red them to keep straight on their course and pass through
the city; otherwise they would be arrested. This was the most recent
order; it was not for them to question it. Moreover, their journey would
be shortened by a mile and a quarter, which they did not regret, weary
and foot-sore as they were.

When they were within Sedan, however, they found their progress retarded
owing to a singular cause. As soon as they had passed the fortifications
their nostrils were saluted by such a stench, they were obliged to wade
through such a mass of abominable filth, reaching almost to their
knees, as fairly turned their stomachs. The city, where for three days
a hundred thousand men had lived without the slightest provision being
made for decency or cleanliness, had become a cesspool, a foul sewer,
and this devil's broth was thickened by all sorts of solid matter,
rotting hay and straw, stable litter, and the excreta of animals. The
carcasses of the horses, too, that were knocked on the head, skinned,
and cut up in the public squares, in full view of everyone, had their
full share in contaminating the atmosphere; the entrails lay decaying in
the hot sunshine, the bones and heads were left lying on the pavement,
where they attracted swarms of flies. Pestilence would surely break
out in the city unless they made haste to rid themselves of all that
carrion, of that stratum of impurity, which, in the Rue de Minil, the
Rue Maqua, and even on the Place Turenne, reached a depth of twelve
inches. The Prussian authorities had taken the matter up, and their
placards were to be seen posted about the city, requisitioning the
inhabitants, irrespective of rank, laborers, merchants, bourgeois,
magistrates, for the morrow; they were ordered to assemble, armed with
brooms and shovels, and apply themselves to the task, and were warned
that they would be subjected to heavy penalties if the city was not
clean by night. The President of the Tribunal had taken time by the
forelock, and might even then be seen scraping away at the pavement
before his door and loading the results of his labors upon a wheelbarrow
with a fire-shovel.

Silvine and Prosper, who had selected the Grande Rue as their route for
traversing the city, advanced but slowly through that lake of malodorous
slime. In addition to that the place was in a state of ferment and
agitation that made it necessary for them to pull up almost at every
moment. It was the time that the Prussians had