The Blockade of Phalsburg: An Episode of the End of the Empire

by Erckmann-Chatrian

  XIX

  THE PASSOVER

  Then, Fritz, the funeral rites began. All who died of typhus had to beburied the same day: Christians behind the church, and Jews in thetrenches, in the place now occupied by the riding-school.

  Old women were already there to wash the poor little body, and comb thehair, and cut the nails, according to the law of the Lord. Some ofthem sewed the winding-sheet.

  The open windows admitted the air, the shutters struck against thewalls. The _schamess_* went through the streets, striking the doorswith his mace, to summon our brethren.

  * Beadle.

  Sorle sat upon the ground with her head veiled. Hearing Desmarets comeup the stairs, I had courage to go and meet him, and show him the room.The poor angel was in his little shirt on the floor, the head raised alittle on some straw, and the little _thaleth_ in his fingers. He wasso beautiful, with his brown hair, and half-opened lips, that I thoughtas I looked at him: "The Lord wanted to have thee near his throne!"

  And my tears fell silently: my beard was full of them.

  Desmarets then took the measure and went. Half an hour afterward, hereturned with the little pine coffin under his arm, and the house wasfilled anew with lamentations.

  I could not see the coffin closed! I went and sat upon the sack ofashes, covering my face with both hands, and crying in my heart likeJacob, "Surely I shall go down to the grave with this child; I shallnot survive him."

  Only a very few of our brethren came, for a panic was in the city; menknew that the angel of death was passing by, and that drops of bloodrained from his sword upon the houses; each emptied the water from hisjug upon the threshold and entered quickly. But the best of them camesilently, and as evening approached, it was necessary to go and descendby the postern.

  I was the only one of our family. Sorle was not able to follow me, norZeffen. I was the only one to throw the shovelful of earth. Mystrength all left me, they had to lead me back to our door. Thesergeant held me by the arm; he spoke to me and I did not hear him; Iwas as if dead.

  All else that I remember of that dreadful day, is the moment when,having come into the house, sitting on the sack, before our coldhearth, with bare feet and bent head, and my soul in the depths, the_schamess_ came to me, touched my shoulder and made me rise; and thentook his knife from his pocket and rent my garment, tearing it to thehip. This blow was the last and the most dreadful; I fell back,murmuring with Job:

  "Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it wassaid, there is a man child conceived! Let a cloud dwell upon it, letthe blackness of the day terrify it! For mourning, the true mourningdoes not come down from the father to the child, but goes up from thechild to the father. Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breaststhat I should suck? For now I should have lain still in the tomb andbeen at rest!"

  And my grief, Fritz, had no bounds; "What will Baruch say," Iexclaimed, "and what shall I answer him when he asks me to give himback his child?"

  I felt no longer any interest in our business. Zeffen lived with theold rabbi; her mother spent the days with her, to take care of Esdrasand comfort her.

  Every part of our house was opened; the _schabesgoie_ burned sugar andspices, and the air from without had free circulation. Safel went onselling.

  As for myself, I sat before the hearth in the morning, cooked somepotatoes, and ate them with a little salt, and then went out, withoutthought or aim. I wandered sometimes to the right, sometimes to theleft, toward the old gendarmerie, around the ramparts, inout-of-the-way places.

  I could not bear to see any one, especially those who had known thechild.

  Then, Fritz, our miseries were at their height; famine, cold, all kindsof sufferings weighed upon the city; faces grew thin, and women andchildren were seen, half-naked and trembling, groping in the shadow inthe deserted by-ways.

  Ah! such miseries will never return! We have no more such abominablewars, lasting twenty years, when the highways looked like ruts, and theroads like streams of mud; when the ground remained untilled for wantof husbandmen, when houses sank for want of inhabitants; when the poorwent barefoot and the rich in wooden shoes, while the superior officerspassed by on superb horses, looking down contemptuously on the wholehuman race.

  We could not endure that now!

