in Russia. Instead of thinking of
peace, like a man of sense, he thinks only of massacring the few who
remain. We will see! We will see!"

"In the name of Heaven! Aunt Gredel, be quiet; speak lower," said I,
looking at the window. "If they hear you, we are lost."

"I speak for them to hear me," she replied. "Your Napoleon does not
frighten me. He commenced by closing our mouths, so that he might do
as he pleased; but the end approaches. Four young women are losing
their husbands in our village alone, and ten poor young men are forced
to abandon everything, despite father, mother, religion, justice, God!
Is not this horrible?"

I tried to answer, but she kept on:

"Hold, Joseph," said she; "be silent; your Emperor has no heart--he
will end miserably yet. God showed his finger this winter; He saw that
we feared a man more than we feared Him; that mothers--like those whose
babes Herod slew--dared no longer cling to their own flesh when that
man demanded them for massacre; and so the cold came and our army
perished; and now those who are leaving us are the same as already
dead. God is weary of all this! You shall not go!" cried she
obstinately; "I shall not let you go; you shall fly to the woods with
Jean Kraft, Louis Beme, and all our bravest fellows; you shall go to
the mountains--to Switzerland, and Catharine and I will go with you and
remain until this destruction of men is ended."

Then Aunt Gredel became silent. Instead of giving us an ordinary
dinner, she gave us a better one than on Catharine's birthday, and
said, with the air of one who has taken a resolution:

"Eat, my children, and fear not; there will soon be a change!"

I returned about four in the evening to Phalsbourg, somewhat calmer
than when I set out. But as I went up the Rue de la Munitionnaire, I
heard at the corner of the college the drum of the _sergent-de-ville_,
Harmantier, and I saw a throng gathered around him. I ran to hear what
was going on, and I arrived just as he began reading a proclamation.

Harmantier read that, by the _senatus-consultus_ of the 3d, the drawing
for the conscription would take place on the 15th.

It was already the 8th, and only seven days remained. This upset me
completely.

The crowd dispersed in the deepest silence. I went home sad enough,
and said to Monsieur Goulden:

"The drawing takes place next Thursday."

"Ah!" he exclaimed, "they are losing no time, things are pressing."

It is eas