This paradise was a tomb.

I looked around. The valley was circular and hollow, like the bottom of
a crater; the winding river resembled a serpent; the high hills, ranged
one behind the other, surrounded this mysterious spot like a triple line
of inexorable walls; once there, there is no means of exit. It reminded
me of the amphitheatres. An indescribable disquieting vegetation which
seemed to be an extension of the Black Forest, overran all the heights,
and lost itself in the horizon like a huge impenetrable snare; the sun
shone, the birds sang, carters passed by whistling; sheep, lambs, and
pigeons were scattered about, leaves quivered and rustled; the grass, a
densely thick grass, was full of flowers. It was appalling.

I seemed to see waving over this valley the flashing of the avenging
angel's sword.

This word "Sedan" had been like a veil abruptly torn aside. The
landscape had become suddenly filled with tragedy. Those shapeless eyes
which the bark of trees delineates on the trunks were gazing--at what?
At something terrible and lost to view.

In truth, that was the place! And at the moment when I was passing by
thirteen months all but a few days had elapsed. That was the place where
the monstrous enterprise of the 2d of December had burst asunder. A
fearful shipwreck.

The gloomy pathways of Fate cannot be studied without profound anguish
of the heart.

CHAPTER II.

On the 31st of August, 1870, an army was reassembled, and was, as it
were, massed together under the walls of Sedan, in a place called the
Givonne Valley. This army was a French army--twenty-nine brigades,
fifteen divisions, four army corps--90,000 men. This army was in this
place without any one being able to divine the reason; without order,
without an object, scattered about--a species of heap of men thrown down
there as though with the view of being seized by some huge hand.

This army either did not entertain, or appeared not to entertain, for
the moment any immediate uneasiness. They knew, or at least they thought
they knew, that the enemy was a long way off. On calculating the stages
at four leagues daily, it was three days' march distant. Nevertheless,
towards evening the leaders took some wise strategic precautions; they
protected the army, which rested in the rear on Sedan and the Meuse, by
two battle fronts, one composed of the 7th Corps, and extending from
Floing to Givonne, the other composed of the 12th Corps, extending