its commander, poor General de Failly, almost crazy with the thought
that to his inactivity was imputed the responsibility of the defeat,
when the fault all rested in the Marshal's having failed to send him
orders. The mad flight continued on the 9th and 10th, a stampede in
which no one turned to look behind him. On the 11th, in order to turn
Nancy, which a mistaken rumor had reported to be occupied by the
enemy, they made their way in a pouring rainstorm to Bayon; the 12th
they camped at Haroue, the 13th at Vicherey, and on the 14th were at
Neufchateau, where at last they struck the railroad, and for three
days the work went on of loading the weary men into the cars that were
to take them to Chalons. Twenty-four hours after the last train rolled
out of the station the Prussians entered the town. "Ah, the cursed
luck!" said Picot in conclusion; "how we had to ply our legs! And we
who should by rights have been in hospital!"

Coutard emptied what was left in the bottle into his own and his
comrade's glass. "Yes, we got on our pins, somehow, and are running
yet. Bah! it is the best thing for us, after all, since it gives us a
chance to drink the health of those who were not knocked over."

Maurice saw through it all. The sledge hammer blow of Froeschwiller,
following so close on the heels of the idiotic surprise at
Wissembourg, was the lightning flash whose baleful light disclosed to
him the entire naked, terrible truth. We were taken unprepared; we had
neither guns, nor men, nor generals, while our despised foe was an
innumerable host, provided with all modern appliances and faultless in
discipline and leadership. The three German armies had burst apart the
weak line of our seven corps, scattered between Metz and Strasbourg,
like three powerful wedges. We were doomed to fight our battle out
unaided; nothing could be hoped for now from Austria and Italy, for