From this moment on I don't remember anything.... I see again smoky fields covered with snow, and ruins burning incessantly, ever recurring dismal flights, delirious marches during the night, confusion at the crossroads congested with ammunition wagons, where the dragoons with drawn swords were driving their horses right into our midst and trying to cut a way through the wagons; I see again funeral carriages, followed by dead bodies of young men which we buried in the frozen ground, saying to ourselves that tomorrow would be our turn; I see again, near the cannon carriages, large carcasses of horses dismembered by howitzer shells, stiff, cut up, over which we used to quarrel in the evening, from which we used to carry away, into our tents, bleeding portions which we devoured growling, showing our teeth like wolves!...And I see again the surgeon, with sleeves of his white coat rolled up, pipe in mouth, amputating on a table, in a farmhouse, by the smoky light of a tallow candle, the foot of a little soldier still wearing his coarse shoes!... But above all I see again the Priory, when worn out and broken in body and spirit by these sufferings, rendered apathetic by the disaster of defeat I re-entered it one nice and sunny day.... The windows of the large house were closed, the window blinds were down in every room.... Felix, more bent than ever, was cleaning the walk and Marie, seated near the kitchen door, was knitting a pair of stockings, wagging her head. "Well! Well!" I shouted, "is that the way you receive me!" As soon as the two noticed me, Felix went away as if frightened and Marie growing pale, uttered a cry. "What's the matter?" I asked with a heavy heart. "How about father?" The old woman looked at me fixedly. "Why, don't you know?... Haven't you received anything?... Ah, my poor Monsieur Jean! My poor Monsieur Jean!" And with eyes filled with tears, she stretched out her arms in the direction of the cemetery. "Yes! Yes! There is where he is now, with Madame," she said in a dull voice. CHAPTER III Toc, toc, toc. And at the same time a small drawn otter skin bonnet appeared in the slight opening of the door, followed by two smiling eyes under a veil, then a long fur cape which outlined the slender body of a young woman. "I am not disturbing you?... May I come in?" Lirat, the painter, raised his head. "Ah! it's you, Madame!" he said in a curt tone, almost irritated, while shaking his hands soiled with pastel. "Why, yes, certainly.... Come right in!" He left his easel and offered a seat. "How is Charles?" he asked. "He is all right, thank you." She sat down, smiling, and her smile was really charming as well as sad. Although covered with a veil, her clear eyes of pinkish blue, her very large eyes which illuminated her whole figure, seemed to be radiating infinite kindness.... She was dressed very elegantly, without striving to be pretentious. A little over-perfumed, however.... There was a moment of silence.