ghty one does not recover. As it turned out, the sick man
remained in a state of coma for three days.

Meanwhile, the news of the battle of Reichshoffen reached Paris. You
will remember in what form that news reached us first. Until evening we
all believed that we had won a great victory, with 20,000 Prussians
killed and the Crown Prince captured. Through some miracle, some
magnetic current, an echo of this national rejoicing must have reached
the sufferer, deaf and speechless and unable to move though he was.
That evening when I went to his bedside, I found a different man. His
eye was clear, his tongue was no longer thick, and he had strength
enough to smile at me and to stammer, "Vic-to-ry!"

"Yes, Colonel, a great victory!"

And the more details I gave him of Mac Mahon's brilliant success, the
more his face relaxed and brightened.

As I left, I found the little girl waiting for me outside the door. She
was pale and was crying.

"But he is going to get well," I said, taking her hands in mine.

The poor child had hardly courage to answer me. The true story of the
battle of Reichshoffen had just appeared on the bulletin boards. Mac
Mahon was retreating and the army cut to pieces. Surprised and shocked,
our eyes met, she thinking of her father and I of my patient. Surely he
would succumb to this new blow; and yet what could we do? Leave him the
joy, the illusion that had brought him back to life? That meant keeping
him alive with lies.

"Very well, I will tell them," said the child, and quickly wiping away
her tears she went back to her grandfather's room with a smile on her
face.

It was not an easy task which she had set herself. For the first few
days she had no great difficulty. The old gentleman's head was very
weak and he was as easily deceived as a child, but as his strength came
back his mind became clearer. He wanted to be kept in touch with troop
movements and to have the War Department Bulletin read to him. It was
pathetic to see the little girl, night and day, bent over her map of
Germany, sticking in pins with little flags on them, and trying hard to
invent to the last detail a successful campaign: Bazaine advancing on
Berlin, Frossard penetrating Bavaria, and Mac Mahon reaching the
Baltic.

To work this all out she needed help, and I helped her as much as I
could. But the one who helped her most was her grandfather himself. He
had conquered Germany so many times during the First Empire, he knew