  But at that time everything in the nation was destroyed and humiliated;the citizens and the people had nothing left; force was everything. Ifa man said, "But there is such a thing as justice, right, truth!" theway was to answer with a smile, "I do not understand you!" and you weretaken for a man of sense and experience, who would make his way.

  Then, in the midst of my sorrow, I saw these things without thinkingabout them; but since then, they have come back to me, and thousands ofothers; all the survivors of those days can remember them, too.

  One morning, I was under the old market, looking at the wretches asthey bought meat. At that time they knocked down the horses ofRouge-Colas and those of the gendarmes, as fleshless as the cattle inthe trenches, and sold the meat at very high prices.

  I looked at the swarms of wrinkled old women, of hollow-eyed citizens,all these wretched creatures crowding before Frantz Sepel's stall,while he distributed bits of carcass to them.

  Frantz's large dogs were seen no longer prowling about the market,licking up the bloody scraps. The dried hands of old women werestretched out at the end of their fleshless arms, to snatch everything;weak voices called out entreatingly, "A little more liver, MonsieurFrantz, so that we can make merry!"

  I saw all this under the great dark roof, through which a little lightcame, in the holes made by the shells. In the distance, among theworm-eaten pillars, some soldiers, under the arch of the guard-house,with their old capes hanging down their thighs, were also lookingon;--it seemed like a dream.

  My great sorrow accorded with these sad sights. I was about leaving atthe end of a half hour, when I saw Burguet coming along by FatherBrainstein's old country-house, which was now staved in by the shells,and leaning, all shattered, over the street.

  Burguet had told me several days before our affliction, that hismaid-servant was sick. I had thought no more of it, but now it came tome.

  He looked so changed, so thin, his cheeks so marked by wrinkles, itseemed as if years had passed since I had seen him. His hat came downto his eyes, and his beard, at least a fortnight old, had turned gray.He came in, looking round in all directions; but he could not see mewhere I was, in the deep shadow, against the planks of the oldfodder-house; and he stopped behind the crowd of old women, who weresqueezed in a semicircle before the stall, awaiting their turn.

  After a minute he put some sous in Frantz Sepel's hand, and receivedhis morsel, which he hid under his cloak. Then looking round again, hewas going away quickly, with his head down.

  This sight moved my heart: I hurried away, raising my hands to heaven,and exclaiming: "Is it possible? Is it possible? Burguet too! A manof his genius to suffer hunger and eat carcasses! Oh, what times oftrial!"

  I went home, completely upset.

  We had not many provisions left; but, still, the next morning, as Safelwas going down to open the shop, I said to him:

  "Stop, my child, take this little basket to M. Burguet; it is somepotatoes and salt beef. Take care that nobody sees it, they would takeit from you. Say that it is in remembrance of the poor deserter."

  The child went. He told me that Burguet wept.

  This, Fritz, is what must be seen in a blockade, where you are attackedfrom day to day. This is what the Germans and Spaniards had to suffer,and what we suffered in our turn. This is war!

  Even the siege rations were almost gone; but Moulin, the commandant ofthe place, having died of typhus, the famine did not prevent thelieutenant-colonel, who took his place, from giving balls and fetes tothe envoys, in the old Thevenot house. The windows were bright, musicplayed, the staff-officers drank punch and warm wine, to make believethat we were living in abundance. There was good reason
for bandagingthe eyes of these envoys till they reached the very ball-room, for, ifthey had seen the look of the people, all the punch-bowls and warmwines in the world would not have deceived them.

  All this time, the grave-digger Mouyot and his two boys came everymorning to take their two or three drops of brandy. They might say "Wedrink to the dead!" as the veterans said "We drink to the Cossacks!"Nobody in the city would willingly have undertaken to bury those whohad died of typhus; they alone, after taking their drop, dared to throwthe bodies from the hospital upon a cart, and pile them up in the pit,and then they passed for grave-diggers, with Father Zebede.

  The order was to wrap the dead in a sheet. But who saw that it wasdone? Old Mouyot himself told me that they were buried in their cloaksor vests, as it might be, and sometimes entirely naked.

