"Come, come," said she, "all is going well. Here, Brainstein, you go and eat a piece of beef and drink a glass of wine. Here is a crown-piece for your trouble; I should like to have to give you a similar sum every week for just such another letter." The postman, delighted with this gratuity, followed the old woman; Louise walked behind, and Jean-Claude came after, impatient to question Brainstein on all that he had learnt by the way touching present events, but he gained nothing new from him, except that the Allies were investing Bitche and Lutzelstein, and that they had lost several hundred men in endeavouring to force the defile of the Graufthal. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 11: A sort of sledge peculiar to the district of the Vosges.] CHAPTER XXI. About ten o'clock in the evening, Catherine Lefévre and Louise, having wished Hullin good-night, went up into the room overhead. There were two large feather beds; and the tall bedsteads, nearly as high as the ceiling, with their long curtains, striped blue and red, had an extremely warm and comfortable appearance. "Come," exclaimed the old farm-mistress, getting upon her chair, "come, sleep well, my child; for my part, I am quite worn out; I can keep up no longer." She drew the bed-clothes over her, and in less than five minutes after she was sound asleep. Louise, being also exhausted, was not long in following her example. Now this had lasted about a couple of hours, when the old woman was awakened with a start by a fearful tumult. Everything was in an uproar. "To arms!" was the cry--"to arms! Hi! this way, a thousand thunders! they are upon us!" Five or six shots followed, illuminating the dark window-panes. "To arms! to arms!" The shots were heard again. People were hurrying to and fro. Then Hullin's voice was heard--sharp, penetrating, issuing orders. Then to the left of the farm, a good distance off, came a sound like a heavy prolonged crackling in the gorges of the Grosmann. "Louise, Louise!" exclaimed Catherine, "did you hear that noise?" "Yes. Oh! heavens! how terrible!" Catherine jumped out of bed. "Get up, my child," said she; "let us dress ourselves." The shots were by this time redoubled, and kept passing like flashes of lightning across the window-panes. "Attention!" shouted Materne. With these sounds were mingled the neighing of a horse outside, and the trampling of a multitude of people in the alley, in the court-yard, and in front of the farm; the house seemed shaken to its very foundations. All at once the firing was replied to from the windows of the room on the ground floor. The two women dressed themselves in haste. At this moment the staircase creaked under a heavy footstep; the door opened, and Hullin appeared with a lantern, pale, his hair in disorder, and every sign of agitation visible in his face. "Make haste!" he exclaimed; "we have not a moment to lose." "Why, what is happening?" asked Catherine anxiously.