Mittendorfer brought a message for the little French lieutenant.

The Frenchman roused up and, after they had saluted each other ceremoniously, Mittendorfer told him he had come to invite him to dine with a mess of German officers across the way, in the town hall.
On the way out he stopped to speak with Sergeant Rosenthal who, having furnished the provender for the forthcoming feast, was now waiting to share in it.

Using German, the lieutenant said: "I'm being kept pretty busy.

Two citizens of this town have just been sentenced to be shot, and I've orders to go and attend to the shooting before it gets too dark for the firing squad to see to aim." Rosenthal did not ask of what crime the condemned two had been convicted.
"You had charge of another execution this morning, didn't you ?" he said.
"Yes," answered the lieutenant; "a couple--man and wife.

The man was seventy-four years old and the woman was seventy-two.