  For every corpse, these men had their thirty-five sous; Father Mouyot,the blind man, can tell you so; it was his harvest.

  Toward the end of March, in the midst of this fearful want, when therewas not a dog, and still less a cat, to be seen in the streets, thecity was full of evil tidings; rumors of battles lost, of marches uponParis, etc.

  As the envoys had been received, and balls given in their honor,something of our misfortunes became known either through the family orthe servants.

  Often, in wandering through the streets which ran along the ramparts, Imounted one of the bastions, looking toward Strasburg, or Metz, orParis. I had no fear then of stray balls. I looked forth upon thethousand bivouac fires scattered over the plain, the soldiers of theenemy returning from the villages with their long poles hung withquarters of meat, at others crouched around the little fires whichshone like stars upon the edge of the forest, and at their patrols andtheir covered batteries from which their flag was flying.

  Sometimes I looked at the smoke of the chimneys at Quatre-Vents, orBichelberg, or Mittelbronn. Our chimneys had no smoke, our festivedays were over.

  You can never imagine how many thoughts come to you, when you are soshut up, as your eyes follow the long white highways, and you imagineyourself walking there, talking with people about the news, asking themwhat they have suffered, and telling them what you have yourselfendured.

  From the bastion of the guard, I could see even the white peaks of theSchneeberg; I imagined myself in the midst of foresters, wood-cutters,and wood-splitters. There was a rumor that they were defending theirroute from Schirmeck; I longed to know if it were true.

  As I looked toward the Maisons-Rouges, on the road to Paris, I imaginedmyself to be with my old friend Leiser; I saw him at his hearth, indespair at having to support so many people, for the Russian, Austrian,and Bavarian staff-officers remained upon this route, and new regimentswent by continually.

  And spring came! The snow began to melt in the furrows and behind thehedges. The great forests of La Bonne-Fontaine and the Barracks beganto change their tents.

  The thing which affected me most, as I have often remembered, washearing the first lark at the end of March. The sky was entirelyclear, and I looked up to see the bird. I thought of little David, andI wept, I knew not why.

  Men have strange thoughts; they are affected by the song of a bird, andsometimes, years after, the same sounds recall the same emotions, so aseven to make them weep.

  At last the house was purified, and Zeffen and Sorle came back to it.

  The time of the Passover drew near; and the floors must be washed, thewalls scoured, the vessels cleansed. In the midst of these cares, thepoor women forgot, in some measure, our affliction; but as the timedrew nearer our anxiety increased; how, in the midst of this famine,were we to obey the command of God:

  "This month shall be the first month of the year to you.

  "In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man alamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house.

  "Ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats.

  "And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month.

  "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, andunleavened bread; and with bitter herbs shall they eat it."

  But where was the sacrificial lamb to be found? Schmoule alone, theold _schamess_, had thought of it for us all, three months before; hehad nourished a male goat of that year in his cellar, and that was thegoat that was killed.

  Every Jewish family had a portion of it, small indeed, but the law ofthe Lord was fulfilled.

  We invited on that day, according to the law, one of the poorest of ourbrethren, Kalmes. We went together to the synagogue; the prayers wererecited, and then we returned to partake of the feast at our table.

  Everything was ready and according to the proper order, notwithstandingthe great destitution; the white cloth, the goblet of vinegar, the hardegg, the horseradish, the unleavened bread, and the flesh of the goat.The lamp with seven burners shone above it; but we had not much bread.

  Having taken my seat in the midst of my family, Safel took the jug andpoured water upon my hands; then we all bent forward, each took a pieceof bread, saying with heavy hearts:

  "This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in Egypt.Whosoever is hungry, let him come and eat with us. Whosoever is poor,let him come and make the Passover!"

  We sat down again, and Safel said to me:

  "What mean ye by this service, my father?"

  And I answered:

  "We were slaves in Egypt, my child, and the Lord brought us forth witha mighty hand and an outstretched arm!"

