When we got to La Clairière we were ready to sink down with fatigue like all the rest--nay, even more than the rest, for we were not used to it, and for my part I had altogether lost the habitude of long walks. But then you could see what Madame Martin was. She is slight and fragile and pale, not strong, as any one can perceive; but she rose above the needs of the body. She was the one among us who rested not. We threw open all the rooms, and the poor people thronged in. Old Léontine, who is the _garde_ of the house, gazed upon us and the crowd whom we brought with us with great eyes full of fear and trouble. 'But, Madame,' she cried, 'Madame!' following me as I went above to the better rooms. She pulled me by my robe. She pushed the poor women with their children away. '_Allez donc, allez_!--rest outside till these ladies have time to speak to you,' she said; and pulled me by my sleeve. Then 'Madame Martin is putting all this _canaille_ into our very chambers,' she cried. She had always distrusted Madame Martin, who was taken by the peasants for a clerical and a dévote, because she was noble. 'The _bon Dieu_ be praised that Madame also is here, who has sense and will regulate everything.' 'These are no _canaille,'_ I said: 'be silent, _ma bonne_ Léontine, here is something which you cannot understand. This is Semur which has come out to us for lodging.' She let the keys drop out of her hands. It was not wonderful if she was amazed. All day long she followed me about, her very mouth open with wonder. 'Madame Martin, that understands itself,' she would say. 'She is romanesque--she has imagination--but Madame, Madame has _bon sens_--who would have believed it of Madame?' Léontine had been my _femme de ménage_ long before there was a Madame Martin, when my son was young; and naturally it was of me she still thought. But I cannot put down all the trouble we had ere we found shelter for every one. We filled the stables and the great barn, and all the cottages near; and to get them food, and to have something provided for those who were watching before the city, and who had no one but us to think of them, was a task which was almost beyond our powers. Truly it was beyond our powers--but the Holy Mother of heaven and the good angels helped us. I cannot tell to any one how it was accomplished, yet it was accomplished. The wail of the little ones ceased. They slept that first night as if they had been in heaven. As for us, when the night came, and the dews and the darkness, it seemed to us as if we were out of our bodies, so weary were we, so weary that we could not rest. From La Clairière on ordinary occasions it is a beautiful sight to see the lights of Semur shining in all the high windows, and the streets throwing up a faint whiteness upon the sky; but how strange it was now to look down and see nothing but a darkness--a cloud, which was the city! The lights of the watchers in their camp were invisible to