ieres road by the Wurtemburgers. The French have not
thought of barricading the railway viaduct; three German battalions have
occupied it during the night. Two isolated houses on the Balan road
could be made the pivot of a long resistance; but the Germans are there.
The wood from Monvilliers to Bazeilles, bushy and dense, might prevent
the junction of the Saxons, masters of La Moncelle, and the Bavarians,
masters of Bazeilles; but the French have been forestalled: they find
the Bavarians cutting the underwood with their bill-hooks. The German
army moves in one piece, in one absolute unity; the Crown Prince of
Saxony is on the height of Mairy, whence he surveys the whole action;
the command oscillates in the French army; at the beginning of the
battle, at a quarter to six, MacMahon is wounded by the bursting of a
shell; at seven o'clock Ducrot replaces him; at ten o'clock Wimpfen
replaces Ducrot. Every instant the wall of fire is drawing closer in,
the roll of the thunder is continuous, a dismal pulverization of 90,000
men! Never before has anything equal to this been seen; never before has
an army been overwhelmed beneath such a downpour of lead and iron! At
one o'clock all is lost. The regiments fly helter-skelter into Sedan.
But Sedan begins to burn; Dijonval burns, the ambulances burn, there is
nothing now possible but to cut their way out. Wimpfen, brave and
resolute, proposes this to the Emperor. The 3d Zouaves, desperate, have
set the example. Cut off from the rest of the army, they have forced a
passage, and have reached Belgium. A flight of lions!

Suddenly, above the disaster, above the huge pile of dead and dying,
above all this unfortunate heroism, appears disgrace. The white flag is
hoisted.

Turenne and Vauban were both present, one in his statue, the other in
his citadel.

The statue and the citadel witnessed the awe-striking capitulation.
These two virgins, one of bronze, the other of granite, felt themselves
prostituted. O noble face of our country! Oh, eternal blushes!

[38] The Franco-German War of 1870-71. Report of the Prussian Staff,
page 1087.

CHAPTER VI.

This disaster of Sedan was easy of avoidance by any other man, but
impossible of avoidance for Louis Bonaparte. He avoided it so little
that he sought it. _Lex fati_.

Our army seemed expressly arranged for the catastrophe. The soldier was
uneasy, ignorant of his whereabouts, famished. On the 31st of August, in
the streets of