nevertheless, for what fresh intelligence they received tended to
confirm what they supposed they already knew of the enemy's approach.
A few uhlans, forbidding looking fellows in their long black cloaks,
were brought in as prisoners, but they were uncommunicative, and so
daylight came at last, the pale, ghastly light of a rainy morning,
bringing with it no alleviation of their terrible suspense. No one had
dared to close an eye during that long night. About seven o'clock
Lieutenant Rochas affirmed that MacMahon was coming up with the whole
army. The truth of the matter was that General Douay, in reply to his
dispatch of the preceding day announcing that a battle at Vouziers was
inevitable, had received a letter from the marshal enjoining him to
hold the position until re-enforcements could reach him; the forward
movement had been arrested; the 1st corps was being directed on
Terron, the 5th on Buzancy, while the 12th was to remain at Chene and
constitute our second line. Then the suspense became more breathless
still; it was to be no mere skirmish that the peaceful valley of the
Aisne was to witness that day, but a great battle, in which would
participate the entire army, that was even now turning its back upon
the Meuse and marching southward; and there was no making of soup, the
men had to content themselves with coffee and hard-tack, for everyone
was saying, without troubling himself to ask why, that the "wipe of
the dish-clout" was set down for midday. An aide-de-camp had been
dispatched to the marshal to urge him to hurry forward their supports,
as intelligence received from every quarter made it more and more
certain that the two Prussian armies were close at hand, and three
hours later still another officer galloped off like mad toward Chene,
where general headquarters were located, with a request for
instructions, for consternation had risen to a higher pitch then ever
with the receipt of fresh tidings from the _maire_ of a country
commune, who told of having seen a hundred thousand men at Grand-Pre,