the noise started again, more distinct, coming nearer! . . . Pa-ta-ra! Pa-ta-ra! It was the gallop of a horse on the Chartres road. . . . Instinctively I buckled up my knapsack on my back and made sure that my rifle was loaded. . . . I was very excited, the veins in my temples dilated. . . . Pa-ta-ra! Pa-ta-ra! . . .
Hardly had I time enough to squat down behind the oak tree, when on the road, at a distance of twenty paces in front of me, there suddenly appeared a large shadow, surprisingly immobile, like an equestrian statue of bronze, and this enormous shadow which obtruded itself almost entirely upon the brightness of the eastern sky was terrible to behold. . . . The man appeared to me superhuman, inordinately large against the sky! . . . He wore the flat cap of the Prussians, a long black cloak, under which the chest was bulging out greatly. Was he an officer or a plain soldier? I did not know, for I could not distinguish any insignia of rank on the dark uniform. . . . His features, at first indistinct, became more accentuated. He had clear eyes, very limpid, a broad beard, his bearing bespoke youthful strength; his face breathed power and kindness along with something noble, audacious and sad which struck me. Holding his hand flat on his thigh, he studied the country before him, and his horse scraped the ground with its hoofs and puffed long streams of vapor in the air through its quivering nostrils. . . . Evidently this Prussian was reconnoitering, he came to observe our position, the nature of the ground; undoubtedly a whole army was swarming behind him, waiting for a signal from this man to throw themselves on the plain! . . .
Well hidden in my woods, with rifle ready, I was watching him. . . . He was handsome indeed, life flowed abundantly in this robust body. . . . What a pity! He kept on studying the country, and it seemed
