the rascals who dare quarrel in the
company street!"

And Lieutenant Rochas appeared upon the scene, in his old _kepi_, whence
the rain had washed all the color, and his great coat, minus many of
its buttons, evincing in all his lean, shambling person the extreme of
poverty and distress. Notwithstanding his forlorn aspect, however, his
sparkling eye and bristling mustache showed that his old time confidence
had suffered no impairment.

Jean spoke up, scarce able to restrain himself. "Lieutenant, it is
these men, who persist in saying that we are betrayed. Yes, they dare to
assert that our generals have sold us--"

The idea of treason did not appear so extremely unnatural to Rochas's
thick understanding, for it served to explain those reverses that he
could not account for otherwise.

"Well, suppose they are sold, is it any of their business? What concern
is it of theirs? The Prussians are there all the same, aren't they? and
we are going to give them one of the old-fashioned hidings, such as they
won't forget in one while." Down below them in the thick sea of fog the
guns at Bazeilles were still pounding away, and he extended his arms
with a broad, sweeping gesture: "_Hein_! this is the time that we've got
them! We'll see them back home, and kick them every step of the way!"

All the trials and troubles of the past were to him as if they had not
been, now that his ears were gladdened by the roar of the guns: the
delays and conflicting orders of the chiefs, the demoralization of the
troops, the stampede at Beaumont, the distress of the recent forced
retreat on Sedan--all were forgotten. Now that they were about to fight
at last, was not victory certain? He had learned nothing and forgotten
nothing; his blustering, boastful contempt of the enemy, his entire
ignorance of the new arts and appliances of war, his rooted conviction
that an old soldier of Africa, Italy, and the Crimea could by no
possibility be beaten, had suffered no change. It was really a little
too comical that a man at his age should take the back track and begin
at the beginning again!

All at once his lantern jaws parted and gave utterance to a loud laugh.
He was visited by one of those impulses of good-fellowship that made
his men swear by him, despite the roughness of the jobations that he
frequently bestowed on them.

"Look here, my children, in place of quarreling it will be a great deal
better to take a good nip all around. Come, I'm going t