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File: ch07, Chapter 7: Diversification

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following is a term that can best be used to describe a broadly diversified firm?
a) Integrated
b) Merged
c) Mixed
d) Conglomerate
e) Multifaceted

Ans: d
Heading: Diversification
Level: Easy

2. What measure, that depends on how much of a firm’s revenues are attributable to product market
activities that have shared technological characteristics, production characteristics, or distribution
channels, is used to determine how diversified a firm is at a given time?
a) Integration level
b) Rumelt score
c) Conglomerate level
d) Activity share
e) Relatedness

Ans: e
Heading: A Brief History
Level: Medium

3. Which Rumelt relatedness classification describes a firm that obtains between 70 and 95 percent of its
annual revenues from a principal activity?
a) Conglomerated-business
b) Single-business
c) Dominant-business
d) Related-business
e) Unrelated-business

Ans: c
Heading: A Brief History
Level: Hard

4. After American Can’s initial transition from only producing manufacturing tin cans and other metal
containers (1950) to diversifying with businesses that included paper products, printing, record
distribution, and direct mail marketing, what Rumelt relatedness classification best described the firm
(1980)?
a) Conglomerated-business
b) Single-business
c) Dominant-business
d) Related-business
e) Unrelated-business

Ans: e
Heading: Example 7.1 Changes in Diversification from American Can to Primerica
Level: Hard

5. Examining which of the following is broadly considered one of the easiest ways to measure
diversifying activity?
a) Joint Ventures
b) Mergers and acquisitions
c) Internal Business Development
d) Strategic Alliances
e) Collaborative agreements

Ans: b
Heading: A Brief History
Level: Medium

6. Which of the following is not generally a potential benefit of diversification?

a) Control systems rewarding/penalizing division managers based on business unit objective
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Diversifying shareholder portfolios
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: a
Heading: Why Do Firms Diversify? – Efficiency Based Reasons for Diversification
Level: Easy

7. Which of the following benefits of diversification explains the idea that mergers are more likely when
there is an expectation of positive changes in market share?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Diversifying shareholder portfolios
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: b
Heading: Why Do Firms Diversify? – Efficiency Based Reasons for Diversification
Level: Medium

8. Which of the following benefits of diversification explains the idea that a multiproduct firm is an
efficient choice when the costs of doing business complicate inter-firm coordination?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Diversifying shareholder portfolios
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: c
Heading: Why Do Firms Diversify? – Efficiency Based Reasons for Diversification
Level: Medium

9. Which of the following benefits of diversification explains the idea that combining unrelated
businesses can allow firms to finance projects through cross-subsidization when they previously were
unable to finance the same projects externally?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Diversifying shareholder portfolios
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: c
Heading: Why Do Firms Diversify? – Efficiency Based Reasons for Diversification
Level: Medium

10. Which of the following benefits of diversification explains the idea that a firm with many business
lines can reduce swings in value because it receives only a small percentage of its revenue from any one
of those business lines?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Diversifying shareholder portfolios
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: d
Heading: Why Do Firms Diversify? – Efficiency Based Reasons for Diversification
Level: Easy

11. Which of the following benefits of diversification explains the idea that corporate diversification can
provide situations where an acquiring firm determines the stock price for firm they intend to acquire is too
low?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Diversifying shareholder portfolios
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: e
Heading: Why Do Firms Diversify? – Efficiency Based Reasons for Diversification
Level: Easy

12. As is the case with most mergers what happened to target firm Gillette’s stock and acquiring form
P&G’s stock on the day their merger was announced?
a) Both stocks rose
b) Both stocks dropped
c) Gillette’s stock rose and P&G’s stock fell
d) P&G’s stock rose and Gillette’s stock fell
e) P&G’s stock fell and Gillette’s stock split

Ans: c
Heading: Example 7.2 Acquiring for Synergy: Procter and Gamble Buys Gillette
Level: Medium

13. What diversification benefit argument is countered with Lamont’s study indicating that oil firm
investments in their nonoil subsidiaries fell sharply after oil price drops in the 1980s?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Diversifying shareholder portfolios
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: a
Heading: Why Do Firms Diversify? – Potential Costs of Diversification
Level: Medium

14. Which of the following is not a way managers generally benefit from acquisitions?
a) Increased compensation
b) Consolidation of other senior executives
c) Shielding against risk
d) Political power
e) Social prominence

Ans: b
Heading: Managerial Reasons for Diversification – Benefits to Managers from Acquisitions
Level: Medium
15. What institution within a firm must fail on some level for managers to be motivated to acquire another
firm for the purposes of increasing their own compensation, shielding themselves against risk, or gaining
prominence by running a larger firm?
a) Legal department
b) Corporate board
c) Mergers and acquisitions program
d) Firm bonus schedule
e) Corporate governance

Ans: e
Heading: Managerial Reasons for Diversification – Problems with Corporate Governance
Level: Hard

16. By satisfying which of the following conditions can shareholders prevent management driven
acquisitions?
a) If shareholders could determine which acquisitions will lead to increased profits and which will not
b) If shareholders could direct management to undertake only those acquisitions that will increase
shareholder value
c) If shareholders could provide management with the appropriate steps to conduct when performing
acquisitions
d) a & b
e) None of the above

Ans: d
Heading: Managerial Reasons for Diversification – Problems with Corporate Governance
Level: Hard

17. Who is formally charged with monitoring management to ensure any diversification or other actions
increase shareholder value?
a) Firm senior executives
b) Audit division
c) Board of directors
d) SEC
e) Shareholders themselves

Ans: c
Heading: Managerial Reasons for Diversification – Problems with Corporate Governance
Level: Medium

18. What force does Manne indicate constrains the actions of managers so that they stay focused on the
goals of owners?
a) Market for corporate control
b) SEC
c) Corporate board
d) Corporate governance
e) CEO

Ans: a
Heading: Managerial Reasons for Diversification – The Market for Corporate Control and Recent
Changes in Corporate Governance
Level: Medium

19. Which of the following is generally a way that LBOs can help a firm realize its potential value?
a) The synergies created allow for cost savings
b) The transaction reduces the disparity between a firm’s actual and potential share price
c) The reduction in the number of shares outstanding makes it possible to give a firm’s management a
large equity share
d) The acquisition reduces the likelihood of competition in the industry
e) The buyout gives an opportunity to adjust the management structure and makeup

