Her mother, alarmed, stopped her wheel and muttered: "Oh, good Lord! And father not here!"
She had not finished speaking when violent blows shook the door.
The women made no answer, and a loud guttural voice called out: "Open the door."
Then, after a pause, the same voice repeated: "Open the door, or I'll break it in."
Then Berthine slipped into her pocket the big revolver from over the mantelpiece, and, having put her ear to the crack of the door, asked: "Who are you?"
The voice answered: "I am the detachment that came the other day."
The woman asked again: "What do you want?"
"I have lost my way, ever since the morning, in the forest, with my detachment. Open the door, or I will break it in."
The keeper's wife had no choice; she promptly drew the great bolt, and pulling back the door she beheld six men in the pale snow-shadows—six Prussian men, the same who had come the day before. She said in a firm tone: "What do you want here at this time of night?"
The officer answered: "I had lost my way, lost it completely; I recognized the house. I have had nothing to eat since the morning, nor my men either."