I was about following one of these groups, when Burguet came down the street. He looked thin and emaciated, as on the day when I saw him in the market. "Well!" said I, running to meet him, "this is something serious!" "Very serious, and promising no good, Moses!" said he. "Yes, it is evident," said I, "that the allies have gained victories; it may be that they are in Paris!" He turned around in alarm, and said in a low voice: "Take care, Moses, take care! If any one heard you, at a moment like this, the veterans would tear you in pieces!" I was dreadfully frightened, for I saw that he was right, while, as for him, his cheeks shook. He took me by the arm and said: "I owe you thanks for the provisions you sent me; they came very opportunely." And when I answered that we should always have a morsel of bread at his service, so long as we had any left, he pressed my hand; and we went together up the street of the infantry quarters, as far as to the ice-house bastion, where two batteries had been placed to command the Mittelbronn hill. There we could see the road to Paris as far as to Petite Saint Jean, and even to Lixheim; but those great heaps of earth, called _cavaliers_, were covered with people; Baron Parmentier, his assistant Pipelingre, the old curate Leth, and many other men of note were there, in the midst of the crowd, looking on in silence. We had only to see their faces to know that something dreadful was happening. From this height on the talus, we saw what was riveting everybody's attention. All our enemies, Austrians, Bavarians, Wurtemburgers, Russians, cavalry and infantry mixed together, were swarming around their intrenchments like ants, embracing each other, shaking hands, lifting their shakos on the points of their bayonets, waving branches of trees just beginning to turn green. Horsemen dashed across the plain, with their colbacs on the point of their swords, and rending the air with their shouts. The telegraph was in operation on the hill of Saint Jean; Burguet pointed it out to me. "If we understood those signals, Moses," said he, "we should know better what was going to happen to us in the next fortnight." Some persons having turned round to listen to us, we went down again into the streets of the quarters, very thoughtfully. The soldiers at the upper windows of the barracks were also looking out. Men and women in great numbers were collecting in the street. We went through the crowd. In the street of the Capuchins, which was always deserted, Burguet, who was walking with his head down, exclaimed: "So it is all over! What things have we seen in these last twenty-five years, Moses! What astonishing and terrible things! And it is all over!" He took hold of my hand, and looked at me as if he were astonished at his own words; then he began to walk on.