Ans: c
Heading: Managerial Reasons for Diversification – The Market for Corporate Control and Recent
Changes in Corporate Governance
Level: Medium

20. Which of the following is generally a way that LBOs can help a firm realize its potential value?
a) The synergies created allow for cost savings
b) The transaction reduces the disparity between a firm’s actual and potential share price
c) The acquisition reduces the likelihood of competition in the industry
d) The transaction requires debt repayment with future free cash flow leaving management no discretion
over the investment of these funds
e) The buyout gives an opportunity to adjust the management structure and makeup

Ans: d
Heading: Managerial Reasons for Diversification – The Market for Corporate Control and Recent
Changes in Corporate Governance
Level: Easy

21. What effect describes the notion that newly acquired plants see an average productivity increase of
3% while incumbent plants see an average productivity drop of 2%?
a) “Acquisition productivity” effect
b) “Plant productivity” effect
c) “New vs. incumbent” effect
d) “Scholar” effect
e) “New toy” effect

Ans: e
Heading: Performance of Diversified Firms – Studies of Operating Performance
Level: Hard

22. What type of research compares market valuations of diversified firms to those of undiversified firms
to assess the success of diversification?
a) Event studies
b) Valuation studies
c) Diversification studies
d) Market studies
e) Acquisition studies

Ans: b
Heading: Performance of Diversified Firms – Valuation and Event Studies
Level: Hard

23. What type of research looks at the changes in market valuations in response to the announcement of
diversifying acquisitions to assess the success of diversification?
a) Event studies
b) Valuation studies
c) Diversification studies
d) Market studies
e) Acquisition studies

Ans: a
Heading: Performance of Diversified Firms – Valuation and Event Studies
Level: Hard

24. Which of the following sources of conglomerate value creation explains GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s
assertion that the businesses “fit together to grow consistently through the cycles”?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Dominant general management logic
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: a
Heading: Performance of Diversified Firms – A Conglomerate with a Record of Success
Level: Medium

25. Which of the following sources of conglomerate value creation explains GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s
assertions that both GE’s size allows it to “drive common initiatives across the company that accelerate
growth, satisfy customers and expand margins” and GE’s is able “develop people to grow a common
culture that is adaptive, ethical and drives execution”?
a) Use of internal capital markets
b) Economies of scale and scope
c) Economizing on transaction costs
d) Dominant general management logic
e) Identifying undervalued firms

