selected for searching
the houses in order to unearth those soldiers, who, determined that they
would not give themselves up, had hidden themselves away. When, at about
two o'clock of the preceding day, General de Wimpffen had returned
from the chateau of Bellevue after signing the capitulation, the report
immediately began to circulate that the surrendered troops were to
be held under guard in the peninsula of Iges until such time as
arrangements could be perfected for sending them off to Germany. Some
few officers had expressed their intention of taking advantage of that
stipulation which accorded them their liberty conditionally on their
signing an agreement not to serve again during the campaign. Only one
general, so it was said, Bourgain-Desfeuilles, alleging his rheumatism
as a reason, had bound himself by that pledge, and when, that very
morning, his carriage had driven up to the door of the Hotel of the
Golden Cross and he had taken his seat in it to leave the city,
the people had hooted and hissed him unmercifully. The operation of
disarming had been going on since break of day; the manner of its
performance was, the troops defiled by battalions on the Place Turenne,
where each man deposited his musket and bayonet on the pile, like a
mountain of old iron, which kept rising higher and higher, in a corner
of the place. There was a Prussian detachment there under the command of
a young officer, a tall, pale youth, wearing a sky-blue tunic and a cap
adorned with a cock's feather, who superintended operations with a lofty
but soldier-like air, his hands encased in white gloves. A zouave, in
a fit of insubordination, having refused to give up his chassepot, the
officer ordered that he be taken away, adding, in the same even tone
of voice: "And let him be shot forthwith!" The rest of the battalion
continued to defile with a sullen and dejected air, throwing down their
arms mechanically, as if in haste to have the ceremony ended. But
who could estimate the number of those who had disarmed themselves
voluntarily, those whose muskets lay scattered over the country, out
yonder on the field of battle? And how many, too, within the last
twenty-four hours had concealed themselves, flattering themselves
with the hope that they might escape in the confusion that reigned
everywhere! There was scarcely a house but had its crew of those
headstrong idiots who refused to respond when called on, hiding away in
corners and shamming de