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By Root 2177 0

a more careful examination he felt that they must be in reply to the odd shots fired from the fort. So he turned round and studied the citadel to the north, a complicated and formidable system of fortifications, blackened walls, green panels of glacis, innumerable geometrical bastions and topping all the three gigantic hornworks, that of the Ecossais and the Grand Jardin and La Rochette, with menacing angles; and further west, like a Cyclopean projection, the Nassau fort, followed by the Palatinate fort, towering above the Ménil district. The impression they made on him was a melancholy one of enormity and childishness. What was the point of it now, with these guns whose projectiles flew so easily from one end of the sky to the other? In any case the fortress was unarmed, with neither the necessary pieces of artillery nor the ammunition nor the men. For the past three weeks, or barely as long as that, the governor had been organizing a National Guard of citizens willing to man the few guns in working order. That was why three cannon were firing from the Palatinate while a good half dozen were at the Paris gate. But there were only seven or eight rounds available per gun, and so they spaced out the shots, letting one off every half hour and only for honour’s sake at that, for the shells went no distance, but fell in the fields opposite. So the enemy batteries contemptuously sent an occasional answer back, out of charity.

What interested Delaherche was these batteries. He was casting a keen eye on the slopes of La Marfée when he thought of the field glasses with which he used to amuse himself looking at the surrounding country from up there. He went down to find them, came back and took up his position, and as he was getting his bearings by moving them along in little jerks, making fields, trees and houses go by, he spotted, above the big Frénois battery, the group of uniforms that Weiss had thought he could make out from Bazeilles at the corner of a pinewood. But thanks to the magnification he could easily have counted these staff officers, so clearly could he see them. Some of them were half lying in the grass, others were standing in groups, and in front there was one man standing alone, a shrivelled, thin-looking man in a plain uniform, but he felt that this man was the master. It was indeed the King of Prussia, scarcely half a finger high, like one of those tiny tin soldiers children play with. Of course he did not know this for certain until later, but he kept his eye on him, always coming back to this tiny figure, whose face, no bigger than a dot, was just a pale speck beneath the wide blue sky.

It was not yet noon, and the King had been following the mathematical, inexorable march of his armies since nine. They went on and on according to their prearranged routes, completing the circle, closing step by step the wall of men and guns round Sedan. The army from the left, coming from the flat plain of Donchery, was still debouching from the Saint-Albert gap, it was past Saint-Menges and was beginning to reach Fleigneux. And he could distinctly see, behind the XIth corps which was violently engaged with the troops of General Douay, the Vth corps filtering along under cover of the woods and making for the Calvary of Illy, while batteries joined with batteries in an ever longer line of thundering guns until the whole horizon was on fire. The army on the right was now occupying the whole of the Givonne valley, the XIIth corps had taken La Moncelle, the Prussian Guards had gone through Daigny and were already following the little stream up its valley, also making for the Calvary, having forced General Ducrot to fall back behind the Garenne wood. Just one more thrust and the Crown Prince of Prussia would link up with the Crown Prince of Saxony in the open fields on the very verge of the Ardennes forest. South of the town Bazeilles could no longer be seen, for it was hidden in the smoke of fires and in the wild dust of a fight to the death.

The King had been calmly looking on and waiting since first thing. One or two hours