measures, if necessary, to keep the column well closed up; but there was not much straggling, aware as everyone was that the Prussians were close in our rear, and ready to snap up every unfortunate that they could lay hands on.  Their infantry was coming up with the rapidity of the whirlwind, making its twenty-five miles a day, while the French regiments, in their demoralized condition, seemed in comparison to be marking time.

At Authe the weather cleared, and Maurice, taking his bearings by the position of the sun, noticed that instead of bearing off toward Chene, which lay three good leagues from where they were, they had turned and were moving directly eastward.  It was two o’clock; the men, after shivering in the rain for two days, were now suffering from the intense heat.  The road ascended, with long sweeping curves, through a region of utter desolation:  not a house, not a living being, the only relief to the dreariness of the waste lands an occasional little somber wood; and the oppressive silence communicated itself to the men, who toiled onward with drooping heads, bathed in perspiration.  At last Saint-Pierremont appeared before them, a few empty houses on a small elevation.  They did not pass through the village.  Maurice observed that here they made a sudden wheel to the left, resuming their northern course, toward la Besace.  He now understood the route that had been adopted in their attempt to reach Mouzon ahead of the Prussians; but would they succeed, with such weary, demoralized troops?  At Saint-Pierremont the three uhlans had shown themselves again, at a turn in the road leading to Buzancy, and just as the rear-guard was leaving the village a battery was unmasked and a few shells came tumbling among them, without doing any injury, however.  No response was attempted, and the march was continued with constantly increasing effort.

From Saint-Pierremont to la Besace the distance is three good leagues, and when Maurice imparted that information to Jean the latter made a gesture of discouragement:  the men would never be able to accomplish it; they showed it by their shortness of breath, by their haggard faces.  The road continued to ascend, between gently sloping hills on either side that were gradually drawing closer together.  The condition of the men necessitated a halt, but the only effect of their brief repose was to increase the stiffness of their benumbed limbs, and when the order was given to march the state of affairs was worse than it had been before; the regiments made no progress, men were everywhere falling in the ranks.  Jean, noticing Maurice’s pallid face and glassy eyes, infringed on what was his usual custom and conversed, endeavoring by his volubility to divert the other’s attention and keep him awake as he moved automatically forward, unconscious of his actions.

“Your sister lives in Sedan, you say; perhaps we shall be there before long.”

“What, at Sedan?  Never!  You must be crazy; it don’t lie in our way.”