Although it was bitter to him to be a prisoner at such a time, he had some comprehension of what had occurred, and he knew that John had been in a position to see far more than he.

He asked the young American many questions about his flight in the air, and about Philip Lannes, of whom he had heard.
"It was wonderful," he said, "to look down on a battle a hundred miles long." "We didn't see all of it," said John, "but we saw it in many places, and we don't know that it was a hundred miles long, but it must have been that or near it." "And the greatest day for France in her history! What mighty calculations must have been made and what tremendous marchings and combats must have been carried out to achieve such a result." "One of the decisive battles of history, like Plataea, or the Metaurus or Gettysburg.

There go the Uhlans with Captain von Boehlen at their head.
Now I wonder what they mean to do!" A thousand men, splendidly mounted and armed, rode through the forest.
The moonlight fell on von Boehlen's face and showed it set and grim.
John felt that he was bound to recognize in him a stern and resolute man, carrying out his own conceptions of duty.

Nor had von Boehlen been discourteous to him, although he might have felt cause for much resentment.

The Prussian glanced at him as he passed, but said nothing.
Soon he and his horsemen passed out of sight in the dusk.
John, wondering how late it might be, suddenly remembered that he had a watch and found it was eleven o'clock.
"An hour of midnight," he said to Fleury.
Most all the French stretched upon the ground were now in deep slumber, wounded and unwounded alike.