ignant sensation of pain
that moved my heart. I could not believe it, and I knelt down in the
snow before this shapeless pulp of flesh to see for myself: it was a
woman.

"The two gendarmes, speechless and stunned, waited for me to give my
opinion on the matter. But I did not know what to think, what theory
to adopt.

"Then the brigadier slowly drawled out:

"'Perhaps she came to look for a son of hers in the artillery, whom
she had not heard from.'

"And the other chimed in:

"'Perhaps indeed that is so.'

"And I, who had seen some very terrible things in my time, began to
cry. And I felt, in the presence of this corpse, in that icy cold
night, the midst of that gloomy pain, at the sight of this mystery, at
the sight of this murdered stranger, the meaning of that word
'Horror.'

"Now I had the same sensation last year while interrogating one of the
survivors of the Flatters Mission, an Algerian sharpshooter.

"You know the details of this atrocious drama. It is possible,
however, that you are unacquainted with them.

"The Colonel traveled through the desert into the Soudan, and passed
through the immense territory of the Touaregs, who are, in that great
ocean of sand which stretches from the Atlantic to Egypt and from the
Soudan to Algeria, a kind of pirates resembling those who ravaged the
seas in former days.

"The guides who accompanied the column belonged to the tribe of
Chambaa, of Ouargla.

"Now, one day, they pitched their camp in the middle of the desert,
and the Arabs declared that, as the spring was a little farther away,
they would go with all their camels to look for water.

"Only one man warned the Colonel that he had been betrayed: Flatters
did not believe this, and accompanied the convoy with the engineers,
the doctors, and nearly all his officers.

"They were massacred round the spring, and all the camels captured.

"The Captain of the Arab Intelligence Department at Ouargla, who had
remained in the camp, took command of the survivors, spahis and
sharpshooters, and they commenced the retreat, leaving behind the
baggage and the provisions for want of camels to carry them.

"Then they started on their journey through this solitude without
shade and without limits, under the devouring sun which burned them
from morning till night.

"One tribe came to tender its submission and brought dates as a
tribute. They were poisoned. Nearly all the French died, and, among
them, the last officer