Then, between two volleys some one exclaimed in a voice of terror:  “Every man for himself! Sauve qui peut!” This roused shouts and murmurs of rage, as if to say, “The cowards!  Oh! the cowards!” sinister rumours were spreading—­the general had fled; cavalry were sabring the skirmishers in the Nores plain.  However, the irregular firing did not cease, every now and again sudden bursts of flame sped through the clouds of smoke.  A gruff voice, the voice of terror, shouted yet louder:  “Every man for himself! Sauve qui peut!” Some men took to flight, throwing down their weapons and leaping over the dead.  The others closed their ranks.  At last there were only some ten insurgents left.  Two more took to flight, and of the remaining eight three were killed at one discharge.

The two children had remained there mechanically without understanding anything.  As the battalion diminished in numbers, Miette raised the banner still higher in the air; she held it in front of her with clenched fists as if it were a huge taper.  It was completely riddled by bullets.  When Silvere had no more cartridges left in his pocket, he ceased firing, and gazed at the carbine with an air of stupor.  It was then that a shadow passed over his face, as though the flapping wings of some colossal bird had brushed against his forehead.  And raising his eyes he saw the banner fall from Miette’s grasp.  The child, her hands clasped to her breast, her head thrown back with an expression of excruciating suffering, was staggering to the ground.  She did not utter a single cry, but sank at last upon the red banner.

“Get up; come quickly,” Silvere said, in despair, as he held out his hand to her.

But she lay upon the ground without uttering a word, her eyes wide open.  Then he understood, and fell on his knees beside her.

“You are wounded, eh? tell me?  Where are you wounded?”

She still spoke no word; she was stifling, and gazing at him out of her large eyes, while short quivers shook her frame.  Then he pulled away her hands.

“It’s there, isn’t it? it’s there.”

And he tore open her bodice, and laid her bosom bare.  He searched, but saw nothing.  His eyes were brimming with tears.  At last under the left breast he perceived a small pink hole; a single drop of blood stained the wound.

“It’s nothing,” he whispered; “I’ll go and find Pascal, he’ll put you all right again.  If you could only get up.  Can’t you move?”

The soldiers were not firing now; they had dashed to the left in pursuit of the contingents led away by the man with the sabre.  And in the centre of the esplanade there only remained Silvere kneeling beside Miette’s body.  With the stubbornness of despair, he had taken her in his arms.  He wanted to set her on her feet, but such a quiver of pain came upon the girl that he laid her down again, and said to her entreatingly:  “Speak to me, pray.  Why don’t you say something to me?”