Immediately all was excitement. A despatch had arrived; the officers put on their helmets, fastened on their swords, and came running out through the gate of Germany. Countenances changed; every one asked, "What is the meaning of this?" At the same time the police inspector came up; he had seen my cart, and cried, "Strangers must leave the place--the gates are going to be closed." Then I had only just time to embrace my son, to press Nicolas's hand, and to start at a sharp gallop for the gate of France. The drawbridge was just on the rise as I passed it; five minutes after I was galloping along the white high-road by moonlight, on the way to Metting. Outside on the glacis, there was not a sound; the pickets had been drawn, and the two regiments of cavalry were on the road to Saverne. I arrived home late: everybody was asleep in our village. Nobody suspected what was about to happen within a week. CHAPTER V The whole way I thought of nothing but the cuirassiers. This order to march immediately appeared to me to betoken no good: something serious must have occurred; and as, upon the stroke of eleven, I was putting my horses up, after having put my cart under its shed, the idea came into my head that it was time now to hide my money. I was bringing back from Saverne sixteen hundred livres: this heavy leathern purse in my pocket was perhaps what reminded me. I remembered what Cousin George had said about Uhlans and other scamps of that sort, and I felt a cold shiver come over me. Having, then, gone upstairs very softly, I awoke my wife: "Get up, Catherine." "What is the matter?" "Get up: it is time to hide our money." "But what is going on?" "Nothing. Be quiet--make no noise--Gredel is asleep. You will carry the basket: put into it your ring and your ear-rings, everything that we have got. You hear me! I am going to empty the ditch, and we will bury everything at the bottom of it." Then, without answering, she arose. I went down to the mill, opened the back-door softly, and listened. Nothing was stirring in the village; you might have heard a cat moving. The mill had stopped, and the water was pretty high. I lifted the mill-dam, the water began to rush, boiling, down the gulley; but our neighbors were used to this noise even in their sleep, so all remained quiet. Then I went in again, and I was busy emptying into a corner the little box of oak in which I kept my tools--the pincers, the hammer, the screw-driver, and the nails, when my wife, in her slippers, came downstairs. She had the basket under her arm, and was carrying the lighted lantern. I blew it out in a moment, thinking: Never was a woman such a fool. Downstairs I asked Catherine if everything was in the basket. "Yes." "Right. But I have brought from Saverne sixteen hundred francs: the wheat and the flour sold well."