed me
in my grief--the certainty that she would preserve her love for me
until age whitened her hair; that I should be ever before her eyes, and
that she would never marry another.

Toward morning a shower began to fall, and the monotonous dropping on
the roofs alone broke the silence. I thought of the good God, whose
power and mercy are limitless, and I hoped that He would pardon my sins
in consideration of my sufferings.

The rain filled the little trench in which I had been lying. From time
to time a wall fell in the village, and the cattle, scared away by the
battle, began to resume confidence and return. I heard a goat bleat in
a neighboring stable. A great shepherd's dog wandered fearfully among
the heaps of dead. The horse, seeing him, neighed in terror--he took
him for a wolf--and the dog fled.

I remember all these details, for, when we are dying, we see
everything, we hear everything, for we know that we are seeing and
hearing our last.

But how my whole frame thrilled with joy when, at the corner of the
street, I thought I heard the sound of voices! How eagerly I listened!
And I raised myself upon my elbow, and called for help. It was yet
night; but the first gray streak of day was becoming visible in the
east, and afar off, through the falling rain, I saw a light in the
fields, now coming onward, now stopping. I saw dark forms bending
around it. They were only confused shadows. But others besides me saw
the light; for on all sides arose groans and plaintive cries, from
voices so feeble t