Ans: d
Heading: Performance of Diversified Firms – A Conglomerate with a Record of Success
Level: Medium
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gunner, whose blood had splashed the carriage, the practice was
resumed.
'No, it isn't little Louis,' continued Maurice, venting his thoughts
aloud. 'There he is aiming; he must be wounded, however, for he's
only using his left arm. Ah! little Louis—he got on so well with
Adolphe, on condition though that the gunner, the footman, should,
in spite of his superior education, act as the humble servant of the
driver, the mounted man——'
At this moment Jean, hitherto silent, interrupted Maurice with a cry
of anguish: 'They can never stay there; we are done for!'
In less than five minutes, indeed, this new position had become as
untenable as the previous one. The enemy's projectiles rained upon
it with precisely the same accuracy. One shell smashed a gun and
killed a lieutenant and two men. Every shot took effect, to such a
degree, in fact, that if they obstinately lingered there neither a gun
nor an artilleryman would soon remain. The enemy's fire was
destruction incarnate; it swept everything away. And so, for the
second time, the captain's voice rang out, ordering up the limbers.
Once more was the manœuvre executed, the drivers setting their
horses at a gallop, and wheeling so that the gunners might again
limber the pieces. This time, however, during the movement, a
splinter gashed Louis' throat and tore away his jaw, and he fell
across the block-trail which he had been raising. And just as Adolphe
came up, at the moment when the enemy obtained a flank view of
the line of teams, a furious volley swooped down. Adolphe fell, with
his chest split open, and his arms outstretched, and in a last
convulsion he caught hold of his comrade; and there they lay
embracing, fiercely contorted, coupled together even in death.
But, despite the killing of many horses, despite the disorder which
the slaughterous volley had wrought in the ranks, the entire battery
was already ascending a slope, establishing itself in a more
advanced position at a few yards from the spot where Maurice and
Jean were lying. The guns were now unlimbered for the third time,
the drivers again found themselves facing the enemy, whilst the
gunners immediately reopened fire with the obstinacy of
unconquerable heroism.
'This is the end of everything,' said Maurice, in a dying voice.
It seemed, indeed, as though earth and sky were mingled. The
stones split asunder, dense smoke occasionally hid the sun. The
horses stood with their heads low, dizzy, stupefied amid the fearful
uproar. Wherever the captain appeared he seemed abnormally tall.
At last he was cut in two—snapped, and fell like a flag-staff.
The effort was being tenaciously, deliberately prolonged, however,
especially by Honoré and his men. He, himself, despite his stripes,
now had to help work the gun, for only three gunners remained to
him. He levelled and fired whilst the three men fetched the
ammunition, loaded the piece, and handled the sponge and the
rammer. Spare men and horses had been asked for to fill up the
gaps that death had made, but they were a long time coming, and
meanwhile it was necessary to do without them. The worry was that
the gun still failed to carry the distance, almost all the projectiles
bursting in the air, and doing but little harm to those terrible
batteries of the foe whose fire was so efficacious. And all at once
Honoré swore an oath which rang out above all the thunder of the
cannonade: there was no end to their ill luck, the gun's right wheel
had just been pounded to pieces. Thunder! So now the poor
creature had a leg broken, and was thrown on her side, with her
nose on the ground, crippled and useless! Honoré shed big tears at
the sight, and clasped her neck with his twitching hands, as though
he hoped to set her erect again by the mere warmth of his affection.
To think of it!—the best gun of all, the only one that had managed
to send a few shells over yonder! Then a mad resolution took
possession of him, that of immediately replacing the shattered wheel
under the enemy's fire. With the assistance of a gunner, he himself
went to fetch a spare wheel from the ammunition waggon, and the
work then began, the most dangerous that can be performed on the
field of battle. Fortunately the spare men and horses had eventually
arrived, and a couple of fresh gunners lent a helping hand.
But once again the battery was dismantled. This heroic madness
could be carried no farther. Orders to fall back for good were on the
point of being given.
'We must make haste, comrades!' shouted Honoré. 'We'll take her
away at any rate; they sha'n't have her.'
'Twas his one idea, to save his gun, like others save the colours. And
he was still speaking when he was annihilated, his right arm torn
away and his left side ripped open. He fell upon the gun and
remained there as though stretched upon a bed of honour, his head
still erect, and his face unscathed, turned with a fine expression of
anger towards the enemy yonder. A letter—Silvine's—had slipped
through a rent in his uniform and was stained with drop after drop
of his blood, as he grasped it with his twisted fingers.
The only lieutenant who had not been killed now shouted the
command: 'Limber up!'
One of the caissons had already blown up with the commotion of
fireworks, fusing and bursting. The horses of another caisson had to
be taken to save a gun whose team was lying on the ground. And,
this last time, when the drivers had wheeled, and the four remaining
guns had again been limbered, the battery galloped off without
stopping until it was some eleven hundred yards away, behind the
fringing trees of the wood of La Garenne.
Maurice had seen everything, and with a faint shudder of horror he
repeated in a mechanical fashion: 'Oh! the poor fellow, the poor
fellow!'
It seemed as though his grief imparted increased intensity to the
growing pain that was griping his stomach. The animal part of his
nature was rebelling; his strength was exhausted; he was dying of
hunger. His eyesight was becoming dim, he was no longer conscious
even of the danger to which the regiment was exposed, now that
the battery had been compelled to fall back. At any moment, indeed,
the plateau might be attacked by the enemy in force.
'I say,' he remarked to Jean, 'I really must eat—I'd rather eat and be
killed at once.'
Having opened his knapsack, he took the bread in his trembling
hands and began to bite it voraciously. The bullets whistled by, a
couple of shells exploded a few yards away, but nothing had any
existence for him save his hunger, which must be satisfied.
'Will you have a bit, Jean?'
Stupefied, his eyes swollen, and his stomach rent by a similar
craving, Jean looked at him and answered: 'Yes, all the same I'll
have some; I feel too bad.'
They divided the bread and ate it gluttonously, without a thought of
anything else so long as a mouthful of it remained. And it was only
after they had finished that they again saw their colonel, on his big
charger, with his bloody boot. The 106th was being overlapped on
either side. Some companies must have already fled, and M. de
Vineuil, compelled to give way to the torrent, raised his sword, and,
with his eyes full of tears, exclaimed, 'God shield us, my lads, since
He would not take us!' Bands of fugitives were surrounding him, and
he disappeared from view in a depression of the ground.
Without knowing how they had got there, Jean and Maurice next
found themselves with the remnants of their company behind the
hedge which they had skirted in the morning. There remained at
most some forty men under the command of Lieutenant Rochas. The
colours were with them, and with a view of trying to save them, the
sub-lieutenant, acting as ensign, had just rolled the silk around the
staff. They all filed along to the end of the hedge, and then threw
themselves among some little trees on a slope, where Rochas
ordered them to open fire again. Sheltered and scattered in
skirmishing order, the men were able to hold out here, the more
especially as a mass of cavalry was being set in motion on their
right, and regiments of infantry were again being brought into line to
support it.
And now Maurice realised the slow, invincible encompassment which
was on the point of being completed. Early in the morning he had
seen the Prussians debouching from the defile of St. Albert, reaching
first St. Menges, and then Fleigneux, and now he could not only
hear the cannon of the Prussian Guard thundering behind the wood
