Paris had just heard of the disaster at Sedan. A republic had been declared. All France
was wavering on the brink of this madness which lasted until after the Commune. From
one end of the country to the other everybody was playing soldier.
Cap-makers became colonels, fulfilling the duties of generals; revolvers and swords were
displayed around big, peaceful stomachs wrapped in flaming red belts; little tradesmen
became warriors commanding battalions of brawling volunteers, and swearing like
pirates in order to give themselves some prestige.
The sole fact of handling firearms crazed these people, who up to that time had only
handled scales, and made them, without any reason, dangerous to all. Innocent people
were shot to prove that they knew how to kill; in forests which had never seen a Prussian,
stray dogs, grazing cows and browsing horses were killed.
Each one thought himself called upon to play a great part in military affairs. The cafes of
the smallest villages, full of uniformed tradesmen, looked like barracks or hospitals.
The town of Canneville was still in ignorance of the maddening news from the army and
the capital; nevertheless, great excitement had prevailed for the last month, the opposing
parties finding themselves face to face.
The mayor, Viscount de Varnetot, a thin, little old man, a conservative, who had recently,
from ambition, gone over to the Empire, had seen a determined opponent arise in Dr.
Massarel, a big, full-blooded man, leader of the Republican party of the neighborhood, a
high official in the local masonic lodge, president of the Agricultural Society and of the
firemen's banquet and the organizer of the rural militia which was to save the country.
In two weeks, he had managed to gather together sixty-three volunteers, fathers of
families, prudent farmers and town merchants, and every morning he would drill them in
the square in front of the town-hall.
When, perchance, the mayor would come to the municipal building, Commander
Massarel, girt with pistols, would pass proudly in front of his troop, his sword in his
hand, and make all of them cry: "Long live the Fatherland!" And it had been noticed that
this cry excited the little viscount, who probably saw in it a menace, a threat, as well as
the odious memory of the great Revolution.
On the morning of the fifth of September, the doctor, in full uniform, his revolver on the
table, was giving a consultation to an old couple, a farmer who had been suffering from
varicose veins for the last seven years and had waited until his wife had them also, before
he would consult the doctor, when the postman brought in the paper.
