Six pairs of boots, taken from the corpses, fell noisily on to the hard ground. The man stooped down for his revolver, which he had taken out of his pocket at the same time as the stolen objects. “Will you leave that, and get away quickly?” I said, “my patience is at an end.” “But if I am caught I shan’t be able to defend myself,” he exclaimed, in a fit of desperate rage. “It will be because God willed it so,” I answered. “Go at once or I will call.” The man then made off, abusing me as he went. Our little driver then fetched a soldier to whom I related the adventure, showing him the objects. “Which way did the rascal go?” asked a sergeant who had come with the soldier. “I can’t say,” I replied. “Oh, well, I don’t care to run after him,” he said, “there are enough dead men here.” We continued our way until we came to a place where several roads met, and it was then possible for us to take a road a little more suitable for vehicles. After going through Busigny, and a wood, where there were bogs in which we only just escaped being swallowed up, our painful journey came to an end, and we arrived at Cateau in the night, half dead with fatigue, fright, and despair. I was obliged to take a day’s rest there, for I was prostrate with feverishness. We had two little rooms, roughly whitewashed but quite clean. The floor was of red, shiny bricks, and there was a polished wood bed, and curtains of white sateen. I sent for a doctor for my nice little Mlle. Soubise, who, it seemed to me, was worse than I was. He thought we were both in a very bad state, though. A nervous feverishness had taken all the use out of my limbs and made my head burn. Soubise could not keep still, but kept seeing specters and fires, hearing shouts, and turning round quickly, imagining that some one had touched her on the shoulder. The good man gave us a soothing draught to overcome our fatigue, and the next day a very hot bath brought back the suppleness to our limbs. It was then six days since we had left Paris, and it would take about twenty more hours to reach Hombourg, for in those days trains went much less quickly than at present. I took the train for Brussels, where I was counting on buying a trunk, and a few necessary things. From Cateau to Brussels there was no hindrance to our journey, and we were able to take the train again the same evening.