h were to occupy the
barriers of Paris, and the French army was to retire beyond the Loire.

When we heard this, our indignation was so great that we were furious.
Some of the soldiers broke their guns, and others tore off their
uniforms, and everybody exclaimed, "We are betrayed, we are given up."
The old officers were quiet, but they were pale as death, and the tears
ran down their cheeks.

Nobody could pacify us, we had fallen below contempt, we were a
conquered people.

For thousands of years it would be said, that Paris had been taken by
the Prussians and the English. It was an everlasting disgrace, but the
shame did not rest on us.

The battalion left Vaugirard at five o'clock in the afternoon to go to
Montrouge. When we saw that the movement toward the Loire had
commenced, each one said, "What are we then? Are we subjects to the
Prussians? because they want to see us on the other side of the Loire,
are we forced to gratify them? No, no! that cannot be. Since they
have betrayed us, let us go! All this is none of our concern any
longer. We have done our duty, but we will not obey Bluecher!"

The desertion commenced that very night; all the soldiers went, some to
the right and some to the left; men in blouses and poor old women tried
to take us with them through the wilderness of streets, and endeavored
to console us, but we did not need consolation. I said to Buche: "Let
us leave the whole thing, and return to Pfalzbourg and Harberg, let us
go back to our trades and live like honest people. If the Austrians
and Russians come there, the mountaineers and villagers will know how
to defend themselves. We shall need no great battles to destroy
thousands of them, let us go!"

There were fifteen of us from Lorraine in the battalion, and we all
left Montrouge, where the headquarters were, together; we passed
through Ivry and Bercy, both places of great beauty, but our trouble
prevented us from seeing a quarter of what we should have done. Some
kept their uniforms, while others had only their cloaks, and the rest
had bought blouses.

We found the road to Strasbourg at last, in the rear of St. Mande, near
a wood to the left of which we could see some high towers, which they
told us was the fortress of Vincennes.

From this place, we regularly made our twelve leagues a day.

On the 8th of July we learned that Louis XVIII. was to be restored, and
that Monseigneur le Comte d'Artois would secure his salvati