accounted for on the ground of the necessities of the commissariat.
Montmedy had ceased to be their objective, then? why were they thus
idling away their time again? What was most alarming of all was that
the Prussians could not now be far away, for the officers had
cautioned their men not to fall behind the column, as all stragglers
were liable to be picked up by the enemy's light cavalry.
It was the 25th of August, and Maurice, when he subsequently recalled
to mind Goliah's disappearance, was certain that the man had been
instrumental in affording the German staff exact information as to the
movements of the army of Chalons, and thus producing the change of
front of their third army. The succeeding morning the Crown Prince of
Prussia left Revigny and the great maneuver was initiated, that
gigantic movement by the flank, surrounding and enmeshing us by a
series of forced marches conducted in the most admirable order through
Champagne and the Ardennes. While the French were stumbling aimlessly
about the country, oscillating uncertainly between one place and
another, the Prussians were making their twenty miles a day and more,
gradually contracting their immense circle of beaters upon the band of
men whom they held within their toils, and driving their prey onward
toward the forests of the frontier.

A start was finally made, and the result of the day's movement showed
that the army was pivoting on its left; the 7th corps only traversed
the two short leagues between Contreuve and Vouziers, while the 5th
and 12th corps did not stir from Rethel, and the 1st went no farther
than Attigny. Between Contreuve and the valley of the Aisne the
country became level again and was more bare than ever; as they drew
near to Vouziers the road wound among desolate hills and naked 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