  These words inspired us with courage; we hoped that God would deliverus as He had delivered our fathers, and that the Emperor would be Hisright arm; but we were mistaken, the Lord wanted nothing more of thatman!

  XX

  PEACE

  The next morning, at daybreak, between six and seven o'clock, when wewere all asleep, the report of a cannon made our windows rattle. Theenemy usually fired only at night. I listened; a second reportfollowed after a few seconds, then another, then others, one by one.

  I rose, opened a window, and looked out. The sun was rising behind thearsenal. Not a soul was in the street; but, as one report came afteranother, doors and windows were opened; men in their shirts leaned out,listening.

  No shells hissed through the air; the enemy fired blank cartridges.

  As I listened, a great murmur came from the distance, outside of thecity. First it came from the Mittelbronn hill, then it reached theBichelberg, Quatre-Vents, the upper and lower Barracks.

  Sorle had just risen also; I finished dressing, and said to her:

  "Something extraordinary is going on--God grant that it may be forgood!"

  And I went down in great perturbation.

  It was not a quarter of an hour since the first report, and the wholecity was out. Some ran to the ramparts, others were in groups,shouting and disputing at the corners of the streets. Astonishment,fear, and anger were depicted upon every face.

  A large number of soldiers were mingled with the citizens, and all wentup together in groups to the right and left of the French gate.

  I was about following one of these groups, when Burguet came down thestreet. He looked thin and emaciated, as on the day when I saw him inthe market.

  "Well!" said I, running to meet him, "this is something serious!"

  "Very serious, and promising no good, Moses!" said he.

  "Yes, it is evident," said I, "that the allies have gained victories;it may be that they are in Paris!"

  He turned around in alarm, and said in a low voice:

  "Take care, Moses, take care! If any one heard you, at a moment likethis, the veterans would tear you in pieces!"

  I was dreadfully frightened, for I saw that he was right, while, as forhim, his cheeks shook. He took me by the arm and said:

  "I owe you thanks for the provisions you sent me; they came veryopportunely."

  And when I answered that we should always have a morsel of bread at hisservice, so long as we had any left, he pressed my h
and; and we wenttogether up the street of the infantry quarters, as far as to theice-house bastion, where two batteries had been placed to command theMittelbronn hill. There we could see the road to Paris as far as toPetite Saint Jean, and even to Lixheim; but those great heaps of earth,called _cavaliers_, were covered with people; Baron Parmentier, hisassistant Pipelingre, the old curate Leth, and many other men of notewere there, in the midst of the crowd, looking on in silence. We hadonly to see their faces to know that something dreadful was happening.

  From this height on the talus, we saw what was riveting everybody'sattention. All our enemies, Austrians, Bavarians, Wurtemburgers,Russians, cavalry and infantry mixed together, were swarming aroundtheir intrenchments like ants, embracing each other, shaking hands,lifting their shakos on the points of their bayonets, waving branchesof trees just beginning to turn green. Horsemen dashed across theplain, with their colbacs on the point of their swords, and rending theair with their shouts.

  The telegraph was in operation on the hill of Saint Jean; Burguetpointed it out to me.

  "If we understood those signals, Moses," said he, "we should knowbetter what was going to happen to us in the next fortnight."

  Some persons having turned round to listen to us, we went down againinto the streets of the quarters, very thoughtfully.

  The soldiers at the upper windows of the barracks were also lookingout. Men and women in great numbers were collecting in the street.

  We went through the crowd. In the street of the Capuchins, which wasalways deserted, Burguet, who was walking with his head down, exclaimed:

  "So it is all over! What things have we seen in these last twenty-fiveyears, Moses! What astonishing and terrible things! And it is allover!"

  He took hold of my hand, and looked at me as if he were astonished athis own words; then he began to walk on.

  "This winter campaign has been frightful to me," said he; "it hasdragged along--dragged along--and the thunder-bolt did not come! Butto-morrow, the day after to-morrow, what are we going to hear? Is theEmperor dead? How will that affect us? Will France still be France?What will they leave us? What will they take from us?"

