grove of legs of chairs and upturned tables. At the back of another
cart was the decrepit old grandfather tied with cords to a wardrobe,
and he was hauled away for all the world as if he had been one of the
family chattels. Then there were those who did not own a vehicle, so
they piled their household goods haphazard on a wheelbarrow, while
others carried an armful of clothing, and others still had thought
only of saving the clock, which they went off pressing to their bosom
as if it had been a darling child. They found they could not remove
everything, and there were chairs and tables, and bundles of linen too
heavy to carry, lying abandoned in the gutter, Some before leaving had
carefully locked their dwellings, and the houses had a deathlike
appearance, with their barred doors and windows, but the greater
number, in their haste to get away and with the sorrowful conviction
that nothing would escape destruction, had left their poor abodes
open, and the yawning apertures displayed the nakedness of the
dismantled rooms; and those were the saddest to behold, with the
horrible sadness of a city upon which some great dread has fallen,
depopulating it, those poor houses opened to the winds of heaven,
whence the very cats had fled as if forewarned of the impending doom.
At every village the pitiful spectacle became more heartrending, the
number of the fugitives was greater, as they clove their way through
the ever thickening press, with hands upraised, amid oaths and tears.

But in the open country as they drew near Belfort, Maurice's heart was
still more sorely wrung, for there the homeless fugitives were in
greater numbers and lined the borders of the road in an unbroken
cortege. Ah! the unhappy ones, who had believed that they were to find
safety under the walls of the fortifications! The father lashed the
poor old nag, the mother followed after, leading her crying children
by the hand, and in this way entire families, sinking beneath the