Part 7 (1/2)

The poor fellow embraced me. The tears came into my eyes.

”Well now,” said I, ”sit down. Are you pretty well?”

”I had rather be at home,” said he.

”Yes, but that is impossible now; you must have patience.”

I also invited young Ma.s.se to take a gla.s.s with us, and both complained bitterly that Mathias Heitz, junior, had been made a lieutenant, who knew no more of the science of war than they did, and who now had ordered of Kuhn, the tailor, an officer's uniform, gold-laced up to the shoulders. Yet Mathias was a friend of Jacob's.

But justice is justice.

This piece of news filled me with indignation: what should Mathias Heitz be made an officer for? He had never learned anything at college; he would never have been able to earn a couple of _liards_--whilst our Jacob was a good miller's apprentice.

It was abominable. However, I made no remark; I only asked if Jean Baptiste Werner, who had a few days before joined the artillery of the National Guard, was an officer too?

Then they replied angrily that Jean Baptiste Werner, in spite of his African and Mexican campaigns, was only a gunner in the Mariet battery, behind the powder magazines. Those who knew nothing became officers; those who knew something of war, like Mariet and Werner, were privates, or at the most sergeants. All this showed me that Cousin George was right in saying that we should be driven like beasts, and that our chiefs were void of common-sense.

Looking at all these people coming and going, the time pa.s.sed away.

About eight o'clock, as we were hungry, and I wished to keep my boy with me as long as I could, I sent for a good salad and sausages, and we were eating together, with full hearts, to be sure, but with a good appet.i.te. But a few moments after the retreat, just when the cuira.s.siers were going to camp out, and their officers, heavy and weary, were going to rest in their lodgings, a few bugle notes were sounded in the _place d'armes_, and we heard a cry--”To horse! to horse!”

Immediately all was excitement. A despatch had arrived; the officers put on their helmets, fastened on their swords, and came running out through the gate of Germany. Countenances changed; every one asked, ”What is the meaning of this?”

At the same time the police inspector came up; he had seen my cart, and cried, ”Strangers must leave the place--the gates are going to be closed.”

Then I had only just time to embrace my son, to press Nicolas's hand, and to start at a sharp gallop for the gate of France. The drawbridge was just on the rise as I pa.s.sed it; five minutes after I was galloping along the white high-road by moonlight, on the way to Metting. Outside on the glacis, there was not a sound; the pickets had been drawn, and the two regiments of cavalry were on the road to Saverne.

I arrived home late: everybody was asleep in our village. n.o.body suspected what was about to happen within a week.

CHAPTER V

The whole way I thought of nothing but the cuira.s.siers. This order to march immediately appeared to me to betoken no good: something serious must have occurred; and as, upon the stroke of eleven, I was putting my horses up, after having put my cart under its shed, the idea came into my head that it was time now to hide my money. I was bringing back from Saverne sixteen hundred livres: this heavy leathern purse in my pocket was perhaps what reminded me. I remembered what Cousin George had said about Uhlans and other scamps of that sort, and I felt a cold s.h.i.+ver come over me.

Having, then, gone upstairs very softly, I awoke my wife: ”Get up, Catherine.”

”What is the matter?”

”Get up: it is time to hide our money.”

”But what is going on?”

”Nothing. Be quiet--make no noise--Gredel is asleep. You will carry the basket: put into it your ring and your ear-rings, everything that we have got. You hear me! I am going to empty the ditch, and we will bury everything at the bottom of it.”

Then, without answering, she arose.

I went down to the mill, opened the back-door softly, and listened.

Nothing was stirring in the village; you might have heard a cat moving.

The mill had stopped, and the water was pretty high. I lifted the mill-dam, the water began to rush, boiling, down the gulley; but our neighbors were used to this noise even in their sleep, so all remained quiet.