ust have
roused his dormant dignity, for after bestowing on her a simple kiss he
crept softly back to his room. Loiseau, much edified, capered round the
bedroom before taking his place beside his slumbering spouse.

Then silence reigned throughout the house. But soon there arose from
some remote part--it might easily have been either cellar or attic--a
stertorous, monotonous, regular snoring, a dull, prolonged rumbling,
varied by tremors like those of a boiler under pressure of steam.
Monsieur Follenvie had gone to sleep.

As they had decided on starting at eight o'clock the next morning, every
one was in the kitchen at that hour; but the coach, its roof covered
with snow, stood by itself in the middle of the yard, without either
horses or driver. They sought the latter in the stables, coach-houses
and barns --but in vain. So the men of the party resolved to scour
the country for him, and sallied forth. They found them selves in the
square, with the church at the farther side, and to right and left
low-roofed houses where there were some Prussian soldiers. The first
soldier they saw was peeling potatoes. The second, farther on, was
washing out a barber's shop. An other, bearded to the eyes, was fondling
a crying infant, and dandling it on his knees to quiet it; and the stout
peasant women, whose men-folk were for the most part at the war, were,
by means of signs, telling their obedient conquerors what work they were
to do: chop wood, prepare soup, grind coffee; one of them even was doing
the washing for his hostess, an infirm old grandmother.

The count, astonished at what he saw, questioned the beadle who was
coming out of the presbytery. The old man answered:

"Oh, those men are not at all a bad sort; they are not Prussians, I am
told; they come from somewhere farther off, I don't exactly know where.
And they have all left wives and children behind them; they are not fond
of war either, you may be sure! I am sure they are mourning for the men
where they come from, just as we do here; and the war causes them just
as much unhappiness as it does us. As a matter of fact, things are not
so very bad here just now, because the soldiers do no harm, and work
just as if they were in their own homes. You see, sir, poor folk always
help one another; it is the great ones of this world who make war."

Cornudet indignant at the friendly understanding established between
conquerors and conquered, withdrew, preferring to shut hims