of La Garenne, but began to perceive some other German uniforms
coming up by the heights of Givonne. But a few minutes more and
the circle would close up, and the Guard would join hands with the
Fifth German Corps, surrounding the French army with a living wall,
an annihilating belt of artillery. It must have been with the desperate
thought of making a last effort, of striving to break through this
marching wall, that a division of the reserve cavalry, that
commanded by General Margueritte, was now being massed behind
a fold in the ground in readiness to charge. They, were, indeed,
about to charge to death, without any possibility of effecting their
object, but for the honour of France. And Maurice, thinking of
Prosper, witnessed the terrible sight.
Since early morning Prosper had done nothing but urge on his horse,
continually marching and counter-marching from one to the other
end of the plateau of Illy. He and his comrades had been wakened
one by one at dawn, without any trumpet call; and in order that they
might make their coffee they had ingeniously contrived to screen
each fire with a cloak so as not to set the Prussians on the alert.
After that they had remained in ignorance of everything. They could
certainly hear the guns, see the smoke, espy distant movements of
infantry, but in the complete inaction in which they were left by the
generals they knew nothing of the incidents of the battle, its
importance and its results. Prosper, for his own part, was so sleepy
that he could hardly keep up. Fatigue was the great suffering: bad
nights, an accumulation of weariness, followed by invincible
somnolence when the men rocked in the saddle. Prosper himself
became a prey to hallucinations—fancied at times that he was on
the ground, snoring on a mattress of pebbles; or dreamt that he was
in a comfortable bed with clean white sheets. Sometimes he actually
slept in the saddle for minutes together, becoming a mere moving
thing, carried along according to the chances of the trot. In this way
some of his comrades had occasionally fallen from their mounts.
They were all so weary that the trumpet calls no longer awoke
them; it was only by dint of kicking that they could be roused from
oblivion and set upon their legs.
'What game are they having, what game are they having with us?'
Prosper kept on saying, in the hope that by doing so he might shake
off his irresistible torpor.
The cannon had been thundering since six o'clock. A couple of
comrades had been killed by a shell beside him while they were
ascending a hill, and, farther on, three others had fallen to the
ground, riddled with bullets which had come no one knew whence.
This useless, dangerous military promenade across the battlefield
was altogether exasperating. At last, however, at about one o'clock,
he realised that the commanders had decided to get them killed in a
decent fashion, at any rate. The whole of General Margueritte's
division, three regiments of Chasseurs d'Afrique, one of Chasseurs
de France, and one of Hussars had just been assembled in a fold of
the ground, on the left of the road, and slightly below the Calvary.
The trumpets had sounded 'Dismount,' and the officers thereupon
gave orders to tighten the girths and secure the kits.
Prosper dismounted, stretched himself, and fondled Zephyr with his
hand. Poor Zephyr! he was as stultified as his master, quite worn out
by the stupid life he was led. Besides, he carried such a multitude of
things: First, there was the linen in the holsters, and the cloak rolled
up above them; then the blouse, the overalls, and the haversack,
with everything required for grooming, behind the saddle; and in
addition there was the provision bag thrown across the horse's back,
without mentioning the goat-skin, the water-can, and the mess-tin.
The Chasseur's heart was flooded with tender compassion for his
steed as he tightened the girth and made sure that all the
paraphernalia on his back was properly secured.
It was a trying moment. Prosper, who was not more of a coward
than his comrades, felt his mouth quite parched, and lighted a
cigarette. When orders are given to charge, each man may fairly
say: 'It's all up with me this time;' so few, indeed, are the chances in
his favour.
Some five or six minutes went by, and the men told one another that
General Margueritte had gone forward to reconnoitre the ground.
Meantime, they waited. The five regiments had been assembled in
three columns; each column was seven squadrons deep, so there
would be plenty of food for the enemy's cannon.
All at once the trumpets sounded: 'To horse!' And almost
immediately afterwards another command rang out: 'Draw swords!'
The colonel of each regiment had already galloped forward, taking
up his regulation position—at seven-and-twenty yards in advance of
the front. The captains were at their places at the head of their men.
Then the spell of waiting began again, amid death-like silence. No
longer a sound, not even the faintest breath was heard under the
fierce sun. The men's hearts alone were beating. But another
command, the last, and then this motionless mass would spring
forward, and rush onward with the speed of a tempest.
At that moment, however, a mounted officer, wounded and
supported by two men, appeared upon the hill-crest. At first he was
not recognised; then a roar resounded, swelling into a furious
clamour. It was General Margueritte, whose cheeks had been
transpierced by a bullet, and who was destined to die of his wound.
He was unable to speak, but he waved his arm towards the enemy.
The clamour was still increasing: 'Our general! Vengeance!
vengeance!'
Thereupon the colonel of the first regiment raised his sabre in the
air, and cried in a voice like thunder: 'Charge!'
The trumpets sounded and the mass started off, first of all at a trot.
Prosper was in the front rank, but almost at the end of the right
wing. The greatest danger is in the centre, upon which the enemy
instinctively directs his more violent fire. When they had reached the
crest of the Calvary and were beginning to descend the other slope,
in the direction of the broad plain, Prosper could distinctly see, a
thousand yards ahead of him, the Prussian squares against which
they were being hurled. He trotted along, however, as though he
were in a dream, swaying like a man asleep, feeling light and
buoyant, and with his brain so empty that he had no idea of
anything. He had become a mere machine worked by an irresistible
power. Orders were repeated for the men to keep as close together
as possible, knee to knee, so that they might acquire the resistive
strength of granite. And as the trot became swifter and changed into
a desperate gallop, the Chasseurs d'Afrique in Arab fashion began
raising savage yells which maddened their horses. It soon became a
diabolical race, at hellish speed, and as an accompaniment to the
furious gallop and the ferocious howls there resounded the crackling
of the fusillade, the bullets striking the cans and pans of the
advancing squadrons, the brass on the uniforms of the men and on
the harness of the horses, with the loud pit-a-pat of hail. And
through this hail swept the shells—the hurricane of wind and
thunder which shook the ground and impregnated the sunlight with
a stench akin to that of burning wool and sweating beasts.
At five hundred yards from the foe a furious eddy, sweeping
everything away, threw Prosper from his horse. He caught Zephyr by
the mane, however, and managed to get into the saddle again.
Riddled and broken by the fusillade, the centre had just given way,
and the two wings were whirling round, falling back to re-form and
rush forward once more. This was the fatal, foreseen annihilation of
the first squadron. The fallen horses barred the ground; some had
been struck dead on the spot; others were struggling in violent
throes; and dismounted soldiers could be seen running hither and
thither at the full speed of their little legs in search of other horses.
The dead were already strewing the plain, and many riderless
chargers continued galloping, coming back to the ranks of their own
accord so that they might return at a mad pace to the fight, as
though the powder fascinated them. The charge was resumed; the
second squadron swept on with growing fury, the men bending low
over their horses' necks, with their sabres on a level with the knee,
ready to strike. Another couple of hundred yards were covered amid
a deafening, tempestuous clamour. Yet again did the bullets make a
gap in the centre, men and horses fell, arresting the onslaught with
