ely stepped out to transact
some business in the neighborhood. He took a seat by the table and
refreshed himself with some bread and cheese, and to all the questions
that were put to him replied with cool deliberation, like a man who had
never seen anything to alarm him in his situation. What reason had he to
be afraid? He had done nothing wrong; it was not he who had killed the
Prussian, was it? So he had just said to the authorities: "Investigate
the matter; I know nothing about it." And they could do nothing but
release him, and the mayor as well, seeing they had no proofs against
them. But the eyes of the crafty, sly old peasant gleamed with delight
at the thought of how nicely he had pulled the wool over the eyes of
those dirty blackguards, who were beginning to higgle with him over the
quality of the meat he furnished to them.

December was drawing near its end, and Jean insisted on going away. His
leg was quite strong again, and the doctor announced that he was fit
to go and join the army. This was to Henriette a subject of profoundest
sorrow, which she kept locked in her bosom as well as she was able.
No tidings from Paris had reached them since the disastrous battle of
Champigny; all they knew was that Maurice's regiment had been exposed
to a murderous fire and had suffered severely. Ever that deep, unbroken
silence; no letter, never the briefest line for them, when they knew
that families in Raucourt and Sedan were receiving intelligence of their
loved ones by circuitous ways. Perhaps the pigeon that was bringing them
the so eagerly wished-for news had fallen a victim to some hungry bird
of prey, perhaps the bullet of a Prussian had brought it to the ground
at the margin of a wood. But the fear that haunted them most of all was
that Maurice was dead; the silence of the great city off yonder in
the distance, uttering no cry in the mortal hug of the investment, was
become to them in their agonized suspense the silence of death. They
had abandoned all hope of tidings, and when Jean declared his settled
purpose to be gone, Henriette only gave utterance to this stifled cry of
despair:

"My God! then all is ended, and I am to be left alone!"

It was Jean's desire to go and serve with the Army of the North, which
had recently been re-formed under General Faidherbe. Now that General
Manteuffel's corps had moved forward to Dieppe there were three
departments, cut off from the rest of France, that this army had to
de