, 1886-07-03

footsteps near him.
After suffering al the tortures of the
damned for interminable hours, he saw
the sky beginning to Tighten through the
branches overhead. Affecting of immense
relief came upon him; his limbs lost
their stiffness; his heart beat more.
quietly; his eyes closed. He slept.
When he woke the sun was high up in
the sky, he guessed it to be about -
O'Clock. Not a sound disturbed the dull
silence of the fields; and Walter Schnaifs
began TO feel the pangs Of hunger. lie
yawned, his mouth watered as he thought
of the soldiers rations of good sausage;
and he had a gnawing pain at his
stomach. He got up and walked a few
steps; his legs trembled under him, and
he sat down again to collect his thoughts.
For two or three hours he sat there
weighing the pros and cons, changing
his mind every moment, downcast and
unhappy, pulled in every direction by
conflicting arguments.
AT last he fixed upon one plan that
seemed to him sensible and practicable.
This was his plan: To watch till one of
the villagers should go past, alone and
unarined. and without any tool that
could be dangerous, and go out and meet
him, and put himself into the villagers
hands. making him understand that he
surrendered.
He took off his pointed helmet, which
might have betrayed him, and cautiously
put his head out of the ditch. Not a
solitary creature was to be seen on the
horizon. Here on the right a little village
sent the smoke up from its roofs into tie
sky-the kitchen smoke. There on the
left he could see a grand castle, flankeG
with towers, at the end of an avenue of
trees. He waited there till the evening.
1t was a painful time. He saw nothing
but flights of crow
Night came upon him. He lay down
at the bottom of the sheltering ditch,
and slept a feverish sleep haunted by
nishtmare-the sleep of a famished man.
The dawn rose again over his head. He
returned to his post and watched. But
the country lay deserted and empty as it
had lone the day before; and a new fear
entered into the heartof Walter Schnaffs,
the fear of dying of hunger. He could
see himself lying at the bottom of the
ditch, on his back, with his eyes shut;
and beasts-all kinds of small animals
would come round his dead body, and
devour it, attacking every part at the
same time, creeping inside his clothes to
bite his cold skin; and a great crow
would come and pick out his eyes with
its sharp beak.
Then he lost his head altogether, fancy
ing he was going TO RI fouS tren
weakness, and never be- aoIe &c get out
of the ditch. And he was just preparing
to start for the village, come what might,
and dare everything, when he saw three
laborers going toward the fields, witt
their pitchforks on their shoulders, ano
he plunged back into his hiding place.
As soon as the shadows of evening
darkened over him, he dragged himself
slowly out of the ditch, and bent and
fearful, with a beating heart, set out for
h distant castle, choosing it in prefer
ence to the village, which seemed to him
like a den of tigers. The windows of the
lower story were lighted up. One of
them even was open, n there came out
a strong smell of roast meat-a smell
that penetrated into the nostrils and
down into the stomach of Walter
Schnaffs. That smell electrified him, it
took away his breath, and, drawing him
irresistibly toward it, put desperate
courage into his heart. And suddenly,
without stopping to think, he presented
himself, in his helmet, at the opening of
the window. Eight servant We're sitting
at dinner, round large table. But, all
at once, n of the maid-servants dropped
her glass, and sat staring, open-mouthed.
They all turned round to see what she
wa looking at. They caught sight of
the enemy. God help u.s. the Prussians
have attacked the ~castle."
There was a scream, a single scream,
made up of eight screams in eight differ
ent tones-a cry of deadly terror. Then
there was a tumultuous uprising, a push
ing, and scrambling and a wild flight
toward the door at the end Of the room.
Chairs fell, men knocked down women
and trampled them under foot. In two
seconds the room was empty and de
serted, and right in front of Walter
Schnaffs, standing stupefied before the
window, was the table laden with food.
After a few moments hesitation he
stepped over the w~indow-sill and went
up to the table. He shook with famine
as he had with fever; but he was still
held back and paralyzed by his fears.
He listened. The whole house seemed to
shake; doors banged, and footsteps hur-
ried across the fioor above. The Prus-
sian strained his ears To catch the con-
fused sounds; hen he heard dull thuds
as of bodies falling on the soft ground at
A. "a Al Ill. - IL
jumping out of the first-fioor windows.
Then every movement, every sound
ceased, and the great castle was rs silent
rs the grave.
Walter Schnaffs sat down before one
of the untouched plates and began to eat.
He devoured great mouthfuls, as if he
he was afraid of being interrupted before
he had had tim to swallow enough. He
threw the morsels into his mouth with
both hands, as if he was throwing them
into a pit; he ate so fast that great humps
of food stuck in his throat and had to be
washed down with copious draughts of
water. He empticd all the plates, and
all the dishes, and all the bottles, till he
was drunk with food and liquor. Red,
and stupid, and hiccoughing, with dull
head and greasy lips, unbuttoning his
uniform to breathe, he was utterly in
capable of stirring a step. He shut his
eyes-his brain was heavy; he crossed his
arms upon the table and laid his head
down upon them, and went off gently to
the land of dreams.
The crescent noon hone dimly above
the trees in the park. 1t was the chilly
hour before dawn. Shadows, many and
silent, glided about among the shrubs,