h one suggesting a different move, which, of course, only
complicated matters, and they lost again. Then some of the others tried
with the same result. I think we played five or six games. They were so
much pleased with the game that they asked us to write down the name and
where to get it, and one of them afterward told my nephew, also a
cavalry officer, that they introduced it at their mess and played every
night instead of cards or dominoes. It was really funny to see how
annoyed they were when their scientific combinations failed. The next
morning was beautiful--a splendid August day, not too hot, little white
clouds scurrying over the bright blue sky, veiling the sun. We started
about nine, W., Francis, and I riding, the others driving. There were a
good many people about in the fields and cross-roads, a few farmers
riding, and everybody wildly interested telling us which way to go.
Janet, my American niece, who was staying in the country in France for
the first time, was horrified to see women working in the fields,
couldn't believe that her uncle would allow it on his farm, and made
quite an appeal to him when we all got home, to put an end to such cruel
proceedings. It seems women never work in the fields in America, except
negresses on some of the Southern plantations. I have been so long away
that I had forgotten that they didn't, and I remember quite well my
horror the first time we were in Germany, when we saw a woman and an ox
harnessed together.

We separated from the carriage at the top of the hill, as we could get a
nice canter and shorter road across the fields. We soon came in sight of
the farmhouse, standing low, with moat and drawbridge, in rather an
isolated position in the middle of the fields, very few trees around it.
There was no longer any water in the moat. It was merely a deep, wide,
damp ditch with long, straggling vines and weeds filling it up, and a
slippery, steep bank. Soldiers were advancing in all directions, the
small infantrymen moving along with a light, quick step; the cavalry
apparently had been on the ground some time, as they were all dismounted
and their horses picketed. We didn't go very near, as W. wasn't quite
sure how the horses would stand the bugle and firing. They were already
pulling hard, and getting a little nervous. It was pretty to see the
soldiers all mount when the bugle rang out, and in a moment the whole
body was in motion. The rush of the soldiers over the wide