oon, they heard at the offices of the _Eclaireur_ that a
bomb had burst behind the German ambassador's motor-car in Paris. In the
Latin Quarter, the ferment was at its height. Two Germans had been
roughly handled and a Russian, accused of spying, had been knocked down.
There had been free fights at Lyons, Toulouse and Bordeaux.

Similar disorders had taken place in Berlin and in the other big towns
of the German Empire. The military party was directing the movement.

Lastly, at six o'clock, it was announced as certain that Germany was
mobilizing three army-corps.

A tragic evening was spent at the Old Mill. Suzanne arrived from
Boersweilen without having been allowed to see her father and added to
the general distress by her sobs and lamentations. Morestal and
Philippe, silent and fever-eyed, seemed to avoid each other. Marthe, who
suspected her husband's anguish, kept her eyes fixed upon him, as though
she feared some inconsiderate act on his part. And the same dread seemed
to trouble Mme. Morestal, for she warned Philippe, time after time:

"Whatever you do, no arguments with your father. He is not well. All
this business upsets him quite enough as it is. A quarrel between the
two of you would be terrible."

And this also, the idea of this illness of which he did not know the
exact nature, but to which his heated imagination lent an added
importance, this also tortured Philippe.

*
* *

They all rose on the Sunday morning with the certainty that the news of
war would reach them in the course of the day; and old Morestal was on
the point of leaving for Saint-Elophe, to make the necessary
arrangements in case of an alarm, when a ring of the telephone stopped
him. It was the sub-prefect at Noirmont, who conveyed a fresh order to
him from the prefecture. The two Morestals were to be at the
Butte-aux-Loups at twelve o'clock.

A moment later, a telegram that appeared at the top of the front page of
the _Eclaireur des Vosges_ told them the meaning of this third summons:

"The German ambassador called on the prime minister at ten o'clock
yesterday, Saturday, evening. After a long conversation, when on
the point of concluding an interview that seemed unable to lead to
any result, the ambassador received by express a personal note
from the emperor, which he at once handed to the prime minister. In
this note, the empero