"Ah! is that you, Jean-Claude?" "Yes, I've come to shake hands with you." "All right; but tell me--they seem in no hurry to come--if they should happen to pass another way?" "No fear of that. They must take this road for the artillery and baggage. Hark! there's the bugle--to boot and saddle!" "Yes, I saw that before; they are preparing." Then, with a low chuckle: "You don't know, Jean-Claude, just now, as I was looking towards Grandfontaine, what a droll thing I saw." "What was that, old boy?" "I saw four Germans lay hold of the fat Dubreuil, the friend of the Allies; they laid him down on the stone bench at his door, and one tall bony fellow gave him I don't know how many blows with a stout stick over his back. Didn't he bellow, the old rascal! I'll wager he has refused something to his good friends; his old wine of the year 1811, for instance." Hullin listened no further, for happening to cast a glance down upon the valley, he had just seen a regiment of infantry debouch on the road. Farther off, in the street, the cavalry were advancing, with five or six officers galloping at their head. "Ah! ha! they are coming now in good earnest," exclaimed the old soldier, whose countenance suddenly assumed an expression of energy and strange enthusiasm. Then he sprang upon the trench, exclaiming: "My children, attention!" As he passed, he caught a glimpse of Riffi, the little tailor of the Charmes, leaning upon a long gun; the little man had made a step in the snow to take aim. Higher up he recognised also the old wood-cutter, Rochart, with his big sabots trimmed with sheepskin; he was taking a hearty draught from his flask, and then slowly raising himself up, with his carbine under his arm, and his cotton cap over his ear. And that was all; for in order to survey the whole sphere of action, it was necessary for him to climb to the summit of the Donon, where there is a rock. Lagarmitte followed him, stretching out his long legs as if he were walking on stilts. Ten minutes after, when they had arrived quite out of breath at the top of the rock, they perceived at four thousand odd feet below them the enemy's column of about three thousand men, with long white coats, cloth gaiters, tall shakos, and red moustaches; the young officers with flat cap, riding at regular distances among the troops, caracoling on horseback, sword in hand, and turning round from time to time to call out, in a shrill voice: "_Forvertz! Forvertz!_" (Forward! Forward!) And this body bristled with glittering bayonets and advanced at full charge towards the barricades. Old Materne, his long hawk's nose peering over the branch of a juniper tree, had also observed, with raised eyebrows, the arrival of the Germans. And as he was very clear-sighted, he was able even to distinguish faces among all this crowd; and picked out the one whom he would bring down himself.