  Reflecting on these things, we came in front of our house. Then, as ifsuddenly wakened, Burguet said to me:

  "Prudence, Moses! If the Emperor is not dead, the veterans will holdout till the last second. Remember that, and whoever they suspect willhave everything to fear."

  I thanked him, and went up, promising myself that I would follow hisadvice.

  My wife and children were waiting breakfast for me, with the littlebasket of potatoes upon the table. We sat down, and I told them in alow voice what was to be seen from the top of the ramparts, and chargedthem to keep silent, for the danger was not over; the garrison mightrevolt and choose to defend itself, in spite of the officers; and thosewho mixed themselves in these matters, either for or against, even onlyin words, ran the risk of destruction without profit to any one.

  They saw that I was right, and I had no need of saying more.

  We were afraid that our sergeant would come, and that we should beobliged to answer him, if he asked what we thought of these matters;but he did not come in till about eleven, when we had all been in bedfor a long time.

  The next day the news of the entrance of the allies to Paris wasaffixed to the church doors and the pillars of the market; it was neverknown by whom! M. de Vablerie, and three or four other emigrants,capable of such a deed, were spoken of at the time, but nothing wasknown with certainty.

  The mounted guard tore down the placards, but unfortunately not beforethe soldiers and citizens had read them.

  It was something so new, so incredible, after those ten years of war,when the Emperor had been everything, and the nation had been, so tospeak, in the shadow; when not a man had dared to speak or write a wordwithout permission; when men had had no other rights than those ofpaying, and giving their sons as conscripts,--it was such a greatmatter to think that the Emperor could have been conquered, that a manlike myself in the midst of his family shook his head three or fourtimes, before daring to breathe a single word.

  So everybody kept quiet, notwithstanding the placards. The officialsstayed at home, so as not to have to talk about it; the governor andcouncil of defence did not stir; but the last recruits, in the hope ofgoing home to their villages, embracing their families, and returningto their trades or farming, did not conceal their joy, as was verynatural. The veterans, whose only trade and only means of living waswar, were full of indignation! They did not believe a word of it; theydeclared that the reports were all false, that the Emperor had not losta battle, and that the placards and the cannon-firing of the allieswere only a stratagem to make us open the gates.

  And from that time, Fritz, the men began to desert, not one at a time,but by sixes, by tens, by twenties. Whole posts filed off over themountain with their arms and baggage. The veterans fired upon thedeserters; they killed some of them, and were ordered to escort theconscripts who carried soup to the outposts. * * * * *

  During this time, the flag of truce officers did nothing but come andgo, one after another. All, Russian, Austrian, Bavarian,staff-officers stayed whole hours at the head-quarters, having, nodoubt, important matters to discuss.

  Our sergeant came to our room only for a moment in the evening, tocomplain of the desertions, and we were glad of it; Zeffen was stillsick, Sorle could not leave her, and I had to help Safel until thepeople went home.

  The shop was always full of veterans; as soon as one set went awayanother came.

  These old, gray-headed men swallowed down glass after glass of brandy;they paid by turns, and grew more and more down-hearted. They trembledwith rage, and talked of nothing but treason, while they looked at youas if they would see through you.

  Sometimes they would smile and say:

  "I tell you! if it is necessary to blow up the fortress, it will go!"

  Safel and I pretended not to understand; but you can imagine our agony;after having suffered all that we had, to be in danger of being blownup with those veterans!

  That evening our sergeant repeated word for word what the others hadsaid: "It was all nothing but lies and treason. The Emperor would puta stop to it by sweeping off this rabble!"

  "Just wait! Just wait!" he exclaimed, as he smoked his pipe, with histeeth set. "It will all be cleared up soon! The thunder-bolt iscoming! And, this time, no pity, no mercy! All the villains will haveto go then--all the traitors! The country will have to be cleansed fora hundred years! Never mind, Moses, we'll laugh!"

