I seemed to see waving over this valley the flashing of the avenging angel’s sword.

This word “Sedan” had been like a veil abruptly torn aside.  The landscape had become suddenly filled with tragedy.  Those shapeless eyes which the bark of trees delineates on the trunks were gazing—­at what?  At something terrible and lost to view.

In truth, that was the place!  And at the moment when I was passing by thirteen months all but a few days had elapsed.  That was the place where the monstrous enterprise of the 2d of December had burst asunder.  A fearful shipwreck.

The gloomy pathways of Fate cannot be studied without profound anguish of the heart.

CHAPTER II.

On the 31st of August, 1870, an army was reassembled, and was, as it were, massed together under the walls of Sedan, in a place called the Givonne Valley.  This army was a French army—­twenty-nine brigades, fifteen divisions, four army corps—­90,000 men.  This army was in this place without any one being able to divine the reason; without order, without an object, scattered about—­a species of heap of men thrown down there as though with the view of being seized by some huge hand.

This army either did not entertain, or appeared not to entertain, for the moment any immediate uneasiness.  They knew, or at least they thought they knew, that the enemy was a long way off.  On calculating the stages at four leagues daily, it was three days’ march distant.  Nevertheless, towards evening the leaders took some wise strategic precautions; they protected the army, which rested in the rear on Sedan and the Meuse, by two battle fronts, one composed of the 7th Corps, and extending from Floing to Givonne, the other composed of the 12th Corps, extending from Givonne to Bazeilles; a triangle of which the Meuse formed the hypothenuse.  The 12th Corps, formed of the three divisions of Lacretelle, Lartigue, and Wolf, ranged on the right, with the artillery, between the brigades formed a veritable barrier, having Bazeilles and Givonne at each end, and Daigny in its centre; the two divisions of Petit and Lheritier massed in the rear upon two lines supported this barrier.  General Lebrun commanded the 12th Corps.  The 7th Corps, commanded by General Douay, only possessed two divisions—­Dumont’s division and Gilbert’s division—­and formed the other battle front, covering the army of Givonne to Floing on the side of Illy; this battle front was comparatively weak, too open on the side of Givonne, and only protected on the side of the Meuse by the two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and Bonnemains, and by Guyomar’s brigade, resting in squares upon Floing.  Within this triangle were encamped the 5th Corps, commanded by General Wimpfen, and the 1st Corps, commanded by General Ducrot.  Michel’s cavalry division covered the 1st Corps on the side of Daigny; the 5th supported itself upon Sedan.  Four divisions, each disposed upon two lines—­the