the inextricable obstruction of their corpses. And thus, in its turn,
was the second squadron mowed down, annihilated, leaving the
front place to those that followed behind it.
When, with heroic obstinacy, the third charge was made, Prosper
found himself mixed up with some Hussars and Chasseurs de
France. The regiments were mingling; there was now only a huge
wave of horsemen which incessantly broke and re-formed, carrying
whatever it met along with it. Prosper no longer had any idea of
anything; he had surrendered himself to his horse, brave Zephyr,
whom he was so fond of, and who seemed maddened by a wound in
the ear. At present he was in the centre; other horses reared and fell
around him; some men were thrown to the ground as by a
hurricane, whilst others, though shot dead, remained in the saddle,
and continued charging, showing but the whites of their eyes. And,
this time, again, another two hundred yards having been covered,
the stubble in the rear of the squadrons was littered with dead and
dying. There were some whose heads had sunk deep into the soil.
Others, who had fallen on their backs, gazed at the great round sun
with terrified eyes starting from their sockets. Then there was a big
black horse, an officer's charger, whose belly had been ripped open,
and who vainly strove to rise with the hoofs of both forelegs caught
in his entrails. Whilst the foe redoubled his fire, the wings whirled
once again, and fell back, to return, however, to the charge with
desperate fury.
It was, indeed, only the fourth squadron, at the fourth onslaught,
that reached the Prussian lines. Prosper, with his sabre uplifted,
smote the helmets and the dark uniforms that he saw through the
smoky mist. Blood flowed, and on noticing that Zephyr's mouth was
ensanguined, he imagined that it was through having bitten the foe.
So frightful was the clamour becoming, that he could no longer hear
himself shout, and yet his throat was being almost torn away by the
yells that issued from it. Behind the first Prussian line, however,
there was yet another one, then another, and then another. Heroism
remained of no avail; those deep masses of men were like lofty
herbage amid which horses and horsemen disappeared. Mow them
down as you might, there were always thousands left standing. The
firing continued with such intensity, the muzzles of the needle guns
were so close, that uniforms were set on fire. All foundered, sank
down among the bayonets; chests were transpierced, and skulls
were split. Two-thirds of those regiments of horsemen were to
remain on the field, and of that famous charge there would abide
but the memory of the glorious madness of having attempted it.
And, all at once, Zephyr, in his turn, was struck by a bullet full in the
chest, and fell to the ground, crushing under him Prosper's right
thigh, the pain of which was so acute that the Chasseur fainted.
Maurice and Jean, who had been watching the heroic gallop of the
squadrons, gave vent to a cry of rage: 'Thunder! Bravery's not a bit
of good.'
And then they continued discharging their chassepots, on their
haunches behind the bushes of the little hillock, where they and
their comrades were scattered in skirmishing order. Rochas himself
had picked up a gun and joined in the firing. This time, however, the
plateau of Illy was well lost, the Prussian troops were invading it
from all sides. It must now have been about two o'clock, the
junction of the hostile forces was at last being effected, the Fifth
Corps and the Prussian Guard were meeting and buckling the belt.
All at once Jean was thrown to the ground. 'I'm done for,' he
stammered.
A heavy blow, like that of a hammer, had struck him on the crown of
the head, and his cap, torn and carried off, was lying behind him. He
at first thought that his skull was split, that his brain was bare, and
for a few seconds he dared not raise his hand to the spot, feeling
certain he should find a hole there. Then, having ventured to do so,
he drew away his hands and found them red with a thick flow of
blood. And the pain was so great that he fainted.
At that same moment Rochas gave orders to fall back. A Prussian
company was now no more than two or three hundred yards distant.
If they remained they would be caught. 'Don't hurry, though,' said
he, 'turn on the way and fire another shot. We will rally behind that
low wall.'
Maurice, however, was in despair. 'We are surely not going to leave
our corporal here, sir?'
'But what can be done if his account's settled?'
'No, no; he still breathes. Let's carry him.'
Rochas shrugged his shoulders as though to say that they could not
encumber themselves with every man who fell. Then Maurice turned
supplicatingly to Pache and Lapoulle: 'Come,' said he, 'lend me a
hand. I'm not strong enough by myself.'
But they did not listen to him, did not hear him; the instinct of self-
preservation was so absorbing that neither had thought for any but
himself. They were already gliding along on their knees,
disappearing at a gallop in the direction of the low wall. And now the
Prussians were only a hundred yards away.
Shedding tears of rage, Maurice, who had remained alone with Jean,
took him in his arms and endeavoured to carry him off. But he was
indeed too weak, too puny, exhausted moreover by fatigue and
anguish. Almost at the first step he staggered and fell with his
burden. If he could only have seen a bearer! He looked about him
wildly, fancied he could distinguish some bearers among the fugitive
soldiers, and waved his arm to them. But nobody came. Then,
collecting all his remaining strength, he again took up Jean, and
succeeded in carrying him some thirty paces, when a shell having
exploded near them, he fancied it was all over, and that he also was
about to die on his comrade's body.
He slowly picked himself up, felt himself, found himself unscathed,
without a scratch. Why did he not flee? There was still time; he
could reach the wall in a few bounds, and that would mean
salvation. Fear was coming back again, distracting him, and he was
on the point of rushing away, when bonds, stronger even than
death, held him back. No! it was impossible; he could not abandon
Jean. It would have made him bleed from every pore; the fraternity
that had sprung up between that peasant and himself extended to
the depths of his being, to the very roots of life. Its origin might
have been traced back, perhaps, to the first days of the world; for it
was as though there had been but two men left in all creation, one
of whom could not part from the other without parting from himself.
If Maurice had not eaten that crust of bread amid the shells, an hour
previously, he would never have found the strength to do that which
he now did. Later on, moreover, he was unable to recollect how he
had accomplished it. He must have lifted Jean on to his shoulders,
have dragged himself along, have halted and set out afresh a score
of times amid the stubble and the bushes, stumbling over each
stone he encountered, but still and ever setting himself upon his legs
again. He was sustained by an unconquerable will, a resistive power
that would have enabled him to carry a mountain. When he at last
got behind the wall, he there again found Rochas and the few
remaining men of the company, who were still firing, defending the
colours which the sub-lieutenant was carrying under his arm.
No line of retreat had been indicated to the different army corps for
adoption in the event of a defeat. This lack of foresight and the
prevailing confusion left each general free to act as he pleased, and
now they all found themselves thrown back on Sedan, within the
formidable embrace of the victorious German armies. The Seventh
Corps' Second Division was retiring in fairly good order, but the
remnants of its other divisions, mingled with the remnants of the
First Corps, were already rolling towards the town in a fearful mob—
a torrent of rage and fright, in which men and horses were swept
along.
Just then, however, Maurice was delighted to see Jean opening his
eyes. He wished to wash his face for him, and as he was hastening
to a rill near by, he was greatly astonished when, on his right hand,
in the depths of a secluded valley, sheltered by rugged slopes, he
again espied the same peasant whom he had seen in the morning,
and who was still leisurely turning up the sod, guiding his plough
drawn by a big white horse. Why should a day be lost? Corn would
not cease growing, nor would the human race cease living simply
because it pleased some men to fight.

