in front caused
them to turn into a path on their left. As luck would have it, it ended
in an _impasse_; they had to retrace their steps, running the gauntlet
of the bullets, and take the turning to the right. When they came to
exchange reminiscences in later days they could never agree on which
road they had taken. In that tangled network of suburban lanes and
passages there was firing still going on from every corner that
afforded a shelter, protracted battles raged at the gates of farmyards,
everything that could be converted into a barricade had its defenders,
from whom the assailants tried to wrest it; all with the utmost fury and
vindictiveness. And all at once they came out upon the Fond de Givonne
road, not far from Sedan.

For the third time Jean raised his eyes toward the western sky, that
was all aflame with a bright, rosy light; and he heaved a sigh of
unspeakable relief.

"Ah, that pig of a sun! at last he is going to bed!"

And they ran with might and main, all three of them, never once stopping
to draw breath. About them, filling the road in all its breadth, was the
rear-guard of fugitives from the battlefield, still flowing onward with
the irresistible momentum of an unchained mountain torrent. When they
came to the Balan gate they had a long period of waiting in the midst
of the impatient, ungovernable throng. The chains of the drawbridge had
given way, and the only path across the fosse was by the foot-bridge,
so that the guns and horses had to turn back and seek admission by the
bridge of the chateau, where the jam was said to be even still more
fearful. At the gate of la Cassine, too, people were trampled to death
in their eagerness to gain admittance. From all the adjacent heights the
terror-stricken fragments of the army came tumbling into the city, as
into a cesspool, with the hollow roar of pent-up water that has burst
its dam. The fatal attraction of those walls had ended by making cowards
of the bravest; men trod one another down in their blind haste to be
under cover.

Maurice had caught Henriette in his arms, and in a voice that trembled
with suspense:

"It cannot be," he said, "that they will have the cruelty to close the
gate and shut us out."

That was what the crowd feared would be done. To right and left,
however, upon the glacis soldiers were already arranging their bivouacs,
while entire batteries, guns, caissons, and horses, in confusion worse
confounded, had thrown themselves