Then he turned to Captain Herail and asked him to speak out "like a soldier and without beating about the bush" and tell him why his wife did not go away. Captain Herail endeavored to make an explanation, but instead of saying that he had been struggling vainly to make her go away, he tried, out of affection for his wife, to excuse her conduct and to offer special reasons why she should remain. The colonel then lost his patience, and inflicted fifteen days close arrest on the captain, and made a report to the general of the brigade that the captain should be sent back to the depot at Narbonne. The general approved the recommendation and in addition said that the captain should not receive the Cross of the Legion of Honor for which he had been recommended. The colonel ordered Major Bouchez, the immediate superior to Captain Herail, to keep the latter under arrest in his rooms at 26, rue de la Sous-Prefecture, Compiegne, where he lodged with Mme. Masson. III--DRAMATIC SCENE BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE It was here that the climax of this unique drama occurred at about 8 o'clock in the evening. Major Bouchez came into Captain Herail's room. The latter's wife remained concealed in the next room. She heard everything that was said. Major Bouchez, who knew that she was there, raised his voice so that she could hear perfectly the reproofs which he addressed to his comrade. The interview lasted an hour and the major demonstrated fully to Captain Herail the terrible and disgraceful situation in which he would be placed, from a military point of view, at this supreme crisis of the French nation, if he did not obey orders by sending his wife away. "You will be sent before a court martial," said Major Bouchez, "for refusing to obey the orders of your superiors, you will be struck from the list of the Legion of Honor, and you will be sent back from the front to the depot with the cripples and the old women. You would be better off if you were dead." Captain Herail went into the next room and addressed his wife: "You have heard what he has said? I must insist that you go away immediately. Go!" "I will not go," said Mme. Herail, squaring her shoulders and settling down upon a divan. "I give you the order to go immediately," repeated her husband with anger. "As a matter of morality," said Mme. Herail, "you have no right to give me such an order." "We are not in the domain of abstract morality," replied the husband, "but in the domain of civil and military law and you owe me obedience." "If you give me that order, everything will be over between us for life, and anyhow, I will not obey the order," retorted Mme. Herail, with remarkable feminine logic. "I give you two minutes to reflect," said the unfortunate captain, whose emotions were getting terribly wrought up. He went back to the other room, where Major Bouchez was waiting for him, took up his service revolver, and then returned to his wife's room.