unbroken. And shortly after the dim light in the colonel's tent was
extinguished Maurice was amazed to see Captain Beaudoin glide by,
keeping close to the hedge, with furtive steps, and vanish in the
direction of Sedan.

The darkness settled down on them, denser and denser; the chill mists
rose from the stream and enshrouded everything in a dank, noisome fog.

"Are you asleep, Jean?"

Jean was asleep, and Maurice was alone. He could not endure the
thought of going to the tent where Lapoulle and the rest of them were
slumbering; he heard their snoring, responsive to Rochas' strains, and
envied them. If our great captains sleep soundly the night before a
battle, it is like enough for the reason that their fatigue will not
let them do otherwise. He was conscious of no sound save the equal,
deep-drawn breathing of that slumbering multitude, rising from the
darkening camp like the gentle respiration of some huge monster;
beyond that all was void. He only knew that the 5th corps was close at
hand, encamped beneath the rampart, that the 1st's line extended from
the wood of la Garenne to la Moncelle, while the 12th was posted on
the other side of the city, at Bazeilles; and all were sleeping; the
whole length of that long line, from the nearest tent to the most
remote, for miles and miles, that low, faint murmur ascended in
rhythmic unison from the dark, mysterious bosom of the night. Then
outside this circle lay another region, the realm of the unknown,
whence also sounds came intermittently to his ears, so vague, so
distant, that he scarcely knew whether they were not the throbbings of
his own excited pulses; the indistinct trot of cavalry plashing over
the low ground, the dull rumble of gun and caisson along the roads,