ut exception,
met their fate bravely and like men. There was no shrinking from
death, or entreaties to be spared, among those I saw killed.

"After an hour we resumed our march, the mob saluting us with the
choicest selection of curses and abusive epithets I ever heard.
We passed down the Rue Royale, the bystanders calling on us to
look upon the ruin we had caused, through the Champs Elysees to
the Arch of Triumph, marching bare-headed, under a burning sun.
At length, in the Avenue de l'Imperatrice, an order to halt was
given. There, weary and footsore, many dropped down on the ground,
waiting for death, which we were now convinced was near at hand. For
myself, I felt utterly numbed and contented to die, and I think I
should have received with equal indifference the news of my release.
I remember plotting in my mind how I could possibly get news of my
fate conveyed to my parents in England. Could I ask one of the
soldiers to convey a message for me? And would he understand what
to do? With such thoughts, and mechanically repeating the Lord's
Prayer to myself at intervals, I whiled away more than an hour,
until an order, 'Get up, all of you,' broke the thread of my
meditations. Presently General the Marquis de Gallifet (he who
had served the emperor in Mexico) passed slowly down the line,
attended by several officers. He stopped here and there, selecting
several of our number, chiefly the old or the wounded, and ordered
them to step out of the ranks. His commands were usually couched in
abusive language. A young man near me called out, 'I am an American.
Here is my passport. I am innocent.' 'Silence! We have foreigners
and riff-raff more than enough. We have got to get rid of them,'
was the general's reply. All chance was over now, we thought; we
should be shot in a few minutes. Our idea was that those who had
been placed aside were to be spared, and those about me said: 'It
is just. They would not shoot the aged and the wounded!' Alas! we
were soon to be undeceived. Again we started, and were ordered to
march arm in arm to the Bois de Boulogne. There those picked out
of our ranks by General de Gallifet--over eighty in number--were
all shot before our eyes; yet so great was our thirst that many,
while the shooting was going on, were struggling for water, of
which there was only a scant supply. I was not fortunate enough
to get any.

"The execution being over, we proceeded, now knowing that our
destination was Versail