fire. Six hundred women and children left
the city; the International Aid Society demanded it."

Presently he added: "A big battle was fought this morning along
the Meuse. You can hear the guns yet."

"I have heard them for an hour," replied Jack.

They listened. Far to the south the steady intonation of the
cannon vibrated, a vague sustained rumour, no louder, no lower,
always the same monotonous measure, flowing like the harmony of
flowing water, passionless, changeless, interminable.

"Along the Meuse?" asked Jack, at last.

"Yes."

"Sedan?"

"Yes, Sedan."

The slow convoy was passing now; the creak of wheel and the harsh
scrape of axle and spring grated in their ears; the wind changed;
the murmur of the cannonade was blotted out in the trample of
hoofs, the thud of marching infantry.

Jack swung his horse's head and drove out across the boundary
into the French road. On every side crowded the teams, where the
low mutter of the wounded rose from the foul straw; on every side
pressed the red-legged infantry, rifles _en bandouliere_,
shrunken, faded caps pushed back from thin, sick faces.

"My soldiers!" murmured Lorraine, sitting up straight. "Oh, the
pity of it!--the pity!"

An officer passed, followed by a bugler. He glanced vacantly at
Jack, then at Lorraine. Another officer came by, leading his
patient, bleeding horse, over which was flung the dusty body of a
brother soldier.

The long convoy was moving more swiftly now; the air trembled
with the cries of the mangled or the hoarse groans of the dying.
A Sister of Mercy--her frail arm in a sling--crept on her knees
among the wounded lying in a straw-filled cart. Over all, louder,
deeper, dominating the confusion of the horses and the tramp of
men, rolled the cannonade. The pulsating air, deep-laden with the
monstrous waves of sound, seemed to beat in Lorraine's face--the
throbbing of her heart ceased for a moment. Louder, louder,
nearer, more terrible sounded the thunder, breaking in long,
majestic reverberations among the nearer hills; the earth began
to shake, the sky struck back the iron-throated echoes--sounding,
resounding, from horizon to horizon.

And now the troops around them were firing as they advanced;
sheeted mist lashed with lightning enveloped the convoy, through
which rang the tremendous clang of the cannon. Once there came a
momentary break in the smoke--a gleam of hills, and a valley
black with men--a glimpse of a distant town