thirty-five thousand Prussians all one long summer day, that was not
a circumstance to daunt the courage of anyone; it simply called for
vengeance. Yes, the leaders had doubtless been culpably lacking in
vigilance and were to be censured for their want of foresight, but
that would soon be mended; MacMahon had sent for the 1st division of
the 7th corps, the 1st corps would be supported by the 5th, and the
Prussians must be across the Rhine again by that time, with the
bayonets of our infantry at their backs to accelerate their movement.
And so, beneath the deep, dim vault of heaven, the thought of the
battle that must have raged that day, the feverish impatience with
which the tidings were awaited, the horrible feeling of suspense that
pervaded the air about them, spread from man to man and became each
minute more tense and unendurable.

Maurice was just then saying to Weiss:

"Ah! we have certainly given them a righteous good drubbing to-day."

Weiss made no reply save to nod his head with an air of anxiety. His
gaze was directed toward the Rhine, on that Orient region where now
the night had settled down in earnest, like a wall of blackness,
concealing strange forms and shapes of mystery. The concluding strains
of the bugles for roll-call had been succeeded by a deep silence,
which had descended upon the drowsy camp and was only broken now and
then by the steps and voices of some wakeful soldiers. A light had
been lit--it looked like a twinkling star--in the main room of the
farmhouse where the staff, which is supposed never to sleep, was
awaiting the telegrams that came in occasionally, though as yet they
were undecided. And the green wood fire, now finally left to itself,
was still emitting its funereal wreaths of dense black smoke, which