"Take them all; you will give me pleasure. Do not refuse me!"
It seemed as if he wanted to give something to France.
The brigadier hesitated for a moment, and closed his hand over them, saying:
"I will smoke them on Sunday. Thank you, sir! Good-bye!"
He saluted quickly, and was lost to sight almost immediately in the firs that clothe the mountains. Jean heard his footsteps growing fainter in the distance. Above all, he heard echoing in his soul, and with indescribable emotion, the words of this unknown man.
"You belong to us." "Yes, I belong here; I feel it, I see it; and that explains to me so many things in my life."
The shadow descended.
Jean saw the land darkening. He thought of those of his family who had fought there, round the villages submerged by the night, so that Alsace should remain united to that great country stretched out before him. "Sweet country—my country—every one has tender words for her; and I, why did I come? Why am I as moved as if she were living before me?"
In a little while, on the fringe of the sky just where the blue began, rose the evening star. Alone, faint but dominating as an idea.
Jean rose; the night was becoming quite dark, and he took the path which follows the crest of the hills; but he could not take his eyes from the star. Walking all alone in the deep silence, on the summit of the divided Vosges, he said to the star and to the shadow beneath: