"
Then came another laugh, and once more they all took up the song of
Cinderella on her way to the palace of Prince Charming.
It was at the bridge over the Yeuse that the first drops of rain, big
drops they were, began to fall. The big livid cloud, urged on by a
terrible wind, was galloping across the sky, filling it with the clamor
of a tempest. And almost immediately afterwards the rain-drops increased
in volume and in number, lashed by so violent a squall that the water
poured down as if by the bucketful, or as if some huge sluice-gate had
suddenly burst asunder overhead. One could no longer see twenty yards
before one. In two minutes the road was running with water like the bed
of a torrent.
Then there was a _sauve-qui-peut_ among the procession. It was learnt
later on that the people of the rear-guard had luckily been surprised
near a peasant's cottage, in which they had quietly sought refuge. Then
the folks in the wagon simply drew their curtains, and halted beneath the
shelter of a wayside tree for fear lest the horses should take fright
under such a downpour. They called to the bicyclists ahead of them to
stop also, instead of obstinately remaining in such a deluge.
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