ovels fly! Shells tore through the air
over them, bursting on impact with roof and chimney; the Turcos tucked
up their blue sleeves, spat on their hands, and dug away like
terriers, while their officers, smoking the eternal cigarette, coolly
examined the distant landscape through their field-glasses.

Shells rained fast on Morsbronn; nearer and nearer bellowed the guns;
the plaster ceiling above my head cracked and fell in thin flakes,
filling the room with an acrid, smarting dust. Again and again metal
fragments from shells rang out on the heavy walls of our turret; a
roof opposite sank in; flames flickered up through clouds of dust; a
heavy yellow smoke, swarming with sparks, rolled past my window.

Down the street a dull sound grew into a steady roar; the Turcos
dropped pick and shovel and seized their rifles.

"Garde! Garde a vous!" rang their startled bugles; the tumult
increased to a swelling uproar, shouting, cheering, the crash of
shutters and of glass, and--

"The Prussians!" bellowed the captain. "Turcos--charge!"

His voice was lost; a yelling mass of soldiery burst into view; spiked
helmets and bayonets glittering through the smoke, the Turcos were
whirled about like brilliant butterflies in a tornado; the fusillade
swelled to a stupefying din, exploding in one terrible crash; and,
wrapped in lightning, the Prussian onset passed.

From the stairs below came the sound of a voiceless struggle, the
trample and panting and clicking of steel, till of a sudden a voice
burst out into a dreadful screaming. A shot followed--silence--another
shot--then the stairs outside shook under the rush of mounting men.

As the door burst open I felt a touch on my arm; the Countess de
Vassart stood erect and pale, one slender, protecting hand resting
lightly on my shoulder; a lieutenant of Prussian infantry confronted
us; straight, heavy sword drawn, rigid, uncompromising, in his
faultless gray-and-black uniform, with its tight, silver waist-sash.

"I do not have you thrown into the street," he said to me, in
excellent French, "because there has been no firing from the windows
in this village. Otherwise--other measures. Be at ease, madame, I
shall not harm your invalid."

He glanced at me out of his near-sighted eyes, dropped the point of
his sword to the stone floor, and slowly caressed his small, blond
mustache.

"How many troops passed through here yesterday morning?" he asked.

I was silent.

"There was artille