while another hundred thousand were advancing by way of Buzancy.

Midday came, and not a sign of the Prussians. At one o'clock, at two,
it was the same, and a reaction of lassitude and doubt began to
prevail among the troops. Derisive jeers were heard at the expense of
the generals: perhaps they had seen their shadow on the wall; they
should be presented with a pair of spectacles. A pretty set of humbugs
they were, to have caused all that trouble for nothing! A fellow who
passed for a wit among his comrades shouted:

"It is like it was down there at Mulhausen, eh?"

The words recalled to Maurice's mind a flood of bitter memories. He
thought of that idiotic flight, that panic that had swept away the 7th
corps when there was not a German visible, nor within ten leagues of
where they were, and now he had a distinct certainty that they were to
have a renewal of that experience. It was plain that if twenty-four
hours had elapsed since the skirmish at Grand-Pre and they had not
been attacked, the reason was that the 4th hussars had merely struck
up against a reconnoitering body of cavalry; the main body of the
Prussians must be far away, probably a day's march or two. Then the
thought suddenly struck him of the time they had wasted, and it
terrified him; in three days they had only accomplished the distance
from Contreuve to Vouziers, a scant two leagues. On the 25th the other
corps, alleging scarcity of supplies, had diverted their course to the
north, while now, on the 27th, here they were coming southward again
to fight a battle with an invisible enemy. Bordas' brigade had
followed the 4th hussars into the abandoned passes of the Argonne, and
was supposed to have got itself into trouble; the division had gone to
its assistance, and that had been succeeded by the corps, and that by