oldiers never moved hand
or foot; they were stone dead. The two zouaves were stiff and cold; they
both had had the face shot away, the nose was gone, the eyes were torn
from their sockets. If there appeared to be a laugh on the face of
him who was holding his sides, it was because a bullet had cut a great
furrow through the lower portion of his countenance, smashing all
his teeth. The spectacle was an unimaginably horrible one, those poor
wretches laughing and conversing in their attitude of manikins, with
glassy eyes and open mouths, when Death had laid his icy hand on them
and they were never more to know the warmth and motion of life. Had they
dragged themselves, still living, to that place, so as to die in
one another's company? or was it not rather a ghastly prank of the
Prussians, who had collected the bodies and placed them in a circle
about the table, out of derision for the traditional gayety of the
French nation?

"It's a queer start, though, all the same," muttered Prosper, whose face
was very pale. And casting a look at the other dead who lay scattered
about the avenue, under the trees and on the turf, some thirty
brave fellows, among them Lieutenant Rochas, riddled with wounds and
surrounded still by the shreds of the flag, he added seriously and with
great respect: "There must have been some very pretty fighting about
here! I don't much believe we shall find the bourgeois for whom you are
looking."

Silvine entered the house, the doors and windows of which had been
battered in and afforded admission to the damp, cold air from without.
It was clear enough that there was no one there; the masters must have
taken their departure before the battle. She continued to prosecute her
search, however, and had entered the kitchen, when she gave utterance to
another cry of terror. Beneath the sink were two bodies, fast locked in
each other's arms in mortal embrace, one of them a zouave, a handsome,
brown-bearded man, the other a huge Prussian with red hair. The teeth of
the former were set in the latter's cheek, their arms, stiff in death,
had not relaxed their terrible hug, binding the pair with such a bond of
everlasting hate and fury that ultimately it was found necessary to bury
them in a common grave.

Then Prosper made haste to lead Silvine away, since they could
accomplish nothing in that house where Death had taken up his abode, and
upon their return, despairing, to the post where the donkey and cart
had b