"I had not ceased speaking when a terrible push threw me on my back, and in a second I saw the man seized by the furious soldiers, thrown down, struck, dragged along the side of the road, and flung against a tree. He fell in the snow, nearly dead already.
"And immediately they shot him. The soldiers fired at him, re-loaded their guns, fired again with the desperate energy of brutes. They fought with each other to have a shot at him, filed off in front of the corpse, and kept firing on at him, as people at a funeral keep sprinkling holy water in front of a coffin.
"But suddenly a cry arose of: 'The Prussians! the Prussians!'
"And all along the horizon I heard the great noise of this panic-stricken army in full flight.
"The panic, generated by these shots fired at this vagabond, had filled his very executioners with terror; and, without realizing that they were themselves the originators of the scare, rushed away and disappeared in the darkness.
"I remained alone in front of the corpse with the two gendarmes whom their duty had compelled to stay with me.
"They lifted up the riddled piece of flesh, bruised and bleeding.
"'He must be examined,' said I to them.
"And I handed them a box of vestas which I had in my pocket. One of the soldiers had another box. I was standing between the two.
"The gendarme, who was feeling the body, called out: