ur hundred_ men. This number causes a
shudder. For it is that very number, _Sixteen thousand four hundred_
men, which Saint Arnaud had set to work on the Boulevard Montmartre upon
the 4th of December, 1851.

Half a league to the north-west of Sedan, near Iges, the bend of the
Meuse almost forms an island. A canal crosses the isthmus, so that the
peninsula becomes an island. It was there that there were penned, under
the stick of the Prussian corporals, 83,000 French soldiers. A few
sentinels watched over this army.

They placed but few, insolently. These conquered men remained there ten
days, the wounded almost without care, the able-bodied almost without
nourishment. The German army sneered around them. The heavens took part
against them. The weather was fearful. Neither huts nor tents. Not a
fire, not a truss of straw. For ten days and ten nights these 83,000
prisoners bivouacked with their heads beneath the rain, their feet in
the mud. Many died of fever, regretting the hail of bullets.

At length ox-wagons came and took them away.

The King placed the Emperor in some place or other. Wilhelmshoehe.

What a thing of rags and tatters, an Emperor "drawn" like a fowl!

CHAPTER VIII.

I was there, thoughtful. I looked on these fields, these ravines, these
hills, shuddering. I would willingly have insulted this terrible place.

But sacred horror held me back.

The station-master of Sedan came to my carriage, and explained to me
what I had before my eyes. I seemed to see, through his words, the pale
lightnings of the battle. All these distant cottages, scattered about
and charming in the sun, had been burnt; they were rebuilt; Nature, so
quickly diverted, had repaired everything, had cleaned everything, had
swept everything, had replaced everything. The ferocious convulsion of
men had vanished, eternal order had resumed its sway. But, as I have
said, the sun was there in vain, all this valley was smoke and darkness.
In the distance, upon an eminence to my left, I saw a huge castle; it
was Vandresse. There lodged the King of Prussia. Halfway up this height,
along the road, I distinguished above the trees three pointed gables; it
was another castle, Bellevue; there Louis Bonaparte surrendered to
William; there he had given and delivered up our army; it was there
that, not being immediately admitted, and requested to exercise a little
patience, he had remained for nearly an hour silent and wan before the
door