iness
is that you soldiers seem to know no more about her than you do about
China. You must remember my cousin Gunther, Maurice, the young man,
who came to pay me a flying visit at Sedan last spring. His mother is a
sister of my mother, and married a Berliner; the young man is a German
out and out; he detests everything French. He is a captain in the 5th
Prussian corps. I accompanied him to the railway station that night, and
he said to me in his sharp, peremptory way: 'If France declares war on
us, she will be soundly whipped!' I can hear his words ringing in my
ears yet."

Forthwith, Lieutenant Rochas, who had managed to contain himself until
then, not without some difficulty, stepped forward in a towering
rage. He was a tall, lean individual of about fifty, with a long,
weather-beaten, and wrinkled face; his inordinately long nose, curved
like the beak of a bird of prey, over a strong but well-shaped mouth,
concealed by a thick, bristling mustache that was beginning to be
touched with silver. And he shouted in a voice of thunder:

"See here, you, sir! what yarns are those that you are retailing to
dishearten my men?"

Jean did not interfere with his opinion, but he thought that the last
speaker was right, for he, too, while beginning to be conscious of the
protracted delay, and the general confusion in their affairs, had never
had the slightest doubt about that terrible thrashing they were certain
to give the Prussians. There could be no question about the matter, for
was not that the reason of their being there?

"But I am not trying to dishearten anyone, Lieutenant," Weiss answered
in astonishment. "Quite the reverse; I am desirous that others should
know what I know, because then they will be able to act with their eyes
open. Look here! that Germany of which we were speaking--"

And he went on in his clear, demonstrative way to explain the reason of
his fears: how Prussia had increased her resources since Sadowa; how the
national movement had placed her at the head of the other German states,
a mighty empire in process of formation and rejuvenation, with
the constant hope and desire for unity as the incentive to their
irresistible efforts; the system of compulsory military service, which
made them a nation of trained soldiers, provided with the most effective
arms of modern invention, with generals who were masters in the art
of strategy, proudly mindful still of the crushing defeat they had
administered to