ing, from the police to desire all the English prisoners to
be ready to quit Verdun in forty-eight hours and proceed to Blois. To
those who had the misfortune to be married to French women and had
children it was a thunder-stroke. The weather had set in with great
severity, it being the month of December. Another brother officer and his
nephew joined me in purchasing a covered cart and two cart horses; and a
captain of a merchant vessel, said to be a descendant of the immortal
Bruce, volunteered to be our coachman, provided we lodged and fed him on
the road, to which we, without hesitation, agreed.

CHAPTER XXVI.

END OF CAPTIVITY.

Horses bolt, and cart upsets--Reach Blois after six days'
travelling--Miserable condition of French troops after return from
Moscow--Ordered to Gueret on the Creuse--A miserable journey of five
days--Poor accommodation--Allowed to move to country quarters at
Masignon--An earthquake shock--News of Napoleon's abdication--Start
for Paris--Reach Fontainebleau in nine days--Proceed to
Paris--Lodgings dear and scarce--State entrance of Louis XVIII. into
Paris.

At the time appointed we had our machine ready. The gendarmes were
literally driving some of the officers out of the town. To save them the
trouble of doing us the same favour we departed early. On the first stage
from Verdun, in descending a steep, long hill, a hailstorm overtook us,
and as the hailstones fell they froze. The horses could not keep their
feet, nor could our sailor coachman keep his seat. The animals slid down
part of the way very comfortably. At length, after much struggling, they
once more gained a footing, and in so doing, the fore wheels came in
contact with their hinder feet, which unfortunately frightened and set
them off at full speed. I got hold of the reins with the coachman, and
endeavoured to pull them into a ditch to the left--on the right was a
precipice--the reins broke, and we had no longer command over them. We were
in this state of anxiety for a few minutes, when the fore wheels detached
themselves from the carriage, and over it went on its larboard broadside.
I was, with the coachman, thrown head foremost into the ditch, which,
being half filled with snow, broke the violence of our launch. I soon
floundered out of it, without being much hurt. My falling compan