moment as if with the intention of drawing their assailants on; then,
when the close-massed column was directly opposite their front, a most
surprising maneuver was swiftly executed: the men abandoned their
formation, some of them stepping from the ranks and flattening
themselves against the house fronts, others casting themselves prone
upon the ground, and down the vacant space thus suddenly formed the
mitrailleuses that had been placed in battery at the farther end
poured a perfect hailstorm of bullets. The column disappeared as if it
had been swept bodily from off the face of the earth. The recumbent
men sprang to their feet with a bound and charged the scattered
Bavarians with the bayonet, driving them and making the rout complete.
Twice the maneuver was repeated, each time with the same success. Two
women, unwilling to abandon their home, a small house at the corner of
an intersecting lane, were sitting at their window; they laughed
approvingly and clapped their hands, apparently glad to have an
opportunity to behold such a spectacle.

"There, confound it!" Weiss suddenly said, "I forgot to lock the
cellar door! I must go back. Wait for me; I won't be a minute."

There was no indication that the enemy contemplated a renewal of
their attack, and Delaherche, whose curiosity was reviving after
the shock it had sustained, was less eager to get away. He had halted
in front of his dyehouse and was conversing with the concierge, who
had come for a moment to the door of the room she occupied in the
_rez-de-chaussee_.

"My poor Francoise, you had better come along with us. A lone woman
among such dreadful sights--I can't bear to think of it!"