Dominating the ramparts and the neighbouring buildings, the window overlooked the valley of the Meuse on the southern side of Sedan. There was the river winding through the expanse of meadow land; Remilly rose up on the left, Pont-Maugis and Wadelincourt were just in front, and Frénois was on the right. There, too, were the hills, displaying their green slopes, first the Liry hill, then the Marfée, the Croix-Piau, all crowned with large woods. In the declining daylight the vast horizon was invested with infinite softness, a crystalline limpidity.
'Can't you see those black lines on the march along the hill-tops, over there, those black ants swarming past?'
Jean opened his eyes wide, whilst Maurice, kneeling on his bed, craned his neck forward. 'Ah! yes,' they both exclaimed, at the same moment, 'There's one line, there's another, another--they are everywhere!'
'Well,' resumed Weiss, 'those are the Prussians--I've been looking at them ever since the morning, and they pass and pass without cessation. If our soldiers are waiting for them you may be pretty sure that they are making all haste to arrive, and all the townsfolk have seen them the same as I have. It's only our generals who seem to have become blind. A little while ago I was talking to a general who shrugged his shoulders and told me that Marshal MacMahon was positive that he only had some seventy thousand men to deal with. God grant that his information be correct!--But just look at them; look at them, the ground is covered with them and still and ever they swarm and swarm!'
At this moment Maurice threw himself back on his bed and burst into loud sobs. Henriette had just entered the room with the same smiling air that she had worn during the morning. But at sight of Maurice she felt alarmed, and hastily approached him. 'What is the matter?'
He waved her back, however. 'No, no, leave me, I have never brought you anything but sorrow. When I think that you used to deprive yourself of dresses, and that I was sent to college! Ah! a precious lot of good my education has done me! And then I almost dishonoured our name, and Heaven alone knows where I should be at the present time if you hadn't bled yourself in every vein to repair my folly!'