still
holds firm, is yet intact, but retreating . . . retreating, all the time
yielding ground. . . . Believe me, it will be better for you to leave
Paris. Gallieni will defend it, but the defense is going to be hard
and horrible. . . . Although Paris may surrender, France will not
necessarily surrender. The war will go on if necessary even to the
frontiers of Spain . . . but it is sad . . . very sad!"

And he offered to take his friend with him in that flight to Bordeaux of
which so few yet knew. Desnoyers shook his head. No; he wanted to go the
castle of Villeblanche. His furniture . . . his riches . . . his parks.

"But you will be taken prisoner!" protested the senator. "Perhaps they
will kill you!"

A shrug of indifference was the only response. He considered himself
energetic enough to struggle against the entire German army in the
defense of his property. The important thing was to get there, and
then--just let anybody dare to touch his things! . . . The senator
looked with astonishment at this civilian infuriated by the lust of
possession. It reminded him of some Arab merchants that he had once
known, ordinarily mild and pacific, who quarrelled and killed like wild
beasts when Bedouin thieves seized their wares. This was not the moment
for discussion, and each must map out his own course. So the influential
senator finally yielded to the desire of his friend. If such was
his pleasure, let him carry it through! So he arranged that his mad
petitioner should depart that very night on a military train that was
going to meet the army.

That journey put Don Marcelo in touch with the extraordinary movement
which the war had developed on the railroads. His train took fourteen
hours to cover the distance normally made in two. It was made up of
freight cars filled with provisions and cartridges, with the doors
stamped and sealed. A third-class car was occupied by the train escort,
a detachment of provincial guards. He was installed in a second-class
compartment with the lieutenant in command of this guard and certain
officials on their way to join their regiments after having completed
the business of mobilization in the small towns in which they were
stationed before the war. The crowd, habituated to long detentions,
was accustomed to getting out and settling down before the motionless
locomotive, or scattering through the nearby fields.

In the stations of any importance all the tracks were occupied by rows
of ca