agged, hungry, exhausted men; and then along came your
rascals, and their appetites were not so very poor, either. The passage
of those troops through the place, what with requisitions, repairing
damages and expenses of all sorts, stood us in a million and a half.
Add as much more for the destruction caused by your artillery and by
conflagration during the battle; there you have three millions. Finally,
I am well within bounds in estimating the loss sustained by our trade
and manufactures at two millions. What do you say to that, eh? A
grand total of five million francs for a city of thirteen thousand
inhabitants! And now you come and ask us for forty-two thousand more as
a contribution to the expense of carrying on the war against us! Is it
fair, is it reasonable? I leave it to your own sense of justice."

M. de Gartlauben nodded his head with an air of profundity, and made
answer:

"What can you expect? It is the fortune of war, the fortune of war."

To Henriette, seated in her window seat, her ears ringing, and vague,
sad images of every sort fleeting through her brain, the time seemed
to pass with mortal slowness, while Delaherche asserted on his word of
honor that Sedan could never have weathered the crisis produced by the
exportation of all their specie had it not been for the wisdom of the
local magnates in emitting an issue of paper money, a step that had
saved the city from financial ruin.

"Captain, will you have just a drop of cognac more?" and he skipped
to another topic. "It was not France that started the war; it was the
Emperor. Ah, I was greatly deceived in the Emperor. He need never expect
to sit on the throne again; we would see the country dismembered first.
Look here! there was just one man in this country last July who saw
things as they were, and that was M. Thiers; and his action at the
present time in visiting the different capitals of Europe is most wise
and patriotic. He has the best wishes of every good citizen; may he be
successful!"

He expressed the conclusion of his idea by a gesture, for he would
have considered it improper to speak of his desire for peace before a
Prussian, no matter how friendly he might be, although the desire burned
fiercely in his bosom, as it did in that of every member of the old
conservative bourgeoisie who had favored the plebiscite. Their men and
money were exhausted, it was time for them to throw up the sponge; and a
deep-seated feeling of hatred toward Pa