below no influence was felt.  They all gazed, not able to get their breath, speechless, beside themselves with joy, and saw the walls reappear, and the roofs of the houses, and our glorious Cathedral against the blue sky.  They stood for a moment spell-bound.  M. de Bois-Sombre informs me that he was afraid of a wild rush into the city, and himself hastened to the front to lead and restrain it; when suddenly a great cry rang through the air, and some one was seen to fall across the high road, straight in front of the Porte St. Lambert.  M. de Bois-Sombre was at once aware who it was, for he himself had watched Lecamus taking his place at the feet of my wife, who awaited my return there.  This checked the people in their first rush towards their homes; and when it was seen that Madame Dupin had also sunk down fainting on the ground after her more than human exertions for the comfort of all, there was but one impulse of tenderness and pity.  When I reached the gate on my return, I found my wife lying there in all the pallor of death, and for a moment my heart stood still with sudden terror.  What mattered Semur to me, if it had cost me my Agnes? or how could I think of Lecamus or any other, while she lay between life and death?  I had her carried back to our own house.  She was the first to re-enter Semur; and after a time, thanks be to God, she came back to herself.  But Paul Lecamus was a dead man.  No need to carry him in, to attempt unavailing cares.  ’He has gone, that one; he has marched with the others,’ said the old doctor, who had served in his day, and sometimes would use the language of the camp.  He cast but one glance at him, and laid his hand upon his heart in passing.  ’Cover his face,’ was all he said.

It is possible that this check was good for the restraint of the crowd.  It moderated the rush with which they returned to their homes.  The sight of the motionless figures stretched out by the side of the way overawed them.  Perhaps it may seem strange, to any one who has known what had occurred, that the state of the city should have given me great anxiety the first night of our return.  The withdrawal of the oppression and awe which had been on the men, the return of everything to its natural state, the sight of their houses unchanged, so that the brain turned round of these common people, who seldom reflect upon anything, and they already began to ask themselves was it all a delusion—­added to the exhaustion of their physical condition, and the natural desire for ease and pleasure after the long strain upon all their faculties—­produced an excitement which might have led to very disastrous consequences.  Fortunately I had foreseen this.  I have always been considered to possess great knowledge of human nature, and this has been matured by recent events.  I sent off messengers instantly to bring home the women and children, and called around me the men in whom I could most trust.  Though I need not say that the excitement and suffering of the past three days