ut the physical basis of life. Now it is a new realism which appeals to
us: it is the turn of the soul. The battle which the "Soirees de Medan"
helped to win has been won; having gained our right to deal with humble
and unpleasant and sordidly tragic things in fiction, we are free to
concern ourselves with other things. But though the period has passed,
and will not return, the masterpieces of the period remain. Among these
masterpieces are the novels and short stories of Guy de Maupassant.

ARTHUR SYMONS.

BOULE DE SUIF

For several days, straggling remnants of the routed army had passed
through the town. There was no question of organized troops, it was
simply a disjointed rabble, the men unshaven and dirty, their uniforms
in tatters, slouching along without regimental colors, without
order--worn out, broken down, incapable of thought or resolution,
marching from pure habit and dropping with fatigue the moment they
stopped. The majority belonged to the militia, men of peaceful pursuits,
retired tradespeople, sinking under the weight of their accouterments;
quick-witted little moblets as prone to terror as they were to
enthusiasm, as ready to attack as they were to fly; and here and there a
few red trousers, remnants of a company mowed down in one of the big
battles; somber-coated artillerymen, side by side with these various
uniforms of the infantry, and now and then the glittering helmet of a
heavily booted dragoon who followed with difficulty the march of the
lighter-footed soldiers of the line.

Companies of franc-tireurs, heroically named "Avengers of the Defeat,"
"Citizens of the Tomb," "Companies in Death," passed in their turn,
looking like a horde of bandits.

Their chiefs--formerly drapers or corn-dealers, retired soap-boilers or
suet-refiners, warriors of circumstance created officers for their money
or the length of their moustaches, heaped with arms, flannels, and gold
lace--talked loudly, discussed plans of campaign, and gave you to
understand that they were the sole support of France in her death-agony;
but they were generally in terror of their own soldiers, men "of the
sack and cord," most of them brave to foolhardiness, all of them given
to pillage and debauchery.

Report said that the Prussians were about to enter Rouen. The National
Guard, which for two months past had made the most careful
reconnoiterings in the neighboring wood, even t