masters of Bazeilles; but the French have been forestalled:  they find the Bavarians cutting the underwood with their bill-hooks.  The German army moves in one piece, in one absolute unity; the Crown Prince of Saxony is on the height of Mairy, whence he surveys the whole action; the command oscillates in the French army; at the beginning of the battle, at a quarter to six, MacMahon is wounded by the bursting of a shell; at seven o’clock Ducrot replaces him; at ten o’clock Wimpfen replaces Ducrot.  Every instant the wall of fire is drawing closer in, the roll of the thunder is continuous, a dismal pulverization of 90,000 men!  Never before has anything equal to this been seen; never before has an army been overwhelmed beneath such a downpour of lead and iron!  At one o’clock all is lost.  The regiments fly helter-skelter into Sedan.  But Sedan begins to burn; Dijonval burns, the ambulances burn, there is nothing now possible but to cut their way out.  Wimpfen, brave and resolute, proposes this to the Emperor.  The 3d Zouaves, desperate, have set the example.  Cut off from the rest of the army, they have forced a passage, and have reached Belgium.  A flight of lions!

Suddenly, above the disaster, above the huge pile of dead and dying, above all this unfortunate heroism, appears disgrace.  The white flag is hoisted.

Turenne and Vauban were both present, one in his statue, the other in his citadel.

The statue and the citadel witnessed the awe-striking capitulation.  These two virgins, one of bronze, the other of granite, felt themselves prostituted.  O noble face of our country!  Oh, eternal blushes!

[38] The Franco-German War of 1870-71.  Report of the Prussian Staff, page 1087.

CHAPTER VI.

This disaster of Sedan was easy of avoidance by any other man, but impossible of avoidance for Louis Bonaparte.  He avoided it so little that he sought it. Lex fati.

Our army seemed expressly arranged for the catastrophe.  The soldier was uneasy, ignorant of his whereabouts, famished.  On the 31st of August, in the streets of Sedan, soldiers were seeking their regiments, and going from door to door asking for bread.  We have seen the Emperor’s order announcing the next day, September 1st, as a day of rest.  In truth the army was worn out with fatigue.  And yet it had only marched by short stages.  The soldier was almost losing the habit of marching.  One corps, the 1st, for example, only accomplished two leagues per day (on the 29th of August from Stonne to Raucourt).