A knot of people had gathered
around the American Minister's carriage, which stood in front of the
prison, the horses stamping and pawing in the icy street, the coachman
huddled on the box, wrapped in furs. Southwark helped the Secretary into
the carriage, and shook hands with Trent, thanking him for coming. "How the scoundrel did stare," he said; "your evidence was worse than a
kick, but it saved his skin for the moment at least,--and prevented
complications." The Secretary sighed. "We have done our part. Now let them prove him a spy
and we wash our hands of him. Jump in, Captain! Come along, Trent!" "I have a word to say to Captain Southwark, I won't detain him," said
Trent hastily, and dropping his voice, "Southwark, help _me_ now. You know
the story from the blackguard. You know the--the child is at his rooms. Get it, and take it to my own apartment, and if he is shot, I will provide
a home for it." "I understand," said the Captain gravely. "Will you do this at once?" "At once," he replied. Their hands met in a warm clasp, and then Captain Southwark climbed into
the carriage, motioning Trent to follow; but he shook his head saying,
"Good-bye!" and the carriage rolled away. He watched the carriage to the end of the street, then started toward his
own quarter, but after a step or two hesitated, stopped, and finally
turned away in the opposite direction. Something--perhaps it was the sight
of the prisoner he had so recently confronted nauseated him. He felt the
need of solitude and quiet to collect his thoughts. The events of the
evening had shaken him terribly, but he would walk it off, forget, bury
everything, and then go back to Sylvia. He started on swiftly, and for a
time the bitter thoughts seemed to fade, but when he paused at last,
breathless, under the Arc de Triomphe, the bitterness and the wretchedness
of the whole thing--yes, of his whole misspent life came back with a pang. Then the face of the prisoner, stamped with the horrible grimace of fear,
grew in the shadows before his eyes. Sick at heart he wandered up and down under the great Arc, striving to
occupy his mind, peering up at the sculptured cornices to read the names
of the heroes and battles which he knew were engraved there, but always
the ashen face of Hartman followed him, grinning with terror!--or was it
terror?--was it not triumph?--At the thought he leaped like a man who
feels a knife at his throat, but after a savage tramp around the square,
came back again and sat down to battle with his misery. The air was cold, but his cheeks were burning with angry shame. Shame? Why? Was it because he had married a girl whom chance had made a mother? _Did_ he love her? Was this miserable bohemian existence, then, his end
and aim in life? He turned his eyes upon the secrets of his heart, and
read an evil story,--the story of the past, and he covered his face for
shame, while, keeping time to the dull pain throbbing in his head, his
heart beat out the story for the future. Shame and disgrace. Roused at last from a lethargy which had begun to numb the bitterness of
his thoughts, he raised his head and looked about. A sudden fog had
settled in the streets; the arches of the Arc were choked with it. He
would go home. A great horror of being alone seized him. _But he was not
alone._ The fog was peopled with phantoms. All around him in the mist they
moved, drifting through the arches in lengthening lines, and vanished,
while from the fog others rose up, swept past and were engulfed. He was
not alone, for even at his side they crowded, touched him, swarmed before
him, beside him, behind him, pressed him back, seized, and bore him with
them through the mist. Down a dim avenue, through lanes and alleys white
with fog, they moved, and if they spoke their voices were dull as the
vapour which shrouded them. At last in front, a bank of masonry and earth
cut by a massive iron barred gate towered up in the fog. Slowly and more
slowly they glided, shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh. Then all
movement ceased. A sudden breeze stirred the fog. It wavered and eddied. Objects became more distinct. A pallor crept above the horizon, touching
the edges of the watery clouds, and drew dull sparks from a thousand
bayonets. Bayonets--they were everywhere, cleaving the fog or flowing
beneath it in rivers of steel. High on the wall of masonry and earth a
great gun loomed, and around it figures moved in silhouettes. Below, a
broad torrent of bayonets swept through the iron barred gateway, out into
the shadowy plain. It became lighter. Faces grew more distinct among the
marching masses and he recognized one. "You, Philippe!" The figure turned its head. Trent cried, "Is there room for me?" but the other only waved his arm in a
vague adieu and was gone with the rest. Presently the cavalry began to
pass, squadron on squadron, crowding out into the darkness; then many
cannon, then an ambulance, then again the endless lines of bayonets. Beside him a cuirassier sat on his steaming horse, and in front, among a
group of mounted officers he saw a general, with the astrakan collar of
his dolman turned up about his bloodless face. Some women were weeping near him and one was struggling to force a loaf of
black bread into a soldier's haversack. The soldier tried to aid her, but
the sack was fastened, and his rifle bothered him, so Trent held it, while
the woman unbuttoned the sack and forced in the bread, now all wet with
her tears. The rifle was not heavy. Trent found it wonderfully manageable. Was the bayonet sharp? He tried it. Then a sudden longing, a fierce,
imperative desire took possession of him. "_Chouette!_" cried a gamin, clinging to the barred gate, "_encore toi mon
vieux_?" Trent looked up, and the rat-killer laughed in his face. But when the
soldier had taken the rifle again, and thanking him, ran hard to catch his
battalion, he plunged into the throng about the gateway. "Are you going?" he cried to a marine who sat in the gutter bandaging his
foot. "Yes." Then a girl--a mere child--caught him by the hand and led him into the
café which faced the gate. The room was crowded with soldiers, some, white
and silent, sitting on the floor, others groaning on the leather-covered
settees. The air was sour and suffocating. "Choose!" said the girl with a little gesture of pity; "they can't go!" In a heap of clothing on the floor he found a capote and képi. She helped him buckle his knapsack, cartridge-box, and belt, and showed
him how to load the chasse-pot rifle, holding it on her knees. When he thanked her she started to her feet. "You are a foreigner!" "American," he said, moving toward the door, but the child barred his way. "I am a Bretonne. My father is up there with the cannon of the marine. He
will shoot you if you are a spy." They faced each other for a moment. Then sighing, he bent over and kissed
the child. "Pray for France, little one," he murmured, and she repeated
with a pale smile: "For France and you, beau Monsieur."