a journey through the woods, at night; and in another ten
minutes their horses were tied to trees, and they were sitting by a
blazing fire, with the officers of franc tireurs. The village
consisted of only three or four houses and, as there were fifty men
in the party upon which they had come, they bivouacked under the
trees, hard by.

"How far off are the Germans?" Ralph asked, when dinner was over;
and they lay by the fire, smoking cigars.

"Ten miles or so," the officer answered, carelessly.

"No chance of their coming this way, I hope," Ralph laughed. "We
were very nearly caught near Saverne, once."

"So I heard," the officer said, "but I am rather skeptical as to
these night surprises. In nine cases out of ten--mind, I don't mean
for a moment that it was so in your case--but in nine cases out of
ten, these rumors of night attacks are all moonshine."

"Perhaps so," Ralph said, a little gravely--for he had already
noticed that the discipline was very different, among these men,
than that to which he had been accustomed among the franc tireurs
of Dijon; "perhaps so, but we can hardly be too careful.

"How do you all like Colonel Tempe?"

"The colonel would be an excellent fellow, were he not our
colonel," the officer laughed. "He is a most unconscionable man.
For ever marching, and drilling, and disciplining. If he had his
way, he would make us like a regiment of line; as if there could be
any good in carrying out all that sort of thing, with franc
tireurs. He had about half of us together, for three or four days;
and I give you my word it was as bad as slavery. Drill, drill,
drill, from morning till night. I was heartily glad, I can tell
you, when I got away with this detachment."

Ralph saw that his new acquaintance was one of that innumerable
class who conceived that drill and discipline were absurdities, and
that it was only necessary for a Frenchman to shoulder a gun for
him to be a soldier; so he easily avoided argument, by turning the
subject. For a couple of hours they chatted; and then, as the fire
was burning low, and the men had already laid down to sleep, Ralph
suggested that they should do the same.

"I will walk round the sentries first, with you, if you like," he
said.

"Sentries!" the other said, with a laugh; "there is my sentry," and
he pointed to a man standing, ten paces off, leaning against a
tree. "The men have marched all day--they only came in an hour
before you did--and I am not