"There, you see, you agree with me! I should have cut off the tip of his nose! What a fool I was not to do it, instead of resting content with giving him a wretched lesson which he will have forgotten by to-morrow! What an ass I am! However, my one consolation is that I have taken a photograph which will constitute a priceless document: the face of a Hohenzollern in the presence of death. Oh, I ask you, did you see his face? . . ."
The car was passing through Ornequin village. It was deserted. The Huns had burnt down every house and taken away all the inhabitants, driving them before them like troops of slaves.
But they saw, seated amid the ruins, a man in rags. He was an old man. He stared at them foolishly, with a madman's eyes. Beside him a child was holding forth its arms, poor little arms from which the hands were gone. . . .
THE END
Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the original edition have been corrected.
In the Table of Contents, "Elisabeth's Diary" was changed to "Élisabeth's Diary".
In Chapter I, "was standin on the pavement" was changed to "was standing on the pavement".
In Chapter II, "The estate surrounded by farms and fields" was changed to "The estate, surrounded by farms and fields", and "Élisazeth suddenly gripped her husband's arm" was changed to "Élisabeth suddenly gripped her husband's arm".
In Chapter III, a quotation marks were added after "Confess it, you've made a mistake" and "the wretched, monstrous woman", and "a regular, montononous, uninterrupted ringing" was changed to "a regular, monotonous, uninterrupted ringing".