gray fields, without a tree, without a house, as gloomy and forbidding as a desert, and the day’s march, short as it was, was accomplished with such fatigue and distress that it seemed interminably long.  Soon after midday, however, the 1st and 3d divisions had passed through the city and encamped in the meadows on the farther bank of the Aisne, while a brigade of the second, which included the 106th, had remained upon the left bank, bivouacking among the waste lands of which the low foot-hills overlooked the valley, observing from their position the Monthois road, which skirts the stream and by which the enemy was expected to make his appearance.

And Maurice was dumfoundered to behold advancing along that Monthois road Margueritte’s entire division, the body of cavalry to which had been assigned the duty of supporting the 7th corps and watching the left flank of the army.  The report was that it was on its way to Chene-Populeux.  Why was the left wing, where alone they were threatened by the enemy, stripped in that manner?  What sense was there in summoning in upon the center, where they could be of no earthly use, those two thousand horsemen, who should have been dispersed upon our flank, leagues away, as videttes to observe the enemy?  And what made matters worse was that they caused the greatest confusion among the columns of the 7th corps, cutting in upon their line of march and producing an inextricable jam of horses, guns, and men.  A squadron of chasseurs d’Afrique were halted for near two hours at the gate of Vouziers, and by the merest chance Maurice stumbled on Prosper, who had ridden his horse down to the bank of a neighboring pond to let him drink, and the two men were enabled to exchange a few words.  The chasseur appeared stunned, dazed, knew nothing and had seen nothing since they left Rheims; yes, though, he had:  he had seen two uhlans more; oh! but they were will o’ the wisps, phantoms, they were, that appeared and vanished, and no one could tell whence they came nor whither they went.  Their fame had spread, and stories of them were already rife throughout the country, such, for instance, as that of four uhlans galloping into a town with drawn revolvers and taking possession of it, when the corps to which they belonged was a dozen miles away.  They were everywhere, preceding the columns like a buzzing, stinging swarm of bees, a living curtain, behind which the infantry could mask their movements and march and countermarch as securely as if they were at home upon parade.  And Maurice’s heart sank in his bosom as he looked at the road, crowded with chasseurs and hussars which our leaders put to such poor use.

“Well, then, au revoir,” said he, shaking Prosper by the hand; “perhaps they will find something for you to do down yonder, after all.”

But the chasseur appeared disgusted with the task assigned him.  He sadly stroked Poulet’s neck and answered: 

“Ah, what’s the use talking! they kill our horses and let us rot in idleness.  It is sickening.”