gunner, so that the service of the
piece became impossible, and it was five or six minutes before they
fired their first shot. It ranged high, moreover, and only clipped away
a bit of the roof.

But the end was now at hand. It was all in vain that they searched
the dead men's belts; there was not a single cartridge left. With
vacillating steps and haggard faces the six groped around the room,
seeking what heavy objects they might find to hurl from the windows upon
their enemies. One of them showed himself at the casement, vociferating
insults, and shaking his fist; instantly he was pierced by a dozen
bullets; and there remained but five. What were they to do? go down and
endeavor to make their escape by way of the garden and the meadows? The
question was never answered, for at that moment a tumult arose below, a
furious mob came tumbling up the stairs: it was the Bavarians, who had
at last thought of turning the position by breaking down the back
door and entering the house by that way. For a brief moment a terrible
hand-to-hand conflict raged in the small rooms among the dead bodies
and the debris of the furniture. One of the soldiers had his chest
transfixed by a bayonet thrust, the two others were made prisoners,
while the attitude of the lieutenant, who had given up the ghost, was
that of one about to give an order, his mouth open, his arm raised
aloft.

While these things were occurring an officer, a big, flaxen-haired man,
carrying a revolver in his hand, whose bloodshot eyes seemed bursting
from their sockets, had caught sight of Weiss and Laurent, both in their
civilian attire; he roared at them in French:

"Who are you, you fellows? and what are you doing here?"

Then, glancing at their faces, black with powder-stains, he saw how
matters stood, he heaped insult and abuse on them in guttural German,
in a voice that shook with anger. Already he had raised his revolver and
was about to send a bullet into their heads, when the soldiers of his
command rushed in, seized Laurent and Weiss, and hustled them out to
the staircase. The two men were borne along like straws upon a mill-race
amidst that seething human torrent, under whose pressure they were
hurled from out the door and sent staggering, stumbling across the
street to the opposite wall amid a chorus of execration that drowned
the sound of their officers' voices. Then, for a space of two or three
minutes, while the big fair-haired officer was endeavoring t