keep it together,--a pack of greenhorns with idiots to conduct them,
to the slaughter,--the two bourgeois began to be uneasy, and fearing
there might be trouble brewing, made themselves scarce.

When outside upon the street Maurice hailed a newsboy and purchased a
copy of every paper he could lay hands on, stuffing some in his
pockets and reading others as he walked along under the stately trees
that line the pleasant avenues of the old city. Where could the German
armies be? It seemed as if obscurity had suddenly swallowed them up.
Two were over Metz way, of course: the first, the one commanded by
General von Steinmetz, observing the place; the second, that of Prince
Frederick Charles, aiming to ascend the right bank of the Moselle in
order to cut Bazaine off from Paris. But the third army, that of the
Crown Prince of Prussia, the army that had been victorious at
Wissembourg and Froeschwiller and had driven our 1st and 5th corps,
where was it now, where was it to be located amid the tangled mess of
contradictory advices? Was it still in camp at Nancy, or was it true
that it had arrived before Chalons, and was that the reason why we had
abandoned our camp there in such hot haste, burning our stores,
clothing, forage, provisions, everything--property of which the value
to the nation was beyond compute? And when the different plans with
which our generals were credited came to be taken into consideration,
then there was more confusion, a fresh set of contradictory hypotheses
to be encountered. Maurice had until now been cut off in a measure
from the outside world, and now for the first time learned what had
been the course of events in Paris; the blasting effect of defeat upon
a populace that had been confident of victory, the terrible commotions
in the streets, the convoking of the Chambers, the fall of the liberal
ministry that had effected the plebiscite, the abrogation of the
Emperor's rank as General of the Army and the transfer of the supreme