The village was in ruins, with some of its houses still burning, and displayed a most incredible disorder of corpses, of wounded men, of dead horses, demolished guns and battered caissons and baggage-wagons. A whole brigade had been surprised at the moment, when, feeling certain that it had cleared the ground, it was about to march to the attack. But a shout came from the top of the church, the front and nave of which had fallen in and presented an appearance of indescribable chaos. Only the tower, perforated by gun-fire and blackened by the smoke from some burning joists, still remained standing, bearing by some miracle of equilibrium, the slender stone spire with which it was crowned. With his body leaning out of this spire was a peasant, waving his arms and shouting to attract attention. The officers recognized Paul Delroze. Picking their way through the rubbish, our men climbed the staircase that led to the platform of the tower. Here, heaped up against the little door admitting to the spire, were the bodies of eight Germans; and the door, which was demolished and had dropped crosswise, barred the entrance in such a way that it had to be chopped to pieces before Paul could be released. Toward the end of the afternoon, when it was manifest that the obstacles to the pursuit of the enemy were too serious to be overcome, the colonel embraced Corporal Delroze in front of the regiment mustered in the square. "Let's speak of your reward first," he said. "I shall recommend you for the military medal; and you will be sure to get it. And now, my lad, tell your story." And Paul stood answering questions in the middle of the circle formed around him by the officers and the non-commissioned officers of each company. "Why, it's very simple, sir," he said. "We were being spied upon." "Obviously; but who was the spy and where was he?" "I learnt that by accident. Beside the position which we occupied this morning, there was a village, was there not, with a church?" "Yes, but I had the village evacuated when I arrived; and there was no one in the church." "If there was no one in the church, sir, why did the weather-vane point the wind coming from the east, when it was blowing from the west? And why, when we changed our position, was the vane pointed in our direction?" "Are you sure of that?" "Yes, sir. And that was why, after obtaining your leave, I did not hesitate to slip into the church and to enter the steeple as stealthily as I could. I was not mistaken. There was a man there whom I managed to overmaster, not without difficulty." "The scoundrel! A Frenchman?" "No, sir, a German dressed up as a peasant." "He shall be shot." "No, sir, please. I promised him his life." "Never!" "Well, you see, sir, I had to find out how he was keeping the enemy informed." "Well?"