  You may well suppose that we did not feel like laughing.

  But the day when I was most anxious was the eighth of April, in themorning, when the decree of the Senate, deposing the Emperor, appeared.

  Our shop was full of marine artillerymen and subalterns from thestorehouses. We had just served them, when the secretary of thetreasury, a short stout man, with full yellow cheeks, and theregulation cap over his ears, came in and called for a glass; he thentook the decree from his pocket.

  "Listen!" said he, as he began calmly to read it to the others.

  It seems as if I could hear it now:

  "Whereas, Napoleon Bonaparte has violated the compact which bound himto the French nation, by levying taxes otherwise than in virtue of thelaw, by unnecessarily adjourning the Legislative Body, by illegallymaking many decrees involving sentence of death, by annulling theauthority of the ministers, the independence of the judiciary, thefreedom of the press, etc.; Whereas, Napoleon has filled up the measureof the country's misfortunes, by his abuse of all the means of warcommitted to him, in men and money, and by refusing to treat onconditions which the national interest required him to accept; Whereas,the manifest wish of all the French demands an order of things, thefirst result of which shall be the re-establishment of general peace,and which shall also be the epoch of solemn reconciliation between allthe States of the great European family, the Senate decrees: NapoleonBonaparte has forfeited th
e throne; the right of succession isabolished in his family; the people and the army are released from theoath of allegiance to him."

  He had scarcely begun to read when I thought: "If that goes on theywill tear down my shop over my head."

  In my fright, I even sent Safel out hastily by the back door. But itall happened very differently from what I expected. These veteransdespised the Senate; they shrugged their shoulders, and the one whoread the decree sniffed at it, and threw it under the counter. "TheSenate!" said he. "What is the Senate? A set of hangers-on, a set ofsycophants that the Emperor has bribed, right and left, to keep sayingto him--'_God bless you!_'"

  "Yes, major," said another; "but they ought to be kicked out all thesame."

  "Bah! It is not worth the trouble," replied the sergeant-major; "afortnight hence, when the Emperor is master again, they will come andlick his boots. Such men are necessary in a dynasty--men who lick yourboots--it has a good effect!--especially old nobility, who are paidthirty or forty thousand francs a year. They will come back, and bequiet, and the Emperor will pardon them, especially since he cannotfind others noble enough to fill their places."

  And as they all went away after emptying their glasses, I thankedheaven for having given them such confidence in the Emperor.

  This confidence lasted till about the eleventh or twelfth of April,when some officers, sent by the general commanding the fourth militarydivision, came to say that the garrison of Metz recognized the Senateand followed its orders.

  This was a terrible blow for our veterans. We saw, that evening, byour sergeant's face, that it was a death-blow to him. He looked tenyears older, and you would have wept merely to see his face. Up tothat time he had kept saying: "All these decrees, all these placardsare acts of treason! The Emperor is down yonder with his army, all thewhile, and we are here to support him. Don't fear, Father Moses!"

  But since the arrival of the officers from Metz, he had lost hisconfidence. He came into our room, without speaking, and stood up,very pale, looking at us.

  I thought: "But this man loves us. He has been kind to us. He gave ushis fresh meat all through the blockade; he loved our little David; hefondled him on his knees. He loves Esdras too. He is a good, braveman, and here he is, so wretched!"

  I wanted to comfort him, to tell him that he had friends, that we allloved him, that we would make sacrifices to help him, if he had tochange his employment; yes, I thought of all this, but as I looked athim his grief seemed so terrible that I could not say a word.

  He took two or three turns and stopped again, then suddenly went out.His sorrow was too great, he would not even speak of it.

  At length, on the sixteenth of April, an armistice was concluded forburying the dead. The bridge of the German gate was lowered, and largenumbers of people went out and stayed till evening, to dig the ground alittle with their spades, and try to bring back a few green things.Zeffen being all this time sick, we stayed at home.

