the gendarme, 'it is the Prussian Krupp guns.' I
look at the proclamation, and my fears varnish,--my heart is relieved. I
read that the bombardment is a sure sign that the enemy is worn out."

Some of the men grouped round Frederic ducked their heads in terror;
others, who knew that the thunderbolt launched from the plateau of Avron
would not fall on the pavements of Paris, laughed and joked. But in
front, with no sign of terror, no sound of laughter, stretched, moving
inch by inch, the female procession towards the bakery in which the
morsel of bread for their infants was doled out.

"Hist, mon ami," said a deep voice beside Lemercier. "Look at those
women, and do not wound their ears by a jest."

Lemercier, offended by that rebuke, though too susceptible to good
emotions not to recognise its justice, tried with feeble fingers to turn
up his moustache, and to turn a defiant crest upon the rebuker. He
was rather startled to see the tall martial form at his side, and to
recognise Victor de Mauleon. "Don't you think, M. Lemercier," resumed
the Vicomte, half sadly, "that these women are worthy of better husbands
and sons than are commonly found among the soldiers whose uniform we
wear?"

"The National Guard! You ought not to sneer at them, Vicomte,--you
whose troop covered itself with glory on the great days of Villiers
and Champigny,--you in whose praise even the grumblers of Paris became
eloquent, and in whom a future Marshal of France is foretold."

"But, alas! more than half of my poor troop was left on the
battle-field, or is now wrestling for mangled remains of life in the
ambulances. And the new recruits with which I took the field on the
21st are not likely to cover themselves with glory, or to insure their
commander the baton of a marshal."

"Ay, I heard when I was in the hospital that you had publicly shamed
some of these recruits, and declared that you would rather resign than
lead them again to battle."

"True; and at this moment, for so doing, I am the man most hated by the
rabble who supplied those recruits." The men, while thus conversing,
had moved slowly on, and were now in front of a large cafe, from the
interior of which came the sound of loud bravos and clappings of hands.
Lemercier's curiosity was excited. "For what can be that applause?" he
said; "let us look in and see." The room was thronged. In the distance,
on a small raised platform, stood a girl dressed in faded theatrical
finery, making