The weather was not stormy, though the sky was somewhat overcast. Firing was going on. At about 3.30 there was a clap of thunder, and lightning struck the electric wires. In the stand twenty-eight men, riflemen, scorers, and spectators, are thrown to the ground in every direction and in every position. Some are quite inert, apparently dead; others, looking as though they were asphyxiated, give out a painful rattling noise from their throats. At the bar, to the side of the stand, no one felt anything--it was not even noticed that there had been a violent stroke of lightning. A kilometre away the band, which had been giving a concert in front of the Hotel de la Triute on the bridge, continued to play. Presently a man reaches them with the report that twenty of the riflemen have been killed. Consternation becomes general, and relief parties are organized. Fortunately the damage done was much less than was supposed. Let us describe the men actually engaged in firing, and placed in a line, A, B, C, D, and E, their scorers are behind them. Let us give our attention, first, to these men and their scorers. Presently we shall come to the others awaiting their turn, then to the spectators, and finally to the markers at the targets. The men were firing, either kneeling or lying. A remained in position, kneeling "like a statue," unable to move. He turned right over as soon as he was touched. Killed. B had _a pine tree depicted on his breast_--upside down, its roots indicated by some outlines up at the top; the picture was of a brownish rather than a blueish shade. It was suggested that it resembled a pine, because of a pine being ten metres away from the stand, but really it was more like a branch of fern. Killed. C felt hardly anything apart from a certain heaviness in his limbs when picking himself up. D had some slight burns, which were healed within two or three days. E was holding his rifle with the barrel vertically. He found himself about 2-1/2 metres from his position on the ground, with a stone in his hands; his rifle had been bent in two below the trigger. A's scorer held the pear-shaped handle of the electric bell between his fingers, his elbows upon the table. Saw nothing, heard nothing. Felt himself suddenly bent up double, his face buried in the gravel; lost consciousness while he was being carried away; when he came to himself again he began to ramble in his speech; his pencil was broken lengthwise into four pieces. The wire of his bell had been electrified. By way of wound, he had a picture of a pine branch on his back; water issued from it as from a blister; there were no traces of blood. The picture disappeared at the end of two days. For a certain time the young man had a pain in his loins; he still limps somewhat; probably what he now suffers from is sciatic lumbago, the result of partial and temporary paralysis. B's scorer had only some insignificant burns.