r. "And what about me? You'll
see, they'll call me to the colours, though I'm past the age!... You'll
see!..."

"You as well as the rest," grinned the gardener, who now entered in his
turn. "As long as one can hold a rifle.... But our eldest, Henriot,
who's sixteen: do you think they'll forget him?"

"Oh, as for him," scolded the mother, "I shall hide him if they try to
take him from me!"

"And what about the gendarmes?"

All were gesticulating and talking together. And Victor repeated:

"Meantime, we had better be off. Shut up the house and go. That's the
wisest. We can't remain here like this, at two steps from the frontier."

In his eyes, war represented the disordered flight of the old men and
the women, running away in herds and pushing before them carts loaded
with furniture and bedding. And he stamped his foot, resolved upon
making an immediate move.

But a great hullabaloo arose on the terrace. A little farm-labourer came
rushing into the drawing-room:

"He's seen some! He's seen some!"

He was running in front of his employer, Farmer Saboureux, who arrived
like a whirlwind, with his eyes starting out of his head:

"I've seen some! I've seen some! There were five of them! I've seen
some!"

"Seen what? Seen what?" said Victor, shaking him. "What have you seen?"

"Uhlans!"

"Uhlans! Are you sure?"

"As I see you now! There were five of them on horseback! Oh, I knew them
again ... it wasn't the first time!... Uhlans, I tell you!... They'll
burn everything down!"

Mme. Morestal came running up at the noise which he made:

"Do be quiet! What's the matter with you?"

"I've seen some!" yelled Saboureux. "Uhlans! They've gone off to fetch
the others."

"Uhlans!" she gasped in dismay.

"Yes, like last time!"

"Oh, heaven! Is it possible?"

"I saw them, I say.... Go and tell monsieur le maire."

She lost her temper:

"Tell him? But he's ill!... And be quiet, you, I've had enough of it....
Philippe, is the doctor coming?"

Philippe put down the telephone:

"The line is engaged by the military, it's not available for private
communications."

"Oh, but this is terrible!" said the old lady. "What's to become of us?"

She thought only of Morestal, confined to his room, and of the
inconvenience which he would suffer through this state of things.

A bicycle-bell was heard outside.

"Ah!" cried the gardener, leaning out of the window on the garden side.
"There's my boy coming.... How the ra