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 second of December had burst asunder.  A fearful shipwreck!

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

On the thirty-first 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 anyone 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, toward 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 Seventh Corps, and extending from Floing to Givonne, the other composed of the Twelfth Corps, extending from Givonne to Bazeilles; a triangle of which the Meuse formed the hypothenuse.  The Twelfth Corps, formed of the three divisions of Lacretelle, Lartigue and Wolff, ranged on the right, with the artillery between the brigades, formed a veritable barrier, having Bazeilles and Givonne at each end, and Digny in its centre; the two divisions of Petit and Lheritier massed in the rear upon two lines supported this barrier.  General Lebrun commanded the Twelfth Corps.  The Seventh 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 two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and Bonnemains, and by Guyomar’s brigade, resting in squares on Floing.  Within this triangle were encamped the Fifth Corps, commanded by General Wimpfen, and the First Corps, commanded by General Ducrot.  Michel’s cavalry division covered the First Corps on the side of Digny; the Fifth supported itself upon Sedan.  Four divisions, each disposed upon two lines—­the divisions of Lheritier, Grandchamp, Goze and Conseil-Dumenil—­formed a sort of horseshoe, turned toward Sedan, and uniting the first battle front with the second.  The cavalry division of Ameil and the brigade of Fontanges served as a reserve for these four divisions.  The whole of the artillery was upon the two battle fronts.  Two portions of the army were in confusion, one to the right of Sedan beyond Balan, the other to the left of Sedan, on this side of Iges.  Beyond Balan were the division of Vassoigne and the brigade of Reboul, on this side of Iges were the two cavalry divisions of Margueritte and Bonnemains.