ering is more than I can stand."

They divided the loaf between them and each devoured his portion
gluttonously, unmindful of what was going on about them so long as a
crumb remained. And it was at that time that they saw their colonel for
the last time, sitting his big horse, with his blood-stained boot. The
regiment was surrounded on every side; already some of the companies had
left the field. Then, unable longer to restrain their flight, with tears
standing in his eyes and raising his sword above his head:

"My children," cried M. de Vineuil, "I commend you to the protection of
God, who thus far has spared us all!"

He rode off down the hill, surrounded by a swarm of fugitives, and
vanished from their sight.

Then, they knew not how, Maurice and Jean found themselves once more
behind the hedge, with the remnant of their company. Some forty men
at the outside were all that remained, with Lieutenant Rochas as their
commander, and the regimental standard was with them; the subaltern who
carried it had furled the silk about the staff in order to try to save
it. They made their way along the hedge, as far as it extended, to a
cluster of small trees upon a hillside, where Rochas made them halt and
reopen fire. The men, dispersed in skirmishing order and sufficiently
protected, could hold their ground, the more that an important calvary
movement was in preparation on their right and regiments of infantry
were being brought up to support it.

It was at that moment that Maurice comprehended the full scope of
that mighty, irresistible turning movement that was now drawing near
completion. That morning he had watched the Prussians debouching by
the Saint-Albert pass and had seen their advanced guard pushed forward,
first to Saint-Menges, then to Fleigneux, and now, behind the wood of la
Garenne, he could hear the thunder of the artillery of the Guard, could
behold other German uniforms arriving on the scene over the hills
of Givonne. Yet a few moments, it might be, and the circle would be
complete; the Guard would join hands with the Vth corps, surrounding
the French army with a living wall, girdling them about with a belt
of flaming artillery. It was with the resolve to make one supreme,
desperate effort, to try to hew a passage through that advancing wall,
that General Margueritte's division of the reserve cavalry was massing
behind a protecting crest preparatory to charging. They were about to
charge into the jaws of d