CHAPTER VI

THE WHITE FLAG—THE HORRORS OF AN AMBULANCE

At last, up above on the lofty terrace, whither he had climbed to

obtain some idea of the situation, Delaherche again became excited
by impatience to know what was happening. He saw very well that
the shells were passing over the town, and realised that the three or
four, which had burst through some of the surrounding roofs, could
merely be infrequent replies to the fire of the Palatinate fort, so slack
and inefficacious. But he distinguished nothing of the battle, and
experienced a pressing desire for information which was quickened
by the dread that he might lose both fortune and life in the
catastrophe. So he went down, leaving the telescope up there,
levelled upon the German batteries.
Once below, however, the sight which the central garden of the
factory presented momentarily arrested his steps. It was nearly one
o'clock, and the wounded were crowding into the ambulance. There
was already a deficiency of the regulation conveyances, both of the
two and the four wheelers; and ammunition and forage waggons,
vans for the transport of matériel, in fact, whatever vehicles it had
been possible to requisition on the battlefield, now made their
appearance. Eventually there even came tilted and other carts
belonging to cultivators, taken from farms, and to which stray horses
had been harnessed. And heaped together in all these vehicles were
the men who had been picked up and summarily attended to by the
field ambulance. Frightful was the unloading of these poor fellows,
some greenly pallid, and others violet from congestion. Many of
them had fainted, and others were raising shrill plaints. Some, who
were struck with stupor, surrendered themselves to the attendants
with a look of terror, whilst a few expired as soon as touched, unable
to endure the slightest shaking. To such a degree was the
ambulance being invaded that in another moment there would not
remain a single unoccupied mattress in the spacious drying-hall, and
Surgeon-Major Bouroche was accordingly ordering the attendants to
utilise the large litter of straw which he had spread at one end of the
structure. As yet, however, he and his assistants sufficed for the
requisite operations. He had merely asked that a second table, with
a mattress and some oilcloth, might be placed in the shed where he
operated. Here an assistant swiftly applied a napkin dipped in
chloroform to the patient's nose, the narrow steel blades flashed
before the eyes; the saws gave out a faint rasping sound, and the
blood flowed in sudden spurts, instantly arrested. The wounded
were brought in and carried away amid a rapid coming-and-going,
time being scarcely allowed for wiping the oilcloth with a sponge.
And at the farther end of the lawn, behind a clump of laburnums, it
had been necessary to form a kind of charnel-place where the
attendants disembarrassed themselves of the dead, and whither
they also went to throw the amputated legs and arms, all the
remnants of flesh and bones remaining on the tables.
Old Madame Delaherche and Gilberte, seated under one of the lofty
trees, could no longer roll bands enough, and Bouroche, who passed
by with his face flaming and his apron already crimson with blood,
threw a packet of linen to Delaherche, exclaiming: 'Here! do
something, make yourself useful.'
'Excuse me,' protested the manufacturer, 'but I must go out for
news; we no longer know whether we are alive.' And then, lightly
touching his wife's hair with his lips, 'My poor Gilberte,' he added, 'to
think that a shell might set everything on fire here. It's frightful!'
She was very pale, and raising her head, glanced around her with a
shudder. But that involuntary, invincible smile of hers speedily came
back to her lips: 'Yes, frightful!' she said, 'all those men whom they
are cutting up. It's a wonder that I can stay here without fainting.'
Old Madame Delaherche had looked at her son as he kissed his
wife's hair, and had made a gesture as though to push him aside, for
she thought of that other man by whom that same hair must also
have been kissed. Her old hands trembled, however, and she let
them fall, murmuring: 'How much suffering, good Lord! One forgets
one's own.'
Delaherche then went off, explaining that he should speedily return
with positive information. As soon as he was in the Rue Maqua he
was surprised at the number of soldiers who were already returning
from the field without their weapons, and with their uniforms in
shreds, soiled with dust. He could not, however, obtain any precise
details from those whom he endeavoured to question. Some, who
were quite stupefied, replied that they didn't know; whilst others
had such a deal to relate, and gesticulated so furiously, and talked
so extravagantly, that they resembled madmen. He thereupon
directed his steps once more towards the Sub-Prefecture, thinking to
himself that all the news must flow thither. As he was crossing the
Place du Collège, a couple of guns, doubtless the only remaining
pieces of some battery, came up at a gallop, and stranded beside
the footway. On reaching the High Street he had to acknowledge
that the town was becoming quite crowded with fugitives. Three
dismounted Hussars were sitting in a doorway, dividing a loaf of
bread; two others were slowly leading their horses by the bridle, at a
loss for a stable where they might tether them; officers, too, were
running wildly hither and thither, looking as if they did not know
where they were going. On the Place Turenne a sub-lieutenant
advised Delaherche not to linger there, for the shells were falling
very frequently, a splinter of one of them having just broken the
railing around the statue of the great captain, the victor of the
Palatinate. And, as Delaherche was swiftly gliding along the Rue de
la Sous-Préfecture, he saw a couple of projectiles explode, with a
frightful crash, on the bridge spanning the Meuse.
Reaching the Sub-Prefecture, he was standing in front of the porter's
lodge, seeking a pretext to ask for one of the aides-de-camp and
question him, when a youthful voice called him by name: 'Monsieur
Delaherche! come in quick; it's anything but pleasant outside.'
The speaker was Rose, his work-girl, whom he had not thought of.
Thanks to her, however, every door would be opened to him. He
entered the lodge and accepted a seat.
'Just fancy,' began Rose, 'all this business has made mother quite ill;
she's in bed and can't get up. So there's only me, you see, for father
is at the citadel, being a National Guard. A little while ago the
Emperor again wanted to show his bravery, for he went out again
and was able to get to the end of the street, as far as the bridge.
But then a shell fell in front of him, and the horse of one of his
equerries was killed. And so he came back again—not surprising, is
it? What would you have him do?'
'Then you know how we are situated—what do the officers say?'
She gave him a look of astonishment. Amid all these abominations,
but little of which she understood, she bustled about assiduously,
retaining her gay freshness, with her fine hair and her clear eyes,
the eyes of the child she was. 'No, I know nothing,' she said; 'at
twelve o'clock I took up a letter for Marshal MacMahon. The Emperor
was with him. They remained shut up together for nearly an hour,
the marshal in bed, and the Emperor on a chair close to the
mattress. I know that, because I saw them when the door was
