head through the door; the old lady was asleep
in her fauteuil, while the colonel, his eyes closed, was like a corpse.
He opened them to their full extent and asked:

"Well, it's all over, isn't it?"

Irritated by the question, which detained him at the very moment when
he thought he should be able to slip away unobserved, Delaherche gave a
wrathful look and murmured, sinking his voice:

"Oh, yes, all over! until it begins again! There is nothing signed."

The colonel went on in a voice scarcely higher than a whisper; delirium
was setting in.

"Merciful God, let me die before the end! I do not hear the guns. Why
have they ceased firing? Up there at Saint-Menges, at Fleigneux, we
have command of all the roads; should the Prussians dare turn Sedan
and attack us, we will drive them into the Meuse. The city is there, an
insurmountable obstacle between us and them; our positions, too, are the
stronger. Forward! the 7th corps will lead, the 12th will protect the
retreat--"

And his fingers kept drumming on the counterpane with a measured
movement, as if keeping time with the trot of the charger he was riding
in his vision. Gradually the motion became slower and slower as his
words became more indistinct and he sank off into slumber. It ceased,
and he lay motionless and still, as if the breath had left his body.

"Lie still and rest," Delaherche whispered; "when I have news I will
return."

Then, having first assured himself that he had not disturbed his
mother's slumber, he slipped away and disappeared.

Jean and Maurice, on descending to the shed in the courtyard, had found
there an officer of the pay department, seated on a common kitchen chair
behind a little unpainted pine table, who, without pen, ink, or paper,
without taking receipts or indulging in formalities of any kind, was
dispensing fortunes. He simply stuck his hand into the open mouth of
the bags filled with bright gold pieces, and as the sergeants of the 7th
corps passed in line before him he filled their _kepis_, never counting
what he bestowed with such rapid liberality. The understanding was that
the sergeants were subsequently to divide what they received with the
surviving men of their half-sections. Each of them received his portion
awkwardly, as if it had been a ration of meat or coffee, then stalked
off in an embarrassed, self-conscious sort of way, transferring the
contents of the _kepi_ to his trousers' pockets so as not to display his
wea