They began by beating a retreat, slowly; then more quickly. The officers, behind them, struck them with the flat of their swords; shots came whizzing after them, and finally, they fled with as much precipitation as they had advanced in good order.
Materne, standing erect upon his eminence, with fifty others round him, brandished his carbine, laughing heartily.
At the foot of the ascent heaps of the wounded were dragging themselves painfully along. The trampled snow was red with blood. In the midst of the heaps of dead were to be seen two young officers, still alive, but crushed and entangled under the corpses of their horses.
It was a horrible sight! But men are really ferocious; there was not one among the mountaineers who pitied these unfortunates; on the contrary, the more of them they saw, the more rejoiced they were.
The little tailor, Riffi, at this moment, flushed with a noble enthusiasm, let himself slide down the whole length of the steep ascent. He had just perceived, a little to the left, below the barricades, a superb horse, that of the colonel shot by Materne, and which was standing quietly in a corner, safe and sound.
[Illustration: "AS THEY CLIMBED UP THEY WERE BRAINED."]
"You shall be mine," said he to himself; "won't Sapience be astonished, that's all!"
All the others envied him. He seized the horse by the bridle, and got upon his back. But judge of the general astonishment, and that of Riffi above all, when the noble animal set off at full gallop towards his friends the Germans.
The little tailor raised his hands to heaven, invoking all the saints.
Materne had half a mind to fire, but he was afraid, as the horse was going at such a furious pace.
They were no sooner in the midst of the enemy's bayonets than Riffi vanished out of sight.
Every one thought he had been massacred; an hour after, however, they saw him passing down the principal street of Grandfontaine with his hands tied behind his back, and corporal _schlague_ behind him with his uplifted cane.
Poor Riffi! he alone was not fated to share in the day's triumph; and his comrades were even led to laugh at his unhappy fate, just as if it had happened to a _Kaiserlick_.
Such is the nature of men; provided they are happy themselves, the misery of others concerns them but little.