These, the police, and the servants and caretakers of the houses that lined the boulevards alone were visible.

At eleven o'clock, unobserved but by this official audience, down the Boulevard Waterloo came the advance-guard of the German army.

It consisted of three men, a captain and two privates on bicycles.

Their rifles were slung across their shoulders, they rode unwarily, with as little concern as the members of a touring-club out for a holiday.

Behind them, so close upon each other that to cross from one sidewalk to the other was not possible, came the Uhlans, infantry, and the guns.