opened.'
'What were they saying?'
She again looked at him, and could not help laughing.
'Why, I don't know,' she answered. 'How could I know? Nobody in
the world knows what they said to one another.'[30]
That was true, and Delaherche made a gesture as though to
apologise for his foolish question. Still the idea of that supreme
conversation worried him; how interesting it must have been! What
decision could they have come to?
'And now,' added Rose, 'the Emperor has gone back into his private
room, where he's conferring with two generals who arrived just now
from the battlefield.' She paused and glanced towards the house-
steps: 'Look! here comes one of the generals—and look! here's the
other.'
Delaherche hastily stepped out of the lodge and recognised Generals
Douay and Ducrot, whose horses were waiting. He watched them
get into the saddle again and gallop off. After the abandonment of
the plateau of Illy, each, on his own side, had hastened into the
town to warn the Emperor that the battle was lost. They furnished
him with precise details of the situation; the army and Sedan were
now completely enveloped, and the disaster would prove frightful.
For a few minutes the Emperor walked up and down his room in
silence, with the wavering step of a sick man. The only person there
besides himself was an aide-de-camp, standing erect and silent near
a door. And, with a disfigured face which was now twitching with a
nervous tic, Napoleon kept pacing to and fro between the chimney-
piece and the window. His back appeared to have become more
bent, as though a world had fallen upon it; and his dim eyes, veiled
by their heavy lids, bespoke the resignation of the fatalist who has
played and lost his final game with Destiny. Each time, however, that
he reached the window, set ajar, he gave a start which, for a
second, made him pause; and during one of those brief halts he
raised a trembling hand and muttered: 'Oh! those guns, those guns!
one has heard them ever since the morning.'
From that spot, indeed, the roaring of the batteries of the Marfée
and Frénois hills reached the ear with extraordinary violence—it was
a rolling thunder, which not merely rattled the window panes, but
shook the very walls, a stubborn, incessant, exasperating uproar.
And the Emperor must have reflected that the struggle was
henceforth a hopeless one, that all resistance was becoming a crime.
What could it avail, why should more blood be spilt, more limbs be
shattered, more heads be carried off, more and more dead be ever
and ever added to those already scattered across the country-side?
Since they, the French, were vanquished, since it was all over, why
continue the massacre any longer? Sufficient abomination and
suffering already cried out aloud under the sun.
Once more did the Emperor reach the window, and again he began
to tremble, with his hands raised: 'Oh! those guns, those guns! Will
they never stop?'
Perhaps the terrible thought of his responsibility was arising within
him, with a vision of the thousands of bleeding corpses stretched
upon the ground over yonder, through his fault. Perhaps, though, it
was but the melting of his heart—the pitiful heart of a dreamer, of a
man in reality good-natured and haunted by humanitarian notions.
And albeit Fate had dealt him this frightful blow—which was crushing
and sweeping away his fortune as though it were but a bit of straw
—he yet found tears for others, was distracted that this useless
butchery should still continue, and lacked the strength to endure it
any longer. That villainous cannonade was now rending his breast, at
each moment increasing his agony.
'Oh! those guns, those guns! Make them stop firing at once—at
once.'
And then this Emperor, who, having confided his powers to the
Empress-Regent, no longer had any throne; this generalissimo, who,
since he had surrendered the supreme command to Marshal
Bazaine, no longer commanded, awoke once more to the exercise of
his power—to the irresistible needment of being the master for the
last time. Since his stay at Châlons he had kept in the background,
had not given an order; content, in his resignation, to become
nothing more than a nameless and cumbersome inutility, a
troublesome parcel carried along among the baggage train of the
troops. And it was only in the hour of defeat that the emperor again
awoke within him; the first, the only order that he was yet to give, in
the scared compassion of his heart, was to hoist the white flag upon
the citadel to beg a truce.
'Oh! those guns, those guns! Take a sheet, a table-cloth, no matter
what! Run quickly, tell them to stop those guns!'
The aide-de-camp hastily left the room, and the Emperor continued
his wavering march from the chimney-piece to the window, whilst
the batteries kept on thundering, shaking the house from top to
bottom.
Delaherche was still talking with Rose when a sergeant, on duty at
the Sub-Prefecture, ran into the lodge: 'Mademoiselle,' said he, 'we
can't find anything. I can't see a servant anywhere. Do you happen
to have any linen—a piece of white linen?'
'Will a napkin do?'
'No, no; that wouldn't be large enough. Half a sheet would do.'
Rose, ever obliging, had already darted to the wardrobe. 'I haven't
any half-sheets,' said she. 'A large piece of white linen—no, I don't
see anything that would suit you—Oh! would you like a table-cloth?'
'A table-cloth? Nothing could be better; that's exactly what we want.'
And as he turned to go he added: 'We are going to make a white
flag of it, and hoist it on the citadel, to ask for peace. Much obliged,
mademoiselle.'
Delaherche gave a start of involuntary delight. At last, then, they
were going to have quietness. It occurred to him, however, that his
joy was unpatriotic, and he restrained it. Nevertheless his lightened
heart beat quickly, and he eagerly watched a colonel and a captain,
who, followed by the sergeant, were now coming out of the Sub-
Prefecture with hasty steps. The colonel was carrying the table-cloth,
rolled up, under his arm. It occurred to Delaherche to follow them,
and he took leave of Rose, who was quite proud of having provided
that cloth. Just then it struck two o'clock.
In front of the town-hall Delaherche was hustled by a stream of
haggard soldiers coming from the Faubourg of La Cassine. He lost
sight of the colonel, and thereupon renounced his intention of going
to see the hoisting of the white flag. He would certainly not be
allowed to enter the keep; and besides, on hearing some people say
that shells were falling on the college, he was once more filled with
anxiety. Perhaps his factory had caught fire during his absence.
Thereupon he darted off again, possessed by a feverish desire to be
on the move, which he endeavoured to satisfy by running through
the streets. Groups of people barred his way, however; at each
crossing there were fresh obstacles. It was only on reaching the Rue
Maqua that he gave a sigh of relief, on finding that the monumental
front of his house was intact, that neither a puff of smoke nor a
spark of fire was to be seen. He went in and called out to his mother
and his wife: 'Things are going all right; they are hoisting the white
flag, so the firing will soon be over.'
Then he stopped short, for the scene which the ambulance
presented was really terrible. Not only was every mattress occupied
in the spacious drying-room, the door of which was open, but there
