The Downfall | Page 7

across the Rhine again by that time, with the
bayonets of our infantry at their backs to accelerate their movement.
And so, beneath the deep, dim vault of heaven, the thought of the battle
that must have raged that day, the feverish impatience with which the
tidings were awaited, the horrible feeling of suspense that pervaded the
air about them, spread from man to man and became each minute more
tense and unendurable.
Maurice was just then saying to Weiss:
"Ah! we have certainly given them a righteous good drubbing to-day."
Weiss made no reply save to nod his head with an air of anxiety. His
gaze was directed toward the Rhine, on that Orient region where now
the night had settled down in earnest, like a wall of blackness,
concealing strange forms and shapes of mystery. The concluding
strains of the bugles for roll-call had been succeeded by a deep silence,
which had descended upon the drowsy camp and was only broken now
and then by the steps and voices of some wakeful soldiers. A light had
been lit--it looked like a twinkling star--in the main room of the
farmhouse where the staff, which is supposed never to sleep, was
awaiting the telegrams that came in occasionally, though as yet they
were undecided. And the green wood fire, now finally left to itself, was
still emitting its funereal wreaths of dense black smoke, which drifted
in the gentle breeze over the unsleeping farmhouse, obscuring the early
stars in the heavens above.
"A drubbing!" Weiss at last replied, "God grant it may be so!"
Jean, still seated a few steps away, pricked up his ears, while
Lieutenant Rochas, noticing that the wish was attended by a doubt,
stopped to listen.
"What!" Maurice rejoined, "have you not confidence? can you believe
that defeat is possible?"
His brother-in-law silenced him with a gesture; his hands were
trembling with agitation, his kindly pleasant face was pale and bore an
expression of deep distress.
"Defeat, ah! Heaven preserve us from that! You know that I was born

in this country; my grandfather and grandmother were murdered by the
Cossacks in 1814, and whenever I think of invasion it makes me clench
my fist and grit my teeth; I could go through fire and flood, like a
trooper, in my shirt sleeves! Defeat--no, no! I cannot, I will not believe
it possible."
He became calmer, allowing his arms to fall by his side in
discouragement.
"But my mind is not easy, do you see. I know Alsace; I was born there;
I am just off a business trip through the country, and we civilians have
opportunities of seeing many things that the generals persist in ignoring,
although they have them thrust beneath their very eyes. Ah, we wanted
war with Prussia as badly as anyone; for a long, long time we have
been waiting patiently for a chance to pay off old scores, but that did
not prevent us from being on neighborly terms with the people in
Baden and Bavaria; every one of us, almost, has friends or relatives
across the Rhine. It was our belief that they felt like us and would not
be sorry to humble the intolerable insolence of the Prussians. And now,
after our long period of uncomplaining expectation, for the past two
weeks we have seen things going from bad to worse, and it vexes and
terrifies us. Since the declaration of war the enemy's horse have been
suffered to come among us, terrorizing the villages, reconnoitering the
country, cutting the telegraph wires. Baden and Bavaria are rising;
immense bodies of troops are being concentrated in the Palatinate;
information reaches us from every quarter, from the great fairs and
markets, that our frontier is threatened, and when the citizens, the
mayors of the communes, take the alarm at last and hurry off to tell
your officers what they know, those gentlemen shrug their shoulders
and reply: Those things spring from the imagination of cowards; there
is no enemy near here. And when there is not an hour to lose, days and
days are wasted. What are they waiting for? To give the whole German
nation time to concentrate on the other bank of the river?"
His words were uttered in a low, mournful, voice, as if he were reciting
to himself a story that had long occupied his thoughts.
"Ah! Germany, I know her too well; and the terrible part of the
business is that you soldiers seem to know no more about her than you
do about China. You must remember my cousin Gunther, Maurice, the
young man, who came to pay me a flying visit at Sedan last spring. His

mother is a sister of my mother, and married a Berliner; the young man
is a German out and