It had been decided that they should start at eight o'clock the next morning, so they were all assembled in the kitchen by that hour; but the diligence, roofed with snow, stood solitary in the middle of the courtyard without horses or driver. The latter was sought for in vain either in the stables or the coachhouse. The men of the party then resolved to beat the country round for him, and went out accordingly. They found themselves in the public square with the church at one end, and low-roofed houses down each side in which they caught sight of Prussian soldiers. The first one they came upon was peeling potatoes; farther on another was washing out a barber's shop; while a third, bearded to the eyes, was soothing a crying child and rocking it to and fro on his knee to quiet it. The big peasant woman whose men were all "with the army in the war" were ordering about their docile conquerors and showing them by signs what work they wanted done--chopping wood, grinding coffee, fetching water; one of them was even doing the washing for his hostess, a helpless old crone. The Count, much astonished, stopped the beadle, who happened to come out of the vestry at that moment, and asked the meaning of it all. "Oh," replied the old church rat, "these are not at all bad. From what I hear they are not Prussians, either; they come from farther off, but where I can't say; and they have all left a wife and children at home. I am very sure the women down there are crying for their men, too, and it will all make a nice lot of misery for them as well as for us. We are not so badly off here for the moment, because they do not harm and are working just as if they were in their own homes. You see, Monsieur, the poor always help one another; it is the great people who make the wars." Cornudet, indignant at the friendly understanding established between the victors and the vanquished, retired from the scene, preferring to shut himself up in the inn. Loiseau of course must have his joke. "They are re-populating," he said. Monsieur Carre-Lamadon found a more fitting expression. "They are repairing." But the driver was nowhere to be found. At last he was unearthed in the village cafe hobnobbing fraternally with the officer's orderly. "Did you not have orders to have the diligence ready by eight o'clock?" the Count asked him. "Oh, yes, but I got another order later on." "What?" "Not to put the horses in at all." "Who gave you that order?" "Ma foi--the Prussian commandant." "Why?" "I don't know--you had better ask him. I am told not to harness the horses, and so I don't harness them--there you are." "Did he tell you so himself?" "No, Monsieur, the innkeeper brought me the message from him." "When was that?" "Last night, just as I was going to bed."