same, this time; by Heaven, they would, or they would be burned within their walls.
So they had bought cannons and rifles, and equipped a force, and formed battalions and companies, and they drilled all day long in the Place d'Armes. All of them—bakers, grocers, butchers, notaries, attorneys, carpenters, booksellers, even the chemists went through their manoeuvres in due rotation at regular hours, under the orders of M. Lavigne, who had once been a non-commissioned officer in the dragoons, and now was a draper, having married the daughter and inherited the shop of old M. Ravaudan.
He had taken the rank of major in command of the place, and all the young men having gone to join the army, he enrolled all the others who were eager for resistance. The stout men now walked the streets at the pace of professional pedestrians, in order to bring down their fat, and to lengthen their breath; the weak ones carried burdens, in order to strengthen their muscles.
The Prussians were expected. But the Prussians did not appear. Yet they were not far off; for their scouts had already twice pushed across the forest as far as Nicholas Pichou's lodge.
The old keeper, who could run like a fox, had gone to warn the town. The guns had been pointed, but the enemy had not shown.
The keeper's lodge served as a kind of outpost in the forest of Aveline. Twice a week the man went for provisions, and carried to the citizens news from the outlying country.
He had gone that day to announce that a small detachment of German infantry had stopped at his house, the day before, about two in the afternoon, and had gone away again almost directly. The subaltern in command spoke French.
When the old man went on such errands he took with him his two dogs—two great beasts with the jaws of lions —because of the wolves who were beginning to get fierce; and he left his two women, advising them to lock themselves into the house as soon as night began to fail.
The young one was afraid of nothing, but the old one kept on trembling and repeating:
"It will turn out badly, all this sort of thing. You'll see, it will turn out badly."
This evening she was more anxious even than usual.
"Do you know what time your father will come back?" said she.
"Oh, not before eleven for certain. When he dines with the Major he is always late."
She was hanging her saucepan over the fire to make the soup, when she stopped short, listened to a vague sound which had reached her by way of the chimney, and murmured:—
"There's someone walking in the wood—seven or eight men at least."
Her mother, alarmed, stopped her wheel and muttered: "Oh, good Lord! And father not here!"
She had not finished speaking when violent blows shook the door.
The women made no answer, and a loud guttural voice called out: "Open the door."
Then, after a pause, the same voice repeated: "Open the door, or I'll break it in."
Then Berthine slipped into her pocket the big revolver from over the mantelpiece, and having put her ear to the crack of the door, asked: "Who are you?"
The voice answered: "I am the detachment that came the other day."
The woman asked again: "What do you want?"
"I have lost my way, ever since the morning, in the forest, with my detachment. Open the door, or I will break it in."
The keeper's wife had no choice; she promptly drew the great bolt, and pulling back the door she beheld six men in the pale snow-shadows—six Prussian men, the same who had come the day before. She said in a firm tone: "What do you want here at this time of night?"
The officer answered: "I had lost my way, lost it completely; I recognised the house. I have had nothing to eat since the morning, nor my men either."
Berthine replied: "But I am all alone with mother, this evening."
The soldier, who seemed a good sort of fellow, answered: "That makes no difference. I shall not do any harm; but you must give us something to eat. We are faint and tired to death."
The keeper's wife stepped back.
"Come in," said she.
They came in, powdered with snow and with a sort of mossy cream on their helmets that made them look like meringues. They seemed tired, worn out.
The young woman pointed to the wooden benches on each side of the big table.
"Sit down," said she, "and I'll make you some soup. You do look quite knocked up."
Then she bolted the door again. She poured some more water into her saucepan, threw in more butter and potatoes; then, unhooking a piece of bacon that hung in the chimney, she cut off half, and added
