The Debacle - Emile Zola [84]
Old Fouchard had come back to the window shouting that they were off. Jean and Maurice woke up, shivering and aching, and jumped to their feet. Honoré quickly squeezed Silvine’s hand in his.
‘We’ve sworn… wait for me.’
She could find nothing to say, but put her whole soul into a last long look as he leaped out of the window, racing off to rejoin his battery.
‘Good-bye, Father.’
‘Good-bye, my lad.’
That was all, peasant and soldier parted again as they had met, with no embrace, a father and son who could get along quite well without having to see each other.
When they too had left the farmhouse, Maurice and Jean galloped down the steep slopes. At the bottom they found no sign of the 106th; all the regiments were already on the move, and they had to keep running and were redirected right and left. But in the end, when they were frantic in the dreadful confusion, they fell in with their company, led by Lieutenant Rochas. As for Captain Beaudoin and the regiment itself, they were somewhere or other, no doubt. And then Maurice was astounded to see that this multitude of men, horses and guns was leaving Remilly and making for Sedan along the road on the left bank. What on earth was going on? So they had given up crossing the Meuse and were retreating northwards!
A cavalry officer standing there, heaven knows why, said quite audibly:
‘Good God, we should have cleared out on the 28th, when we were at Le Chêne!’
Other voices were explaining the manoeuvre, and news began coming in. At about two in the morning an aide-de-camp from Marshal MacMahon had come and informed General Douay that the whole army had orders to fall back on Sedan without losing a minute. Routed at Beaumont, the 5th corps was sweeping away the three others in its own disaster. At that moment the general, who was keeping watch by the pontoon bridge, was horrified to see that his third division had crossed the river alone. It would soon be light and they might be attacked at any minute. So he sent word to all officers under his command to make for Sedan each one as best he could by the most direct route. And he himself, abandoning the pontoon bridge which he ordered to be destroyed, hurried off along the left bank with his second division and reserve artillery, while the third followed the right bank, and the first, thrown into disarray at Beaumont, was fleeing in disorder nobody knew where. Of the 7th corps, which had still not seen any fighting, there were only odd sections left, lost on the roads, galloping in the darkness.
It was not yet three, and the night was still dark. Although he knew the district, Maurice had no idea where he was going, and could not recover his wits in the rushing torrent of this crazy mob filling the road. Quite a few men who had escaped from the disaster at Beaumont, soldiers of all arms, in rags, covered with dust and blood, were mingling with the regiments and spreading despondency. The same murmuring sound arose from the whole valley, beyond the river as well, other trampling herds, other fugitives, the 1st corps which had just left Carignan and Douzy, the 12th corps from Mouzon with the remnants of the 5th, all unnerved, carried away by the same logical, invincible force which ever since the 28th had been thrusting the army northwards and ramming it into the impasse where it was to perish.
However, a grey dawn came as the Beaudoin company was going through Pont-Maugis, and Maurice saw where he was, with the hills of Liry on the left and the Meuse along the right of the road. This grey dawn revealed Bazeilles and Balan looking utterly dreary in the mists over the fields, while a livid, nightmarish, tragic Sedan could be made out on the horizon against the immense dark curtain of forest. And after Wadelincourt, when they at last reached the Torcy gate, there had to be a parley, with begging and threats, almost a regular siege, to make the governor lower the drawbridge. It was five o’clock. The 7th corps entered Sedan, knocked out with