no longer remained any space even on the litter of straw spread out
at one end of the building. More straw was now being laid between
the beds: the wounded were being closely packed, one beside the
other. There were already more than a couple of hundred of them,
and others were still arriving. A white light streamed from the broad
windows upon all this accumulation of human suffering. At times
there arose some involuntary cry occasioned by too sudden a
movement; and now and again the rattle of the death pangs was
wafted through the moist atmosphere. From one end of the room
there long resounded a continuous, gentle, almost musical wail.
Then the silence became deeper, like a kind of resigned stupor, like
the oppressive mournfulness of a death room, broken only by the
steps and whispers of the attendants. The wounds, most of which
had been hastily dressed on the battlefield, though some had
remained bare, untended, were displayed in all their distressful
horror, amid shreds of torn capotes and trousers. Feet were
stretched out, still booted, but crushed and bleeding. Inert limbs
dangled from knees and elbows which had been smashed as though
by blows of a hammer. There were broken hands and hanging
fingers, too, sustained by mere strips of skin. Most numerous,
apparently, were the fractured legs and arms, stiffened by pain and
as heavy as lead; but the disquieting wounds were especially those
that had opened up the stomach, the chest, or the head. Blood was
flowing from flanks that had been frightfully lacerated; bowels had
become knotted under upraised skin; some men, through their loins
being gashed and hacked, were twisted into frightfully distorted
postures. Some lungs had been perforated through and through with
so small a hole that no blood flowed; others had a gaping aperture
whence life was ebbing in a red stream; and there were men, too,
who suddenly became delirious and black, killed all at once by
internal hæmorrhage. The heads had suffered yet more severely
than the bodies; jaws had been smashed, teeth and tongue formed
but a bloody mixture; eyes had been driven half out of their torn
sockets; skulls had been split open, and cerebral substance was
visible. All those whose brains or marrow had been touched by the
projectiles lay like corpses, in the prostration of coma; whilst others,
the fractured, the feverish ones, moved restlessly and begged for
water in low, supplicating voices.
And in the shed close by, where the operations were performed,
there were yet more horrors. In this first scramble, only the more
urgent operations were proceeded with, those necessitated by the
desperate condition of the wounded. Whenever there was any
danger of hæmorrhage Bouroche immediately began to amputate.
And, in the same way, when the projectiles were lodged in any
dangerous part, the base of the neck, the region of the axilla, the
origin of the thigh, the bend of the elbow, or the knee joint, he did
not spend time in feeling for them and removing them. The wounds
which he preferred to leave under observation, were simply dressed
by the attendants in accordance with his instructions. For his own
part he had already performed four amputations, spacing them out,
resting himself, as it were, between these more serious operations
by extracting a few bullets. And he was now beginning to feel tired.
There were only two tables, his own and another, at which one of
his assistants operated. A sheet had just been hung up between
them, so that the men operated upon might not see one another.
And, despite all the washing with sponges, the tables remained
blood-red, whilst the pails, which were emptied a few paces off over
a bed of China asters, those pails, whose clear water a glassful of
blood sufficed to dye, seemed to be pails of pure blood—blood flung
in a splashing, drenching shower over the flowers of the lawn. And,
although the air freely circulated in the open shed, a nauseous
stench now arose from the tables, linen and instruments there,
mingling with a vague smell of chloroform.
Pitiful at heart, Delaherche was shuddering with compassion, when
he felt interested at sight of a landau entering the porch. This
carriage, the only vehicle, no doubt, that the men of the field
ambulance had been able to find, was packed full of wounded.
There were eight of them inside it, one atop of another; and when,
in the last man who was lifted out, the manufacturer recognised
Captain Beaudoin, he raised a cry of mingled terror and surprise:
'Oh! my poor friend! Wait a moment, I will call my mother and my
wife.'
They hastened to the spot, leaving a couple of servant-girls to
continue making the linen-rollers. The attendants, who had taken
the captain out of the carriage, carried him into the drying-room,
and were about to lay him on some straw there, when, upon one of
the mattresses, Delaherche perceived a soldier with ashy face and
open eyes, who no longer stirred.
'I say, that fellow's dead!' the manufacturer exclaimed.
'So he is,' muttered an attendant. 'We'll get rid of him and make
room for that officer.' Thereupon he and a comrade took up the
corpse and carried it to the charnel-place behind the laburnums.
There were already a dozen dead men lying there, stiffened in the
last rattle, some with their feet stretched out as though distended by
suffering, others all awry, twisted into atrocious postures. There
were some showing only the whites of their eyes, and sneering, with
their lips turned outwardly and displaying their white teeth; whilst
several, upon whose drawn, elongated faces there lingered a
fearfully mournful expression, were yet shedding big tears. One
skinny, youthful little fellow, whose head had been split open, was
convulsively pressing a woman's portrait—a common, faded, blood-
smeared photograph—to his heart. And, pell-mell, at the feet of the
corpses, were piled the amputated legs and arms, everything that
was cut away, hewn off on the operating tables—the parings of flesh
and bone of a butcher's shop, swept, as it were, into a corner.
Gilberte had shuddered at sight of Captain Beaudoin. Good God!
how pale he was, lying on that mattress there, his face quite white
under the filth that soiled it. And she was frozen with appalment,
remembering that but a few hours previously he had been full of life.
She fell upon her knees: 'What a misfortune, my friend! But it's
nothing dangerous, is it?'
She had pulled out her handkerchief in a mechanical fashion, and
wiped his face with it, unable to tolerate him in that dirty state,
grimed with earth, gunpowder, and sweat. It seemed to her also
that by cleansing him a little, she gave him some relief: 'It is not
dangerous, is it? It's only your leg.'
Emerging from a kind of somnolence the captain painfully opened
his eyes, and, recognising his friends, he tried to smile at them: 'Yes,
only my leg; I did not even feel the blow, I thought I had slipped
and was falling.' He had to pause, for he could only speak with
difficulty: 'Oh! I'm so thirsty,' he added, 'so thirsty.'
Thereupon, old Madame Delaherche, who was leaning over him on
the other side of the mattress, went off in all haste to fetch a glass
and a decanter of water with which a small quantity of cognac had
been mixed. And when the captain had eagerly drained the glass,
she had to divide what remained in the decanter among the
wounded near by; every hand was outstretched, and ardent voices
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