  That evening two new officers from Metz, sent as envoys, came in atnight as the bridges were being raised. They galloped along the streetto the headquarters. I saw them pass.

  The arrival of these officers greatly excited the hopes and fears ofevery one; important measures were expected, and all night long weheard the sergeant walk to and fro in his room, get up, walk about, andlie down again, talking confusedly to himself.

  The poor man felt that a dreadful blow was coming, and he had not aminute's rest. I heard him lamenting, and his sighs kept me fromsleeping.

  The next morning at ten the assembly was beat. The governor and themembers of the council of defence went, in full dress, to the infantryquarters.

  Everybody in the city was at the windows.

  Our sergeant went down, and I followed him in a few minutes. Thestreet was thronged with people. I made my way through the crowd;everybody kept his place in it, trying to move on.

  When I came in front of the barracks, the companies had just formed ina circle; the quarter-masters in the midst were reading in a loud voicethe order of the day; it was the abdication of the Emperor, thedisbanding of the recruits of 1813 and 1814, the recognition of LouisXVIII., the order to set up the white flag and change the cockade!

  Not a murmur was heard from the ranks; all was quiet, terrible,frightful! Those old soldiers, their teeth set, their mustachesshaking, their brows scowling fiercely, presenting arms in silence; thevoices of the quartermasters stopping now and then as if choking; thestaff-officers of the place, at a distance under the arch, sullen, withtheir eyes on the ground; the eager attention of all that crowd of men,women, and children, through the whole length of the street, leaningforward on tiptoe, with open mouths and listening ears; all this,Fritz, would have made you tremble.

  I was on cooper Schweyer's steps, where I could see everything and hearevery word.

  So long as the order of the day was read, nobody stirred; but at thecommand:--Break ranks! a terrible cry arose from all directions;tumult, confusion, fury burst forth at once.

  People did not know what they were doing. The conscripts ran in filesto the postern gates, the old soldiers stood a moment, as if rooted tothe spot, then their rage broke forth; one tore off his epaulettes,another dashed his musket with both hands against the pavement; someofficers doubled up their sabres and swords, which snapped apart with acrash.

  The governor tried to speak; he tried to form the ranks again, butnobody heard him; the new recruits were already in all the rooms at thebarracks, making up their bundles to start on their journey; the oldones were going to the right and left, as if they were drunk or mad.

  I saw some of these old soldiers stop in a corner, lean their headsagainst the wall, and weep bitterly.

  At last all were dispersed, and protracted cries reached from thebarracks to the square, incessant cries, which rose and fell like sighs.

  Some low, despairing shouts of "_Vive l'Empereur!_" but not a singleshout of "_Vive le Roi!_"

  For my part, I ran home to tell about it all; I had scarcely gone up,when the sergeant came also, with his musket on his shoulder. Weshould have liked to congratulate each other on the ending of theblockade, but on seeing the sergeant standing at the door, we werechilled to the bones, and our attention was fixed upon him.

  "Ah, well!" said he, placing the butt-end of his musket upon the floor,"it is all ended!"

  And for a moment he said no more.

  Then he stammered out: "This is the shabbiest piece of business in theworld--the recruits are disbanded--they are leaving--France remains,bound hand and foot, in the grip of the kaiserlichs! Ah! the rascals!the rascals!"

  "Yes, sergeant," I replied with emotion, seeing that his thoughts mustbe diverted: "now we are going to have peace, sergeant! You have asister left in the Jura, you will go to her----"

  "Oh!" he exclaimed, lifting his hand, "my poor sister!"

  This came like a sob; but he quickly recovered himself, and went andplaced his musket in the corner by the door.

  He sat down at the table with us for a moment, and took up littleSafel, drawing him to him and caressing his cheeks. Then he wanted tohold Esdras also. We looked on in silence.

  "I am going to leave you, Father Moses," said he, "I am going to packmy bag. Thunder and lightning! I am sorry to leave you!"

  "And we are sorry, too, sergeant," said Sorle,. mournfully; "but ifyou will live with us----"

  "It is impossible!"

