was afraid to hear from home, and I turned
my thoughts away from Pfalzbourg.

On the 8th of June we left this village very early in the morning,
returning near to Metz but without entering the city. The city gates
were shut and the cannon frowned on the walls as in time of war. We
slept at Chatel, and the next day we were at Etain, the day following
at Dannevoux, where I was lodged with a good patriot named Sebastian
Perrin. He was a rich man, and wanted to know the details of
everything.

As a great number of battalions had followed the same route before us,
he said, "In a month perhaps we shall see great things, all the troops
are marching into Belgium. The Emperor is going to fall upon the
English and Prussians."

This was the last place where we had good supplies. The next day we
arrived at Yong, which is in a miserable country. We slept on the 12th
of June at Vivier, and the 13th at Cul-de-Sard. The farther we
advanced the more troops we encountered, and as I had seen these things
in Germany, I said to Jean Buche:

"Now we shall have hot work."

On all sides and in every direction, files of infantry, cavalry, and
artillery, were seen as far as the eye could reach. The weather was as
delightful as possible, and nothing could be more promising than the
ripening grain. But it was very hot. What astonished me was, that
neither before nor behind, on the right hand nor on the left could we
discover any enemies. Nobody knew anything about them. The rumor
circulated amongst us that we were to attack the English. I had seen
the Russians, Prussians, Austrians, Bavarians and Wurtemburgers and the
Swedes. I knew the people of all the countries in the world, and now I
was going to make the acquaintance of the English also. If we must be
exterminated, I thought, it might as well be done by them as by the
Germans. We could not avoid our fate--if I was to escape, I should
escape, but if I were doomed to leave my bones here, all I could do
would avail nothing--but the more we destroyed of them the greater
would be the chances for us. This was the way I reasoned with myself,
and if it did me no good it caused me at least no harm.

XVI

We passed the Meuse on the 12th, and during the 13th and 14th we
marched along the wretched roads, bordered with grain fields, barley,
oats, and hemp, without end. The heat was extraordinary, the sweat ran
down to our hips from under our knapsacks and cartridge-boxes.