Omaha daily bee., 1898-05-22

as country road, was thronged with people,
from the Porte Rouge to the Prince Murat
barracks. In front Of the house the people
were silent and attentive, watching a swarm
OF laborers gathered around the bastion. A
company OF sailors from the fleet stood lean
| ing on their rifles in front Of a strange.
| shapeless structure that lowered into the
air above the heads Of the crowd, one long
| steel arm stretched out stark against the
sky. Beyond 1t, on the rusty rails OF the
| narrow-gauge track, stood car truck,
| painted blue. and on this truck lay a
gigantic cannon.
The gun carriage had already been placed
| on the circular track, sunk into the cement
| below the ramparts, the terrassiers were
shaving the terrace, sodding it along the
glacis, and piling sacks filled with earth
| across the angles of the epaulment. The
rotten gabions and packed barrels that sup
ported the gun terrace were being removed
and new ones substituted Locksmths and
| carpenters worked in the bomb proofs and
| the tinkle Of chisel and thud of mallet came
up half smothered from below
Down the street drums were rolling sonor-
| ously from the court Of the caserne, and
| now, bugles sounding, rifles glittering in the
! sun, company Of infantry issued from the
| sallyport and marched solidly on to the
Porte Rouge. their red trousers a long,
undulating line against the green of the
glacis.
Suddenly above the crowd the great
| derrick began to move, three chains dang
ling from its single rigid arm, the little
rusty engine staggering under the spasms
Of steam Jets. Slowly the cannon swung
up into the air, turning as the steel arm
turned, further. further, lower and lower.
Then in the stiffness boatswain's whistle
sounded, once, twice. the crowd swayed for
ward, and thousands of voices rose in thun-
| dering cheers:
"Vive la France!"
All that night Harewood lay restlessly OF
his bed thinking Of the future, which unit
he first met Hide had held no terrors TO
him. Now 1t was different. The menace o
a siege meant something more than ex
citment and newspaper dispatches it mean
danger, perhaps famine, perhaps annihila
tion, to city that had suddenly become i'm
pOrtant to him-because Hide lived there
He had never seen siege. His ideas on tn
subject were founded on histories. H
could not believe that any army would b.
able to absolutely isolate such city q
Paris-itself nothing but a gigantic citadel
with its double armor of fortresses and ram
parts, it's suburbs. railways. forests an
rivers. He believed that even II a Germa
army sat down before the walls It coul
never sustain such position against hunger
against the sorties Of the hundred thousand
Of troops, against those new armies. tina
everybody said were forming in the south
at Bordeaux. at Tours. at Rouen, from tn
war ports to the Loire. In common wit
the great mass Of the Parisians he n.ve
doubted that, as soon as the Germans an
peared. the bombardment would begin; bu
he doubted the ability Of a Prussian artil
leryman to send shells into Paris from
gun outside the range of Mont ValerieI
Nevertheless he was not satisfied with tn
!. Rue d'Ypres as a haven of safety for Hid
at such time. 1t was practically on tn
city ramparts. 1t was close
one of the gates. the Port
! Rouge, and closer still to the bar
cannon troubled the city at all the fire woul
be concentrated on the Notifications, tn
, gates, the magazines and the barracks.
Lying there In the darkness he could hea
from the ramparts the marine sentinel,
, challenge as they walked the rounds; tn
. stir and the movement Of horses the du
. creaking of wheels. He thought Of the fou
7 great forts that covered the country be
yond the Vaugirard secteur. MontrOugt
. Vanves. Ivry and Vicetre. II the German
D attempted to seize Meudon. there was tn
; fort OF Issy; II they advanced toward Gre
tell, the fort Of Charenton blocked the way
Could they hold st. Cloud with Mon
. Valerien looming like thunder cloud in tn
! north. Could they seize Sevres, under tn