  "Then you remain in the service?"

  "Service of whom--of what?" said he; "of Louis XVIII.? No! no! I knowno one but my general--but that makes it hard to go--when a man hasdone his duty----"

  He started up, and shouted in a piercing voice: "_Vive l'Empereur!_"

  We trembled, we did not know why.

  I reached out my hand to him, and rose; we embraced each other likebrothers.

  "Good-by, Father Moses," said he, "good-by for a long while."

  "You are going at once, then?"

  "Yes!"

  "You k
now, sergeant, that you will always have friends here. You willcome and see us. If you need anything----"

  "Yes, yes, I know it. You are true friends--excellent people!"

  He shook my hand vehemently.

  Then he took up his musket, and we were all following him, expressingour good wishes, when he turned, with tears in his eyes, and embracedmy wife, saying:

  "I must embrace you, too; there is no harm in it, is there, MadameSorle?"

  "Oh, no!" said she, "you are one of the family, and I will embraceZeffen for you!"

  He went out at once, exclaiming in a hoarse voice, "Good-by! Farewell!"

  I saw him go into his room at the end of the little passage.

  Twenty-five years of service, eight wounds, and no bread in his oldage! My heart bled at the thought of it.

  About a quarter of an hour after, the sergeant came down with hismusket. Meeting Safel on the stairs, he said to him, "Stay, that isfor your father!"

  It was the portrait of the landwehr's wife and children. Safel broughtit to me at once. I took the poor devil's gift, and looked at it for along time, very sadly; then I shut it up in the closet with the letter.

  It was noon, and, as the gates were about to be opened, and abundanceof provisions were to come, we sat down before a large piece of boiledbeef, with a dish of potatoes, and opened a good bottle of wine.

  We were still eating when we heard shouts in the street. Safel got upto look out.

  "A wounded soldier that they are carrying to the hospital!" said he.

  Then he exclaimed, "It is our sergeant!"

  A horrible thought ran through my mind. "Keep still!" I said to Sorle,who was getting up, and I went down alone.

  Four marine gunners were carrying the litter by on their shoulders;children were running behind.

  At the first glance I recognized the sergeant; his face perfectly whiteand his breast covered with blood. He did not move. The poor fellowhad gone from our house to the bastion behind the arsenal, to shoothimself through the heart.

  I went up so overwhelmed, so sad and sorrowful, that I could scarcelystand.

  Sorle was waiting for me in great agitation.

  "Our poor sergeant has killed himself," said I; "may God forgive him!"

  And, sitting down, I could not help bursting into tears!

  XXI

  It is said with truth that misfortunes never come singly; one bringsanother in its train. The death of our good sergeant was, however, thelast.

  That same day the enemy withdrew his outposts to six hundred yards fromthe city, the white flag was raised on the church, and the gates wereopened.

  Now, Fritz, you know about our blockade. Should I tell you, inaddition, about Baruch's coming, of Zeffen's cries, and the groaningsof us all, when we had to say to the good man: "Our little David isdead--thou wilt never see him again!"

  No, it is enough! If we were to speak of all the miseries of war, andall their consequences in after years, there would be no end!

  I would rather tell you of my sons Itzig and Fromel, and of my Safel,who has gone to join them in America.

  If I should tell you of all the wealth they have acquired in that greatcountry of freemen, of the lands they have bought, the money they havelaid up, the number of grandchildren they have given me, and of all theblessings they have heaped upon Sorle and myself, you would be full ofastonishment and admiration.

  They have never allowed me to want for anything. The greatest pleasureI can give them is to wish for something; each of them wants to send itto me! They do not forget that by my prudent foresight I saved themfrom the war.

  I love them all alike, Fritz, and I say of them, like Jacob:

  "May the God of Abraham and Isaac, our fathers, the God which fed meall my life long unto this day, bless the lads; let them grow into amultitude in the midst of the earth, and their seed become a multitudeof nations!"