movement that was not against his will, but still he was driven on. On
our side of the street all went, like ourselves, calmly. My mother
uttered now and then a low moan, but said nothing. She clung to my arm,
and walked on, hurrying a little, sometimes going quicker than I
intended to go. As for my wife, she accompanied us with her light step,
which scarcely seemed to touch the ground, little Jean pattering by her
side. Our neighbours were all round us. We streamed down, as in a long
procession, to the Porte St. Lambert. It was only when we got there that
the strange character of the step we were all taking suddenly occurred
to me. It was still a kind of grey twilight, not yet day. The bells of
the Cathedral had begun to toll, which was very startling--not ringing
in their cheerful way, but tolling as if for a funeral; and no other
sound was audible but the noise of footsteps, like an army making a
silent march into an enemy's country. We had reached the gate when a
sudden wondering came over me. Why were we all going out of our houses
in the wintry dusk to which our July days had turned? I stopped, and
turning round, was about to say something to the others, when I became
suddenly aware that here I was not my own master. My tongue clave to the
root of my mouth; I could not say a word. Then I myself was turned
round, and softly, firmly, irresistibly pushed out of the gate. My
mother, who clung to me, added a little, no doubt, to the force against
me, whatever it was, for she was frightened, and opposed herself to any
endeavour on my part to regain freedom of movement; but all that her
feeble force could do against mine must have been little. Several other
men around me seemed to be moved as I was. M. Barbou, for one, made a
still more decided effort to turn back, for, being a bachelor, he had no
one to restrain him. Him I saw turned round as you would turn a
_roulette_. He was thrown against my wife in his tempestuous course, and
but that she was so light and elastic in her tread, gliding out straight
and softly like one of the saints, I think he must have thrown her down.