Volume VIII Part 53 (1/2)

The shadows of a bal The wo-rooarden-chairs, were s a circle round a table laden with cups and wineglasses

Their cigars shone like eyes in the darkness which,about a frightful accident which had occurred the night before--two uests in the river opposite

General de G---- re, but they are not horrible

”The horrible, that well-knoord, htful accident like this moves, upsets, scares; it does not horrify In order that we should experience horror, somore than the spectacle of the dreadful death; theresense of mystery or a sensation of abnormal terror beyond the limits of nature A man who dies, even in the most dramatic conditions, does not excite horror; a field of battle is not horrible, blood is not horrible; the vilest crimes are rarely horrible

”Hold on! here are two personal exa of horror:

”It was during the war of 1870 We were retreating towards Pont-Aude of about twenty thousand men, twenty thousandto re-forht was falling They had not eaten anything since the day before They were flying rapidly, the Prussians not being far off

”All the Norman country, livid, dotted with the shadows of the trees surrounding the farms, extended under a black sky, heavy and sinister

”Nothing else could be heard in the ilight save the confused sound, soft and undefined, of a ue clink of pottingers or sabers The s, dragged the, broken-backed stride

”The skin of their hands stuck to the steel of theirdreadfully that night I frequently saw a little soldier take off his shoes in order to walk barefooted, so ear bruise him; and with every step he left a little track of blood Then, after some time, he sat down in a field for a few ain Every man who sat doas a dead man

”Should we have left behind us those poor exhausted soldiers, who fondly counted on being able to start afresh as soon as they had sos? Now, scarcely had they ceased to move, and to make their almost frozen blood circulate in their veins, than an unconquerable torpor congealed theround, closed their eyes, and in one second collapsed this overworked huradually sank down, their heads falling towards their knees, without, however, quite tu over, for their loins and their li, and becaht

”And the rest of us,on, chilled to theby dint of forced h that cold and deadly country, crushed by pain, by defeat, by despair, above all overcome by the abominable sensation of abandonendar littleaspect

”They were looking out for an officer, believing that they had caught a spy The word 'spy' at once spread through the roup round the prisoner A voice exclaimed: 'Hefro theuns, felt all of a sudden that thrill of furious and bestial anger which urges on a mob to massacre

”I wanted to speak! I was at that tinized the authority of their co officers; they would have shot endar us for the last three days He has been asking information from everyone about the artillery'

”I took it on ? What do you want? Why are you acco the arible dialect He was, indeed, a strange being, with narrow shoulders, a sly look, and such an agitated air in er any real doubt that he was a spy He see at me from under his eyes with humble, stupid, and crafty air

The men all round us exclaimed:

”'To the wall! to the wall!'

”I said to the gendarmes:

”'Do you answer for the prisoner?'

”I had not ceased speaking when a terrible push threw me on my back, and in a second I saw the ed along the side of the road, and flung against a tree He fell in the snow, nearly dead already

”And immediately they shot hiain with the desperate energy of brutes They fought with each other to have a shot at hi on at hi holy water in front of a coffin